Amateur!

By the pool. Little Abigail contemplates a swim

My memory clearly isn't what it used to be, because I was convinced that as a school boy my English was extraordinary. I remember writing phenomenal, mind-blowing poetry and being fêted by all my English teachers for my frightful ability. But this past holiday I was sorely brought down to earth when I discovered an old school magazine from my Grade 12 year. There were no poems, no articles, no sports reports, no one-liners even penned by me. All I did find was that I had taken many of the photos which appeared in it.

When I was a young boy my father gave me a couple of photography tips, I bought a basic book on the subject, and ever since then I have loved taking snaps. I owned a couple of point-and-shoots, and finally a really nice SLR film camera, which I shared with my dad (Whenever the topic of photography comes up he still makes a point to tell everyone that I dropped it off the Great Wall of China 10 years ago and that it has not been the same since - all true, of course). 

I now take most of my photos with a beautiful D7000 from Nikon South Africa. Photoshop is like a swear word to both Stefan at Nikon, and my friend Kim Midgley here in Madagascar, but I do admit to touching up the odd photo or two. Today I was most honoured when one of my students, looking at my photo album on Flickr, commented on the image of the seagull: "You couldn't have taken that. You must have downloaded it - it's too good." 

Thanks to those who have commented on my photos in the past, and who believe in my ability more than even I do. I'm a real amateur, but I love creating images that are hopefully able to tell a story, and bring joy to many ... and it's a hobby that keeps me semi-sane on the difficult days.

And now, because I am out of words, I leave you with a few of my favourites from my holiday-past in South Africa.

Beautiful simplicity. I love the grace of a seagull in flight. (And interestingly, this was hardly altered at all - I just took
the picture on a vivid setting on the camera, played with levels and cropped it slightly.)

Beach cricket, kind of. My niece has much work to do on the finer complexities of the game.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have a clever, witty comment for this hilarious pic...

Bushed. All that swimming, running around and general adventure leaves my niece ready for an afternoon nap.

Between sand and sky.  Mgwalana, Eastern Cape, South Africa - a holiday paradise, especially for the kids.

But I'm not really shy! And she's not. She's a headstrong, beautiful handful.

Building castles in the sand. One of the little friends my niece made while on holiday

Bowl. This fish was so unmoving that it pretty much was a still life.

Black and White. Visiting friends on my first weekend back home I took this pic of their daughter, who is about to enter high school. I hate posed pictures, and so love the natural feel of this one.

Boris Yelpsin. Named after the Russian president of the 1990s.

Bottle. Walking along the beach I saw this bottle and wondered what stories it could have told.