Camps Bay Fire
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Fire can be a really dynamic thing, seeming to be almost alive at times, possessed at one moment with demonic powers, and at another moment with playful fairies. Great shots! Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
Sensitivity and ethnic diversity means celebrating difference, not hiding from it. - Christian Graus
Every line of code is a liability - Taka MuraokaMarc Clifton wrote: Fire can be a really dynamic thing, seeming to be almost alive at times, possessed at one moment with demonic powers, and at another moment with playful fairies Indeed and my photos do it no justice. I spent a good two hours just standing there amongst other onlookers and firemen staring at the scene, was amazing. There would be quite periods where the fire was just advancing over grass land and then it would find a pine tree in it's path. The fire would lick it's base and then start climbing the bark, about half way up it would suddenly explode in flame and the whole scene would light up. I only had ISO 200 film on me unfortunatley and there were plenty of amazing shots I tried, vainly, to get which never came out. Great ones of beautiful homes sillouheted by the two story high flames. One scene I simply could not get in particular would have been brilliant, like photo journalist award winning brilliant. It was this half finished house on stilts totally back lit by the fire as firemen and cop cars stood around making sure the wooden frame did not go up. I kicked myself repeatedly for not having a clue how to take the shot :(( LOL at one point I was setting up my tripod to get a stable long shot and then someone would turn on their garden sprinklers and I would have to high tail it out of there. Plenty of other photographers around too, all drawn to the area like moths to a flame. And my car is a wreck this morning. Congealed ash and mud all over it from trying to get to good vantage points. The things we do :-D I definitley need to learn to take better night shots though.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Was heading home last night at about 1am and happened to look up to see Table Mountain backlit by a huge red bloom of smoke. Turns out Camps Bay, which is on the other side of the mountain, was burning. I managed to make my way through the maze of luxury homes to the edge of the suburb on the side of the mountain and got some shots. Lots of cops and firemen around, but there was not much they could do as high winds were driving the fire in all directions. No homes were destroyed though. It was pretty hectic being so close and even though most of my shots came out badly these two worked. Carpe Diem threatened (I love this shot... technically not that great, but the words "carpe diem" on the front gate and the flame lit smoke behind it made me grin, sieze the day, or rather sieze your possesions and evacuate! :-D ) Fire line: Just behind this row of houses is a 50 meter fire break which is the only thing that saved them. (sorry for the artifacts in the photo. I am still looking for a good photo lab in Cape Town, one that cleans their scanning equipment :) )
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaGreat pics, but setting fire to neighbourhoods kinda precludes you from getting the credit for taking photos afterwards, just FYI. ;P Cheers, Simon "The day I swan around in expensive suits is the day I hope someone puts a bullet in my head.", Chris Carter.
my svg article -
Great pics, but setting fire to neighbourhoods kinda precludes you from getting the credit for taking photos afterwards, just FYI. ;P Cheers, Simon "The day I swan around in expensive suits is the day I hope someone puts a bullet in my head.", Chris Carter.
my svg articleSimonS wrote: Great pics Thanks :) SimonS wrote: but setting fire to neighbourhoods kinda precludes you from getting the credit for taking photos afterwards, just FYI. I bow to your experience Simon... ;)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Great pics, but setting fire to neighbourhoods kinda precludes you from getting the credit for taking photos afterwards, just FYI. ;P Cheers, Simon "The day I swan around in expensive suits is the day I hope someone puts a bullet in my head.", Chris Carter.
my svg articleDamn, I was going to say something exactly similar! :rolleyes: Nice pitcures Paul. ;)
David Wulff http://www.davidwulff.co.uk
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Was heading home last night at about 1am and happened to look up to see Table Mountain backlit by a huge red bloom of smoke. Turns out Camps Bay, which is on the other side of the mountain, was burning. I managed to make my way through the maze of luxury homes to the edge of the suburb on the side of the mountain and got some shots. Lots of cops and firemen around, but there was not much they could do as high winds were driving the fire in all directions. No homes were destroyed though. It was pretty hectic being so close and even though most of my shots came out badly these two worked. Carpe Diem threatened (I love this shot... technically not that great, but the words "carpe diem" on the front gate and the flame lit smoke behind it made me grin, sieze the day, or rather sieze your possesions and evacuate! :-D ) Fire line: Just behind this row of houses is a 50 meter fire break which is the only thing that saved them. (sorry for the artifacts in the photo. I am still looking for a good photo lab in Cape Town, one that cleans their scanning equipment :) )
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaThose are pretty awesome - how many films have you gone through practising over the last month? :)
I knew it would end badly when I first met Chris in a Canberra alleyway and he said 'try some-it won't hurt you'... -Christian Graus on Code Project outages His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to he wall**-Shaun Wilde**
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Those are pretty awesome - how many films have you gone through practising over the last month? :)
I knew it would end badly when I first met Chris in a Canberra alleyway and he said 'try some-it won't hurt you'... -Christian Graus on Code Project outages His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to he wall**-Shaun Wilde**
Megan Forbes wrote: how many films have you gone through practising over the last month? 12 spools so far, can't even afford 2 minute noodles now ;) Welcome back btw :)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Damn, I was going to say something exactly similar! :rolleyes: Nice pitcures Paul. ;)
