Roddy's thoughts and pictures at the close of the day
iPhoneography is what happens when, for some silly reason, I haven't bothered to take a camera out with me. Then, of course, I immediately see a composition I want to photograph and have to rely on my phone to do the job. Here's five pictures from the past few months taken in this way. The... Continue Reading →
When I return home to Grahamstown from my regular trips to Sweden I come from 58 North to 32 South. That's almost exactly a quarter of the way around the world. To take photos at dawn and sunset here in South Africa you have to be quick as the sun and moon rise and fall... Continue Reading →
Mid winter is the right time for seeing the spectacular flowering of the Eastern Cape's aloes. These four pictures were taken on my daily walk from our home in Sunnyside down the hill, across Somerset Street and through the Botanic gardens to work. The whole countryside is glowing with them: particularly at dawn and towards... Continue Reading →
Last weekend's trip to Hogsback was a good time for photography: the light was excellent, landscape compositions were everywhere and, of course, there's my daughters and grandchildren. I've already posted my antique picture panorama but here's a selection of the other pictures I took. This composition was right outside Helen's house: the building poles were stacked above... Continue Reading →
Last weekend was spent at my daughter Helen's place high in the Hogback mountains. On Saturday evening we took the three dogs and Jeannie with the two little grandchildren up the hill for a sunset walk. It was quite a dark scene with soft light playing on the clouds above the mountains. The light and... Continue Reading →
It's taken a few days for me to realise that there's been a change to our skyline. I went to Scandinavia seven weeks ago and meanwhile the turbines for the new wind farm on Highlands Road have started going up. I didn't see them until I went for a walk on Mountain Drive a couple... Continue Reading →
My friends know that I love taking sunset photos - and low light photos in general. A week ago I was still in Northumberland. On my last night at Warton I went out just before 11pm and looked north west to the after glow of the sunset above the Scottish border. It was really tranquil, there... Continue Reading →
Grahamstown's well-known as 'the city of Saints'. It's a bit of a cliche and so are many of the photos of our city. Picture postcard shots of the imposing cathedral and Victorian shop facades in Church Square spring to mind. I thought I'd try and get something a little different that gave a bit more... Continue Reading →
We're just starting work as one of two teams in the Water Research Commission's Green Village Project. Ours is a team from the Geography Department's staff and students led by Kate Rowntree collaborating with colleagues from the University of Fort Hare's Agriculture Faculty. There will be approximately twelve of us working with rural communities to try and... Continue Reading →
They gave me a great big glass award at the end of last year for internationalisation. I won't bore you with what internationalisation is: you can read about it in the University website. The award is quite something to behold though - an engraved glass world atop a glass column - and before it gets... Continue Reading →
Sun Downer Blogs 