coolpix

red fire sky

2007-08-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

here is another ridiculous sunrise from harkerville. Just the most fiery sunrise though wouldn't you say? All I have done is tweak the curves and contrast. Haven't fiddled with the colour!

cheers
liam
visit my photoblog for some awesome south african pics here
http://coolpix.shutterchance.com/archive.php

new photo blog

2007-08-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

hi everyone

ive been playing with a new photo blog at http://coolpix.shutterchance.com/archive.php

its really cool and i get to interact with other photographers...nice gallery setup too. But i will be posting here again soon

heres a recent pic to keep things going. Taken in the transkei at bulungula this was on our last morning there...a lovely pic except for the dog doing his business in the foreground

cheers
liam
http://coolpix.shutterchance.com/archive.php

fast cars and padstals

2007-07-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

heres one fro ma year back at a friends farmstall...the blue, white lines are the lights of a truck speeding past...quite a trippy effect

Herolds Bay South Africa

2007-07-25T06:55:00.000-07:00

heres a few from Herolds Bay in South Africa

More Knysna pics

2007-07-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

heres a few more i snapped off yesterday from knysna lagoon in south africa

angleic seagull

2007-07-23T09:26:00.001-07:00

a few pics from today at the knysna waterfront

Sunrise 4 HDR

2007-07-22T02:35:00.000-07:00

another 2 shots done with HDR from our spot in harkerville near plettenberg bay. Im still learning HDR so any comments would appreciated

I really love the golden syrup colour of the grasses

Garden route sunrise 2

2007-07-20T23:18:00.001-07:00

heres another of my more recent pics from george in the garden route

Pic of the day

2007-07-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

smell the sea

2007-07-19T23:57:00.000-07:00

another very early morning shot with my fx50 on seriously slow shutter...love it when the sea looks like that...Panny FZ50 at keurboomstrand just outside plettenberg bay in south africa

amazing plettenberg bay sunrise

2007-07-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

a pic taken by my wife with a panny FZ50 on auto!...i really like it

plettenberg bay (harkerville) south africa

who needs security

2007-07-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

this is truly classic...and brilliant at the same time. I'd like to see this on the streets of new york or london...I love africa!

Transkei holiday galleries

2007-07-16T11:52:00.001-07:00

here are all the galleries i have updated so far

gallery 1
gallery 2
gallery 3

pls let me know what u think of the shots

Transkei holiday Part 3

2007-07-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

here are more pics from the transkei recent holiday i took...posting as i edit each day so about 5 more to go

full gallery to follow

Transkei Holiday Bulungula Part 2

2007-07-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

second batch of pics hot off the press from bulungula on the wild coast of south africa

the full series here

Transkei Holiday Bulungula Part 1

2007-07-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

These are some pics from my latest trip to the transkei...bulungula

I am posting the full story at my other blog www.garden-route.iblog.com

I have posted all the pics from day one sunrise here

Bulungula

NSA George South Africa youtube links

2007-07-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

hi all

quick post before i go. To skate fans here are the vids from the NSA in George, South Africa

these are from bluntmag

...and well wort ha watch

Transkei holiday

2007-07-02T03:44:00.000-07:00

this will be my last post until the 14th Of July. I am off to the Transkei on holiday...yiiiipppeeeee! Happy Days

We will be staying at Bulungula which is in the heart of the middle of no-where. This will be the first time we have been with our baby (who at 5 months should make it very entertaining)

For those that dont know the Transkei is a throwback fro mthe bad old days of SA...an old "homeland" where the indigenous population where "kept"...It is the most magical undeveloped place in south africa and a must do for every independant traveller.

Look out for the images when i get back as they promise to be brilliant

here are a few teasers ...mine will of course be far superior (lol) and spectacular

Latest NSA 2007 pics from george south africa

2007-07-01T23:43:00.000-07:00

I got a bit more arty with some of these

The full gallery here

NSA skatechamps - george south africa - 2nd pics

2007-07-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

The first batch of pics fro mthe NSA in George South Africa...I posted the first round of images last night. u can link to the whole gallery here

NSA skatechamps - george south africa - 1st pics

2007-06-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the NSA skatechamps in George today...here are some of the shots. It was overcast so very contrasty...really had to work some of these and may have done too much. The full gallery will follow in a post tomorrow. There are about 100 shots including some nice wipeout sequences and some overall massive tricks and airs...these guys are GOOD!

