From Rhodes to Plettenberg Bay

This account picks up the story as we leave Rhodes in the Drakensberg Mountains of the Eastern Cape after our one night stay en route to Plettenberg Bay and Cape Town.

We have friends (Chris and Julie Marias) living in the small town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape, so we thought we’d make that the next overnight stop and pick up on all the skandaal from the Karoo. Chris and Julie are very talented writers and photographers who have done a wonderful book (amongst others) on this region (it’s now into its 3rd print run!) and on top of this are great people to spend time with. We had a splendid evening with them, nibbling on leftover braai from the afternoon and getting really gesellig over a bottle of red. But we are a little ahead of ourselves here…

We left early from Rhodes, the mountain air fresh and crisp after the massive storms the previous night. Fiona (the frightfully stern English lady that lives in our Garmin Nuvi 500 GPS) told us that we should route via the small town of Elliot. Now who the hell was Elliot? Well, it seems that the town was named after Sir Henry Elliot, a major in the British army who was well known for his peace keeping efforts between the various groups of the Eastern Cape Frontier. The town became a municipality in 1911 and was (is still perhaps?) called eCowa by the Xhosa people. eCowa means mushroom by the way.

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Normally when we travel, we set up the speed control on the car at 120 kmh, put our ears back and go. But not on this trip. Most of the 4 days it took to get from Howick to Plettenberg Bay (a trip that you could do in one day if you really wanted to) were done at under 100 kmh and what a difference it made. We were able to look at the scenery, talk, relax even. Our route took us through some stunning scenery and little towns with lovely sounding names – Lady Grey (named after the wife of the then Governer of the Cape Colony, Sir George Grey), Queenstown (named after Queen Victoria) and Tarkastad (believed to come from the Khoi-Khoi word Traka, meaning women, or the Celtic word Tarka, meaning otter, and the Afrikaans word stad, meaning town or city).

We checked into our B&B in Cradock, set up en evening kuier with Chris and Julie, and headed out to explore this little town. The town was founded in 1818 when a Dutch Reformed church was built, which, interestingly, was based on that of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. Cradock is named after Sir John Cradock, Governor of the Cape from 1811 to 1813. It is one of the Eastern Cape’s primary centres of the wool industry, and also produces beef, dairy, fruit, lucerne, and mohair. Close by is the Mountain Zebra National Park (well worth a visit even though we gave it a skip on this visit) and it is part on the Fish River Canoe Marathon. It’s a great place to do some walking and we explored the little streets and alleys, the Victoria Manor Hotel and the Tuishuise, a collection of restored Victorian era craftsmen’s houses in Market Street. We ended up on the sports grounds lining the banks of the Fish River, locals enjoying the early evening coolness with their dogs.

Chris and Julie had suggested we take a quick look at the tiny town of Aberdene en route to our next overnight stop at, well, we hadn’t actually decided this yet. Our idea was to get close to the Outenique Mountains just to the North f Plett, spend the night there and then we’d have a short run to the coast the next day, leaving some time to explore.

Aberdene is a tiny village just off the R61 and with the Cambeboo Mountains forming a backdrop. The Victorian architecture in the town is amazing, some of the buildings dating as far back as 1890 and there are two things we found fascinating: The first is that the Dutch Reformed Church tower, at 50m, is the highest in South Africa but it’s a little over 45cm out of true giving it the name of ‘The Leaning Tower of Aberdeen’. The other thing is that, while the post office at Cradock is pretty ordinary, the one at Aberdene is exquisite and way bigger and better than the size of the town warrants. Some say that it was originally intended for Cradock, a much larger town, but some clerical glitch resulted in it being built at Aberdene. It’s certainly worth pausing on your journey to take all this in and a stop at the local butchery for some biltong to nibble on the short walk around town will quickly get you ‘in character’.

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If you suffer from Agoraphobia it’s probably best to do the section between Aberdene and Willowmore with your eyes closed. (Not a good idea if you’re driving, by the way). The plains stretch on for ever. Karoo bossies, the occasional trees along a drainage line and a windmill or two are all that break these vast plains. It’s incredibly beautiful and quiet if you stop at one of the picnic areas along the road for a cup of tea.

