Gone ...

Not every venture in the Midlands seems to be a resounding winner. I often wonder what it is that makes a business a success. Some years back I knew a restaurateur who had what I imagined was every ingredient for success, and yet his venture never did anything beyond modest trade. Forced by circumstances to move to less salubrious premises he set up again, same team, same menu less swish décor - and business boomed. Go figure! Here in the Lions River area I came across what appears to be a discontinued eatery. Not far from it are two others, directly across the road from one and other. The one is generally buzzing, the other not so much. This place looked as though it had great potential, and yet the image tells me otherwise. As we say locally - shame!

The premises with an eerie sense of emptiness and shadows makes both a fascinating monochrome study and a colour shot. I've chosen to post the colour version - which seems to hint more strongly of ghosts of hosts gone by.

Pushing Daisies ...

No it's not an announcement of early spring, and although the last few days have shown signs of warming, the forecast is for another cold snap over the coming (long) weekend. Amongst all the burned out and frosted grasslands there are still however bursts of colour such as these almost fluorescent indigenous daisy like bushes. I'm not certain of their variety or botanical identity but they certainly enliven the vast expanses of blackened and browned lands.

Once again the macro setting on my standard lens proves its prowess in close-up use, providing crisp clarity in the focus area, and great depth of field beyond it giving an almost 3D effect.

Firelight ...

How dramatically the views of the mountains can change!!! From the snows of  last week we had the sky glowing red with a massive fire on the very same mountain slopes to the west of Howick last night. In the space of a mere hour the flames flared, spread, and passed - but at their height they gave the dark night skyline an appearance I imagine akin to an erupting volcano. I hope there was no serious damage to forests or to life - the day's news reports will no doubt tell, but in the meantime here is the drama of it all. Midlands life is full of surprises.

I should have used a tripod to stabilise the camera for this shot, but as so often happens I was afraid that losing time in setting it up would have meant the moment may have passed. I did get one out and the fear proved to be true - by the time I was ready to shoot again the flames had mostly moved over the crest of the mountain, and the tepid images that followed are not worth sharing.

Snowberg ....

Yes - it's ANOTHER shot of iNhlosane, and even though the snows have almost melted (this was taken last week Wednesday) I'm sure you'll agree this is an image too good to not share. Taken on that road trip where I braved the muddy, icy roads of the Dargle / Impendle route, this shot reminds me of one I took of the Matterhorn near Zermat in Switzerland some years ago. Both mountains dominate their region, and although I could not claim that iNhlosane has anything like the scale of the Horn, and it certainly poses no equal challenge to mountaineers, I took both photos across a valley that helped to give them an exaggerated appearance of height. (I was a little underwhelmed by the appearance of the Matterhorn - which despite its reputation and altitude of 4478 metres I somehow imagined would be more impressive. iNhlosane in comparison comes in at a modest 1977 metres).

Some photographers would have wait twenty years to get a shot like this. How fortunate I am to have had the chance in my first year in the Midlands. Co-incidentally a rare Johannesburg snowfall occurred the year I moved there - in 1981.