Ttartisan17mmf14 on The Singemonkey

February 23, 2025

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:08:38 +0000

I overcame my trepidation and found the path up from the Blockhouse to the scout hut - most of the way to the top. I got lost and got my legs scratched up a few times. The route is very poorly marked. I can’t help thinking without other information that rescue services could save a ton of money by simply putting good markers and clear information on the paths.

Anyway. Now I’ve found the path I can extend my route even to Maclear’s Beacon - the highest point on our modest little mountain.

February 23, 2025

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:02:36 +0000

Lots of drama on the mountain today. A big fire was raging above Kirstenbosch seemingly. Throughout my extended hike the Apocalypse Now thudding of Hugheys flying constant relays to dump water on the fire. Pic 2 shows what it looked like when I first started my walk. It’s much reduced now but I still hear the helicopters from home. @johnthevudio is hard at work on the fire line I believe.

February 22, 2025

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:33:12 +0000

More ambling around Kirstenbosch taking pictures with the old man. I thought not bringing my bird photography rig would have brought out the Orange-Breasted Sunbirds. There were certainly plenty of their favourite ericas in bloom. But not a feather was to be seen. Still a lovely morning out though.

January 14, 2025

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:53:48 +0000

Another Kirstenbosch pic. Photography wisdom says dappled light through leaves doesn’t work. And that wisdom is probably right.

I’m impressed at how sharp my cheapie ttartisan 17mm f1.4 is when stopped down to somewhere between f5.6 and f8.

January 14, 2025

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:50:10 +0000

Another little expedition into Kirstenbosch with my old man in his dapper explorer’s outfit. Wandering about. Taking pictures.

June 15, 2024

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 19:37:46 +0000

@joydemillar has organised another cracking #subwaysessions at our undisclosed location. Here’s Ilse holding everyone spellbound or in stitches between songs that you instantly feel like you’ve known for years.

April 28, 2024

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 14:41:29 +0000

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.

April 26, 2024

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 09:20:23 +0000

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.

April 22, 2024

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 14:41:50 +0000

His current favourite autumnal spot for taking his daytime zizz with the advantage of being able to see his rivals from the balcony.

April 05, 2024

Fri, 05 Apr 2024 17:08:21 +0000

@kanesnaps and I went out to see the effects of the summer fires in December (if I recall). It was amazing to see how the protea flower clusters had opened up to release their seeds and how there were already some green shoots in the ashes mere days later. Also impressive were the huge shards of sandstone blasted out of the boulders like onion layers where the water dumped by helicopters hit the searing hot stone.

April 04, 2024

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 15:24:12 +0000

John demonstrates his fistfuls of charcoal braaiing technique in his back yard in August 2023. The gum trees are a trial to him dropping leaves steadily in his pool. But in compensation they’ve attracted a young African Harrier Hawk or Gymnogene which is always an exciting garden visitor.

August 06, 2023

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 12:07:45 +0000

I dropped @withoutaleaf off at the harbour to take the Hogwarts Express. Some of us work from home and see and do the same things everyday, and she has so many adventures she begins to find some a nuisance. It’s not long ago she was spending the working day watching lions eating a giraffe they’d killed.

August 06, 2023

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 11:59:32 +0000

It’s the first time I’ve done this walk since March. So much going on with the cat boi going missing and then getting injured. I decided to take my camera. I just can’t get good results with a phone although some people can. I’ve also changed laptops and still haven’t sorted out my photos again. So I edited these on my phone.

January 27, 2023

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 11:49:02 +0000

Surprise guest. @withoutaleaf found this bunny while shooting at Wynberg Park. It may have been born there among feral rabbits, but it’s super friendly, so it may have been abandoned. Luckily a person nearby us with an eight-year-old daughter is coming to take it to its forever home this afternoon.

January 21, 2023

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 10:05:21 +0000

Bun’s current top-favourite spot. We call it her tube.

January 12, 2023

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 12:43:27 +0000

@jason66c at a show we went to for the day back on December 11. We gathered intel and experienced the rare Cape summer thunderstorm.

November 14, 2022

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 09:25:09 +0000

The Magician. @kanesnaps larking at the back of The Elephant’s Eye - against the mossy retina. It’s a tall, temple-like opening in the mountainside in Silvermine Nature Reserve.

The last time I was there, maybe when I was ten or twelve it seemed a Herculean feat to get there. Kane and I found it such a quick and gentle saunter that we went on to the Hout Bay overlook - which seldom disappoints.

October 10, 2022

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 20:53:48 +0000

Leucodendrons, @kanesnaps tells me. A very pretty and delicate protea that looked quite spectacular in spring profusion, painting the entire mountainside yellow.

