Victoriana on The Singemonkey

January 02, 2025

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 18:44:59 +0000

A rather lovely and whimsical Observatory garden I noticed while out walking early.

June 19, 2024

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:57:02 +0000

It started to drizzle now as I got back from my run and we got another spectacular rainbow.

Auto white balance let me down here in the camera and my phone’s warmth control couldn’t get it all back. This is also where I realised that the default Apple photo editor has no perspective controls - at least none that I can find.

Edit: doh! @ezlemoen pointed me to the perspective controls and I realised I’d seen them before.

May 16, 2024

Thu, 16 May 2024 18:15:28 +0000

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.

April 15, 2021

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 10:56:39 +0000

Astonishingly, some suburban houses in Cape Town have retained their original low walls without their inhabitants being murdered nightly, presumably.

Though I also know it’s a relief when people don’t regularly hop into your yard. Cape Town is a cruel city. And being “middle class” here (actually being in the top 5% nationally) puts you in a weird place in terms of how to react to the countless people struggling at the margins. There’s a lot of ignoring, pretence, occasional sympathy, and the ever-popular blaming-the-poor-for-their-poverty.

June 06, 2019

Thu, 06 Jun 2019 17:36:01 +0000

More Obz Victoriana on the new street.

June 03, 2019

Mon, 03 Jun 2019 17:52:21 +0000

Observatory. It’s the mixture of Victorian cake-like prettiness with a layer of middle-income country grime.

April 26, 2019

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 17:00:24 +0000

This is our last autumn in Ash Street. We’ve lived here since 2007. Without any plan in that regard we’ve both lived here longer than either of us has ever lived anywhere else. We’ll miss wonderful neighbours but it’ll be good to be moving… a full 3 or 4 blocks away.

August 21, 2018

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 23:00:35 +0000

Cat food buying walk no.1 - renovations.

June 15, 2018

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 10:17:48 +0000

After four years of drought it takes mere days to get annoyed by the inconvenience of a proper Cape Town winter. But when it does clear enough to walk to the shops it can get really pretty.

September 06, 2017

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 11:42:48 +0000

Strolling to the #recordstore to sell all my #cds on a #spring #morning. It’s a #medicineday, I had the #13thfloorelevators in my ears and #observatory was #perfect.

September 01, 2017

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 13:09:23 +0000

#springtime for #observatory on #trill and #lowermain.

July 13, 2017

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 14:13:23 +0000

Lower Main Road #observatory #victoriana in #colour.