Vusi Kweyama

Vusi asked me to come and take some photos of a site he is planning to build a resource center on in the community of Kwa Nyuswa. The shots of the site aren't great but here are a couple of quick profile shots we did.

Vusi is an amazing man with an amazing story. He was in and out of prison from the ages of 15-24 (he lost count of how many times he was in there but estimates he spent over 70% of his time in prison). When he left prison in 2002, he was invited to a life skills course and he went there with the intention of casing the joint to steal their computers. While he was there checking out the wares, the life skills course had a profound impact and now, 6 years later he heads up a prison outreach project, runs life skills courses and a resource centre for youth in his community. He is a consultant to government on prison overcrowding, sentancing and offender rehabiliation. He has spoken in prisions across South Africa and even in maximum security prisons in the U.S.A!!!!!! What have you done in that last 6 years?

Also, if you have heard the Bliss 'n Esso song Bullet and a Target (it take the chorus from the citizen cope song of the same name) you will hear vusi who does the intro to the song!!! - I believe that together we can really make a difference, one man cannot make a difference but if we can be if we have a collective will and the willingness to make a difference in our nation we can really do make a difference"






































And what post could be complete without a photo of me?

Kit list and wishlist

Let's face it, most of us want more stuff. Unlike all you who are all mindless consumers I don't want more stuff, I need more stuff. Here is a list of my current photography kit, and below a wishlist for things I need :P Donations welcomed :)

Though there are a few other things I would like to have, I love every part of my kit and as such each section has a rant about what I love and possible don't like about the piece of kit.

Current Kit:

Camera Body:
Pentax K20D

Rant: The most solid camera I have ever held, it is one of the few DSLR's that is weather resistant, though remember that your lens probably isn't weather resistant! The camera is rather weighty at 800g (with battery and card) which, when you add another 465g for the Sigma 10-20mm (which I use most often) you can be forgiven for feeling like you are carry around a very expensive bag of sugar all day. I miss having a dedicated depth of field preview button, though you can change a setting to make another button do this (which I have done, though you then lose the live view function of that button).

There is 14.6 million effective pixels (14.6MP) crowbarred into the sensor!!! Those pixels work hard for you, churning out some beautiful, crisp photos which I am always more than happy with and creates images that I can enlarge far bigger than I have ever needed or wanted to.


Lenses:
Sigma 10-20mm f/4 - 5.6 (EX DC HSM)
Sigma 18-50mm f/3.5 - 5.6 DC
Sigma 70-300mm f/4 - 5.6 DG

Rant: My most frequently used lens is the Sigma 10-20mm Ultra wide-angle. It helps to give pictures a really interesting perspective and depth. Great for landscapes, and in confined spaces it covers most of my photography and suits my style.

I use the Sigma Telephoto Zoom (70-300mm) mainly for portraits as you can get a pretty crisp focus with it (though you have to be back a little).

I hardly use the 18-50mm, i think I have gotten lazy using the 10-20mm wideangle as it almost always gives an interesting perspective. I am going to try and use this basic kit lense (18-55mm) more as it will make me think a little more about my shots and hopefully learn more.

Filters:
77mm Hoya UV Filter
2x 58mm Hoya UV Filters

Rant: They stop me scratching me lenses!! Glad I have them, the 77mm already has a few scratches.

Flash:
I had an external flash for the hot-shoe (some type of old school Pentax I took from my dad's unused Pentax SLR), but it has been lost and/or stolen.

Rant: Can't see myself getting a replacement any time soon, they are expensive, and i don't like to use flash lighting.

Transport:
Crumpler - Customary Barge

Rant: Great as it doesn't look like a camera bag(not advertising that you have expensive kit is often a good move in Africa. It also has room for a laptop and whatever else you wanna take. Warning: It is freaking huge though, and with a camera, three lenses, a laptop and other shit can get heavy. I think Crumpler do a smaller version though.

Tatonka - Backpack (More specifically the zip off daypack section).

Rant: I have a tatonka backpack (huge backpacking thing). Luckily, the lift out camera section from the Crumpler fits right into the bottom of the Tatonka daypack.

Editing/Storage:

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Note: This link is to Photoshop CS4, the latest version.

500g External Hard Drive and DVD's for Backups


Wishlist:

Tripod with 3 way head

Sigma 15mm F/2.8 Diagonal Fish eye

A Couple of prime lenses. I was going to put a couple in here, but couldn't decide!!!

77mm circular polarizing filter

New 77mm UV filter for Sigma 10-20mm (the current one is on it's last legs)

Adobe LightRoom 2 to help manage work flow and sorting of images

Would like a backup system that works easier, hopefully LightRoom will help with this.


Be interested to hear your thoughts on my kit, and about yours.

Cheers
Dan

Country Club

Here are a few pics from our visit to "The Country Club". When one thinks of the term 'country club' it conjures certain images of grandeur, golf and tennis playing, perhaps cocktails by the pool or an expensive dinner. Not in Africa! Our country club takes the form of a car park people bring their cars and sound systems. Simply walk around till you find some music you like and party at someone else's car or hang around your own. Unfortunately the night we went it was poor weather so not many people were there :( Also I am pretty disappointed with the pics. I paid no real attention to the pics I was taking and it shows :( Sorry for the photos but I hope it gives you a bit of a feel for the place.

