SUSTAINABLE SEAS TRUST BOOK

A number of months ago, the Sustainable Seas Trust - http://www.sst.org.za/ - launched a photographic competition inviting entries for their book "South African Coasts". All the profits from the sale of the book will go into a trust for education programmes for children of impoverished communities living along our coasts. I entered 12 images and toady received a mail saying that 3 of them had been accepted for publication. The book launches in Cape Town on December 4 2014.

So why not buy a copy this Christmas and help support the sustainable use of our marine resources, our South African Seas and caring for its wonderful animals and the people who depend upon them.

Moonset at Buffalo Bay

Sunset over Swartvlei, Sedgefield

Rock pools along Wilderness Beach

DECOREX JOHANNESBURG 2014

2 weeks ago, myself and a friend did a 3200km return road trip to exhibit at Decorex Johannesburg -  the largest interior design fair in Africa. All 5 halls at Gallagher Estate were used - 750 exhibitors and an expected +50 000 people to attend the show. The back seats of the SUV were removed and the space filled with a large selection of limited edition prints - mainly on hand-brushed aluminium sheets. We had booked a U-shaped, 16 linear metre stall in the Art Gallery and began setting up on the Tuesday before the opening on Wednesday. The show was to run for 5 days, with the first 3 being trade-focused days.

Hardly any room left for luggage

The empty stand

It took us from 8 in the morning till 6 that evening to hang the 35 prints - much longer than we had expected.Eventually we were done and were very happy with the overall look of our "Instant Gallery".

Lining up the pictures for hanging

The first wall complete

Nearly done...

At last and looking good

Yours truly

One of the outside walls

Before leaving for Decorex, we made an appointment to visit Grand Provence where Trent, son of the late Everard Read, has an Art Gallery. Trent was away at the time, but his assistant was excited by our work and immediately chose 2 images - one of mine and one of Des' for display in the Gallery. We were thrilled by this as it gave a lot of credibility to our work. 

We received an overwhelming response from people - trade and public alike - they had never seen photographic prints on aluminium and the impact of the large prints - over 1.65 metres, had a huge impact. We sold 4 prints overall - 3 very large ones and were very happy seeing that this was the first time we had shown our work in public. What to us was even more important, were the contacts we made with interior designers, decorators and architects - hopefully this will prove to be really beneficial in the long term.

VIDEO OF INTENTIONAL CAMERA MOVEMENT SEASCAPES

This is my first attempt at putting together a short video showing some of my seascapes...

SMALL ARTICLE FROM BEACH CAMERA IN THE USA

A couple of days ago, I came across this article on the Beach Camera blog - I was totally surprised!

Recently a friend of mine sent me a link to a great photographer’s site. The first time I saw it, though, I thought “No way. This has to be Photoshopped.” Instead, after poking around for a while, I came to understand how exactly Mike Kaplan captures such stunning images with a camera and, without any post-processing or editing, makes them look as if they had been painted onto a canvas by a master watercolor painter such as Edward Hooper or Winslow Homer.

In his seascapes and landscapes, Kaplan uses a long exposure time to create not just a single moment in time but rather the flow of time over an area. Kaplan prefers to take his photos at sunset or sunrise. His work is very good and definitely worth a look.

Long exposure photography is a great way to give images of water that misty, almost otherworldly look. With a long exposure time, the moving objects in the photograph are blurred while the stationary ones — such as the rocks or the landscape — remain sharp and crisp.

Here's the link to the full article:  http://www.beachcamera.com/blog/recreating-paintings-with-photography/

INTENTIONAL CAMERA MOVEMENT

I first started experimenting with ICM or Intentional Camera Movement about 2 years ago, when a photographer friend of mine was up on holiday with us and showed me some images he had created. I was hooked! The technique entails moving the camera during exposure resulting in images which have a soft, painterly quality to them depending on how much and how quickly the camera is moved during the time that the shutter is open.

A lot of experimentation is required - a small amount of camera movement retains some of the stronger details in the image, whilst a larger range of movement produces more abstract images. For me, a large part of the enjoyment of the Intentional Camera Movement process is the randomness and unpredictability of the end result. Each movement is different, the length of the exposure changes and one can’t really see what you are actually attempting to capture. You can see more of my work at www.mylandscapes.co.za

Here, the shapes of the rocks on the beach can still be seen - the exposure was 1/5th sec

This shows a 1.5 sec exposure with a little movement across the scene.

Here the exposure was 2 seconds, but I only moved the camera slightly from left to right

A 3 second exposure with a slow, steady camera movement across the beach and waves

BAD WEATHER AT BUFFALO BAY

Went out to Buffalo Bay on Sunday - the wind was howling and it was pretty cold. I couldn't take any long exposure shots as the wind was too string and was moving my tripod. Tried a couple of ICM exposures and really liked the first image posted below.
All the images were shot with my Olympus EM-5 with the 12-40 Pro lens.

Intentional Camera Movement

The "wild side" at Buffalo Bay

Sea foam abstract

Heading back to the car

Also wanted to add this image which  I shot at Plettenberg Bay a few weeks ago.

BUFFALO BAY SUNSET

About 2 weeks ago, I went to a photographic outing arranged by Ian Fleming, a photographer friend from Knysna. It was very well attended with over 30 fellow landscape enthusiasts gathering at the "wild side" at Buffalo Bay. At first the pending sunset didn't look as if it was going to be too great, but the later it got, the better it got!

I didn't try any Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) shots as the rocks in the foreground make for (to me) rather unpleasant dark brown/black shapes. But I did manage to capture some long-exposure seascapes with my Olympus EM5 and the 12-40 lens. Hope you enjoy.