While we were in the Eastern Cape recently we stopped off in Port Elizabeth to see if we could get some images of the Nelson Mandela Bay Soccer Stadium there. I had done some initial research using Google Earth and then quite a bit of pre-visualisation on the long drive down through the Free State and the Eastern Cape. As so often happens when you have done all the planning, is that the situation on the ground bears little resemblance to that you had in your head. Firstly, there was quite a bit of construction work happening, particularly with the road infrastructure around the stadium, and then the lovely view of the stadium across the lake was nothing like the image in my head! We a bit of a recce but found nothing that came even close to the sort of thing that I had imagined. I did some images (the first couple in the gallery below) and as it was a little early in the day we headed off to find some lunch and see what was happening elsewhere. (Here’s a little tip on the side: When we are in a situation like this I log my position into my GPS (we’ve got a Garmin Nuvi 500) so that, after driving around a strange city, we can easily and quickly navigate our way back to the place we need to be).
We returned later when the light had improved and did a couple of more pix which also left me cold – the light was a little better but that was about it! Then I noticed in the distance, along the edge of the lake just below the stadium, some canoeists training. Wow! I grabbed some pix. But where were they coming from? Certainly not from anywhere near us.
We headed off in the car – they seemed to be from just to the south-west of the stadium in amongst some factories. The language in the car got steadily worse as we battled rush hour traffic and construction workers. Eventually we found the spot – the local canoe club – and spend an hour or so getting images more like the ones I had pre-visualised in the car. And the lesson/s: Well, pre-visualisation really does help in that I new that there was something more that I wanted. And of course the big thing is keep and open mind and don’t give up. Keep shooting until you really do have the pix you wanted.
Remember, if you wuld like to join us one one of our Photographic Safaris we have a number happening this year and our Image Library is growing by the day. We have been speaking to a number of photographers and we’ve got some very exciting portfolios comming on board soon. Whatch this space.
