This vendor was selling the most amazing cheese sticks at the finish line of Cape Town marathon, and after a long 42km run, it was the perfect thing to eat, and a bargain at the price.
They are made by a stall in the Mojo Market in Sea Point, Holy Macaroni, and I certainly plan to pop past there sometime to investigate further.
Walking through the streets of Paris in the 21st century, you so get the feeling that not much has changed in many years. The streets are full of cafe’s, small grocery and wine shops, and Parisians going about their day.
Almost every street corner has a cafe, and there are always people sitting outside drinking coffee. I could spend months just wondering around the streets of Paris.
Don’t you love this amazing artwork I saw in one of the houses in Muizenberg – one of the benefits of running is how you see the world around you!
It is a blanket statement to say that most street musicians are awful, but in my experience most buskers can play one or two tunes badly, simply using their instruments to get cash from the tourists.
But not all; in Krakow they have a great system. There are specific places where the musicians are allowed to play and they have a roster. Every hour or so all the musicians get up and move away, to be shortly replaces by another musician. They are also (mostly) very good.
Once such muso was this guy. He was playing classical guitar; most of which he was improvising on the spot. He was exceptionally good; clearly classically trained. We ended up sitting for quite a while listening to his guitar singing.
The system is Krakow is great (Prague has a similar setup). It lets you can sit on Krakow Square and enjoy the music without being harassed by buskers. Well except for the unofficial buskers that disappear at the vaguest sign of authority.
The entrance to Wawal castle, Krakow. Shot on a cold and wet day.
A businessman walks down a long flight of stairs between meetings.
Cape Minstrels, 2nd new year’s parade. They are a noisy and colourful spectacle to watch, but the organization is poor. You can stand around for hours and see a few groups come past. Then there is nothing for a while, and then another group.
Painted face
Painted face
Dancing in the street
Still playing around with the high-contrast black and white conversions, this was taken right the other side of the world in Las Vegas. This was somebody was sleeping on a stone bench somewhere along the strip. No doubt he had nowhere else to sleep. Of course I am grateful to not be in that particular situation.
I would love some feedback on this technique. Does it work, too much, too little? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
I have been playing around with black and white conversion of some of my photos. Specifically using dodge and burn to bring out the contrast and detail in pictures. These are two of my results.
This was taken on Greenmarket Square, a trading area in the Cape Town city centre. This man was sitting on an office chair in the middle of the street, reading the morning newspaper. If you look closely, you can read the headlines “public whipping”.
For several years I worked in the city bowl (our “downtown” area), and I really miss it. It is so vibrant and alive; full of interesting people. There is always something happening, and I used to love wandering around the streets at lunch time absorbing the colourful spectrum that is Cape Town.
So today when I was about 1/2 hour early for a meeting in the city bowl, I grabbed my point and shoot and I hit the streets (I don’t carry my SLR all the time). I am also trying to focus on people, which is why I took these three shots on the street.
This man set-up his chair, and sat reading the paper in the middle of a pedestrian road. I think that some people read the newspaper as much to read the news as because it is a way of life for them.
An art seller, just chilling and waiting for the next crowd of tourists to arrive. Notice the office chair on the pavement.
This stall-holder looked very happy, enjoying the sun in the brief bit of sunlight we had today, sitting in a 70’s style chair. I love shooting people, they always leave me wondering where they come from, what they are thinking, how they got to be where they are, and where they may be in the future. Thank you to partypoker for this post. They offer a bonus of up to $500 with your first deposit. And it is certainly cheaper that travelling all the way to Vegas to gamble. And of course you will be helping me to shoot more pictures.
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