Also, apologies for the watermark. I should have reduced the opacity so they don't stand out so much. Live and learn I guess...

Thanks

Dan

Angelic Much?

This pic was taken while attending a cultural day at a school in Kwa Ngcolosi. It was hugely overexposed to the point that it looked pretty much as it does here (but in colour). I thought it looked like there was a bright "angelic" light coming from behind. Those that know me will also know that it isn't far beyond my playful ego to consider myself angelic either, so I did this little piss take.

Enjoy as always

Dan

I've just uploaded so many new cool pics, you won't know what to do with yourself.

More pics from the shenanigans and fun we had during our Day working in Kwa Ngcolosi yesterday. Hope you enjoy, and as always let me know what you think.

Thanks for dropping by
Dan

When I say coming soon, I mean it!

Yesterday morning, I promised that I would soon be bringing you pics from my work in and around schools in Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa. I also said "coming soon", and I meant it. Just about 17 hours later I bring you some photos (there are plenty of awesome pics from the day and more will follow...soon) captured on visits to schools in Kwa Ngcolosi today. That's some fresh pics!!! I have been working through to 1am to bring them to you so you better like them dammit!

The day was a killer hot day, what you would imagine an African summer day to be, resulting in Tom and I receiving a healthy(?) tans.

If you are wondering about the round huts in the last couple of pics, they are called Rondavels (rondavals?) and are traditional round homes often with thatched roofs and sometimes tin. They are really common here and interesting to see inside, I have stayed in them a few times.

Enjoy the pics and please let me know your thoughts.

Dan






















Impromptu portrait of Sabelo, a peer educator. He is one of the top peer educators, earning him a trip to Australia to visit partner schools in Australia.

Coming Soon

To day I have been working on a DVD of about 100 of my best photos from work for the last 6 months which I will give to Oaktree and Schools 4 Schools for promotional in the future, they have requested this for promotional material they are currently creating which will be used for the next 18months.

Going through my photo's has made me wonder why I haven't put them up here! Until now I have been limiting my posts to more "creative" (at least for my skill level) pics. But going through these pics, there are allot of good pics which I think people will find interesting. So beginning asap i will be uploading some of the best pics from the above mentioned collection which I hope you all enjoy.

For examples of the type of stuff to expect, see some of my older posts.

Thanks for dropping by
Dan

Bunny Yard

Here is a quick edit I made last night.

The yard photo is by a friend of mine, Matt O'Connor (no site) and the bunny(s) are by ~frbden

I think it is a fun little pic, inspired in part by ~ShotDownEgo which used the same bunny in the pic.

Hope you like it.

Dan

Wise Words

I was just reading an article on camera sensors (more specifically resolution and megapixel counts), at the end of the article were the following words of wisdom I simply had to share.

"...think less about the camera you have and more about the way you use it. Your photography will be better for it."

Hoodies

The first three pics which were taken at a school in Ilovo, KZN South Africa called Siyabonga (translates as "we thank you"). The man is a facilitator called Mle who works on the GOLD program, the second is a year 10 student from the same school. I asked a couple of kids to hang back for some pics after class and they were more then happy to, so happy that most of the class stayed when I only wanted to photo this girl with the hood and a boy with a couple of gold caps on his teeth. His photos aren't here and I may or may not use them, it would seem that after wanting to photograph him because of his cool teeth (he has a couple of gold caps, it is a fashion thing here) I forgot to make sure I could see them in the photo...

Anyway, I digress.

I was editing these first three photos when I remembered a couple of self portraits I had taken just before I left Australia 5 months ago. I remembered the hoods and thought I would finally have a look at those photos. Here are the results. Let me know what you think, comments help me improve my pics.

Milestone

My Camera, a Pentax K20d has recently reached a new milestone. Pictures taken by the camera, are named numerically, starting at IMGP0001 (the first photo ever taken by the camera) and ascending - IMGP0002, IMGP0003 etc with each new photo taken. During my trip to Capetown, the count restarted at IMGP0001 after reaching IMGP9999.

The camera having officially taken over 10,000 photos!!! in less than 4 months.

Perhaps as a sign from the heavens of the connection between photographer and camera, the last image taken before the count restarted (IMGP9999) was a great image and can be seen below in the post "Durban to Cape Town" on Oct 21 2008.

The image is the third from the bottom in the post and features an impromptu portrait of Darren crossing a stream at Second Beach, Port St Johns. If you run your cursor over the image or click on it to see a bigger version you will see proof of the image name as IMGP9999+copy.jpg. The "copy" representing the fact that I edited a copy of the image in photoshop (to retain the original as a negative).

Thanks for dropping by

Dan

More pics from Durban to Cape Town Trip

As the tittle suggests here are more pics from my Durban to Capetown trip.

The group jumping photos are from Coffee Bay, we had done some individual ones and some with just Kane and I, and Jo and Darren (which i should really get edited!). I thought it would be a good idea to get the group of randoms that were collected on the cliff to watch the sunset in on the action. They loved it, but couldn't coordinate their jumps...

The night and lightning photos are from Bulungula, near coffee bay. It is a must see destination if you are traveling down the coast in the Easter Cape province of South Africa. Two cows died from lighting strikes in the village that night!!!!