My favourite place to go for a cup of hot chocolate in George, is Beans About Coffee. Other people rave about their coffee but it is their hot chocolate that has stolen my heart. I often sit at ‘my’ table in the corner, a book in front of me sipping my delicious brew. Directly opposite my table is a photograph that beguiles me. The photograph is of a Baobab tree. It is the colours in the photo that entrance me: the orange Baobab, the pink hue of the sky, the differing browns of the vegetation and the vibrant greys of the rocks. I never seem to tire of what the artist saw when he created that photograph. The last time I was there, for some reason, the photographer’s name leapt out of the photo and stopped me in my tracks – Peter Delaney. This was the same name I looked at each day in my bedroom. For goodness sakes, Gaynor, wake up!
I got home and discovered his website. Incredibly he lived in the same city as me!
Serendipitous or what?

I wanted to discover more about this enigmatic Irishman. I invited him to coffee at – where else but – Beans about Coffee – and discovered that this too was his regular watering hole. His blue eyes smiled at me as we shook hands. They were piercing and seemed to envelope me. I discovered that he had not always been a photographer. Although he had done a part-time course in photography and fine art printing, he actually started out in life as a high flying money broker in London.

During his lunch breaks, he would often visit Waterstones bookshop and peruse books on photography. He came across a black and white photograph by Don McCullin. It was of a homeless Irish man. He too was Irish and far from home. The photograph resonated deeply within him. It conveyed so much.
“The mood, reverence and tonal contrast of this print captured me. Deep blacks to white. I found it so evocative.”
It was this photograph that led to his abiding attachment to black and white photography.

By 2001, Peter had been re-located to Tokyo. Despite being incredibly successful in this lucrative adrenaline charged environment, he decided to ‘throw in the towel’ and follow what had by now become his passion – photography. He could have returned to Ireland and photographed rabbits and badgers in the countryside. Instead, being adrenaline addicted, he took himself to Africa, bought a Land Cruiser and began to follow his dream.

Africa became the new chapter in his life. The complete size and dimensions of this continent was impressive and awe inspiring to him. He travelled among the forests of Bwindi. He mounted the peaks of Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. He explored the shores of Lake Malawi and the red dunes of the Kalahari. With the dawn of the digital age and the solitude he found in the wilderness of Africa, naturally he focused on – wildlife and landscape. This ‘new’ fine arts photographer began working and perfecting the various skills of his craft.

My old friend, Bob Martin, was the best theatre photographer of his time in South Africa. He used to carry around with him this camera with enormous lenses which he would switch from one to the other, to get the most eye catching shots. I expected the same thing with Peter. I was amazed to learn that he now longer carted around a huge ‘rucksack’ camera bag filled with traditional Nikon or Canon apparatus. In typical trailblazing, maverick style, Delaney is a FujiFilm camera X-Photographer. He has recently been testing the new XT-2. FujiFilm mirror-less technology means that not only are camera bodies much smaller but so are the lenses. Having only an electronic viewfinder also means that (WYSWYG) what you see is what you get. And he ‘gets’ the most startling wildlife photos !

Peter says: “Wildlife and landscape photography is my escape mechanism from a world in turmoil. It may only offer a temporary respite but it’s enough to keep me sane. When I am alone in the wilds of the African landscape with my camera, nothing matters except what I am photographing. Every thought or worry I may have had, melts away as I zone to the task at hand. I enter a Zen-like state. My mind concentrates on the technicalities while my heart composes. I make photographs because something tugs at my heart strings and I am beset by an overpowering urge to lift my camera and capture that moment.

It all expresses what I feel rather than reproducing what I see. Maybe that is why I have a preference for black and white photography. Monochrome has more latitude than colour to express my creativity.

I am blessed to have Africa as my backyard. I believe it is this ‘bond’ between us that helps me to create a photograph that has the essence of Africa at its core.”

