We has scheduled the trip at full moon and after our meetings with Bonamanzi and Thompsons 
Indaba (who will be handling the land arrangements for the safaris and workshops) we headed out to False Bay Park, part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site. What a spectacular spot! We arrived just before sunset and very quickly attacked the beverages and snack that Bonamanzi had thoughtfully provided while we waited for the moon.
I was once again using My D3x but this time with the 70 – 200mm f2.8 VR lens attached. It is a really useful combination that, with the help of a bean bag on the bonnet of the car, easily produced some rather delightful images of the moon rise. I had the ISO cranked up to 800 and the low noise capabilities of these cameras once again became very clear. It was just a few years ago when i very rarely used anything but 50 or at the most 100 ISO film. And now we glibly talk about 800 as if it were nothing spectacular at all!
We left for Clarens in the Free State early the next morning. We had timed the trip perfectly. The cosmos flowers were out on their millions and we had great fun shooting them. Here Nikon’s 14 – 24 mm f2.8 came into it’s own and enabled one to get right in amongst the flowers.
Gerald was in his element and stumbled around muttering things like cross bedding, (cross bedding?
Come on the workshop to find out) intrusions, dykes, sills and many other very odd sounding things. In reality though, Clarens is simply the perfect spot for a workshop on earth science or geology.
One of the highlights was a look at a dinosaur fossil that had been exposed by recent heavy rains. What a privilege and how humbling. It had been buried for millions and millions of years and we were able to see it. Make one think doesn’t it…?
Keep an eye on the blog and also on www.oldcanvasecpeditions.com for details about the workshops – there’ll be some very exciting things available.