Chris and Julie had suggested that we have lunch at Sophie’s Choice in Willowmore and it was a great suggestion, the seeded chicken salad is well worth a bash. They had also suggested the Willow Historic Guest House as a place to stay and while it looked delightful and has a great restaurant (we had a lovely dinner there) we were looking for something out of town where we could do some walking. We found Finchley Farm, just 2km away on the R407. It’s small, well run, comfortable, has a very friendly female ginger cat (the only female ginger that we’ve come across) and some delightful tame meerkats. A working marino sheep farm, it’s just the spot to really get away from it all and in a moment of sheer brilliance we packed a bottle of wine and some glasses into a backpack before heading out on a late afternoon walk across the veld. Our walk ended up, without us intending to, on top of a koppie just as the sun was setting. We found a comfortable rock and sat there sipping wine, marvelling at the stunning beauty of the place. Not a sound could be heard, not from the skaapies nibbling the Karoo bossies, far below, nor from the small herd of donkeys walking down the dusty road heading out into the plains. Just us, the wine, the sunset and the Karoo…

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Clearly the place marches to a different drummer on a Monday morning. We awoke to the sounds of a sheep farm in action: Sheep dogs yapped as bleating sheep were hearded into pens, men shouted instructions in Afrikaans, tractors headed out to the lands and, outside our door, the ginger queen mewed a request for a saucer of milk. I could live here!!

It was a shortish leg from Willowmore to Uniondale, over the Outeniqua Mountains via the very scenic Prince Alfred’s Pass and then down to Plettenberg Bay on the coast. As we got closer to the mountains, mist started to roll in so we took it very slowly, the narrow dirt roads restricting speed anyway. The pass was named after the son of Queen Victoria who later became the Duke of Edinburgh. Work began on construction in 1860 by Andrew Bain, his son Thomas and a team of men and from all accounts it was a gruelling labour. It’s probably worth spending some time exploring de Vlugt deep in the Keeurbooms River valley as many of Bain’s original buildings remain but we didn’t, stopping rather at a view sight on the climb out of the valley where we drank coffee and munched biskuit that we had bought in some Karoo dorpie.

On a previous trip to Plett we had dinner a couple of times at the Look Out Deck that has lovely views on the coast and the mountains behind it. Their fish and chips had been scrumptious and we were very keen to partake again, but would it be as good as we remembered? It wasn’t. It was better!

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Fish and chips finished and the Sauvignon Blanc chilling in the ice bucket we chatted about the previous few days. What a lovely trip it had been. It really is the answer. If you stick to the main roads, travelling at high speed, stopping nowhere, focused on the destination, your holiday starts when you get there. If you do it slowly, stopping every now and then, exploring, your holiday starts when you leave home. Much better!

(For the photographers out there, the pix were shot on Nikon’s delightful little P300 camera and the images processed and the text written on an iPad)

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The trip to Rhodes

For the first time in many years we’ve decided to take a bit of a holiday – yes, holiday! It’s been a gruelling few months in the lead up to the deadline of our new book, so we thought a few days on the beach at Plettenberg Bay before heading to Cape Town to meet up with our publisher, some clients and a few friends may just the thing to recharge the batteries. Rather than stick to the main roads we chose to do the scenic route and so, on this, the first day of out trip, we find ourselves in the tiny village of Rhodes, high up in the mountains of the Eastern Cape.

Rhodes was established in 1891 and is the only village in the country that is a National Monument in its entirety. It’s situated in stunning mountain territory, part of the Southern Drakensberg, and all about are crystal clear streams, rivers and waterfalls, their abundance due in no small way, I would imagine, to the huge thunderstorms we went through on our way here. Thank heavens for the Pajero! The heavy rains had turned the road between Makeng and Elands Height into a mud bath and what with wash-aways, steep descents and pretty much zero visibility, the driving was, er, interesting.

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The scenery that appeared as the mist cleared was absolutely stunning and the flower lined gravel road up to Naude’s Nek is a definite “must do”. At 2 500M Naude’s Nek is the highest pass in South Africa and was built between 1890 and 1911 by Stephanus and Gabriel Naude.

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As we sit here on the stoep at Kinmel Guest Farm, just outside Rhodes, sipping some of Scotland’s finest, mixed with a splash of mountain water we realise just how important it is to sometimes take the scenic route.

