Pentax645n on The Singemonkey

January 26, 2021

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 18:23:29 +0000

It’s not hard to love the warthog. Knee-high to most of the things you see on the savannahs and deserts of sub-Saharan Africa. Tough as nails. Trotting along with their maned and whiskered piglets in a train, their tails up like flags. Or down on their wrists nosing in the dirt. Unlovely but loveable - they’re jaunty endurance in the face of powerful challenges.

This, like the last one, was taken in 2012.

January 26, 2021

Tue, 26 Jan 2021 18:13:24 +0000

The very beautiful Impala. While the lowveld is thick with these, I never get tired of them. One of the most beautiful and graceful antelope you’ll ever see. In full panic they make astonishing leaps during their dashes for safety - taking to the air like 75kg swallows. Impala is one of the all-time most beautiful animal names. But I also like the Afrikaans, “rooibok,” - which means simply red buck.

January 23, 2021

Sat, 23 Jan 2021 22:57:45 +0000

Klipspringers. Look at the little ballet hooflets.

Found this as well, while scrolling through Lightroom. I got some great footage of Klipspringers over Christmas. Now I just have to bring myself to face Davinci and edit that stuff. In the meanwhile, here’s a pic I took in 2012 at about the same place in the Karoo National Park - Klipspringerpas. These are basically the Southern African equivalent of mountain goats. The name means ‘rockjumper.’ Those dainty little hooves do great work for leaping about cliffs and boulders.

October 25, 2019

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 16:43:19 +0000

I now have a contact for reasonable slide film processing in Cape Town (thanks to @goodweatherforducks). I have a plan for this beasty. I brought a couple of lenses from the Pentax 67 as well, with an adapter. Once a droolworthy piece of pro kit, the Pentax 645N is now seen as a “beginner’s” medium format camera (probably mostly because of its ’80s styling more than anything). It’s a brilliant camera and great fun to use.

September 29, 2019

Sun, 29 Sep 2019 10:48:09 +0000

I’ve been taken with a real hankering to use my Pentax 645 again. Such a great camera. This was in 2012 at the little airport outside Beaufort West that was a bnb at the time. Hence @withoutaleaf hanging out on the air traffic control tower. When we were next there a couple years ago the runway was in action again training Chinese pilots for their indentured servitude in China’s commercial aviation industry. Worse jobs to be enslaved to, I guess.