Today was another perfect winter’s day in Cape Town. The end of May had absolutely no business being this hot and sunny. My dad and I went to Kirstenbosch for lunch and lugged big lenses to photograph sunbirds because - to top it off - the aloes were flowering in blazing Technicolor, making a feast for the wee nectar suckers. It was simply too hot… in May… to stay long photographing them in the sun. ...

Ham and cheese please. Last night’s @krakatoa_band practice we were graced with the presence of l’organiste, @jason66c - here adopting a classic Tintin style panel impersonation. #hawaiifiveo is sounding absolutely amazing with Alex on the drums. We’ll be playing sometime in June.

More jpeg experiments. I’ve loved “blue hour” since before I knew it was called that. But this is the first time I think I’ve ever photographed it. I just used to think of it as that time when the interior lights matched the intensity of the ambient light. Per my previous post, I backed off the saturation on the “Vivid” Nikon picture control setting from 3 to 2 - although the full kazoo might have worked here. It’s really only on green foliage that I find it too lurid to stand.

I’m getting to grips with the Nikon D600. It’s criminal how little I knew about this camera before. So now I’m trying to really learn it to get the most out of it. One thing that involves is setting up a hybrid jpeg/raw approach where I have useable jpegs like I do for my Fuji - that require little to no editing for sanity and quick sharing. Here I’m experimenting with the jpeg at max saturation. Probably ott but I’m not ruling it out for wildlife and some landscapes and architecture. ...

I’ve had a cold this last week but poor @kanesnaps came down with a dose of the ‘flu in the 35 degree heat of #africaburn He’s mostly recovered and doing great work with that Mustang bass as always.

Last night was perhaps the best non metal rock show I’ve seen in South Africa. Just killer bands, great sound, enthusiastic crowd. Pictured is Beast with two great bass guitar players, a rock solid drummer and an operatic, dramatic singer. The Tasers from Jozi were probably my highlight with a great tension between absolute wildness and tight control. Headlined by Spiral Drive from Germany. The show is coming to Jozi in a few days and people up there should run not walk to get tickets.

We have a number of large herons in South Africa. As a rule they’re pretty shy. But for some reason yesterday morning we kept coming across Black Headed Herons that were close to the road or even had to be persuaded to move.

Then there was this mystery buzzard. Common Buzzard? Something more unusual. I dunno. Will update.

Morning flamingos. 🦩 @millar6300 @joydemillar and I went to Strandfontein and started seeing big flocks of greater flamingos straight away in the early light.

I was with my dad while he got his prescription filled at Noyes Pharmacy in Kenilworth which still amazingly has a film autolab. You can see the diamond grid where they once had many brands and types of 35mm film for sale and now there’s just one - and only about a dozen in stock plus some disposable cameras. They used to have a collection of vintage Leicas - MIII’s through M6s I think. Maybe 20 or so. Not even for sale. I believe the old owner sold them quickly when digital moved in - not realising like most of us that their value would recover in time I think. ...