For much of the month, I was too busy to do much photography at all. And then I had a week off. It was the perfect opportunity to get out there and get all the photos I needed. Instead, laziness ensued and I only managed to get out 2 days in the entire week.

Well last night, I quickly generated a pdf via photoshop to complete this largely unsuccessful SoFoBoMo.

If I am to take part in this again next year, I will definitely have to dedicate myself more than I did this year. Anyway, go check out all the other submissions at SoFoBoMo.org. Some of them are exceptionally good.

So I started my fuzzy month yesterday, and I woke up to realise the sun was already rising. I’d really wanted to be at Krantz Kloof as the sun was rising. I got myself ready as quickly as I could and rushed out the door. I got a lot of shots done at the lookout area, but I suspected that many would suffer from serious flair due to the sun being a little higher in the sky than I’d hoped

This following image is a very quickly put together six shot panorama of the gorge.

My next stop was the Kloof SPCA. They had a very nice reserve area with wooden walkways over a swamp. Much to my dismay the entrance to the reserve area was locked, and no one could tell me when and if it would be open. I am quite upset about this, as this little known reserve was the place that inspired my SoFoBoMo theme. I will phone them this week and find out when the reserve is open.

That was my shooting for the day, and I returned home in time for breakfast. I’ve decided I need go back to Krantz Kloof for some sunset shots, which I will hopefully manage in the next few days. Today has been rained out, so nothing new.

All in all a very slow start.

What was I thinking…

Since I subscribed to the SoFoBoMo yahoo pipe, I’ve read a lot of posts from various people about the format of their books and where to get them published. I myself have gone from thinking I would just make a simple pdf, to wanting to get the book printed and back again.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to get the result of this months work printed as a book, I just don’t think I can do it any justice in that short period of time. For me SoFoBoMo was a reason to go out and shoot with a specific theme in mind, instead of just taking pictures of whatever seemed nice at the time. And so that is what I will do, I will stick to the theme: think about the theme, and take photos of the theme, generally just stop worrying about anything other than the photos. Assuming no massive PC failures due to the move, I should be able to slap together a half decent pdf in the last week; nothing fancy, just enough to showcase the photos.

Now if I am happy with the output from this, then I will consider spending some more time turning this into a book that I can try to get published (and not self published). That will most likely involve getting more photos and replacing some that don’t quite cut it, getting property releases, and just generally a lot more work.

Well SoFoBoMo’s fuzzy month has officially begun, and we can all now officially start snapping. It seems that some people who were originally going to wait a while before starting are now getting going from day one, in an attempt to get two books done in the two month long “fuzzy month”. I was originally planning on starting on April 1st, but now deadlines at work are forcing me to delay that by about a week.

I have a preliminary title for the book, “A Durban less seen”. The idea being to try and find beautiful wild areas in and around my home town that you don’t normally see photographed. Our beaches and other touristy destinations are photographed and advertised to death, but some of the smaller reserves & parks are worthy of a lot more attention than they get.

For those that want a central place to keep track of all the SoFoBoMo related blogs, check out Gordon McGregor’s Yahoo pipe capturing all known SoFoBoMo blogging.

So far a lot of participants appear to be posting their photos as they take them, which definitely supplies enjoyable viewing for the rest of us. I think that I will however hold back on posting my photos until near the end when I narrow down my selection to the 35 (or possibly closer to 40) that I will use.

I need to get back to work now, got to get these deadlines done ASAP so I can start photographing.

Good luck to everyone.

So when I read about SoFoBoMo (Solo Photo Book Month), I was suitably excited. Christa has been telling me for the last year that I need to get down and make a photo book, and my standard response was always: “Yes dear, when I have experience and can fill a book with quality photos.”

The goal is a nicely formatted PDF with 35 photos in it, all taken within a month. The month is a fuzzy month, so 31 consecutive days between April 1st and May 31st. The book does not need to be published, but if you want to, no one is stopping you.

I’ve signed up, and cannot wait for April 1st, though I haven’t quite decided on the theme yet.

I never did quite get around to writing that novel…

Their unique flash application allows easy viewing of the lenses MTF charts throughout the zoom and f-stop range; and just like their camera reviews, the reviews are well written and cover almost anything you could desire. While they currently only have 4 lenses in their review database, more will be added as quickly as they can do them.

Of the submissions, I really like:

That Country Feeling, Storm Cell at Sunset & Contour.

All excellent landscapes.

I had attempted to mat a photo of mine a year ago, but using a sharp cutting knife was not nearly as easy as some web sites would have you believe. Sure the but was mostly straight, but cutting the mat at anything other than 90 degrees quickly degraded that straight cut into something more resembling jagged wound. The problem was, a 90 degree cut just doesn’t have the lovely look matting boards get when the window has been cut at a 45 degree angle.

Well, I shot a triptych a while back, and had even gotten a set of prints made over a year ago. They had however sat in the cardboard tube they arrived in, since I couldn’t mount them, and didn’t have the heard to just stick them on the wall. So today I purchased a hand held mat cutter, the OLFA MC-45

While no where near as stable and easy as a larger, much more expensive, table top mat cutter; this little device is still well worth owning. All that was needed was the cutter, a large A0 piece of matting board, a pencil, ruler, & a table to work on. A few hours and I had my first properly matted print.

This is my submission, click the image for a larger view.

This is currently in my parents backyard, though it is within 200 meters of my new house that I am building, so I think it fits within the rules.

This is some old steel garden furniture my parents found when we moved into a house back in 1982. It was found overgrown with plants, and was probably around 20 years old back then. They fixed it up, and now many years later (and one house move) it is in much the same shape as they found it. Despite a little bit of rust, and of course needing to replace all the wood on the table top, they are all in pretty good condition and just need a sanding and layer or two of paint. Once I have finished building and moved in, I will be restoring this, and then once again, it will be in my own back yard.

They made things well back then…

I have another suggestion for photographers. Photograph pollution.

Many of us love to photograph nature in all its beauty, but the ugly side is avoided. We don’t tend to leave home hoping to find a river clogged with pollution, though smoke stacks might get a bit more attention from some.

Image by Sand Dragon

So get out there and take some photos showing just how much our environment is suffering. Post them on your blog or flickr (you can even submit them to groups like Up in Smoke). Maybe your photo will be the one that leads to one more polluter being stopped.