Cape Storms



Canon EOS 7D
f18
1 Sec. exposure.
ISO 100
EF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM @ 35mm

So it is now the 1^st of July and the 1^st day of the second half of the year! Time seems to be flying by. It feels as if it were just yesterday that I started writing this blog. To sit back and think that I am still here writing six months later is a pleasing thought and fills me with sense of dedication which I tend to lack with most things. My photography has certainly benefitted from it. The feeling of time passing quickly sometimes causes me to take note how little time we actually have in life and how important it is not to waste it.

I’ve been Knysna for a while now and although the temperatures that the area gets are similar to those of Cape Town, it certainly feels much colder here. The sun sets 20 minutes earlier here also making the days feel incredibly short with the darkness settling in around 6pm.

The weather has played a big part in dictating my activities. Mostly I have been house bound due to the rain that sporadically comes down in heavy waves from the overcast skies. The weather reports this time of the year are sketchy at best and do not prove particularly useful when planning outings for walks on the beach or into the forest. The days they show as being sunny and calm with clear skies turn out to be cloudy with icy cold winds and the occasional downpour.

During a break in the bad weather the other day and with nothing to do I decided on taking a drive and just seeing where I ended up. I thought that I would try and get some photographs of the Goukamma River mouth with the sun setting behind it. This involved driving about 30 kilometres out of town through fairly hilly, borderline mountainous terrain. As I got closer to the sea I could see that the weather was slowly beginning to worsen. I made it onto the beach just as the sun was setting behind a bank of dark storm clouds. As I shot pictures of the river, focusing on a piece of driftwood that had become lodged in the sand, the wind began whipping up spray from the waves and the rain started to fall; gently at first, until quickly becoming a torrential downpour. I walked slowly back to the car, happy to be on the beach during the storm.

Although the sky was grey and it was freezing, I was happy to be there to experience the sheer beauty of a scene that will remain in my thoughts and make me smile when I’m somewhere slightly duller than this. It is times like these that I come to just realise how precious even a few moments can be. This is time that I have not wasted.

P.S.

Thanks for reading.