Fotoeins Fotografie

location bifurcation, place & home

Posts tagged ‘Cape Town’

Bo-Kaap, Schotsche Kloof, Cape Town, South Africa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, forty-three

10 years ago, I went on an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

15 October 2012.

Deep pastel colours on one-storey houses are a signature for Cape Town’s “Bo-Kaap” (“Upper Cape”, in Afrikaans). I follow around the contours of Signal Hill to its southeastern slope; an easy walk into the neighbourhood has me constantly turning my head from one vivid house to the next. Known formerly as the Malay Quarter, Bo-Kaap was home to the Cape’s Malay and Muslim population from the 18th-century. After their emancipation, freed slaves began settling in this area of town in the 1830s, and it’s believed they painted their houses as independent and joyous expressions of their freedom. The image here is at the intersection of Wale Street and Chiappini Street, reflecting the neighbourhood’s history for openness and diversity.

I made the photo above on 15 Oct 2012 with a Canon EOS450D/Rebel XSi and the following settings: 1/500-sec, f/8, ISO200, and 23mm focal length (37mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-jtL.

Hout Bay, Hout Bay Beach, Constantiaberg, Cape Town, South Africa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: RTW10, forty-two

10 years ago, I began an around-the-world (RTW) journey lasting 389 consecutive days, from 24 December 2011 to 15 January 2013 inclusive.

14 October 2012.

At the southern tip of Africa, hopping on the City Sightseeing double-decker bus has proved efficient and convenient. Sure, it’s “touristy”. Sure, the double-decker bus sticks out with its bold colours. But the company’s “blue” route was a straightforward way to go from Cape Town south to Hout Bay.

For an early spring day in mid-October, conditions were cool and breezy, as expected for an area where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans converge. Next to Constantiaberg mountain, marine cloud spills from the top down into the bay. There’s time for a brisk walk along the beach, and there’s time to head inside and eat some fresh fish.

I made the photo above on 14 Oct 2012 with a Canon EOS450D/Rebel XSi and the following settings: 1/500-sec, f/8, ISO200, and 21mm focal length (34mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-kEd.

Table Mountain, Hoerikwaggo, Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, myRTW, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: man vs. nature, Cape Town vs. Table Mountain

13 October 2012.

The summit station of the Table Mountain aerial cableway is visible from the M62 road near Fiskaal in Happy Valley, Camps Bay, located in Cape Town, South Africa. The curvature of the man-made overhead electrical wiring whose age is at most a few decades mimic the mountain’s layered striations of grey and red sandstone whose geologic age is over 400 hundred million years. Table Mountain was once a coastal plain and/or a large river delta.

Most who see the pictures or visit Cape Town refer to the flat-topped landmark as “Table Mountain.” However, the indigenous Khoikhoi (Khoekhoe) nomads gave the name Hoerikwaggo (“mountain of the sea”) to the prominent geographic feature. When Dutch sailors arrived and their colonizers settled here, they called the mountain Tafelsberg, literally “table mountain”. The Cape Floral Region which includes Table Mountain was inscribed in 2004 as UNESCO World Heritage site. From the top of Table Mountain (Hoerikwaggo), you can have these north- and south-facing views.

During my year-long RTW, I made the photo on 13 October 2012 with the Canon 450D, 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/320-sec, f/8, ISO200, 53mm focal length (85mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-acs.

12 Apostles, South Atlantic Ocean, Clifton, Cape Town, South Africa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: The Apostles and South Atlantic, from Clifton (Cape Town)

There’s sharp ache and awareness, standing in this spot with this afternoon view of both mountains and ocean, here on South Africa’s southwestern coast. As a product of similar geographic conditions in Vancouver, Canada, the recognition seems like a remarkable coincidence some 16000 kilometres on the other side of the planet. At the tip of the African continent, this view south faces the Apostles Range towering over the affluent Cape Town suburb of Clifton and the South Atlantic Ocean.

I made this photo on 13 October 2012 with the Canon EOS450D (XSi), the 18-55 IS II zoom-lens, and the following settings: 1/640s, f/8, ISO200, 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7pL.

View from Table Mountain, Lion's Head, Robben Island, Cape Town Stadium, Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Cape Town from the top of the Table

With the accompanying aerial cableway, Table Mountain (Tafelberg) is one of the most visited and photographed sights in Cape Town, South Africa. The flattened summit is ideal for panoramas from an elevation of almost 1100 metres (3500 feet). Above, the north-facing vista includes the Victoria and Albert Waterfront, Robben Island in the harbour, Cape Town Stadium, Signal Hill, Lion’s Head, and Sea Point, a wealthy suburb of Cape Town.

Below, the south-facing vista includes the waters of both Indian and Atlantic Oceans, nearby Muizenberg and Hout Bay, as well as the mountains stretching south along the peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope which is hidden in the picture. The line-of-sight distances to Muizenberg and the Slangkoppunt Lighthouse are about 17 and 22 km, respectively.

View from Table Mountain, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Muizenberg, Chapman's Peak, Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa

As a part of my year-long RTW, I made this photo on 13 October 2012 with the Canon EOS450D (XSi) camera, EF-S 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/800s, f/8, ISO400, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7og.

Marina Swing Bridge, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: Cape Town to Vancouver, 16912 km

Where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet at the southern tip of the African continent, the winds can be fierce. The “tablecloth effect” is on full display, but despite the beautiful day in Cape Town, South Africa, no boats are out on the water due to high winds. Wandering in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, signposts at the Marina Swing Bridge indicate distances to destinations with which I’m familiar. As the crow flies to my birth-city of Vancouver, Canada, it’s a “mere” 16912 kilometres, 10509 miles, or 1.3 times the Earth’s diameter, which places me clear on the other side of the planet. (The antipode to Cape Town is closer to Honolulu than to Vancouver.)

I made this photograph on 15 October 2012 with the Canon EOS450D (XSi) camera, EF-S 18-55 kit-lens, and the following settings: 1/1000s, f/8, ISO200, and 18mm focal length (29mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7o5.

Nelson Mandela statue, Nobel Plaza, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town

Cape Town: remembering Nelson Mandela and 10 May 1994

On 27 April 1994, South Africa held its first post-apartheid elections with universal suffrage, where all people independent of gender and race could vote. The elections ushered the once-banned African National Congress (ANC) party into government. April 27 is Freedom Day, an annual national holiday in South Africa.

The ANC election victory brought another historic development. On 10 May 1994, Nelson Mandela was officially inaugurated as the first black person to be democratically elected President of South Africa.

2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the first freely run post-apartheid elections and of Nelson Mandela as elected President. National elections were held on 7 May 2014; these elections were the fifth held in the post-apartheid era, and the first held since Mandela’s passing in early-December 2013. With 18 years the minimum age for people to vote in South Africa, the 2014 elections included the first voting “born-free generation” who have never known a nation under apartheid.

Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk both won the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

South Africa Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Square, Cape Town, South Africa

4 Nobel Peace Prize laureates from South Africa

I made the two photos above at Cape Town’s Nobel Square in October 2012. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-45A.

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