Tag Archives: RoddytheFox

Cycling by the heritage sites: Howse Street Grahamstown

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The second post of the Grahamstown heritage sites is a street-scene. There’s no getting away from the new in this picture because there’s a young cyclist front and centre. Behind him Howse Street runs up to the historical core of the city. There’s power lines and street lights leading the eye towards the skyline and the heritage sites silhouetted there.

Howse Street Grahamstown Heritage Sites

Passing by Grahamstown’s Heritage Sites: Howse Street

The Cathedral of St Michael and St George dominates this picture and strangely it isn’t a heritage site: though it is one of the city’s iconic buildings. The buildings that run between the two spires are the backs of the Victorian shops that front on to Church Square. These are all heritage sites: as is the City Hall itself. Later in the series I’ll post some pictures of them as they are architecturally striking.

As usual there’s a bit of a back story to the picture. To get a shot with a passing cyclist I needed to stand in the middle of Beaufort Street – and that’s a busy thoroughfare – mid-way between two sets of traffic lights. So I needed to wait until both sets of lights were on red and there was a gap in the traffic. It meant I dashed out into the road on a number of occasions before I was successful.

Several of this new series will be on display at #NAF19 in my exhibition called ‘Reflections’ at the Carinus Art Centre 27 June – 7 July.

 

Enjoying the moonrise: Rhodes students on Fort Selwyn

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The first post of a new series – Grahamstown Heritage – features the old and the new.

Fort Selwyn lies on Gunfire Hill and it was built for its strategic view over the city below. No great surprise that it’s one of Grahamstown 70 heritage sites. These days it has lost its military importance but it does make a spectacular vantage point. That’s especially true for students who come up from Rhodes University after Friday classes to watch the sunset and then the moonrise. All whilst having an early evening drink or two.

Enjoying the moonrise: Rhodes students on Fort Selwyn, Grahamstown (Makhanda)

There’s an interesting backstory to this shot. Night photos usually need a daylight reconnaissance. I’d already been to Fort Selwyn at night taking pictures of car headlights trailing across town. That’s when I first saw the students perched on the Fort’s ramparts. But then I had to go back in the daylight and work out how to get high enough to get the students and the town below plus the full moon and all of Fort Selwyn in one shot. I solved it by climbing one of the megaliths that surround the 1820 Settlers National Monument. When I returned that night I brought a stepladder, propped it against the rock, climbed up and installed my tripod. Then I just had to wait for the moon to climb high enough whilst the students enjoyed themselves. There was, of course, plenty of musical accompaniment from the sound systems in the open car doors. Not a soul noticed me, or the ladder, perched on the rock. You can see my shadow in the right foreground as a passing car’s headlights helpfully revealed the foreground of the picture.

I expect to have several of this new series on display at #NAF19. My exhibitions called ‘Reflections’ and I’ll be at the Carinus Art Centre. In the next day or two I’ll have the picture for sale as a print or for downloading over at my store.

Reflections on the Culture Trail, Sundborn

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These are my best set of pictures from our autumn visit to Sweden. It was a day of clear blue skies and cold weather but beautiful colours. Sundborn is only 20 minutes from Falun and a location full of photographic opportunities – especially reflections in the river. After taking the tour of the beautiful and iconic Carl Larsson-gården we had a picnic in the sunshine on the lawns of Stora Hyttnäs and then took the Culture Trail north to Sundborn Kyrka and Toftan.

http://sundborn.com/ks/en/karta/

Sundborn’s Culture Trail

The first picture shows the vivid autumn colours in the trees and vegetation along the river bank south of the Carl Larsson-gården. It’s pretty much the view you get of the river from the gardens themselves. They’re really nice to stroll around whilst you wait for your guided tour of the house.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Autumn Colours, Sundborn

The culture trail takes you along the river: stopping either at interesting locations where Larsson painted or the other historical sites of Sundborn. The hydro-power station is one of those sites, it was built just after 1900 and is located on the rapids a short walk from Larsson’s house – he provided the sketches for the design of the building and got his electric power from there. This is the view of the power station from downstream.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

The Power Station, Sundborn

On the upstream side are these impressive sluices that control the flow of water into the turbines. There’s a walkway over the river so you pass right next to them. Their reflections are pictured here.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Power Station Sluices, Sundborn

Across the water you’ll see the tiled roofs of the old farm buildings that feature in some of Larsson’s paintings. They give you a nice taste of the picturesque nature of the old town that the trail takes you through.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Roof reflections, Sundborn

The next picture shows the buildings along Kyrkvägen that front on to the river. It’s taken from the opposite bank on the pathway along to the old wash house. It’s a very picturesque setting.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Looking across the Sundbornsån, Sundborn

When you reach the old wash house – it’s now a sauna – you can look back along the river. There’s a lovely composition where the trees frame the river that recedes away from the viewer. I was lucky because a scattering of light cumulus clouds also provided a top and bottom frame to complete the picture.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Looking down the Sundbornsån, Sundborn

Once you’ve walked through the old town to the church you get lovely views of the lake – Toftan – that opens up before you.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Toftan, Sundborn

I took this last picture when we got back to Larsson’s house. It’s called Summer’s End because it has a real end-of-season feel to it. The boats and canoe belong to the relatives of Larsson who still have summer houses on the property. Soon their river craft will be stored away for the winter.

Sundborn Autumn Höst Dalarna Sweden Fujifilm

Summer’s End, Sundborn

The pictures were all taken using the Velvia Vivid setting on my Fujifilm X100F. It gives a great depth of colour – especially the blues. I used my two converter lenses – wide angle and tele converter – for the pictures.

Metamorphosis Exhibition – #NAF18 – Catalogue and Galleries

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The catalogue and picture galleries for my #NAF18 exhibition ‘Metamorphosis’ are now online. They’re in my new store and website: https://roddythefox.co.za/ You’re most welcome to visit and see what’s going to be on offer!

I’ve also uploading some Iceland landscapes to showcase the types of image galleries that will be appearing there in the next few weeks.

Online store, roddythefox, metamorphosis

Screenshot of roddythefox.co.za

The Fountain Court, 1820 Settlers National Monument, a Photo Essay before #NAF18 takes over

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As #NAF18 draws closer the 1820 Settlers National Monument gets busier and busier. So I took a chance yesterday that there would still be some peace to make a photo essay of my favourite part of the building – the Fountain Court. It’s quite a challenge being a central atrium that’s several stories deep. There’s natural light spilling in from two sides and down from the top but artificial light on the other two sides. I settled on my tiny 9mm fisheye body cap lens to pull in as much of the space as possible. The rectangular shapes of the famous yellowwood scaffolding sculpture, the many long pillars and banner-like Skotnes murals all help make dramatic shots. The fisheye lens does a great job of curving them round the Millstone Fountain and sunburst roof decoration. There’s a nice selection of my Grahamstown pictures over at roddythefox.co.za.

Fountain Court 1, 1820 Settlers National Monument
Fountain Court 6, 1820 Settlers National Monument
Fountain Court 3, 1820 Settlers National Monument
Fountain Court 2, 1820 Settlers National Monument
Fountain Court 5, 1820 Settlers National Monument
Fountain Court 4, 1820 Settlers National Monument