October 10, 2022

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 20:44:57 +0000

@kanesnaps and I went heroically up the mountain by a new route (for me) and found that rock that looks like a camel from certain angles.

It was lovely up there, where the traffic noise suddenly disappears and you’re in this magic park in the sky filled with the astonishing diversity of plants in the fynbos botanical region.

Kane almost got bitten by a very unfortunate young puff adder that had been run over (almost certainly by accident since it was so well camouflaged on the road - such that Kane nearly didn’t see it too). Luckily some guys working up there arrived in a truck and ended it’s suffering with a sharp spade since it was way too injured to possibly survive.

August 27, 2022

Sat, 27 Aug 2022 12:51:01 +0000

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.

July 24, 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 18:40:15 +0000

This is from a few days ago when @withoutaleaf and I were up on Plum Pudding Hill. I just wanted to post this to remind myself of this handful of mature silver trees that survived the fire. The trunks were scorched but they came through unlike most.

I mentioned that silver trees are hard to photograph. It’s because the top side of the leaf has a gorgeous metallic shine thanks to a profusion of fine hairs. But the underside is a deep green. In photographs this usually gives the impression that they’re a kind of grey green tree. But up close and personal, they’re just spectacular.

July 24, 2022

Sun, 24 Jul 2022 18:30:52 +0000

Second mountain expedition of the day. Kane (@kanesnaps) led Junko (@junko28a) and me up Kalk Bay at a blistering pace. I worked out it must be over twenty years since I last went up this route. And that’s a shame because it’s so lovely. The vegetation and landscape transforms so quickly - you’re rapidly surrounded by the most varied and beautiful fynbos - and the contrast between the white sand and the acquamarine of False Bay is a balm for the soul. And so lovely to share the mountain with much loved people. Second time in a week!

July 07, 2022

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:48:18 +0000

We went for breakfast at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens yesterday. Wow. Winter in Cape Town sure is terrible.

We actually got to spot the elusive Sombre Bulbul a couple of times - the call of which has been obsessing me for a year.

July 07, 2022

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:44:03 +0000

At the same location as the previous pic we came across these #cursed proteas. They only grow on the sites of necromancer’s towers.

July 07, 2022

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:40:40 +0000

A couple of #latergrams. Got to meet up with these ever delightful people a few weeks ago when we went to go see an Irma Stern exhibition. The knitter made us cute octopus plushies that we shall treasure.

June 18, 2022

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 12:37:30 +0000

Newlands Forest was mighty damp after the huge amount of rain we had last week. To cross the streams with dry feet I had to do some tricky hops on slippery rocks. I amazed myself by managing to cross three of these rain gorged torrents without falling in.

A second mountain biker alerted me to their presence with a bike bell. That makes two… ever. It’s such a tiny, inexpensive object but it conveys so much respect to the other mountain users. Most of them though, are not well-loved by the rest of us. I have a bell on my bike just for getting myself around, let along tearing down narrow, twisting tracks. Sport riders in Cape Town need to be better.

June 11, 2022

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 10:18:49 +0000

The memorial to ruthless imperialism and capitalism. Even sharks respect power - it’s a really basic thing to revere. It’s much more appropriate to a sophisticated primate to revere kindness and cooperation.

Well, at least people can enjoy the free public space and every generation of kids can ride the scaled down imitations of the Trafalgar Square lions - none of them thinking for a moment about a dusty old Victorian narcissist.

June 11, 2022

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 10:10:53 +0000

Despite having some expensive sunglasses ruined by the wind ripping them off my shirt and skidding them - lenses down - for 50m across a tarred road, the irritation I woke up with couldnt stand up to Table Mountain Park at dawn. This has to be among the best city parks on Earth.

I’m not quite fit enough to run up the steep mountainside to the “King’s Blockhouse” (a grandiose name for a very tiny little fort) so, since I was scrambling anyway, I could take my camera. I was remembering how this seemed like quite a big hike even as a teenager. I was clearly very unfit then.

June 08, 2022

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:31:17 +0000

Last Sunday we went to the Paarl Arboretum. I’ve never been before. It’s a wonderful place - a huge park divided into continents for its collection of beautiful exotic and local trees. This is the lovely Cedar of Lebanon (celebrated on that nation’s flag). It looks like it’ll be a great place for lazing around reading and picnicking in summer. I was actually surprised how few people were there on a sunny day in winter. Wonderful birds too. We saw four African Hoopoes pottering about on the grass - a lovely, iconic bird that I don’t think I’ve ever seen this close to Cape Town before.

