Oyster Bay 2014

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

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

 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

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

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

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