I shot this with my cell phone, off a screen in the VIP tent during the Killers’ show. What struck me was how the moment has captured a single face clearly and that this face has a completely neutral expression, as if just standing around among the crowd of people all going crazy.
I decided while walking on the beach, that I would undertake the 100 strangers project but it was an early morning and very windy so the few people walking on the beach were not approachable. Then, as I got back to my car I saw this young woman coming along the pavement. I asked if I could photograph her and she smiled and nodded, but kept on walking so I had to take a quick shot as she passed. The image isn’t as sharp as I’d like but it gets my feet wet in the project so I decided to use it anyway.
This picture is #1 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at www.100Strangers.com
Posted in 100 Strangers, Photos
The Silver Falcons, official display team of the South African Air Force perform at an air show at AFB Overberg.
Unlike the display teams of many other air forces the Silver Falcons pilots are not dedicated to the team only. Team pilots are all instructors at the Central Flying School based at AFB Langebaanweg and can only spend their spare time practising for their displays.
Each display starts and ends as a five ship formation, with the body of the display alternating between manoeuvres by this four ship formation and the solo display pilot. The team currently flies the Pilatus PC-7 Astra.
Dave Stock died in a crash at AFB Overberg on 14 November 2009 while doing what he loved, flying the English Electric Lightning.
He will be missed, not only by family and friends, but by thousands of air show fans like myself; who were entertained by his marvellous displays over the years.
This photograph was taken at AFB Ysterplaat on 3 December 2005, shortly after Dave and the Lightning had set a new African time to altitude record. I believe this record still stands.
As I’m going to an air show on Saturday I ordered a larger memory card for my camera from an online retailer last week. It should have been delivered today but instead I received a phone call apologising for a supplier delay. As I will only receive the card next week I started looking around at local stores to buy a card before the show.
There’s a new Dion Wired store in Somerset Mall so I took a look at their web site and spotted a 4GB SanDisk Ultra II card for R399 and decided that’s what I would buy.
Knowing they close at 6pm I left work at five and stopped off at the mall. I was disappointed at first as there were only SanDisk Extreme III and Extreme IV cards on display; I wasn’t going to buy those as their extra speed is wasted in my camera and they are much more expensive. Luckily it turned out that there were some of the Ultra II cards under the counter. However they were marked at R419.95 and not the R399 I had been expecting. When I mentioned this to the person assisting me he said he would check, which involved him taking the card to a cashier and having her scan the barcode. When the scan confirmed the R419.95 price he simply said “That’s the price”. I thought that he might offer to give me the card at the price reflected on the web site, but no such offer was made. Even when I declined to buy the card at the inflated price he simply shrugged, as if to say “We don’t need your business anyway.”
I understand that mistakes can be made and web sites may get out of debt but in cases such as this I would at the very least expect to be offered the product at the lower, advertised price. Their failure to make such an offer smacks of false advertising, intended simply to get you into the store where you may be willing to capitulate and pay the higher price. I am not prepared to do so and would rather take my business to a smaller store where I may have to pay that little more but where I can expect good service and will know that I am not being cheated. I will certainly think twice before considering Dion Wired as a potential shopping venue in the future.
Vicki is the next of the young ladies from the make-up shoot.
I was recently asked by my son’s girlfriend to take photographs of some models. She needed photographs for a make-up project she was doing for her studies. I haven’t done too much shooting of models before and these ladies were all amateurs but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. The next few posts will be photographs from the shoot.
I’ve always thought of Incredible Connection as being a reasonable place to buy tech stuff. But two purchases I’ve made in the last week reveal that they are actually a rather expensive option when compared to other stores.
I’ve been needing an ink cartridge for a while now and was prompted to action by an e-mail newsletter from Digital Planet offering a special on the very cartridge I needed. After failing to find the product for a comparative price on Incredible Connection’s web site I went ahead and ordered it from Digital Planet as they had stock and could offer twenty-four hour delivery. Including a R60 courier fee the cost came to R270. On Saturday morning I was in Somerset Mall, popped into Incredible Connection and found that their price would have been R299.95.
A little later we were in PNA where my wife was buying some pens. I noticed that they had 8GB Verbatim USB sticks in stock and on finding they were R234, which I thought a good price, I bought one. On our way out of the mall I again stopped by Incredible Connection and found their price for the same USB stick was again R299.95. My wife suggested that Incredible Connection might be cutting costs by reducing the different price labels they need to print.
Clearly Incredible Connection are not the cheap option for tech items that I thought, so if you’re looking for such items I suggest you do some comparative shopping first so as not to find out that you paid a premium by buying from Incredible Connection.
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