NSA skateboarding champs George South Africa

2007-06-30T01:42:00.000-07:00

Im off the the NSA skatelab champs (skateboarding) so look out for a post tomorrow. Todays comp is a national event so will have the top guys from SA on show so is going to be a good test of my skills

Here are some of my more recent pics of the latest regional comps

the full gallery is here...there 54 shots from that comp

The Knysna Oyster festival

2007-06-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

Morning all

I thought I could fill everyone in on the upcoming Knysna Oyster festival that is due to take place in Knysna on the Garden Route from the 7th til lthe 14th of July. This is an annual event in the heart of winter here and draws 10s of thousands of people every year.

As the name implies the festival is based on the oyster which is both gathered wild and bred in the knysna lagoon. There is hardly a restaurant in town that does not sell oysters at this time of year and most have a competition of some kind. One of the most famous restaurants is he Knysna Oyster company who breed oysters.

The event has a host of activities some of which are listed below

- The SA navy ships arrive to join in

- The cycle race...

- The mountain bike race

- The half and full marathon

- Oyster shukking comps

- A sports expo

- An extreme sports challenge in the knysna waterfront

- Golf challenges at most of the golf courses

- Various oyster recipes cookoofs (have you ever had an oyster milkshake?)

And many more.

The festival covers most of knysna and has become the biggest festival in this region. Before it started this time of year was dead in terms of tourism and this situation has now been turned around to the benefit of the whole town. The marathon after party at Crabs Creek has become legendary....no less that 5000 people rock up to party away the festival

Having been a few times it is highly recomended and is suitable for the entire family. If you are around in SA at this time of year it is well advised to stop here and visit to enjoy some of our famous oysters generally with as much Champagne as you can manage.

Pics from Ruiterbos South Africa

2007-06-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Evening all (or morning to some of you and goodnight to others)

Last new years we spent at a small roadside "padstal"...thats local slang for a farm stall. Its in the middle of nowhere so was just perfect. Here are some pics of the farmstal and the surrounding landscape.

If you are ever between mossel bay and oudsthoorn on the R328 in South Africa..

.do yourself a favour and stop for a few nights.

The rest of this gallery is here

A sunrise worthy of the countryside

2007-06-29T00:09:00.000-07:00

Many people say that the sunrises we currently experience around the world are due to the pollution we throw up into the atmosphere. I have definitely seen first hand that this is very true.

In Johannesburg where the mine dust and industry spew out heaps of pollution the sunsets and rises are very very red. Quite spectacular. In Cape Town it was less so but then we did have far more effect of the sea....clouds and that sort of thing.

However I notice that even here in Plettenberg Bay the sunrises and sunsets in particular are generally more spectacular than in the cities. The colours are not quite as strong but they are more varied. We seem to see a far broader colour spectrum. At sunset, the side of the horizon opposite the sunset takes on a rainbow spectrum close to the horizon. The onlky other place i have seen this is when i was flying back from Kenya in 2005...the plane flight was perfectly timed to catch the setting sun at 30 000 feet...this was frikkin unbelievable...and to top it off there where thunderstorms below which made it all very surreal. Unfortunately not my camera toting days

So back to pollution. I wonder what sunsets looked like 2000 years ago? Would be interesting to see. Im sure volcanic activity do a similar effect as do fires...but Im sure we are impacting more than what these normally do

...and this is where my sunrise shots are stored. There are some awesome shots from the region of the Garden Route in South Africa

A fresh day out in knysna

2007-06-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

I had to take a trip into knysna today and i could swear the signs of spring where there. Ok so it is still damn cold from the recent weather...but the heather is in full bloom, the lambs are all being born and town is abuzz. I saw Boba the rasta in town...always a cool dude as is the whole rasta community here

I saw a cool guy with dreads and his buddy from JHB who had driven down to sell their paintings...really nice stuff too

Here a few pics

snow in JHB???

