Table Mountain with Lion’s Head on the right, the harbour in the front.

Cape Town Stadium, with Lion’s Head and Table Mountain in the background.

Cape Town Stadium with the city bowl in the background.

The Camps Bay and Clifton beaches, with Hout Bay in the distance.

You can do a flip for less that R600, and while that is a lot of money, it is an amazing and unforgettable experience. Highly recommended. Cape Town Helicopters have a 100% safety record, so I am sure you are in good hands.

Disclosure: my flight was free, but the opinions and photos are mine.

A few weeks ago I posted an HDR photo of an old framhouse in Stellenbosch. This is the same building, but this time with normal black and white processing. It is in Stellenbosch, taken on the Spier road. It looks locked up to me, but I think it could make a nice office in the country.

Colosseum with texture

Colosseum without texture

And now the Pantheon…

Pantheon with texture

Pantheon without texture

I have been wanting to get some pictures from Kommetjie beach for ages, and the wonderful wind-free day yesterday was a perfect opportunity to head down to the beach to watch the sunset.

Slangkop lighthouse provides  lovely focus for photos, so here is my interpretation. Slangkop lighthouse is on the edge of Kommetjie, which is a small village in the South of Cape Peninsula. According to sunsetbeach.co.za, the lighthouse was built in 1919, so it is almost 100 years old. At over 100 feet tall, it is the tallest cast-iron lighthouse in South Africa, and it can be sean from 60km away.

The lighthouse was closed at sunset, but it is open for visits during the day, so perhaps I will pop in and take some day-time photos.

This strange house was spotted in Pringle Bay, just outside of Cape Town.

This beautiful Church is not St Mark’s Basilica, it is in fact the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore, directly opposite St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Taken from St Mark’s Square.

It is a Benedictine church, dating back to 1566 (the site has had a church from approximately 900AD).

This is an interesting little palace that I found; literally “of the snail”. I love the quaint outside staircase winding up to the sky. I got completely lost while looking for it, resulting in an extended tour of the area, but it is such a lovely little building, tucked away in a quiet little square. I believe that it was build in 1499, so I think it is looking pretty good.

If you have the opportunity, visit this little palace off the beaten track.

You get used to these bridges very quickly; every journey of more than a minute requires walking up and down one of the many pedestrian bridges in Venice.

While there are lots of bridges, everything is so close that the walk is never too far.

This is the view that I saw from our hotel bedroom. Typically Venetian. From time to time, I would hear a Gondolier punting past, singing Italian love songs to his passengers.

It poured with rain for our first day in Venice, but we were determined to get out and about and explore the city. This shot is of St Mark’s Square, just in front of St Mark’s Basilica. If you look across the square, you will notice a line of people walking on trestle tables. This is because with a high tide and torrential rain, the square was flooded.

But that was not a problem for the resourceful Venetian’s. Almost every road (well pedestrian walkway), had piles of these tables which were simply spread out whenever a region was flooded. As soon as the water subsides, the tables are re-stacked and life goes back to normal.

The Grand Canal in Venice is the easiest way to get around Venice. It basically divides the city down the middle, with most taxi and bus services running on it.

There are only four bridges that you can use to cross the canal, however it is a small city; so you never really find yourself stuck on the wrong side of the canal. Venice is remarkably compact, you can easily cross it on foot in less than an hour, and by using the water-bus (Vaporetti) in about 1/2 hour.

Although it is difficult to get an original shot of the canal that has not been taken 100 times before, it is truly a beautiful location for some great shots.