I also brought my little Fuji XE1. We arrived at the park pretty late and got to see the Karoo turn gold in the evening light. Course with the Fuji there’s no autofocus and no image stabilisation. So I felt I was pretty lucky to get anything close to sharp pics as these were all handheld grab shots.
These ones are greater flamingoes - although their pink beaks are underwater. Almost a retro-80s, vapour-wave kinda thing going on with the colour scheme and the ripple patterns.
We haven’t worked out what these little wading birds were yet [Little Stints most likely] But damn if there weren’t a lot of them… Some kind of atmospheric disturbance made it really hard to get sharp pics of them with the long lens when they settled. Will update with ID. There were a bunch of serious birders there for a “Baird’s Sandpiper” - probably some storm-lost bird from a distant country or something. Very exciting for the people who’re into chasing down these vagrant rarities, but it’s not really our bag.
Lesser Flamingoes! I don’t think I’ve ever seen them at Strandfontein before. Plenty of the Greater Flamingoes - and we saw lots of those too. Greater Flamingoes are almost all white except for their pink beaks and wing feathers. Lesser Flamingoes like these have deep red beaks, often quite red wing-feathers, and occasionally the whole bird is a lurid pink. Manual focus on the Fujifilm XE1 with a Nikon 300mm f4 and 1.4x converter 💪 ...
Like many people I’ve been making bread since COVID started. Doing it every week has made my very simple recipe incredibly quick. And it’s evolved over time. Now I put it in the fan-oven at a high heat and get a crust much like French bread. I’m sure not everyone would like it with such a crunchy crust, but it suits me very well.
Middle-aged and muddling through. With a touch of irony - or something - mirror selfies are a lot easier with mirrorless cameras than they were with slrs.
A friend not only to fishermen. The Jolly Sailor is a friend to all. Sometimes smoke issues from his pipe. And sometimes the boat rocks upon the waves.
I thought I’d maintain my vertical line of Skitten pictures. Seen here on its balcony that it loves.
The strange, Plutonian flowers that @withoutaleaf’s ma left us before they moved back to India - years ago now - have begun to bloom and it’s going to be a bumper year. This is especially enjoyable given my indifferent gardening. It’s still sunny out there so I propped up a sketch pad as a reflector to ease the contrast.
Spoiled Boi got a comfy spot provided under my morning balcony coffee chair. Taking a load off those big paws.