B&W 'Platteland' Structures

In December of 2014 my wife, Cheryl and I went on our annual photographic journey through the 'platteland' of South Africa. For a change we skipped the Karoo and instead decided to travel around our Southern border with landlocked Lesotho.

Our first stop was at Zastron and then we drove to Barkly East via Lady Grey. From there we drove to Matatiele and then on to the Sani Pass and finally Nottingham road. All and all we were on the road for seven days.



Barkly East, 2014

My usual goal on these photographic journeys is to make photographs of the people and the structures of the rural towns and villages. 

In this post I want to dwell on my B&W architectural images and how they were made and also the 'old' outdated camera I used....

Some of my favourite Eos M Pictures

The Eos M received a lukewarm reception at launch...mostly because of the pedestrian AF speed. A firmware update did improve the AF but it is nowhere near the speeds one can get from some of the other camera brands.

Last year with a price drop interest suddenly picked up. I even bought a black one for myself with the fixed 22mm lens and EF lens adapter. This year I added a white paired with the standard IS zoom lens...I didn't really want another camera but I got the whole package for the same price as the lens alone would have been...

Swakopmund, Namibia 2014

Recently there has been some rumors of a new Eos M camera. I certainly hope that my 'dream' mirror less might be announced although I am not crossing my fingers. My dream Eos M would have a build in or add on view finder, and a  Eos 7D mk2 sensor.... 

Blue Is The Colour...

Yesterday I went for a walk down Steve Biko str and Voortrekker str in Pretoria North...

I wanted to test my Canon Eos 6D and Canon Ef 85mm F1.8 lens. I recently bought the Eos 6D as a replacement to my Eos 5Dmk2. A few weeks later I also got the Eos Ef 85mm f1.8 lens.   The 85mm gives subtle compression, is small not to attract too much attention and is sharp right out into the corners at medium apertures

Review: Canon Eos M & EF 40mm f2.8 STM 'pancake' lens - Part Five

My user report of the 40mm F2.8 pancake lens and the Eos M . . .

These two were made for each other...

Read part five of my review.

                                                             

Review: Eos M - Part Two

How does the Eos M handle itself in the street with some full frame lenses attached via the lens adapter?

To test all of this I drove to a street called Steve Biko road (formerly Voortrekker str) in Pretoria North . . .

Read part two of my review.

                  Eos M on steroids!  Mamiya 50mm lens and two adapters

Smithfield in the Freestate

After a long days driving from Centurion we eventually arrived in Smithfield at about 4h30 on  a Saturday afternoon in December last year.

Smithfield is on the main route to Port Elizabeth and a popular stopover. The are numerous b&b establishments and even a few restaurants etc. We stayed in 'Rusties place' for the night and we had a very unique two bedroom apartment all to ourselves . . .

Molteno

In December last year we traveled through Molteno on our way to Hofmeyer...

It was a Sunday afternoon and a typically summers day. Molteno lies in the Eastern Cape and the town has some interesting architecture most noticeably the Dutch Reformed church that was build by Italian craftsmen. 

Hofmeyer

Hofmeyer lies on the road to Cradock from Burgersdorp...

Its a very small little typical Karoo town. It has not seen much development and everything looks like it probably did 30 years ago if not longer.

Kalk Bay near Cape Town

Kalkbaai lies between Muizenberg and Vishoek near Cape Town...

My wife , cheryl and I just spend a couple of days there. We rented a holiday cottage on the mainroad across the beach. Well, it not quite a beach, more a rocky coastline with a tidal pool and a short stretch of sand . . .