David Wulff http://www.davidwulff.co.uk
David Wulff wrote: Nice pitcures Paul Thanks Dvaid.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Was heading home last night at about 1am and happened to look up to see Table Mountain backlit by a huge red bloom of smoke. Turns out Camps Bay, which is on the other side of the mountain, was burning. I managed to make my way through the maze of luxury homes to the edge of the suburb on the side of the mountain and got some shots. Lots of cops and firemen around, but there was not much they could do as high winds were driving the fire in all directions. No homes were destroyed though. It was pretty hectic being so close and even though most of my shots came out badly these two worked. Carpe Diem threatened (I love this shot... technically not that great, but the words "carpe diem" on the front gate and the flame lit smoke behind it made me grin, sieze the day, or rather sieze your possesions and evacuate! :-D ) Fire line: Just behind this row of houses is a 50 meter fire break which is the only thing that saved them. (sorry for the artifacts in the photo. I am still looking for a good photo lab in Cape Town, one that cleans their scanning equipment :) )
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaAwesome, *they used one of my pictures on a local news site, News24.co.za. I emailed the editor some photos as they had no coverage of the blaze. Ok so sue me, I am chuffed :-D * If the link does not show my photo for you anymore (might have moved onto other news), then view this screen capture
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Awesome, *they used one of my pictures on a local news site, News24.co.za. I emailed the editor some photos as they had no coverage of the blaze. Ok so sue me, I am chuffed :-D * If the link does not show my photo for you anymore (might have moved onto other news), then view this screen capture
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaINFERNO: Residents in Camps Bay, Cape Town, on Wednesday night used garden hoses and sprinklers to keep a mountain fire away from their homes. The fire has since been contained. (Paul Watson) very nice :) I wonder, though, if this story[^] isn't somehow related... :suss:
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Shog9 The siren sings a lonely song - of all the wants and hungers The lust of love a brute desire - the ledge of life goes under
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INFERNO: Residents in Camps Bay, Cape Town, on Wednesday night used garden hoses and sprinklers to keep a mountain fire away from their homes. The fire has since been contained. (Paul Watson) very nice :) I wonder, though, if this story[^] isn't somehow related... :suss:
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Shog9 The siren sings a lonely song - of all the wants and hungers The lust of love a brute desire - the ledge of life goes under
Shog9 wrote: I wonder, though, if this story[^] isn't somehow related... You mean the fire was really a cat incinerator *Paul notices all the cat lovers cringe* out of control? :eek:
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Awesome, *they used one of my pictures on a local news site, News24.co.za. I emailed the editor some photos as they had no coverage of the blaze. Ok so sue me, I am chuffed :-D * If the link does not show my photo for you anymore (might have moved onto other news), then view this screen capture
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaWTF! Is News24 now exclusive to MWeb subscribers ? Wait... It works if I connect via the SAIX proxy server. Double WTF! :wtf:
Bruce Duncan, CP#9088, CPUA 0xA1EE, Sonork 100.10030
I can levitate birds... -
Marc Clifton wrote: Fire can be a really dynamic thing, seeming to be almost alive at times, possessed at one moment with demonic powers, and at another moment with playful fairies Indeed and my photos do it no justice. I spent a good two hours just standing there amongst other onlookers and firemen staring at the scene, was amazing. There would be quite periods where the fire was just advancing over grass land and then it would find a pine tree in it's path. The fire would lick it's base and then start climbing the bark, about half way up it would suddenly explode in flame and the whole scene would light up. I only had ISO 200 film on me unfortunatley and there were plenty of amazing shots I tried, vainly, to get which never came out. Great ones of beautiful homes sillouheted by the two story high flames. One scene I simply could not get in particular would have been brilliant, like photo journalist award winning brilliant. It was this half finished house on stilts totally back lit by the fire as firemen and cop cars stood around making sure the wooden frame did not go up. I kicked myself repeatedly for not having a clue how to take the shot :(( LOL at one point I was setting up my tripod to get a stable long shot and then someone would turn on their garden sprinklers and I would have to high tail it out of there. Plenty of other photographers around too, all drawn to the area like moths to a flame. And my car is a wreck this morning. Congealed ash and mud all over it from trying to get to good vantage points. The things we do :-D I definitley need to learn to take better night shots though.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaI think the hardest thing about night shots is lighting control. Equally hard, but opposite, is daylight snow photography (go find some snow, ha ha ha!). And along with that, is discovering that the human eye and brain do some amazing things that film just can't do by itself. In some ways, this is where a digital camera can really shine, if it has the ability to do gain adjustment on the fly (on a per pixel basis instead of applying gain on the entire image based on an average area). I haven't heard of this technology yet, though. Anyways, the point being that our perceptive system is constantly in motion and making, in essence, localized gain control adjustments. Furthermore, the brain actually puts in missing information and integrates what the moving eye sees, way before it hits our conscious perception. Quite the parallel processor, eh? The only way I've been able to come close to this is to carry around a large flash to provide the necessary front lighting and totally guess at the f-stop and exposure settings. There's