June 08, 2022

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:26:09 +0000

The date palm at the confluence stands on a tiny island. About the only thing on that bank spared destruction by the diggers and dozers. A good thing too as the willow beneath the palm seems to be a nesting site for Night Herons. Hopefully the cranes will be hauled away as they begin to rust.

June 08, 2022

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:19:49 +0000

Dawn light on the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers where we do our bird count. Egyptian Geese fly by. The cranes behind the little undamaged island stand silent, hopefully haemorrhaging money into bankruptcy for a company that sought to wreck the place with the collusion of the city that ignored its own environmental impact assessment which declared that it was wholly inappropriate to build on this environmentally sensitive floodplain.

May 28, 2022

Sat, 28 May 2022 18:01:45 +0000

This ruined cottage was an irresistible moonlight attraction when we were teenagers. And the wall was a seat where we could climb up and pretend we were vampires.

May 28, 2022

Sat, 28 May 2022 17:58:02 +0000

The pines have their own charms though. When you’re raised on European culture and JRR Tolkien - and our spectacular African scenery is just the backdrop to life - it was easy to romanticise this slightly exotic landscape. But it doesn’t really belong here and as such it lacks the intense diversity of our native biomes. The one upside though is that it provides a living for fungi from Europe which extrude bizarre fruits out of the ground and bark after rains.

May 28, 2022

Sat, 28 May 2022 17:51:23 +0000

The native forests of Table Mountain. Dense and ringing with the calls of forest birds - unlike the bare alien pine forests that still linger on some slopes.

May 28, 2022

Sat, 28 May 2022 17:47:18 +0000

My camera battery charger has been rediscovered. So I took it for a long walk in the woods on the mountainside this morning.

It’s really striking how many more birds you hear when you leave the alien pines and enter the indigenous forest. Now that I recognise the eerie, jaunty call of the Sombre Bulbul, I can hear that the forest is lousy with them.

I also spotted a Cape Batis.

April 17, 2022

Sun, 17 Apr 2022 13:00:50 +0000

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.

February 13, 2022

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 12:06:24 +0000

Some #latergrams from Xmas in January. Omicron put a hold on our planned Christmas lunch and led to it being @withoutaleaf and my folks at their place for a slap-up lunch with a more modest roast chicken standing in for a turkey.

February 13, 2022

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 11:46:44 +0000

Our Liesbeek bird counting group had an away day this morning at Strandfontein Sewerage works. Jane and Terna looking out at the thousands of birds in every direction. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the place so dense with avian life. As we drove down the tracks, Barn Swallows swirled around the car stuffing themselves with unseen bugs - to fatten up for their long journey back to the summer of Europe. We saw so many different ducks - Cape, Red-Billed, and Blue-billed Teals. Cape Shovelers. Spur-Winged Geese, Egyptian Geese, Southern Pochards, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, and Yellow-Billed Ducks.

November 09, 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:47:13 +0000

A second of quiet dignity among quite a bit of camera-inspired hamming.

November 09, 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:42:52 +0000

What @sad_ivan once called, “The cheap showiness of nature.” That blorange Cape sunset taking things over the top.

November 09, 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:40:30 +0000

Sunday fun draws to a close chez @goflow42 and @jason66c. Old friends met. New conversations were held. @withoutaleaf cooked up great troughs of mussels in wine and garlic.

November 09, 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:35:59 +0000

Sophie is an old lady now but still full of beans. Enjoying riding in #eljaguarazul avec @sophdex who deigned to let @ezlemoen pilot the sapphire chariot.

November 09, 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:31:00 +0000

This little South Indian place in Newlands was great for lunch at the end of our river walk. But their claims to sell real Nepali momos were a bit exaggerated. Tasty dumplings they were. Nepali momos though? Nah. There’s a real gap in the market for a Nepali restaurant in Cape Town, I think.

November 09, 2021

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 17:23:49 +0000

A very long time ago they made a little walking route from Rondebosch through to Claremont along the Liesbeek. Even though most of it here is canalised, it’s still a very lovely walk from Observatory to Newlands for lunch on a summer’s day - especially because the locals all along the route have planted up a storm of flowers. Although it’s a domesticated section of the river, there’s still no shortage of life, such as a pair of African Black Ducks with a small swarm of ducklings.

October 28, 2021

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:53:28 +0000

My boy is apparently now completely unfazed by the vacuum cleaner. Trinket, on the other hand, has once again gone into deep hiding. She still thinks it’s Stalingrad.

October 28, 2021

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:36:41 +0000

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.

