Boy will be boys

Some days it is good to be reminded of what it is to be a child. I stumbled upon these guys while looking at low cost housing for a potential story. When I first spotted them the boy in the vest was lying upside down in the wheelchair, just checking out things from a different angle.

I remembered doing things just because... I now feel that I have to be doing something constructive, or am thinking about work. So I came home. I sat down on the carpet and then lay on my back and just looked at the nails holding the ceiling up. And when I had finished looking at the patterns and spacing of the ceiling board nails I watched my kids. I never tried to talk to them or encourage them to do anything in particular. I just sat and watched.

That was the best afternoon I had last week. I am going to try and just experience something once a week now, whether it is lying on my back (again) staring at the clouds and sky, or driving past gum plantations and watching the patterns and shapes in the trees as you speed past.

Point Road

I spent time recently on Point Road which could soon be Mahatma Ghandi Street. I was making photographs for the New York Times who are doing on a story on the name changes happening in the city. The writer, like the cops who stopped me to make sure that I was not an insane tourist wandering point road with a camera, thought that one of the roughest streets in the CBD could be named after a man who stood for peace.

I asked a couple of locals in a bar where the prostitutes which Point Road is infamous for are. And then had to explain that I was doing a story and not looking for a room to rent by the hour, which I might add you can find on Point Road. I was told by a reliable source that the Esplanade is the best place to find a prostitute. Well, he looked reliable in that I would not like to meet him in a dark alley. The dark alley which was right outside the door of the establishment I had
found myself in.

I did not find a prostitute but met some interesting people along the way. I think I will go back again sometime soon. There was something in the seediness which seemed so much more alive and real than the malls I find myself in. A sad place, but an honest one.

Blue Lagoon

There's not much I like more than fishing. For me it is a release from work. For some it is about putting food on the table.

When I am on the beach front in Durban I like to head to Blue Lagoon. If I have an hour to kill I will fish for a bit, but usually it is fairly brief visit long enough to find out what has been caught. And I am not alone. Many people stop in during their days. Men in suits possibly between meeting talk to the regulars, some of whom are subsistence fishermen. Beaten up old bakkies park next to luxury 4x4's. Rusted bicycles are chained to rustier poles

When you get there it is a bit like walking into a club. An open air club with salt in the air, where there is no dress code and no annual subs to be paid. No waiters, barmen or cleaners. There is only common ground of a fishing rod, smelly bait and an ability to natter piscatoraly for hours.

I am not sure whether this elderly couple were fishing for food or pleasure. I hope it was for pleasure. In fact I will ask them when I see them again.

Splashy Fen

I was a little apprehensive on my way up to Splashy Fen. I had not been to the music festival held in the Drakensberg mountains since 1999. The tent was packed, the tins of curried vegetables rattled behind my seat on the dusty roads and the prediction of rain heavy on my mind.

I have had so much fun. All of the excuses I have made for being out of touch with music seemed silly! The music on the whole has been amazing and varied. Last night Cape Town band Bed on Bricks fronted by Mike Hardy (pictured above) cooked. I am sad to say having lived in Cape Town until recently, this was the first time I have seen the band.

It has been great to get back to my other passion which is music and make photographs in the same instance. And next year I'll be back.

A wing and a prayer

For one reason or other I have been doing some thinking on death over the last month. And then I found this picture which I had filed away and not edited. I nearly let it slip by without seeing the light of day.

This picture and a few other coincidences have left me thinking that life lived honestly and completely is beautiful once that same life has gone.

I am not ready to go yet though. And I am not afraid.

Mannequin holding cell

This scene tweaked my sense of humour. I had to make the picture. I have seen mannequins abused in pictures before, but this was too good an opportunity to pass by.

To be honest I have little to say. I just wanted to post this new photograph.

I have had a lot of time to think lately. Work is coming in slowly but surely, and I am looking for some good projects to sink my teeth into. Much of the work I have been doing is of bread-and-butter variety, and is not what got me to pick up a camera.

And then you see something that has almost no relevance to the job at hand. In between the speeches and handshake a moment you hope to do justice to when you fire the shutter.

Look for it, because it is usually there.