Blue Is The Colour...

Yesterday I went for a walk down Steve Biko str and Voortrekker str in Pretoria North...

I wanted to test my Canon Eos 6D and Canon Ef 85mm F1.8 lens. I recently bought the Eos 6D as a replacement to my Eos 5Dmk2. A few weeks later I also got the Eos Ef 85mm f1.8 lens.   The 85mm gives subtle compression, is small not to attract too much attention and is sharp right out into the corners at medium apertures

Milan, Italy

We arrived in Milan from Stresa and the contrast was fascinating...

The small almost sleepy village of Stresa lies on the shore of  Lago Maggiore, a beautiful lake with snow capped mountains in the distance and surrounded mostly by steep mountains. Milan on the other hand was a cacophony of sound & noise...especially on the Sunday when we arrived. There was some festival on with bands playing and stalls selling all sorts of things for charity. The streets near the Duomo were packed!

Greylingstad...

I stopped in Greylingstad on my way to an assignment at the nearby Sasol Impumulelo mine. 

This is what I saw in the short half an hour or so . . .

       

Review: Canon Eos M & Ef 50mm F1.8 - Part Six

My user report of the 'old' Ef 50mm F1.8 doing duty as a portrait lens on the Eos M.

When I tested the Eos M with the pancake lens last week I said that it was a perfect match with the Eos M and the EF M 22mm f2. The pancake lens has an equivalent focal length of  64mm and the EF 50mm f1.8 has an equivalent focal length of 80mm (in 35mm terms) on the Eos M. Traditionally a focal length of 80mm to 135mm is considered the 'ideal' for portraiture. The 64mm of the pancake falls just a little bit short from that 'ideal'. 

The 80mm to 135mm focal length is considered ideal because of the flattering perspective that it renders.

Review: Canon Eos M & EF 40mm f2.8 STM 'pancake' lens - Part Five

My user report of the 40mm F2.8 pancake lens and the Eos M . . .

These two were made for each other...

Read part five of my review.

                                                             

My Eos M...Some Personal Photographs

I visted some friends in the small town of Mokopane. 

There was not much time for photography but I saw this young woman at the supermarket...luckily I had my Eos M with me...

Review: My Eos M at Work - Part four

Well I have had my Eos M for more than a month now doing lots of tests and things....but at some stage one should stop testing and see how it works!

Read part four of my review:

                                                                         

Review...Canon Eos M High ISO Noise - Part Three

Canon Eos M 18mp Aps-C size sensor, how does it perform at high iso, noise and some suggestions on how to eliminate it . . .

Read Part Three of my review.

ISO 3200 

The Owl House, Nieu Bethesda

I am currently busy with my ongoing 'review' of the Canon Eos M. But I thought I would take a break and post some images of a remarkable house in Nieu Bethesda...

Review: Eos M - Part Two

How does the Eos M handle itself in the street with some full frame lenses attached via the lens adapter?

To test all of this I drove to a street called Steve Biko road (formerly Voortrekker str) in Pretoria North . . .

Read part two of my review.

                  Eos M on steroids!  Mamiya 50mm lens and two adapters

Review: Canon Eos M - Part One

Actually its more of a 'first impressions' as I have only had the camera for a few days.

And its much better than I expected...

Read part one of my review.

NB : My new review of the 'Eos 6D, Two weeks in Cape Town' is now up here at: http://thelazytravelphotographer.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-canon-eos-6d-review-part-1-image.html  

Surreal moment in Rouxville...

Rouxville is in the Southern Freestate Province of South Africa.

We arrived there on a Sunday morning just after the end of the morning Church service. All the farmers were in their Sunday best having a chat in front of the beautiful 'klip kerk'. On the other side of the church there was loud traditional music blaring from a house with the front door wide open and no one to be seen. . .

Ultra Colour...

In the days of film we use to increase developer agitation to bump up the colours and contrast of colour negative film...today we have Photoshop, Nik Color Efex, LR, Topaz etc etc...