October 28, 2021

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:28:25 +0000

@withoutaleaf and I had breakfast @rust.coffee.bar this morning. It sure is nice to be able to do some quasi-normal things during this lull in the pandemic now that we’re fully-vaxxed. I even got to be in a room with my whole band - six people in total - on Monday evening for two hours. It felt very good indeed after nearly 20 months.

October 28, 2021

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 13:23:51 +0000

If you’re ok to completely abandon any hope of ever owning your own home, the smashed avocado on sourdough toast @rust.coffee.bar here in Observatory is really damn good. That’s a joke, of course - based on some inequality-justifying hack’s ludicrous argument for why millennials don’t own homes. But not joking about the yumminess of this toast.

October 18, 2021

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 19:28:49 +0000

A day yesterday with long tall Jay. His kids were very kind and let us watch our Velvet Underground documentary as long as we were quiet. After my comical series of mishaps, I finally made it out to Noordhoek only by [smartphone taxi-service] but it was well worth it. The leafy hide of the peninsula is on display out there. And the spring clouds were fierce and judgemental.

October 02, 2021

Sat, 02 Oct 2021 13:17:00 +0000

A #latergram of an Indian takeaway feast in the Jozi home of our dear friends @sophdex and @ezlemoen with parents, Jill and Pierre, and collies, airedales, and cats. Johannesburg doesn’t look nearly as welcoming in spring compared to summer. But get indoors and the citizens (not just our friends) are as friendly as ever.

Shooting scenes like this in available darkness is a big part of what makes having a fast wide-angle lens such a pleasure.

October 01, 2021

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 08:56:26 +0000

Pity about the shadows. But a very rare picture of these two eccentric gents in the wild: Gareth and Marcus (with beard!). I’ve quoted Hunter Thompson with regard to Gareth before, but it goes for both of them: “Too strange to live. Too rare to die.

September 30, 2021

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 19:24:26 +0000

@withoutaleaf queueing for one of her many, many, COVID tests outside a studio in town. I’ve managed to avoid them altogether (by not having any need to interact in person and not having any major symptom scares) while she’s had dozens and dozens from having to work safely on set. There’s very little pandemic on my Instagram in general. I was mostly at home and then tended to point a lens at things that were a break from the pandemic. There’ll be no shortage of documentation of this strange, history-bending time. But it is good to have a few images that show the thing actually happening in your own life even if you don’t interact with it directly - as I’ve been very lucky not to have to do.

September 06, 2021

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 08:14:28 +0000

It’s a party in Jozi to see @cara.stacey announced as the Standard Bank Young Artist Of The Year! It’s an amazing achievement. I was very glad to be “there” with @sophdex, @ezlemoen, and @withoutaleaf to take it in in style.

August 22, 2021

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 18:58:13 +0000

The next morning, as soon as the sun was up, they started on their way, and soon saw a beautiful green glow in the sky just before them.

“That must be the Emerald City,” said Dorothy.

August 21, 2021

Sat, 21 Aug 2021 17:30:32 +0000

My folks have had a pretty tough year. But things are starting to look up a little. Not really the right kind of pic for Instagram but this is a visual diary for me as much as anything else.

August 11, 2021

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 16:42:36 +0000

Having the house thoroughly cleaned is a deep joy for us but a nightmare for Trinket for whom the vacuum is a combination of the devil, Godzilla, and Voldemort. She’s fled the house for most of the day.

August 10, 2021

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 16:56:35 +0000

Kane pauses to punch some navigation data into the hyperdrive.

July 31, 2021

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 10:23:16 +0000

We were in Walmer Estate yesterday to pick something up. It’s such an attractive neighbourhood - #notaninvitationtogentrifyit This hair-dresser, corner store is a reminder of the vanishing corner stores that used to be ubiquitous in Cape Town. We call them Cafés for some reason - although we often pronounce it ‘Kaif.’ I have no idea why. You couldn’t buy coffee in them usually when they were everywhere when I was a kid. This hairdresser has supplemented its advertising with a graffito of a very strangely proportioned young man.

July 28, 2021

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 09:26:23 +0000

Our little dawn bird-counting team. Jane and Terna plus me. A lovely misty morning by the Black River. Commuters rushing to work on the M5 behind us. It’s very much an urban wild space.

July 25, 2021

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 17:46:46 +0000

Saw my dear friend Marcus with my own eyes for the first time in nearly a year and a half. Got filled in on his major plans and events - the way this COVID time seems to have swept everyone’s personal history along like it’s swept global history along.

I rode out to meet him in Keurboom Park and then we hung out on our old high school fields. When we were kids, the only thing we liked about that shitty old fashioned school were the vast, luxurious grounds.