KOPPIE ALLEEN

The Cape Town Photographic Club celebrates its 125 anniversary this year and one of the high lights amongst their special events was an excellent Mini Congress in De Hoop where Guy and I were honored to be amongst the guest speakers.

The weather was not great but this did not stop us to rise early I the hope of catching a sunrise at Koppie Alleen. It was so overcast as we made our way to the beach by the light of our head lamps that it was soon obvious no sun was going to pierce this dense canopy of clouds. As always, I never give up and started shooting in complete darkness, painting the rocks in front of me with light. The beam of my flash light looked ridiculously insignificant in front of this majestic landscape and amazingly, it had some effect while the sea and sky blended in countless shades of blues to deep indigo. Eventually, a little glimpse of light filtered through the clouds and surprised me with the most unexpected range of colours dancing over the water and trough the waves. 

It was a great start of the day!

AFTER THE FIRE

Since the fire which ravaged the Jonkershoek Valley a month ago, I have walked regularly in the affected areas and am amazed at what I discover. The pine plantations smoldered for days and everything was black, shrouded in blue smoke. Our house & garden is a little green oasis on top of the hill. The weather is still unusually very warm for this time of the year with no rain and the regular strong winds sprinkles a generous new layer of ash at every gust, but I am thankful I still have a house to dust! A touch of luminescent green makes an appearance here and there and now the forest floor is covered in a thick carpet of crispy pine needles. The colours in the damaged foliage of the trees are taking a multitude of russet shades and in the evening light make a textured canvas in rich monochromes.

INFERNO

The wind swung around last Tuesday night and the fire which had burned for 2 days already in the pine plantations up in the Jonkershoek Valley advanced rapidly towards us on the top of the hill. By midnight we were surrounded by a raging fire, the thick smoke burned our eyes and made it difficult to breathe but fortunately, this time we had a lot of help from the firefighters who worked efficiently to keep the flames from reaching the house. The torching trees around the edge of the garden exploded in spectacular fireworks display sending sparks high up in the night as we watched the flames roaring up to the next ridge and beyond. It was a very long night but we saved the house and most of the garden. The Palmer family in the front lines of the action, never lost their sense of humor through this ordeal. 

KOGELBAAI

There was a very strong offshore wind and a low tide, so no impressive waves which made the situation far from inspiring. It was not easy to negotiate the slimy boulders to get to the edge of the water but I was determined to reach my spot and it paid off. Being close to the sea with a low angle I saw a myriad of colours. The translucent waves sparkled with an emerald green and later, rich copper reds were reflected on the surface of the waves from the clouds on my right. I was happy as the “Photographic gods” painted the scene with gay abandon!