2007-06-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

well Im really miffed now. I thought we had a monopoly here in Plett on strange weather but Johannesburg seems to be having its fair share as is kwazulunatal.

heres some nice pics of the snow in JHb and KZN in South Africa. And if you are not from here this is NOT normal

The galleries of the plett snow are here

and the JHb snow here

A rainbow (rainy) sunset

2007-06-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

even in paradise we have bad weather. Sounds like Cape Town has been getting bliksemmed by storms so we have been bracing ourselves up here in the Garden Route. Massive sea's, howling winds, driving rain...well??!?...where is it?

We had a brief rainy spell yesterday and now its sunny again. Winter/ summer...whos messing with the weather?

We had a magic sunset yet again last night with a rainbow poking its head out briefly. Unfortunatley skippy here blurred the shot so no good to post.

However let it not be said that we do not get spectacular sunsets here (and sunrises). This is a pic over Knysna lagoon from Thesen Island. The second is a sunrise over keurboomstrand just down the road from plettenberg bay

African spaces

2007-06-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

I happened across a blog by Omar in kenya

He has lots of great places that he has visited including Uganda, Kenya… Really nice writing and interesting stories about east africa. We had a brief salvo of back and forth comments where we both pretty much ended up agreeing that the thing about the country that is alluring is the wide open plains, the peace and quiet, and how it truly is gods gift to humanity. Why then do we continue to mess with it.

One of the most frustrating things is that we actually believe that we are the be all and end all of nature. If we are gone then so too must nature…which is of course total rubbish. No matter what we do to our planet it will continue to be here. It doesnt matter how many nukes go off or how much carbon dioxide we emit…it will adapt and overcome. Sure it will be a different form and our impact will be noticable. But it will still be there and will regenrate.

It remains interesting to me that we dont utilise things like hemp more. Easy to grow and massively beneficial in its output….almost like its there to be used. Thinking in a more cohesive manner with the environment just makes far more sense. Surely a symbiotic relationship is far more beneficial to all than a parasitic one.

Heres a shot of Plettenberg Bay central beach that will help remind us why we are here…as custodians. How far do we push it? Wonder what our score will be at the end of it all?

get paid to host your pics

2007-06-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

i found this great site which pays you to host images on their server...ok so its will take ages to make anything but it free and if you get enough traffic you may make some decent cash

link here...sign takes about a minute

http://www.shareapic.net/ref.php?owner=liam@xnets.co.za

Psychedelic Trance pics

2007-05-29T01:38:00.000-07:00

yes i know its not exactly in the vein of this blog but its a part of my old party days and am looking to revive some parties in the garden route. These parties where an integral part of my development as a human being (or not perhaps?) and great fun every time

here is a link to more galleries i found online

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=79430&owner=liam@xnets.co.za

Todays sunrise inspiration

2007-05-29T01:06:00.001-07:00

here is todays sunrise pics...taken looking across the plett valley towards the outeniqua mountains...beautiful!

battle in kruger

2007-05-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

for those that hevent seen this ...it is unreal.

do yourself a favour and watch right till the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

Bulungula full gallery

2007-05-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

here is the full gallery for bulungula as promised yesterday. As mentioned a pic does not do bulungula justice. You have to smell the air and feel the country flavour. do yourself a favour and put it on your schedule of places to go. The wild coast rates more highly than any place in the world i have been. Wild untamed beaches and lagoons, wildlife, local people just getting on with it...couldnt ask for a better holiday

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=79421&owner=liam@xnets.co.za

www.bulungula.com

Plettenberg Bay weather 29.05.07

2007-05-28T23:10:00.000-07:00

Morning

Its warm out this morning…more berg windy than summery. There is cloud towards knysna so is overcast. Theres no rain forecast but i wouldnt rule it out

I have decided to institute a BritOmeter…u know. In strong sun brits turn lobster. 1 being pasty white and 10 being giant lobster….Today is a 3…Tanned toast!…perfect for our Uk friends

Pics of plett here http://www.shareapic.net/gallery.php?user=30501

The britOmeter

2007-05-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

The BritOmeter is a scale on 1 to 10 based on the colour a brits skin goes and will be used in all my future weather posts

