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Photography

I knew I would be a photographer when I was still a small boy. Long before I had a camera. I was always intreagued with cameras, photo's and the magic of film. It started with an old point-and-shoot box camera that my father gave me when I was a teenager. One day Gary Caplinger, professional photographer, came to visit us. He gave me a roll of Fujichrome Velvia film and said: "There, pop that in your camera and see if there's a difference." Was there ever a difference! The sky was so much bluer and the clouds were so much more white. I knew I could never return to ordinary photography after that.

A few years later my father said I could rent out our maize fields which had been lying fallow for many years. With my first year's entire rental income I imported my a SLR camera. It was a fantastic Nikon FE2. I think it must have been 15 or 20 years old already, but it was still in great condition. And Gary said a manual camera like that would teach me principles of photography that would stick for life. He was right. The FE2 was a phenomenal camera - and one of only a few cameras that were ever built to such a high quality standard. It served me very well for years.

After that I had my grandfather's Zeiss Contaflex restored as a backup. It was heavy and difficult to use but with its incredible optics it yielded incredible photographs. Then came a Yashica Mat 124 medium format camera that I bought at an antique store. And after that the wonderful world of digital photography.

I caught these flamingos one day. I always had this fantasy of having a pool with flamingos in my yard. Who wants a budgie if you can have a flamingo? Taken with my old Nikon FE2 and Fijichrome Velvia.

This marks the washing in of a cold front - the air's skin ripples as it hits warm land after miles of cold polar water.

From my kitchen window below I used to be able to see the Rovos Rail steam train, the Outeniqua Tjoe Choo steam train and the magnificent Blue Train pass by once in a while. Then the floods washed the line away and the politicians buried the era of steam.

If ever you wanted to know what it is like to remember - then this image will show you how. A young boy with his fish net - a perfect ocean - and a luxurious sunset upon a warm summer's day. We all have such memories. There are great ones of exceeding splendour in our book of memories. But none are more nostalgic than one such as this. Youth is precious beyond any price. But we only value it once we have lost it. We look to the past through the lens of nostalgia - and only notice afterwards that its edges are sharp - and that our hands are cut and bleeding from holding it for a while. � at Glentana Beach.

Just a shadow of myself.

The day hesitated, and then dropped a diamond from heaven, where it hung onto the mountains for a little while before melting into the dark rock for the last time.