Roddy's thoughts and pictures at the close of the day
"That’s pretty much the life of a National Geographic photographer. Days of looking to be there at the right moment." Jim Richardson Jim's got it right: if you want to get a particular composition, or just the right light, then it can take days of looking and days of waiting. Then you’ve got to get yourself in just... Continue Reading →
I've had such positive responses from my recent blog post on the Karoo that it's inspired me to put together these ten images. This time all of the pictures are different styles in black and white. They're taken from Mt Zebra National Park, which is just outside Cradock, along the R61 to Ganora Guest Farm and... Continue Reading →
We are having a long drought in the Eastern Cape - it's only early Spring and already hot after a very dry winter. On the drive up from Grahamstown to Mt Zebra National Park and the Sneeuberg there's hardly any green vegetation to be seen. The landscape is dominated by browns and blues showing off... Continue Reading →
Two or three times a year we make the journey west from Grahamstown and into the Karoo - often staying somewhere around Compassberg which at 2504 metres is the highest peak in the Sneeuberg and Karoo. Kate has been working in the area for many years and I've gone along too. Sometimes that's involved some... Continue Reading →
Without doubt the Karoo is cold in the winter months. We are just back from field work based at Ganora Guest Farm, New Bethesda and it was gray and cloudy and cold. I managed to capture the grainy chill in these pictures: particularly in the skies towering over the gravel roads twisting through the big... Continue Reading →
Last week we were staying in Nieu Bethesda and I realised that one of the important things about the Karoo is the shape and texture of the small things we experience. I've already posted pictures of big skies and clouds or rain storms and sunsets in the Karoo. Yet the Karoo is also in the shape... Continue Reading →
We were back at Ganora Farm last week updating our research in the Karoo and came across this strange creature. We had taken a short walk above the cottages to get some cellphone signal and stretch our legs after a morning of desk top work and came across a pair of oddly matched eyes peering... Continue Reading →
Last week we spent four days in the Karoo. As usual we were based at Ganora Farm, which is near Nieu-Bethesda, doing some mapping work and interviewing farmers who kindly gave us their rainfall records. At this time of year the light can be spectacular, especially in the early evenings when there are summer storms... Continue Reading →
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