I find myself gasping with wonder at Peter’s photographs. Africa seems to have caused his creative juices to flow with abandon. These are some of the ones that have caught my eye……

Big Foot

Peter Delaney won the Wildlife Black and White Photographer of the Year 2011 award with this picture.

I love how this photograph was created. Delaney was stuck in a hide having forgotten his wide angle lens. He was only able to shoot close ups of the elephants playing in a pool nearby. And he took this stunning shot of an elephant’s foot. I love the way that restriction puts no limits on creativity. It will come out no matter the circumstances!

Chimpanzee Dreaming

I think I’m going to get a print of this for my room. Then the chimpanzee and I can dream together…….

Elephant Ridge

How did Peter take this magnificent shot? A herd of elephants coming towards him. He must have been in a hide, armed with a long  lens. I find elephants intelligent, wise animals. I was fortunate enough to spend time at Francoise Anthony’s game reserve, Thula Thula. There I was surrounded by elephants who were almost human in the characteristics they displayed!

The Gladiator

Crouching, about to leap forward, the White-backed Vulture had arrived. He commanded respect from the other animals. Indeed they ceased their tussling over the carcass, while this vulture staked his claim. Once he had begun to start tearing his portion, the melee began once more. Only there was a respectful distance between this King of the vultures and the other rabble!

All this is conveyed in this masterful photograph that won Delaney the prestigious BBC Wildlife Photographer Of The Year Award in 2013. This is considered the benchmark in the Wildlife Photographic industry.

I look at this photograph and marvel!

The Godfather

Peter took this photograph in Etosha. He refers to this majestic creature as ‘The Godfather’.
“He stands still before me in all his magnificence, raising his trunk filled with the red Kalahari dust. In one fluid movement he sprays his forehead and for one brief moment he is covered in the magic of dust and light”

Hippos in the Mist

I love this photograph. It’s as if the hippos are coming up to suss out what is going on.
“Oh, it’s that dude taking pics again. Okay everybody submerge and disappear!”

The Last Stand

I find this a strangely moving prophetic photograph. Black Rhino and elephant under a sky with dark clouds forming. It says a lot about the predicament of these magnificent creatures at the moment. Will these precious animals survive?

Dune on Fire

This is a colour photograph of the same dune that adorns my bedroom. Only the tree is recognisable. This photograph was taken under completely different conditions. There was a wild sandstorm occurring which transfigured the dune completely. If you look at the tree’s background it appears to be alive and moving . Which indeed it was!

Zebras on Fire

This photograph totally captured me. The fire of sunrise or sunset and zebras ambling their way through it. It has an other worldly sense to it.

I have given you a taste of Peter’s creative world. Visit his website to sample more of his photographic delights. They make you so aware of this eye catching world we live in. It is a world which we must preserve. Rhino, elephant, hippo, chimpanzee and lion must be saved, so future generations also have an opportunity to photograph them!

As we got up to pay, I pointed out the photograph of the Baobab that had led to our meeting. Peter laughed.
“You like it? It’s yours!”
He unhooked it from the wall and gave it to me. I was aghast.
“You can’t do that. It’s Stefan’s!” Stefan is the owner of Beans About Coffee.
“No, it’s mine. Stefan is merely exhibiting it for me.”

Today that Baobab flourishes on the wall in my lounge. This is another thing we must preserve.
Baobabs!

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Peter is kindly offering international ‘ear ‘ear! blog readers a discount of 20% off all his brilliant prints. Enter promo code ‘ear ‘ear ! here.
South African readers click here to visit his special online store.

The post A Canvas of Colour! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

I know that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. But I had no idea who took the first photograph. That was appalling. I mean, it was because of photographs that television and films came into being. It was because of photography that we were able to watch those first moon steps. Some digging and unearthing of information was definitely called for!

