CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

Tonight (Tuesday 28 July) at 6pm UK time I will be spending an hour with fellow X Photographer Paul Choy for the final part of a series of interviews with some of the UK X Photographers, talking about the photographs we take and a deep dive into what makes some them special to the photographer who takes them. Once I have done the interview I will post the images that will be featured on tonights programme (see images below). The programme can be viewed on the Fujifilm South Africa Facebook page in full  HERE One last thing, Paul is working on a project called Walk Mauritius, which he is working on while the island is in lockdown.  Go and check the website out via the link here -  https://www.walkmauritius.com - there is some great images to view. Eau Rouge - Fujifilm X-T1 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/350s @ f14 ISO 200 Sebring - Fujifilm X-T3 + XF10-24mm f4 - 1/20s @ f22 ISO 80 Le Mans Podium - Fujifilm X-T2 + XF50-140mm f2.8 - 1/1000s @ f2.8 IS...

In the Digital SLR Photography CC Facebook group I belong to we have started to run weekend challenges with the owner of the image that receives the most 'likes' choosing the subject of the next challenge.  This weekend's challenge is 'silhouettes' and this is one of my favourite photographic genres.  It is also dead easy to learn. Sail boat sunset - off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa - Nikon D90 + Sigma 50-500 f4/f6.3 The subject has to be strong and it also has to be backlit (ie the light source is behind the subject).  This usually means sunlight but you can use off camera flash, a street light or other bright source of illumination. My silhouettes are usually landscapes but I have used the technique to shoot wildlife as well.  The technique is very simple.   Find a suitable subject with a strong light source behind. Set your camera on aperture priority or manual exposure at around f8 or f11 and take a meter reading off a brig...

Penguins - cute, flightless birds that live in the Antarctic, right?  Well, yes, this is correct on the whole. Most people think they are cute, and penguins are definitely flightless, but not all wild penguins live in the cold Antarctic, there are colonies of penguins that live further north, some in South Africa and South America. One of these is the colony of African Penguins at Boulders Beach near Simons Town on the Cape peninsula in South Africa. On our recent trip to Cape Town we put it on the agenda to go to the Cape of Good Hope and on the way we decided to visit Boulders Beach.  This turned out to be a great choice as we've never seen wild penguins before.  These are wild penguins but they are used to thousands of visitors that travel to Boulders beach so aren't in the slightest bit bothered by the human presence.  To keep humans and penguins apart there is a series of wooden walkways that have been built above the beach. You arr...

Many moons ago back in the late 1980s we bought, (or were given – I can’t remember which) a book detailing the best places around the world to watch whales. Top of the list was a place called Hermanus in South Africa, a place where you could watch whales from the cliffs and we made it our goal to visit Hermanus at some point.  Fast forward to August 2011 and we decided to visit Cape Town for our annual holiday.  August is at the end of the South African winter and while the average temperatures aren’t as bad as cold, rain swept Britain, there was an even better reason to go – it was the start of the whale season at Hermanus, which was just 120km from Cape Town. Hermanus Twelve hours in the cheap seats of a South African Airways Airbus was soon forgotten on arrival at our hotel in Cape Town, which was basking in unseasonal 20+ degree sunshine.  Trips were planned for the 9 day stay and top of the agenda was hiring a car so we could get to Hermanus. Car was dul...

The last two months have seen me visit Belgium, Slovakia, France and two weeks in China with the FIA GT1, GT3 Championships and the Blancpain Endurance Series.  During this time we also managed to grab a 10-day family holiday in Cape Town, South Africa.  What a place!  There is so much to see and do and I will post some of the pictures and stories from our stay in this fantastic country at a later date.  The picture of the week is a shot taken of Table Mountain and Cape Town from across the bay on Robben Island, the site of the prison that held Nelson Mandela and the other political prisoners from the Apartheid era.