1. Florescent white

2. Like drying white paint

3. White paint with a blush

4. White bread with butter

5. White bread toasted for 1 minute (ie: not)

6. White bread just tanned

7. Proper white bread - cooked to perfection

8. white bread under the grill...slightly blackened

9. carbon toast

10. Like a red...lobster

anything over 7...dont go out if you are a brit...or use factor 4000

Galleries http://www.shareapic.net/gallery.php?user=30501

south africa Hogsback galleries

2007-05-28T11:43:00.001-07:00

here are the pics i have collected of hogsback…as per previous post its well worth the effort to go there

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=79313&owner=liam@xnets.co.za

Alien Safari Trance parties

2007-05-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

well…staying on my remembering the good old days thread

I found some more pics of the first Alien Safari ever which was at the ostrich farm near malesbury near cape Town

check out these people…this could be the 60s!

http://www.shareapic.net/content.php?gid=79099&owner=liam@xnets.co.za

The alien safari is a now legendary party ! www.aliensafari.co.za

Hogsback South Africa

2007-05-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

I wrote a quick article on my other blog at http://www.coolpix.iblog.co.za/ …this is an awesome place to visit and any tourist to SA must go. I have included links to accomodation as well as the hogsback main site

they say it can have 4 seasons in one day…and it did when we where there. They just had over 2ms of snow!!!! yeeeouch thats gonna hurt come morning

Hogsback is called that because of the 3 hogs…3 distictive shaped mountains that do actually look like the backs of hogs.

Tolkien is rumoured to have dreamt up Lord of the Rings during his stay there and today the village is a veritable hobbiton…LOR fans must go

Plettenberg Bay Weather update 22.05.07 12 noon

2007-05-22T04:03:00.000-07:00

regular weather updates at http://plettweather.wordpress.com/

I am shutting down my hott3d blog in favour of a tourism orrientated weather blog. Wake up in the morning and have access to live webcams...3 times daily weather for plett and photos of that post regularly

2007-05-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

extreme weather - plettenberg bay 21.05.07

May 21st, 2007 by mail10o

today saw one of the wierdest things ..it hailed down bucket loads…so much so that in places the beach was covered, roofs where white, the main road looked like somewhere out of europe in winter. AWESOME! a bit of action finally.

Need i say it has been damn cold here and cant be more than 5 degrees at its coldest which is highly unusual this early. If winter in SA stays like this we are going to hit major problems with the homeless people being exposed and general illness due to the extreme dam and cold.

We usually only get it like t

his around August or September so very interesting…any global warming theories out there?…lol ;). The problem with global warming theories is that the only way to stop it is to totally change every country on earth which wont happen because no country will give up what they got…especially not the ones that count. Global warming is not the issue. Making the earth uninhabitable for humans is the issue. The Earth will be just fine without us

Here are some images taken by a friend of my wife (Mandy Mcnickol of plettenberg bay)

more pics of this storm at....www.hott3d.wordpress.com

springbok world cup this year?

2007-05-20T03:41:00.000-07:00

springbok world cup this year?

so after yesterdays super 14 final with 2 SA sided, i reckon the boks are looking decidely good for the world cup this year…couple other teams must wonder what happened this year and how the sa sides suddenly improved so much

I reckon it because of 2 things

1. new players - theres a whole pile of new 20 year old players who just light up the field…JP pietersen, pierre spies…its a long list!

2. years of pain and misery..suffering breeds character! - the bok side has been so rollercoaster the last few years that maybe there was a grand plan after all

Personally i cant wait to whip the poms asses (again) in a a weeks time and then at the world so we can beat the worlds best consistant side..the Kiwis!

So who is going to do what the world cup…here is my predicition for the top 4

1st - Springkobs

2md - New Zealand

3rd - France

4th - Ireland

I reckon aussie in 5th and maybe italy to cause a few upsets. Aussie super 14 sides have sucked this year so dont rate them at all (although never rule them out!). The poms have once again sunk into a quagmire of self loathing and self pity…true to form. Italy i reckon has real potential to cause some upsets as does argentina

So after all of that who do i rate as the best club side in the world currently…its a toss up between the sharks and bulls. The bulls where lucky to win yesterday but when they are at full pace they are unstoppable..especially that forward pack…are quite scary!

Viva South Africa, Viva

test post

2007-05-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

hi everyone

i have a blog at wordpress www.hott3d.wordpress.com but found blogger so want to see how it works.

Here are some sunrise pics i took in george on the garden route in south africa