I discovered that Louis Daguerre developed the first publicly announced photographic process. This required only minutes of exposure in the camera and produced clear, finely detailed results. It was commercially introduced in 1839, a date generally accepted as the birth year of practical photography. The coining of the word “photography” is based on the Greek words: φῶς phōtós meaning “light”, and γραφή (graphê meaning “drawing or writing”. Together they mean “drawing with light”.
I love that expression. It seems to dance on my tongue – drawing with light!

I had my fall which resulted in the end of my acting career. My mind began working on other things that I could do. I was lying in bed one night when the thought hit me – photography! My friend, Jil Hurst, had given me this beautiful Nikon camera and the photographs I had taken with it were stunning. Yes, I thought, yes, yes, yes!!! I only had forty percent eyesight but once I had the object in the lens, my days of superb photography would return.

It was not to be. I have the added problem of having no depth perception. This means that my vision is basically up the pole! Not a defect one would wish on a photographer. The next David Bailey was a part clearly not meant for me.

However, my love of photographs has not diminished. Karl Lagerfeld says: “What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
Exactly!
By nature, I am a hoarder. I don’t like to let go of things, to let go of life. Which is why photographs are so incredibly valuable to me. Life which inevitably slips away, can be recorded. One is able to capture a moment through a camera lens. One can look at a photograph and parts of one’s life that were buried come tumbling back into focus once more.

On the wall next to my bed, is a huge polystyrene board which is plastered with photographs. As I lie in bed, my eye constantly roam that board, touching on well loved faces.

Jans and I lounging against the counter of the Kingswood Golf Estate before my first golf lesson. Golf was a challenge that led me on an adventure. Once the woods had been dark, impenetrable to light. Now I see that the darkness was merely covering other treasures I didn’t know were hidden. Each lesson has provided me with new prizes to aim for. Prizes that with practice, are within my grasp.
Dad carrying a beautiful bouquet of flowers through to my dressing room. I love the smile on his face.
My grandmother, ‘Granabelle’ I called her, as a young woman.
Maralin Vanrenen, the director of my two one woman shows and her partner, Mignon. We have been discussing the possibility of a third show. I must put ideas together towards the planning of a script.
My brother, Patch and Dad in their ‘rugby’ outfits. Dad, being an ex-Shark was obviously in his black and white. Patch being a Lions supporter was in red and white! I remember their comradely relationship and my heart warms.
Perdita, my wire haired dachshund, peeping out from under the covers of my bed!
Gaby Lomberg and Kate Normington in a show that they performed at Club 58. Gabs died of a brain tumour nine years ago.
I miss her.
Professor Pieter Scholtz and I. He was head of our drama department when I was a student. I think back to all of those vibrant musicals he directed and my heart smiles.
Janet Suzman receiving her Knighthood. This was when Jan became Sir Suz to me! I think back on our past. I have known her since she directed us in Othello in 1987 Apartheid South Africa. When I was recently in London, Jan was a member of a debating panel discussing Othello. I found it thoroughly engrossing. What a stimulating event that was! I saw some of the film we made during that time and was blown away by John Kani playing Othello and Joanna Weinberg playing Desdemona. Glory, our film of Othello was outstanding!

These are just some of the photographs on my board. By having them at my side, in a way I am keeping these people alive. People stay alive by being remembered. Dad has been dead for the past five years. Yet every night he smiles down at me from my dressing room door. He holds Mums in that wonderful, laughing embrace. There is Gaby’s mischievous grin from under a black trilby. They are alive to me because…I remember! The other pictures of laughter, riding bikes, learning to play golf, Perdita peeping out from under my bedclothes – they are of individuals that play a part in this thing called life.

I give thanks for Louis Daguerre’s incredible invention. I lie in bed at night and look at my drawings with light.

And remember.

The post Drawing with Light! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.

