Roddy's thoughts and pictures at the close of the day
These pictures were inspired by the Lux exhibition in the grounds of Cragside. It's a celebration of light and innovation. I loved the sounds of the laurel tree growing (harmonica botanica) spilling around the formal gardens. The glass light vessel was also striking. Here's some images produced using the filter presets in Snapseed: the light... Continue Reading →
Cragside always gives you the chance for some interesting and dramatic pictures. It has a fairy castle atmosphere: woodlands, streams, crags and grottos. Here's a selection from my ramble around with Jeannie Davy yesterday.
Here are some different views of Rhodes University, Grahamstown. The original pictures were taken using my cheap phone camera and then reworked using WordFoto: Rhodes University and Grahamstown are the keywords. These will have to change, of course, and I will need to do more pictures if we ever rename the University and city ….. The... Continue Reading →
Here's a different take on last week's election …. a little arithmetic (using figures from the official IEC website) shows that the ANC's 11.4 million votes is 36% of those that could, potentially, have been cast. Or to put it another way - over six in ten eligible voters did not vote for the ruling... Continue Reading →
Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' is one of the world's most easily remembered works of expressionist art. Imagine my surprise to see echoes of the painting in the scum below the bridge in Grahamstown's Botanic Gardens. Echo one: I was on a bridge. Echo two: there was a distorted shape in the watery scum. Echo three:... Continue Reading →
Fieldwork with Kate in the Karoo usually involves lots of walking in hot dusty and scratchy places. Last week's trip to Ganora was no exception. On the way to collect data from various instruments and gadgets you find yourself dodging spiders webs and finding the most exquisitely coloured insects. They are the inhabitants of the sand... Continue Reading →
We're just back from three crystal clear days and nights in the Karoo. Excellent conditions for taking photos at night. The first picture is a long lens shot of Compassberg taken from Ganora Farm which must be about 10 kilometres from the mountain as the crow flies. It was just after sunset with a thin... Continue Reading →
Two of my favourite pictures from our midwinter safari to Namibia and Botswana were of the same sunset. We were camping out in the Okavango panhandle on Xaga Island and had gone out for a beautiful sunset walk. As the sun dropped rapidly down I took pictures looking west and then east - catching both... Continue Reading →
It's a holiday weekend and our long summer continues with some very hot weather. Kate and I invited Luke to Shelley Beach at Kenton on Sea to escape to some cooler conditions. After the long trudge up over the dunes (carrying Luke …) we saw there was hardly anyone there - as usual. We had... Continue Reading →
Kenyatta University now has c43,000 students, when we left in 1985 there were about 1500! It's changed remarkably in recent times as I saw when I went back to KU in January to discuss an exchange agreement. Some of the changes are related to Kenya's aggressive National Vision 2030 which is aims to take the... Continue Reading →
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