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.
Dawn breakfast walk in my little urban village.
Another perfect day in Africa.
I feel like Observatory’s going through a bit of renaissance as covid winds down. @withoutaleaf got ice-cream from @_tapi_tapi - and it’s really good. Lots of African ingredients are used. It seems like not long ago tourists would struggle to find anything African to eat that was accessible to them in Cape Town. But now there’s a lot on offer. Can definitely recommend this place. Great, unique ice-cream and super friendly, informative people working there.
Had to relearn how to take pictures when we went to a heavy metal show last night up the street with @sad_ivan and Tanya. @withoutaleaf and I aren’t really metal people so we dressed as tourists. We bumped into the organiser of this 200 odd people event and she can be seen wearing my fly glasses. Absolute blast. Metal heads are the best people. The band, Abaddon, were cracking. Tight as a drum. Thundering sound. A fine night out.
This guy asked me to take his pic when he saw me with my camera this morning near the Observatory station. He’s a local and I used to know his name, but was all thinking about camera stuff and forgot to ask. So there’s a weird thing with digital cameras: people are usually satisfied just to see themselves on the back of the camera. Now I’ve got a bit of a scheme. I want to get one of those Instax printers so I can make a print on the spot from the camera. Unfortunately it won’t be this one. The XE1 came out in 2013 and doesn’t have any wireless connectivity. But it’s something I plan to put together in the future because so many people don’t have any pictures of themselves - for memories or to pass on to loved ones. Pics on phones often end up disappearing with those phones. And few people ever have their picture taken by anyone who’s learned much photographic technique. So I’d really like to be able to make a small but high quality print when I take a picture of a someone I’m not in digital contact with. The instax printer uses a photographic printing technique so the quality is a lot better than that of other portable printers - but the prints are about $1 each. So I’d still have to be sparing.
Rainbow over the street. One downside of this 50mm I realised… focuses past infinity. Not a major problem, but not ideal.
A mendicant’s moon in observatory.
Huge day for me. First time I’ve ever seen a wild otter. And it was here, fifteen minutes’ walk from my house where the city thinks it’s ok to bulldoze everything to put up offices for Amazon. The Cape Clawless Otter is thriving in this little bit of urban paradise.
This joint has never been more important. One of the few live music venues left in Observatory. Closed during COVID but then reopened under new management. Ever since the first juke box and then the first disco back in the 50s, the eons old practice of live music recitals has effectively been rendered obsolete. But by making a big show out of it, that death has been postponed. But it’s often quite a hard sell against the very flamboyant and immersive forms of entertainment it now has to compete with. But for those of us who love it and do it, there’s no real substitute. ...