a few professional films out there that are also highly forgiving, usually on the overexposure side of things. I've had good results with what would normally be horribly overexposed areas with these films, because it can really bring out the textures in the otherwise underexposed stuff. Don't ask me for any film recommendations though. I use a digital camera exclusively now (Sony DSC-F707) and love it. Incidentally, I had some fun once trying out film from different manufacturers. There was quite a difference between Fugi and Kodak because they lay down the emulsion layers differently, so I've heard. So Kodak is good for people shots and sunrises/sunsets and Fugi really brings out the blues and greens in nature shots. Unfortunately, the printing processes now do color correction and so the intrinsic differences in the film are often eliminated as part of this process. It's a shame, because when I've used color filters, the affect is not even noticeable. One thing I like about a digital camera is that I can see the immediate affects of the gain circuitry, and I've found that by sometimes taking a shot slightly off-center, I can get a better overall image, because of how the camera determines the gain. I imagine, on automatic setting, the same thing is true for a film camera. Even with a digital camera, it's still an art. That's what's so fun about it! Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulato
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WTF! Is News24 now exclusive to MWeb subscribers ? Wait... It works if I connect via the SAIX proxy server. Double WTF! :wtf:
Bruce Duncan, CP#9088, CPUA 0xA1EE, Sonork 100.10030
I can levitate birds...Bruce Duncan wrote: WTF! Is News24 now exclusive to MWeb subscribers ? Wait... It works if I connect via the SAIX proxy server. Double WTF! Ahh the wonders of South African DNS :-D I get times when all international sites do not work but local do. Pretty standard that. The FUBAR bit is when local sites refuse to work but international sites work fine. I hear they are laying a new line down the east coast of Africa which will have a nice 120gig pipe, can't wait!
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Damn, I was going to say something exactly similar! :rolleyes: Nice pitcures Paul. ;)
David Wulff http://www.davidwulff.co.uk
David Wulff wrote: something exactly similar What does that mean? "Oh, it was precisely the same, but slightly different." How does that work? ;P
I don't know whether it's just the light but I swear the database server gives me dirty looks everytime I wander past. -Chris Maunder Microsoft has reinvented the wheel, this time they made it round. -Peterchen on VS.NET
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David Wulff wrote: something exactly similar What does that mean? "Oh, it was precisely the same, but slightly different." How does that work? ;P
I don't know whether it's just the light but I swear the database server gives me dirty looks everytime I wander past. -Chris Maunder Microsoft has reinvented the wheel, this time they made it round. -Peterchen on VS.NET
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Awesome, *they used one of my pictures on a local news site, News24.co.za. I emailed the editor some photos as they had no coverage of the blaze. Ok so sue me, I am chuffed :-D * If the link does not show my photo for you anymore (might have moved onto other news), then view this screen capture
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
Now you've got your 1/4h of glory :) Congrats, a new career is begining :-D
Angels banished from heaven have no choice but to become demons Cowboy Bebop
KaЯl wrote: Congrats, a new career is begining LOL, well hobby at most. Tough earning good money out of photography and if you do manage to then it is normally after 20 years of learning and getting your work out there and into the right places. And my shots are not anywhere near worth buying... maybe one day :)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
David Stone wrote: How does that work? Like identical twins, i would guess.* *yes, hot female asian ones, Paul
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Shog9 The siren sings a lonely song - of all the wants and hungers The lust of love a brute desire - the ledge of life goes under
Shog9 wrote: *yes, hot female asian ones, Paul Ahh, velly well done tiny glasshopper, you ah learhning, yes, indeed. Hah so. :rolleyes: (Still I was going to comment on the "exactly similar" thing as well. It is strange, but not...)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa -
KaЯl wrote: Congrats, a new career is begining LOL, well hobby at most. Tough earning good money out of photography and if you do manage to then it is normally after 20 years of learning and getting your work out there and into the right places. And my shots are not anywhere near worth buying... maybe one day :)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South AfricaNot always. A friend of mine is photograph. He made small jobs for 5 years, then got one for a car magazine, which he's always working for. First he's paid approx. 100€ per picture in the magasine (generally between 5 to 10 pictures per week), and second cars makers lend him their newest cars so he can make the pictures. Nice, isn't it? :)
Angels banished from heaven have no choice but to become demons Cowboy Bebop
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Not always. A friend of mine is photograph. He made small jobs for 5 years, then got one for a car magazine, which he's always working for. First he's paid approx. 100€ per picture in the magasine (generally between 5 to 10 pictures per week), and second cars makers lend him their newest cars so he can make the pictures. Nice, isn't it? :)
Angels banished from heaven have no choice but to become demons Cowboy Bebop
KaЯl wrote: First he's paid approx. 100€ per picture in the magasine (generally between 5 to 10 pictures per week), and second cars makers lend him their newest cars so he can make the pictures. Nice, isn't it? That second bit would be payment enough for me :-D He must be quite good though. Care to tell me his name and which car magazine? No problem if you don't want to. I will be happy with photography wether people want to buy my shots one day or not. And probably if I did get paid then I would put the money back into better equipment and travel money so I can get those glorious shots :)
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
