1000 Words

Oyster Bay 2014

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 01:45:00 +0000

Oyster Bay is a small town in Easter Cape about an hour and a half away from Port Elizabeth (Map Link). In order to get to the town you need to travel along a dirt road which makes it rather remote. It is surrounded by wind farms as well as dairy farms. There is one little shop that sells the common day to day items you would need such as food and drinks.
The meat and milk come from the local farms making it a treat to any foodie. Oyster Bay has some of the most spectacular beaches in South Africa. We went during December which is their busiest time of the year. You have tons of space to do what ever you liked on the beach. If you could find thirty people at any time that would be a lot. Its a wonder place to go to get away from the coastal hotspots that become extremely crowded during December. A lot of people come here to do Kit Surfing due to the continues wind. As the kit surfers say "You know a town with Wind Mills is bound to be amazing for surfing".

Here are some of my photographs from my trip. I hope you enjoy.

There are lots of wind turbines in Oyster Bay which is a good sign if you like to do kite surfing.

Wonderful contrast of colours in this photograph of the rock life.

I took this picture while our guest were leaving. I was playing around with long exposures previously and decided to see what would happen. The bright lights in the back ground are caused by the chokka boats. The boats often group together to create a brighter light that ocean life will be attracted to.

The lizard was very good at camouflaging, almost missed him sitting there on the rock.

The bird in this photo is a Haematopus Moquini which means African Oystercatcher. It is on the endangered species list. However we did see a lot of these bird around mean that they should soon be off the list.

Sun Sets Oyster Bay

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 02:21:00 +0000

Oyster Bay has some amazing scenery and so beautiful sun sets. Every day had a different sunset and wonderful memories to go with them.

It is relaxing sitting on the beach having a drink with family and friends watching the sun set.

A very intense sun set. There was a massive storm approaching from the right and the sun setting on the left. Kind of looks like good versus evil.

This is on of my particular favourite photographs from my trip. The two bright lights are the Chokka boats fishing for squid. You can clearly see the moon and the other two light in the sky are planets. One of them is Mars and the other is Venus. Unfortunately I can't remember which one is which. I took this photo using a 400mm lens. Its a very nice lens to play around with.

St Francis Bay South Africa

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 00:12:00 +0000

St Francis Bay is a small holiday town about one hours drive from Port Elizabeth. Being an ocean town they are naturally big on fishing. One of the most profitable kind is squid fishing.

Squid finishing is done during the night. Chokka boats are fitted with lights around the boats to attracts sea life that is eaten by the squid. Often the boats will stay out for weeks at a time with the crew working through the night and sleeping during the day.

Sea gull happily sitting on the mast with wings speared out in the wind.

All images take on a Nikon D5100

Flowers with Water Droplets in a South African Rain Storm

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 22:45:00 +0000

When it starts to rain most people stay indoors and get comfortable on the couch with a movie or good book but not me. Today I decided to pick up my camera and go out into the rain to take these pictures. Just in case you were wondering no I didn't use a plastic bag or a camera housing. I carefully positioned my body while using my shirt to keep my camera dry....well mostly dry. I captured these images just as the rain drops were rolling off the petals. I find them to be quite captivating. It's amazing how much beauty you can find in this world even when its overcast and in the middle of a rain storm.

All Images taken on a Nikon D5100

New Kittens Sleeping

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 16:19:00 +0000

Kittens really are adorable. They look so peaceful and gentle when they are sleeping but when they wake up they are little devils. We had ours climbing up the curtains earlier today, all the way to the top of the curtains. (YouTube link)

Kittens can make wonderful companions when they want to sleep on your lap. The grey cat is a boy and the ginger is a girl. They are brother and sister and play together all the time.

All Photographs taken using Nikon D5100.

Africa Aerospace and Defence

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 12:21:00 +0000

The Africa Aerospace and Defense air show took place on the 20th of September 2014. It was a great day out with the family and if you haven't been before I would definitely recommend it. There were planes, helicopters and people with parashoots flying around the entire day. The event took place at the Waterkloof Air Force Base in South Africa. Lots of awesome things to do.

One of the pilots had just been engaged so he and one of his friends made a heart in the sky for his fiance.

Some of the attractions

Dennis the Fire Engine!

Rhino Transformer

With all the Rhino poaching that is going on in South Africa, Paramount Group had this transformer rhino on display.

War Simulation

One of the best parts of this air show was the war game that the South African Army and South African Air Force demonstrated. They staged a full on battle on the side of the run way. They had helicopters providing support. We got to see a battle tank being deployed off of a truck, Troops on either side of the run way and of course explosions. Yes, they had real explosions. There were mortar shooting shells over the run way, away from the crowd obviously.

All Images where taking using a Nikon D5100

Durban Trip

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Fri, 09 May 2014 13:43:00 +0000

Slow Exposure

All these images where taken using slow exposure, even the ones taken during the day. In order to get the day pictures to not look completely white I used a filter that only lets in 1/400 of the light. I enjoy taking pictures using slow exposure as it give the waves a very soft look.

Ships on Horizon

Hotels in Umlhanga

The Light House

All Images where taking using a Nikon D5100

Cape Town Sunset

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 20:36:00 +0000

Cape Town has some of the most beautiful sunsets in the world. When I originally took these photos they had a silhouette look to them but it seems that Google decide to edit my photos and now they look slightly different. However it is still a gorgeous view with the sun setting behind the mountains. Living in Johannesburg has its advantages but it doesn't have mountains. You can't beat mountains.

Warming up the Pizza Oven

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 19:50:00 +0000

One of the best parts of being on holiday is that you have the time to do things you can't normally do when you are working. Making home made Pizzas are one of my favourite things to do on holiday especially when you have a Pizza oven. Before you can even start cooking your Pizzas you have to get the oven nice and hot. So hot that the top actually looks white in colour. Once that is ready and the fire has died down a bit you are ready to start cooking Pizzas. We made spear rib pizzas (That was just the meat we used. Everyone made their own variations). It was made from boiling Springbok ribs in a pressure cooker and then taking off all the meat. All in all it turned out wonderfully. Here are some of the pictures I took during the evening. All of them are of the oven. I unfortunately didn't have a tripod so I had to come up with some kind of alternative for the darker photos.

All the pictures where taken on my Nikon D5100

Day at Montecasino Bird Park

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:58:00 +0000

When I was on holiday I decide to take my girlfriend to the Montecasino bird park. We got some amazing pictures, each one telling a different story.

All Images were taken using a Nikon D5100.

Sunday Fun with Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:28:00 +0000

Taken using a Nikon D5100 with a 18-55mm lens.

I was playing around with my camera on a Sunday afternoon when I came across this shot. The sun is behind the flowers giving them a richer colour. It was a hot day in Sunny South Africa giving some beautiful camera shots.

My golden labrador :-)

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 12:30:00 +0000

Taken using a Nikon D5100

These two pictures where taken shortly after I got my new Nikon D5100. The Pictures turned out really well. He is such a cute dog and very well behaved in front of the camera!

Bird from Trogon Bird Family

noreply@blogger.com (SylarAtomic) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:48:00 +0000

Hike in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden with my amazing girlfriend.
Taken using a Nikon D5100.
The Walter Sisulu Nation Botanical Gardens is home to over 200 species of bird in an area of 300 hectares. This bird is part of the Trogoniformes order. Birds in the Trogon family are usually brightly coloured which makes this picture interesting because this bird appears to be white, black and brown. There are only three specifies of Trogon in Africa and very few are found in South Africa, making this a lucky sighting.