Every day I post two photographs on my ‘ear ‘ear Facebook page. So I am constantly on the look out for pictures that leap out and grab your attention. I was struck by a beautiful picture of a cottage at sunset. There in the corner of the picture was the photographer’s name: Willie Fritz. Glory, Willie, my old friend, had taken this picture! With Willie’s name in the corner, it looked professional. Willie wasn’t a photographer, was he? I recalled him being in the advertising business. Could he have given that up? I looked at the photograph once more. This definitely needed investigating! I happened to be in Cape Town, so I gave him a call and suggested coffee.

It was good seeing him once more. We sat at a table on The Waterfront and time fell away. I remembered why Willie and I get on so well. He has an easy smile and penetrating eyes that miss nothing. He now freelances in the advertising industry and designs and creates websites predominantly for the wine industry. He often has to photograph grapes, bottles, glasses of wine, rolling acres of vineyards. His work is calling him outside, amongst the vines. That is where he loves to be, armed with his camera.

For a while, Willie suffered from depression. It was then that he discovered the joy found behind a camera lens.
“Taking pictures is savouring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” says Marc Riboud. Willie couldn’t agreed more. Like all of us, he is searching for meaning in life. Often he finds this through the camera lens.
“Photography isolates the beauty in the world. It makes you remember to look and see so much glory surrounding you.” He points to some bicycles standing nearby. “Ordinary bicycles. Yet if you truly look at them, you see the amazingly intricate patterns the spokes of their wheels make.” He laughs, “Beauty! It is everywhere. You just have to truly look and then you can’t miss it!”

Photography is a very personal matter. Willie believes that pre-conceived ideas are revealed in what you’re photographing, your personality, your view of life. A photographer’s perceptions can shape his image. How he thinks and feels about a subject can influence the way the photograph is taken. Each person leaves fingerprints on their photographs.

Willie would love to publish a book with photographs of the less glamorous side of Cape Town. Voortrekker Road is the longest street in Cape Town and for Willie holds such incredible fascination. The people, the way they live, some small yet impeccably kept gardens. Having seen a few of his photographs, I am intrigued by this notion. Willie has the potential to make it captivating.

Elliot Erwitt says: “To me photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things that you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
I would like to show you eight of Willie Fritz’s way of seeing some of life.
(He uses a Canon 70D camera and his favourite lens is a Sigma 17:50)

Blood Moon was shot in Wolsley. Willie says: “I got up at 3.30 on the morning of the 28th of September to photograph the blood moon, and nature put on such a spectacle that I stayed up until 7 that morning to watch it sink into the mountains in the west.”

I love this photograph of a gypsy woman taken in Lisbon. Her face says so much.

“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter,” says Ansel Adams. Willie snapped his shutter in ‘God’s time’ and captured this dove, perfectly at peace with itself, in the ninth century Abbey of Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, France.

“Some days, when the south easter blows like crazy, the sky over Cape Town is filled with these wild clouds,” says Willie.
I am made so aware of the vastness of creation, when looking at this photograph, Wild Sky. How small is man!

The day before I met Willie, he had been walking his collie at the foot of the Tygerberg mountains, when he heard an owl hooting above him. Quick as a flash – SNAP – he captured the camouflaged bird, sleepily gazing at him.

This photograph completely captivated me. A solitary figure walking…..Lonely Man.
“I saw this guy standing at a river mouth, against a backdrop of huge mountains. I marvelled at how small he looked. But that insignificance got lost in the detail of the photograph. I cut the man out and blurred the background, then put the man back. Now the picture looks more like what I saw.”

“Every spring, the fields to the north of Cape Town are filled with yellow canola flowers”, Willie remarked, “and I thought it might be fun to see what they looked like with a full moon. This photograph is a composition: I first photographed the fields, then zoomed in to the moon and stitched them together.”

I was chatting to Willie when he snapped this one.
I like it.

So many wonderful photographs. So much talent that I never expected! People constantly surprise you.
Particularly people you know!

The post Cropping Reality! appeared first on 'ear 'ear! by Gaynor Young.