In Full Colour and Detailed...

This past Easter weekend we went with friends to the Ebenezer Dam in Georges Valley, Magoebaskloof . . .

Smithfield in the Freestate

After a long days driving from Centurion we eventually arrived in Smithfield at about 4h30 on  a Saturday afternoon in December last year.

Smithfield is on the main route to Port Elizabeth and a popular stopover. The are numerous b&b establishments and even a few restaurants etc. We stayed in 'Rusties place' for the night and we had a very unique two bedroom apartment all to ourselves . . .

B&W Freestate Landscapes

In December 2012 my wife, Cheryl, and I went on a four day road trip through the Freestate and Eastern Cape.

We left our home in Centurion, Gauteng early the Saturday morning with the idea that we would motor without stopping until we reached Bloemfontein, the Freestate capital. From there we would take a slower drive until we reached Smithfield, where we would spend the night . . .

Nature with a Small Camera & Close up

Last weekend I joined some friends at a resort called Millstream close to Dullstroom.

I only took one camera with me,  my small Leica X1. Whilst my friends try their hand at fly fishing I try my hand at photography...I got ten 'keepers' and they got two...which they had to release...

12 minutes in Booysens

Yesterday I had to see a potential new client in Booysens, in the south of Johannesburg.

I hate to be late so I gave myself an hour and a half to get there. I stay in Centurion which is about 50 km from Johannesburg. With all the lovely 'controversial' new four lane highways I got there a good half an hour before the time. I stopped in front of the building and walked into the reception just to make sure I am at the right place...when I left the reception two minutes later I slammed my finger in the door. It was something I haven't done for twenty years or more and it was excruciatingly painful....

Molteno

In December last year we traveled through Molteno on our way to Hofmeyer...

It was a Sunday afternoon and a typically summers day. Molteno lies in the Eastern Cape and the town has some interesting architecture most noticeably the Dutch Reformed church that was build by Italian craftsmen. 

Portraits of Poverty...

This group of about 21 poor and unemployed people stay in a 'white squatter camp' near Pretoria. They all live together in a fenced off plot. Each person lives in their own 'tin shack' made of corrugated iron sheeting . . . 

Gladys...

Two minutes with Gladys

I photographed Gladys early one morning as I was walking around the small village of Hofmeyer in the Karoo region of South Africa.  I asked if I could take her photograph and took about 10 photographs in 2 minutes. I think she was a bit shy that I had caught her not quite appropriately dressed because she quickly asked her son to bring her a jersey. She was sitting on her 'stoep'  (veranda) in full view of the passing parade in any event so I am not too concerned showing her here like that...She is having the standard South African breakfast of 'oats pap'  (oats porridge)...and it almost looks like she has some traditional marking or 'paint' on her face or maybe it was just a face mask

Hofmeyer

Hofmeyer lies on the road to Cradock from Burgersdorp...

Its a very small little typical Karoo town. It has not seen much development and everything looks like it probably did 30 years ago if not longer.

Kalk Bay near Cape Town

Kalkbaai lies between Muizenberg and Vishoek near Cape Town...

My wife , cheryl and I just spend a couple of days there. We rented a holiday cottage on the mainroad across the beach. Well, it not quite a beach, more a rocky coastline with a tidal pool and a short stretch of sand . . .

Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo region of South Africa

Two nights and one and a half days...

Nieu Bethesda has a very small population of about a thousand people or so. The last time I was here was in 2000, and in the preceding 12 years the town has definitely taken on a more touristy flavour. The are over twenty guest houses and almost all of them were full over the long weekend in December 2012. There are at least two restaurants that are open at night and quite a few more open for lunch...

24 hours in Zurich

On my way back to South Africa I stayed over in Zurich for 24 hours.

We arrived in Zurich by train from Milan. The route by train through the mountains and tunnels were truly spectacular. Our train broke down on route and we had to run to catch the next one with standing room only for the duration of the journey...so much for legendary Swiss punctuality and efficiency...