Three Corners - Street Photography

March was month 1 of a new challenge. 3 bloggers (clearly including me) in 3 corners of the world got together last month and decided to gather photos according to a theme every month.
This month's theme was Street Photography.
Here are my photos, the first 2 were taken this evening:

Brothers going for a walk

Waiting for taxis

Road in the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve

Corey and Lindy are the other bloggers in on this challenge, please visit their blogs to see their photos for the month.

Thomas and Sonja's birthday party

We went to a good friend of our's kids joint birthday party today. Her kids have birthdays within 3 days of each other, so she combines the parties.

Mom and daughter
The birthday kids mom, Marlise
Kiara. I couldn't resist posting another photo of her because she reminds me of a porcelain doll in this photo. She was having such a bad day and wasn't feeling very well, so no-one could get a smile out of her.

Playing with mud

Connor on the slide
Please, oh please, push me mom!
Bradley skating down the hill... well... kindof

These are not my Weekly Winners, if you're looking for them, go here...

Photohunt: High

My niece Erin has got no fear! The higher she gets thrown the better. It took quite a few shots before I managed to capture her mid-air.

One of the failed attempts...

then finally... I got it!

I wasn't able to capture a new shot for today's theme, and I know I posted this photo on Monday, but it's just perfect for the theme this week, so you're seeing it again ;)

More Photohunters here...

Skywatch Friday #1

I finally managed to capture a great sky shot on a Friday!
I spotted this gorgeous sight on the way home from Sandton in the traffic today, so I hauled my camera out to get some shots.

I just loved the difference in the blueness of the sky when I saw the sun behind this cloud.


...and finally just before the sun emerged from behind the cloud.

Other Skywatch Friday participants here...

Dinner with friends

Sarah is in town at the moment, so a few of us met for dinner at CTFM in Bell Air Mall.
It was fantastic to have a night out with some girl friends with good seafood and great wine :)


Fiona and Sarah

Fiona, Sue, Me and Sarah

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn leaves

More Wordless Wednesday participants here

Failed Squatter camp photos

I took these photos of the Zandspruit Squatter camp 2 weeks ago as I drove past, on the way back home from a playdate. I balanced my camera on the steering wheel to take the shots, as I didn't want to stop there because I had the 2 kids in the car at the time... and it's a very dangerous place. In fact, go to one of the SA news sites and type in Zandspruit and read the horror stories if you're so inclined. So they're not perfect, because I was just clicking away without planning any shots.
Then for the photohunt on Saturday I was determined. I was going to stop there and take proper photos... it was ideal... all those metal "houses". Not go into the camp mind you... but just stand on the outside on Beyers Naude and take some shots of the streets from there. Even I'm wasn't stupid or brave enough to go further. But my plans were thwarted... Lance refused to stop there and I was too scared to do it on my own.

So, since then I've been chatting to people about this idea of mine, and the look on their faces just said it all. Some of them have worked closely with the police in the area in the past (as medics), and they then told me more about the one photo I took 2 weeks ago.

You can see all the shacks in these 2 photos. The road you can see is the main road, and extremely busy at the best of times.

And here, every available space is used as a shop.
Even the boot of cars are used to sell things from.

OK, this is the one. Not that there's much to see, but the story is horrific. I took the shot, and then looked again to see what everyone was looking at. As I past the traffic light I noticed a body on the ground.. blood everywhere! And everyone was just staring at it.
And then 200m further down the road... cops... stopping taxi's at a roadblock to check for roadworthiness!!
Before you ask... I didn't stop. There was no way I was getting involved with the kids around, and besides, the road was busy and I was sure someone else would stop.
Anyway, I told my story yesterday, and then I got told what it probably was. Zandspruit is notorious for what is called "kangeroo courts" (like vigilanty justice). This body was probably dragged out of the camp after the person was found guilty of something.

Apparently the cops normally wait until the crowd disperses until they go and retrieve the body. It's too dangerous even for them to intervene!

Bear in mind, that this was the same day that the 7 year old girl went missing in Zandspruit and her body was found the next day. And then there were riots on the Monday right where I took those photos.

So, now I feel a bit silly for trying to take the photos there. Next time... I'll try the same thing at another squatter camp... one that is a lot safer :) BTW, I did take photos today, I just thought this story was more interesting.

I suppose I shouldn't really post such a negative story about my country, but I felt I needed to vent a bit. The fact that I'm too scared to drive down this road at night to visit friends and go out for dinner at the wonderful places that are past this spot, make me mad. But then listening to everyone talk about it... I just resign myself to the fact that it sounds like the police are fighting a losing battle there... and it's never going to change.

Braai at Granny and Papa's house

We had a family braai (BBQ) at my parent's house today.

I realised I haven't posted any pics of the boys hunting for eggs this year, so here's one from today... the Easter Bunny even went to Granny's house!

Connor following the dog around the garden.

Erin, the boys' cousin
The youngest members of the family. And believe me, this is the best photo I could get, they DO NOT sit still!
My dad showing Connor how the braai tongs work
Erin loves being thrown into the air, she has absolutely no fear!

Easter Sunday at the Rhino and Lion Park

We took the boys to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve in Kromdraai this afternoon. It's a privately owned game reserve that also has some exotic animals in an area close to the restaurant (ie tigers). As you can expect most of the animals are also free roaming apart from the tigers.

The warthog patrolling the entrance to the lion enclosure... which was VAST and we got warned to drive off fast if the lions came close to the cars because they like to chew on the tyres apparently :)
A dozing female lion
The lions sleeping off their lunch
The view from one of the roads in the reserve
Baby Bengal Tiger

White Lion cub being cuddled by a volunteer
White Lion Cub

Bengal Tiger cleaning itself after eating. It climbed on top of this very high structure to get away from the others in the enclosure.

Blue Crane

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

And no, these are not my Weekly Winners, if you're looking for them, they're here...

Photohunt: Metal

Once I actually thought about it, there were a lot of things I could have taken photos of for this theme. Can't wait to see what everyone else has this week!

I dragged Lance and the boys with me this afternoon to find something out in the countryside to take a photo of. And all of them thought I was a bit looney when I asked him to stop next to this fence post, but I think the photos turned out OK ;). This was taken in Muldersdrift, just outside Johannesburg.

More photohunters here...

Focus on Bradley

It's not often that Bradley allows me to take photos anymore, so you're going to be bombarded with photos of him today! My parents and sister came to our house for a braai (barbeque) today and he was kept occupied so I could take some shots of him. We had such a lovely warm day too, once the clouds disappeared (it was freezing in the early morning).

Connor picked me a flower this morning, and not to be outdone, Bradley went to find one too. Awww... I love boys :)

Laughing at granny and papa

The next lot are in sequence. We were all throwing balls to eachother, and then Bradley decided to change the game... this is him trying to explain what he wanted us to do.

For some reason we had to "by mistake" hit the ball on his head, and the first one to do that was the winner.

... and finally the sulk when he didn't think we understood! LOL!

Two inseperable blondes

I was booked off work today as I had a small op yesterday, and my sister Elaine and her friend Robyn came over to have tea and play with the kids. They weren't too impressed to be my subject matter today, but anyhow :) , here are some of the photos that I took of them in my garden.