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Howick Photographic Workshop.

It started off as a rather small, informal little workshop for a previous participant (Tammy) on one of our previous workshops and also for the son of some friends who is heading back to university in the next day or so. The next thing I knew we had 12 really

One of the models on the Africa Imagery Photographic Workshops posing with a lantern. Shot using a Nikon D3x and an off camera Nikon SB900 flash gun.

One of the models on an Africa Imagery Photographic Workshop posing with a lantern. Shot using a Nikon D3x and an off camera Nikon SB900 flash gun.

great people on board, some from previous workshops, some older, some young, some male and others female but everyone really passionate about photography.

Tammy had asked is we could do something relating to photographing people outdoors and so we got in a bunch of models and dragged everyone off to a photographer friend’s home that has some very photogenic dams and a photographic studio – all very useful. We blazed away, some of the shooters using some pretty sophisticated camera gear and others on point and shoot cameras. We hooked up a few external flashes for everyone and got some pretty interesting pix in the end. Have a look at some (just some) of the many pix we shot here.

Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested on joining us on one of our Photographic Safaris or Workshops.

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Nikon D4

Great Excitement. The Nikon D4 has just been announced and I haves never desired and camera more than this one. [Just hang on - I need to pop out and see the bank manager...Nikon Launches new 16mp camera ;-) ]

Have a look at these key specifications:

    • 16.2 megapixel FX-format (full-frame) CMOS sensor with fast channel readout and up to 11 fps consecutive shooting in FX-format.
    • ISO 100–12800: extendable up to 204,800 (equivalent) and down to 50 (equivalent). High signal-to-noise ratio and wide dynamic range.
    • Multi-area format D-Movie: records Full HD (1080p) movies in FX- and DX-format, as well as in native Full HD (1920×1080) crop. Offers uncompressed full-resolution HDMI output to external devices.
    • Newly developed, highly durable Kevlar/carbon fiber-composite shutter unit:standard life cycle rating of 400,000 releases, with a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 to 30s and flash synchronization at up to 1/250 sec.
    • Multi-CAM3500FX 51-point AF system: individually selectable or configurable in 9-point, 21-point and 51-point coverage settings. Sensitive down to -2 EV (ISO 100, 20°C/68°F).
    • EXPEED 3 image processing engine with 14-bit A/D conversion and 16-bit image processing for superb tonal gradation.
    • 8 cm (3.2-in.), 922k-dot LCD monitor with auto brightness control. Anti-reflective with wide color reproduction.
    • 3D Color Matrix Metering III: 91k pixel AE AF sensor with full-time face recognition.
    • 100% viewfinder coverage and three Crop Modes: 5:4, 1.2x and DX-format. With viewfinder masking.
    • Movie frame rates: offers 30p, 25p and 24p and a max recording time of approx. 20 minutes.
    • High-fidelity audio control: features a stereo microphone input and an audio out for external headphones, which lets you fine tune audio in isolation both before and during recording. A line input setting for PCM linear recorders is also provided.
    • Storage media: two card slots. One for high-speed CF (UDMA 7) cards and one for high-speed, high-capacity XQD card slots.
    • Wireless LAN and Ethernet support via optional Wireless Transmitter WT-4 or the newly designed compact Wireless Transmitter WT-5.

Now, Wouldn’t you love one?

Are you needing new camera gear? We offer advice based on 25 years of professional wildlife and travel photography. E-mail me for more information

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Lightroom Shortcuts

I use Adobe Lightroom for the vast majority of my image editing and have found that these days I only really use Photoshop for stitching images into panoramas and for the more involved edits where I have to use layers and things. Like Photoshop, there are a myriad of short cut key options that you can use to make life in Lightroom quicker and easier and I have posted a few here that I use and find useful. You can of course research the full list and memorize all of them (what? Rather go and shoot some pix!) but I’ve got better things to do with my life than that.

If you’d like to buy Lightroom, drop me an e-mail and I’ll get a price for you and if you’d like to attend one of our Workshops or Photo Safaris where we work with Lightroom then have a look here for more information.

