Break for the weekend

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The past few months have flown by, mainly because mom has been traveling more than usual. Having her home for the weekend (only one this month), meant we had to do something and off the 3 of us went to Addo for the weekend.

Our first sighting was a the biggest dominant male in Addo, Vallie Moosa. He is a big tusker for sure, even on a distance with a telephoto lens.

From the biggest male to the possibly smallest, Stompie (meaning shorty), a name given to him on account of his half tail. He has had it rough, possibly attacked by predators just after birth.

From one baby to another, we saw but could not really photograph 2 baby Hyenas. The minder/mom was rolling around in the morning sun.

Boeta collected little flowers for mom every time he got a chance.

He was enjoying mom being with us and sharing the experience and he let her know on every occasion that he loved her. Sweet to see.

 

 

From our pup to African Shellduck chicks.

Next, we saw a maybe once in a life-time animal in the wild. The Brown Hyena came out the bushes right in front of us and moved over and away as fast as we saw it. I was shaking, had the wrong lens, but managed to grab a photo. This folks, the Brown Hyena, is 100 times more scarce to see in wild.

We were the only people to see it. We were starry eyed and the excitement was touchable.

Boeta was still sharing flowers.

Our last sighting for the day, more elephant bulls drinking water, but on this occasion the Bull let the warthogs know it was time to move on…

The main image of the post is Nyala mom and baby, I used to create a art piece.

 

Levels

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A little Triptych I did over the weekend from photos I took on our trip.

Just an additional note. If you want to link to my Facebook page let me know or Instagram. Just follow links on the words above.

Another quick miracle story

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This little man was born 2 days early, but those two days saved his life. He was born with a lung virus, which as far as I know they have not identified (not sure). In any case by the Monday, the day he should have been born, the hospital called the family together to say their goodbye’s as the blue boy could not get oxygen and was deteriorating rapidly.

Everybody was praying for him to pull through…

The Doctor then tried as a last resort to use a CO2 machine they use on Adults to pull the CO2 off his lungs. At this time he was hooked up to 15 machines to keep him alive.

The tide turned over the next few days and then the worry was brain damage, which also seems to be negative. When he was 1 month, 2 weeks ago, I offered to take a few shots for them.

Watching his proud Mom, who literally went through hell was great..

She is the only one that can kiss him…she had to wait 2 weeks before she could hold him for the first time – he weighed 1.7kg by then from the 3.6 kg he was born with.

He is back at 3.6 kg and past it. He is a fighter.

He has no comprehension about what transpired and already a mind of his own…very cute too!

Thinking of my dad

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I found an old scanned photo of my dad from the 1950’s. I just wanted to do something with it, so for the last few days I painted it, digitally.

The original scan is 56 kb in size and very blurred.

The only way to actually enjoy this was to start from scratch and paint it.

This is the result.

 

Update: My Dad did recognize himself and Mom said this is how he looked when he came to visit riding his bicycle nearly 60 km to her. That was 62 years ago.

 

Settling down to a rhythm

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It has been pretty hectic over the last year. So many new things to absorb. We are in a state of continuous flux right now, Little man going to see his new school today, I am continuing the pursuit of my new artistic life and mom is traveling even more.

Boeta turned 4 a month ago. How time flies. He is standing 112 cm tall and weighs nearly 21 kg. That means he is the average length of a 6-year-old right now. By all accounts he is doing well and bilingual enough to go to a English school, although it is our second language in the home.

We did take him on his birthday holiday this year again. We spend a few days in the Addo and then traveled to some other parks and new spots.

In the process we did a few mountain walks to waterfalls, which he enjoyed thoroughly.

So that is a quick update to the last 2 months. Have a great weekend.

 

Road trip

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I have been on the go now for a while, just arrived back for 48 hours…leaving tomorrow again. I am taking my boy on a Karoo trip to farms and wildlife rich open regions. Here are some things we have seen..

The Valley of desolation is awesome and standing on a rock for the second photo made my knees buckle a little.

In the same region we (Boeta and Me) saw wildlife like kudu, standing at the perfect angle with the sun rising behind him.

We saw many other animals and birds and I captured what I could. A favorite was the korhaan walking as they do (low) when they sense danger.

This is open semi-desert country, beautiful to my heart and eye.

We drove to another region about 200 km from this and found more grass-like Savannah.

Just a small sample of what I took. Later.

 

Collaborations

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I have been working on some art in Collaboration with Photographer Gabriel Olude. Using his model shoots (20 eventually) to create art I see with each photo. I am a talk to me type person and looking at the photos I go with the one that gets me going first.

The first image that I used was of a model where the image just said strength, strong, powerful. So I did something that I felt said that..

This is a modern strong confident woman, who sparkle in light, who stand in front of a cat protecting it as much as it does her, she demands respect and the maze indicates that you will have to work hard and earn your way to her heart. The map of Africa is not only her home but some say the heart of the world…

Secondly this image – It said – MYSTIQUE – and I wanted to do impressionism/abstract, which I did not really pull off, but this is the result…

Third and last for this set, I wanted abstract again with a model in the rainy streets..”DELIGHT” – Barefoot in the rain.

This was so much fun, I decided late last night to do another unrelated but similar style image called “Dejected”.

I even went as far as doing a room mock-up to see the result in a room.

