Weekly Winners: 9 August - 16 August

I'm going to try and choose my absolutely favourite shots that I took during our holiday in Shelly Beach, and because I missed last week's WW, I'm going to show you photos from the 9th onwards.
Hope I don't overdo it, but I'm finding it very difficult to choose from the 700 odd photos that I took. LOL! If you can, please choose your top 3, because I want to submit 3 of these to Camera Club this week and I need some help choosing ;)

Watching the sea

There was a LOT of debris on the beach which was washed up a few months ago in massive storms. The beaches have still not been cleared properly but the massive logs and trees made wonderful props.

Debris at sunrise

Debris at sunset

Debris under the moon

Tossed by the sea

The logs made wonderful jungle gyms too!

Leaping off the log

Woohoo!

Copying my brother

Cracks in the wall

I was JUST too late for this shot, but I still like it (I managed to cut off part of his wing)

Flying from the wave

Seagull on the rocks

And of course the magnificent sunrises! It's a pleasure having small kids when you know you have noisy "alarm clocks" to wake you up in time to set up tripods on the beach to wait for the sun to some up ;)

Sunrise at Shelly Beach

Dreamy sunrise

Seagull at sunrise

Check out the wonderful Sarcastic Mom's blog for more Weekly Winners

Sun rising in the Freestate

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

This was taken VERY early this morning just before Harrismith on the N3. Yip, you guessed it, we're on holiday :) And yip, you guessed right again, I was doing my favourite trick of taking photos at 140kph!
In fact, as I'm typing this, I'm sipping some well deserved red wine and listening to the sea :) Nothing can beat that.

Can't wait to take the kids to swim in the sea tomorrow, chat later. So forgive me for not visiting all my usual blogs for the next few days ;)

Check out more Skywatchers HERE and more Photostory tellers HERE

Weekly Winners 2 Aug

I have taken photos all week, like usual, but my week was ALL about yesterday, so I'm only going to show you some that I took yesterday.

My dad, sister, brother, me and the boys flew to Cape Town yesterday for the day so that we could visit my grandparents in Hermanus.  My grandad is very ill, and when my dad said he was going to see them, we all said we HAD to go too.  I wanted him to meet Connor and see Bradley again.

It was a VERY long day.  In a nutshell... 2 hours flight there, 1 hour drive to Hermanus, 1 1/2 hour drive back, and 2 hour flight again... with 2 kids... it was a looooong day.  But the 2 1/2 hours that we spent with them was more than worth it, and in fact, long enough for him (but not for my grandmother).  By the time we left we all noticed how tired he'd got.  Anyhoo, here are some of the photos I took.

This is by far my favourite photo of the day. It's not the best ito photographic skills, but I love it. Connor relates to people so much faster than Bradley ever did, and he was sharing chips with my grandad (which I think meant the world to him because they had a "moment")

Sharing

And here's more for you

Connor with his great grandparents

Grandpa Roy

Granny Marie

Hermanus is the most beautiful town. It's on the coast close to Cape Town, and is known for the whales that come to the bay every year. It's not quite whale season yet but that didn't stop us walking to the cliff path to see if we could spot one (And I had to get some of the energy out of the kids before we headed off for the airport again).

Daisies on the cliff

Bench

Elaine on the cliff path

Trying to spot whales

Connor walking through the fynbos

The end of a long day

My only regret was that I didn't get a photo of my dad with his parents. I only thought about it last night when I was proofing the photos.

Check out Sarcastic mom's blog for more

Up the palm tree

SKYWATCH FRIDAY

I finally got my act into gear and got a photo of semi-blue sky for today, instead of my usual sunset :)
Check out other skywatchers at the new Skywatch blog!

I need to raise my game

I went to camera club last night, and got slated!!  OK, the judges did seem to be stricter than they have been the last few times we've been, but still.  I'm very disappointed in myself.  I really need to raise my game.
Thinking about it over night, and in the traffic on the way to work this morning, I feel that maybe it's because I take photos every day... I'm just taking photos for the sake of taking photos at the moment, and not really trying to improve. 
But then, thinking about it... no, I do try.  But I'm really not taking quality photos at the moment with this camera.  I need to learn more about it, and try harder.  Anyhoo, here is what the judges said...

Bee - Bronze

They said there wasn't enough focus on the flower and the bee, it was blurred. Which it is if you enlarge it to the n'th degree. Apparently I should have used a tripod... funny that because I did ;) I didn't use the remote switch though, because the bee was moving so much.

Pineapply lily - Bronze

It was over-exposed. They liked the idea, and the way that i saw it though. But they thought that there was too much space on the right of the flower.

Sunset and scaffolding - Silver

There is too much sky on the left of the scaffolding. It apparently would have been better if there was a man on the scaffolding, and if I'd used a longer lens and the sun was bigger! OMW! Personally, I think that's a bit of a tall order.

Anyhoo, onwards and upwards, I'll have to do better next month!

As the sun sets

PROJECT BLACK : TAKE SIX

I love the way the landscape goes black when you take sunset photos, even though it's not that dark just looking around.

I took this photo a few evenings ago. I did actually take photos today, but I don't like them ;)

Check out Anna's blog for more Project Black

Skywatch Friday: Sunsets and scaffolding

I took similar photos a few months ago, but thought I'd try again with my new camera and see whether I got better results.
I went to the top of the parkade at work yesterday evening and took these shots of the sun setting over Randburg. I'm thinking of submitting one of them to this month's camera club meeting, which one do you think I should submit?

Sun setting through the smog

The  setting sun over Randburg

Sunset and scaffolding

My favourite is the third one.

Check out more skywatchers on Womtig's blog

Skywatch Friday - Just after the sun set

I love the colour of the sky as it sets over the west of Johannesburg.
I stopped tonight in a shopping centre parking lot to take this shot over Radiokop. I just missed the sun setting, which is normally a big red ball from this angle, I'll try get there in time next Friday night.

Check out more skywatchers on Womtig's blog.

Skywatch Friday - Pampas grass at sunset

I stopped on the way home tonight to take these photos, in a vlei close to my mom's house. The sky was just too beautiful, and I couldn't resist taking some shots of the pampas grass against the sky.

Fiery coloured clouds


Silhouette of pampas


Pampas grass

Check out Tom's blog for more sky watchers.

Skywatch Friday - Broken windmills and blue skies

Taken in the middle of Fourways north of Jo'burg. As for the sky... it was a typical winter's day in Gauteng today.

Check out more Skywatchers at Tom's blog

Going home

Taken on the way home on Tuesday evening (I didn't have time to take photos today... I know... I'm bad... it's the third day I've missed in one year!)
I thought I'd do a follow up on my post from last week all about my trip to work. There aren't many to show you because it got quite dark, and it's very difficult to take shots in the half light while you're driving LOL!

Maybe the construction workers aren't required to spell?

Bus stop

Power

Looking for business

Wet roads

Orange sky

Cross on a hill