Shortcut Key Command
Ctrl or Cmd + Z Undo
Ctrl or Cmd + Y Redo
Ctrl or Cmd + F Find
Ctrl or Cmd + E Edit in Photoshop
Ctrl or Cmd + G Group into stack
P Pick (Flag)
U Unpick (Unflag)
X Reject
0 to 5 Set * Rating
6 Red Colour Lable
7 Yellow Colour Lable
8 Green Colour Lable
9 Blue Colour Lable
V Convet to B&W
Ctrl or Cmd + S Save Metadata to File
G Grid View
E Loupe View
C Compare
D Develope Module
W Auto White Balance
Tab Toggle Side Panels
Shift + Tab Toggle All Panels
L Cycle Light Dimming
I Cycle Image Info
J Show Clipping

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Wildlife Panoramas

When one thinks of panoramas the mind automatically leaps to scenes of great vistas and awesome landscapes. (well mine does…) While working on our new book about lions I started playing about with shooting panoramas stitched from 2 or 3 images of lions. And it works quite nicely!

I simply shoot the pix with a long lens on a Benbo GH-2 Gimbal Head, leaving enough overlap to ensure good stitching, edit the images in Lightroom and then, from within Lightroom, stitch the images into a panorama in Photoshop. Works like a charm!

If you’d like to know more about this and other photographic techniques, join one of our Photo Safaris.

Lion pride at MalaMala (Mala Mala) Game Reserve. Mpumlanga. South Africa
Lion pride at MalaMala (Mala Mala) Game Reserve. Mpumlanga. South Africa

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500px Plugin for Lightroom.

Wow, now this is a useful one: 500px (a wonderful site that allows you to post photographic portfolios and images and follow and interact with other photographers) has just launched a publish plugin for Adobe Lightroom. For those of us that are using Lightroom to manage and process their images this is a huge time saver. From right within Lightroom you can create portfolios, edit titles and follow and comment on other photographers and images and much, much more.

If you’d like to join is on one of our Photo Safaris where we work with Adobe Lightroom please contact us.

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Lion Roaring at MalaMala

We are spending a few days at MalaMala Game Reserve working on our book about lions and on our first evening here came across this male lion on the airstrip. There were some lions calling to the north and he joined in. What a chilling sound – you feel it as well as hear it.

We used the Nikon D7000 to film this clip, bumping up the ISO as night approached. One of the other game drive vehicles had a spotlight on the lion and provided the lovely cross lighting.

Mala Mala is a spectacular place for shooting wildlife, especially predators  like lions and leopards. Please email me if you would like us to custom design a photographic safari at MalaMala for you.

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Mala Mala Predators

We are at Mala Mala Game Reserve at the moment and are having a very busy time shooting pix for our new book on lions. We’ve been getting some very nice material some of which I have put into a gallery here. I have embedded two videos below that you may be interested in – the one on leopards mating (filmed by our production secretary, Sarah Caithness) shot with the Nikon P500 and the one of the lion on the Nikon D7000.

As a matter of interest, we run custom photo safaris to Mala Mala and if you are keen please e-mail me for more information.

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Photo Tip, Canon 100 – 400 mm IS Lens

We have just got back from a few very enjoyable few days at Tswalu Kalahari Game

Lion capture prior to translocation

Lion Capture

Reserve  where we photographed the capture of some lions that were being moved to another game reserve for our new book on lions. During our stay I got chatting to one of the game rangers there who had just purchased Canon’s 100 to 400mm zoom.

Canon 100 to 400 IS lens
Canon 100 to 400 IS lens

I was very surprised to hear that he was not at all happy with the sharpness of the images produced by the lens. “Do you have a UV filter on it,” I asked. “Oh yes,” was the reply, “Got to protect that front element.”

Now, I’ve had a number of people say that they’re not that happy with the image quality from these lenses and on each occasion they’ve been using a UV filter to protect the front element. Once the filter is removed, the results are what one would expect from a Canon L series lens. Give it a try and let me know if this works for

Chat eating a lizard shot with the Canon 100 - 400 lens without a UV filter

Chat eating a lizard

you.

Marco sent me a lovely pic of a chat eating a little lizard this morning that he’d shot with the lens, sans filter. Beautifully sharp! Marco’s a happy boy.

Why not join us one one of our photographic safaris. Have a look here for more details: http://www.africaimagery.com/workshops.php

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