 

Zebra

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drinking water

Nervously drinking

We came across this scene. A rare one indeed. A group of zebra drinking while being watched but not chased away by 3 bull elephants. They did chase them eventually.

Two of the male zebra got into a disagreement shortly after this and had a full go at each other. I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time and shot a series of photos. The best of the series…

Zebra fighting

Zebra fighting

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Zebra fight 2

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Zebra fight – rearing up

It shows the explosive power and agility of these normal docile animals. Each photo looks ominous, yet not one ended in a “hit” as the other animal managed to move or pull away in time.

Pin-up series

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I am practicing the art of pin-up’s from the 40-60’s. It is more to create a base to have in my portfolio. This would allow for people to see what is possible with a normal portrait photo given some more room to play. We need to explore and play – make things and life interesting.

My latest pin-up painting from a stock photo..

 

Woman in Kitchen

This is the 3rd of 5 pin-up’s I am planning to paint. The first 2 were just faces and I am building on this with more and more detail.

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It is a fun project. Will show you the last 2 once I have them sorted.

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Come play with me

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We saw this beautiful leopard back in 2015 and I just had to do something with this. I created this for your enjoyment of a beautiful, playful female leopard. Make no mistake, she was just as dangerous and it would have been silly to take her up on her offer.

The Healer

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The Healer

I thought one of the ways to enhance the blog in future was to not only give you an image or 5, but also speak more toward my feelings and the reasons for the work.

I will begin with saying that the whole family has the flu. This already had put me on this path of wanting to create an image with that theme. What led me to use the birds was actually very sad. The bird being held softly in her hands is in fact a swallow that was killed by a vehicle and I found it on my morning walk.

I photographed it with flowers and tar (maybe a future image), but being so fond of swallows since I can remember my overwhelming sadness for this loss and wish for it to fly again crept into this design and eventual composite. I used the Tern image to link the river and the ocean in the background with the model.

Hope this post in interesting enough that you would like to see more.

 

Reboot….

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Hi guys,

We are busy with the reboot of Rumbling Ocean. This includes manually removing posts, 20 at a time and associated photos. We need to create space again for more blogging.

Personally, I have had a few equipment updates and skill improvements, which should provide for interesting posts in the future. Post will also me more spaced better and both project and/or subject based.

We will do most of what we did, but the focus will shift a little away from Boeta as he grows older and more toward art and nature.

We have also un-followed all blogs (cleaning out the dead weight) for this new start, so expect a re-follow soon. We think it fair to focus on our old friends and followers and build new friends and followers.

Yesterday, I tried my hand at art flower photography…these are out the camera with a few textures added.

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Hope to see you on the other side of the reboot, if not thanks for following along over the last 3 odd years.

Adrian

Decisions…

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This blog has in many ways been the about the birth of our family, our life at the coast and development of all 3 of us as we went through the last 3 years. It started with the little man.

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It grew from there. Mom’s career developed more and more, the little man went through all the first growing phases and dad grew and made choices that for the first time seems to fit perfectly into his outlook on life and our family.

First I started to develop my photography and this is far from finished and then I got in touch with my artistic side again and started to give it space to grow. I listened to my inner self…

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This is leading me on lots of artistic adventures and roads I thought I would never travel. I am now fully committed to this adventure. I want to see where it leads me before my time is up.

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I have and am still learning to paint, physically and digitally.

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It is a tremendous road of learning and in no little part it is thanks to my wife and boy who supports me so much.

Am I saying this is the end…nope…this is the beginning.

I am trying to figure out how I will go forward from here with one aim, one blog. I will not be able to run all types of things anymore, need to simplify and focus, need to maximize time available. So forgive the slow responses and little interaction from us, we are still here and we will NOT disappear.

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We are looking toward the horizon and planning trying to make the best decisions for all 3 of us, based on the here and now. Words into action and dreams into reality.

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So as the sun sets on the this day we will be here tomorrow and the next, but with a vibrant new day and a new way of doing things. Thanks for the support over the last 3 years and hope you stay with us going forward…

HE HAS GROWN INTO A FINE YOUNG MAN!

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Dry summer

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It has been a dry start to 2017. We are in the midst of our summer and the rain is staying away. I am lucky because I planned a garden based on succulents, so I do not have to water in any case, but even the poor succulents are looking for rain now. We have daily fires everywhere in the Southern Part of South Africa now and the smoke smell keeps coming and going throughout the days as the winds shift.

Boeta is growing so quickly, it is scary. He is fully potty trained (we took our time and it turned out to be much less of the issue it is made to be). He is becoming more and more his own “man” with his own preferences and moods. He is our trooper living a life unlike most other 3 year-olds. Mom had to fly again and he was up at 3.30 am and eating croissants and watching planes at 5 am yesterday.

Here he is last night just before sunset, still laughing and enjoying life. You cannot but to admire his spirit.

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Have a great day.

Always great at Southern Point of Africa…

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We spent the first week of 2017 at Struis Bay, which some of the older followers may know as our most special place, holding deepest of meanings.

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As our little grows, it just become more special to us. He is enjoying the space and unique environment there too.

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We loved taking a drive, buying fish and chips at our favorite shop and eating it at the beach, sometimes in the car, other times sitting on the rocks.

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The real Southern Point of Africa has a whole different feel of ominous danger to it. Many a ship has gone down over the years. This part reminds us very much of our home, the rocks being more similar, but not as sharp and pointed.

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