Sunset Evening and Night shot of the new World Cup 2010 Green Point Stadium

How beautiful the sunset was We are in the middle of a spell of exeptional beautiful warm weather and its supposed to be mid winter here !
There was not a cloud to be seen

Green Point Stadium on fire

Click photo to enlarge

If you are coming to Cape Town for the Soccer World Cup 2010 next year, then I know for sure that you will be totally awestruck by the amazing "can't believe my eyes" sunsets you will see
I got quite a series of good shots this evening, which in itself is a pain, since its hard to choose but I liked this one for the men on the edge

Doesnt the glass roof look amazing ? Actually it looks amazing any time of the day taking on the colours of the sky I hope you noticed that these shots are a different angle from my usual shots :)

The SW side of the Green Point Stadium as seen from my home on Signal Hill

Do click the photo to see it in its full glory
Sometimes I think I have a whole sequence of photos to choose from, only to discover that the horizon is wonky in all of them ! I know you can correct it but thats what I dont like to do I usually discard those shots
Today was such a day this was the best of the lot it usually happens when I zoom in as I did here
I always love the moment ...and its a very short moment when the sun sets the stadium on fire, just before sunset, its a very special light
I gave this shot an editing treatment to add some interest
Let me know if you like it or not

Cape Town from the sky

Click photo to enlarge

I arrived back in Cape Town last night and wanted to show you this photo which I took exactly a year ago coming back from the USA. I shot this through the window of the plane while it was landing in Cape Town after a heavy burst of rain
My first day back has been extremely busy but I did manage to take a photo of the Green Point stadium which I posted in Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joannecapetownsa/3724690574/
I am happy to say the week long strike at Soccer World Cup construction sites in South Africa has ended

Buffalo Bay beach ...what a magical place this is !

I can't count the times when I thought, how can I ever capture the beauty of this landscape in my photographs ? South Africa is stunningly beautiful You know those kind of places where when you look around you and it doesn't matter where you look, all you see is pure beauty ?
Those kind of places where you feel sheer happiness and joy just being there ?
Buffalo Bay Beach is such a place
I loved it, there were very few people and the colours of the beach,the rocks,the drama of the far away * Outiniqua Mountains in the mist, all added to the mistique and beaty I could have stayed on and on

I walked carefully toward the estuary as I didn't want to disturb the birds until the very last moment but a man and his dog walked on the opposite side along the beach and the dog broke away, ran to the birds scaring them

and all what was left, were their feathers lining the edge of the river

When finally the sun set, I walked back to the car, picking up a piece of driftwood from the beach which I will place at my own rock pools as a memory of this awesome place which is Buffalo Bay beach
You know what ? I loved Knysna so much I'm returning in September Its already booked !

*Outeniqua Mountains, Western Cape/South Africa are named after the people of a Khoi tribe whose name means ‘Men Bearing Honey’, the area being known for its bees.

Buffalo Bay beach near Knysna on the Garden route

I think his name is Narcissus :)

He kept me company for quite a while and even got in the way of my shots

After touring around in Knysna in the morning and a delicious lunch in Ile de Pain,a drive out to Buffalo Bay revealed this fabulous beach with shattered quartzites rocks and an estuary teeming with birds

Couldn't resist showing you his soulful eyes

I spend the rest of the afternoon walking along the beach and shooting whatever came in my viewfinder :) Loved it there !

Knysna I am smitten ...I will return

No wonder its South Africa's favourite town ! It was my first time but by no means my last !

View of the beautiful lagoon of Knysna from "The Heads" suburb, the eastern Head where the lagoon joins the sea, with Leasure Island on the right the most upmarket suburb in Knysna with old homes and modern mansions

A close up of Leasure Island and the flowers of the Aloe
While Cape Town was flooded by monsoon rains today we had a summers day of 24 degrees in Knysna

If you’d wondered why both the Heads of the Knysna Lagoon aren’t covered with houses, it’s because the Western Head is a private nature reserve, called the Featherbed Nature Reserve

These caves are part of the Featherbed Reserve