New Dimensions

The people from Brakpan are quite often ridiculed. How this came about is a mystery to me. I suppose someone started with a joke and others added to his comments and it grew from there. We live in a world where we put people into boxes with labels. Most often it is cruel and incorrect. Fortunately, someone's story comes along that changes our perspective. Yesterday I accompanied my wife to her uncle's birthday party in Brakpan. The Maps app on my iPhone gave me conflicting information so I had to use intuition to home in on the venue. Luckily my decision was correct and then the voice on my wife's smartphone announced that we were at the right place. Nice! all this technology that we carry with us. Well, we pulled into the parking area and went to meet the people. First up were some folks standing outside by the braai fires - I was glad that we wouldn't have to wait too long before we could get our meat on. Her family was very glad to see my wife Maggie since w

Back in 1978, we were living in Tsumeb in Namibia where I was working for the mine. This was where I discovered the purest form of flying. It was by accident, but I didn't know it at the time. Our house was situated two blocks from the local airfield that belonged to the mine. Every so often a roaring could be heard when the company plane approached for landing or prepared for take-off. I always loved planes and the noise never bothered me. I usually went outside to watch. I'm not sure how it happened but I decided to visit the airfield and discovered that there was a model radio control flying club right next to the main runway. One of the members suggested that I order a kit from Cape Town if I wanted to join. I decided to leave things in his hands and a few weeks later my first radio controlled glider arrived. It took me quite a while to build the glider and it turned out looking fine. My new friend provided the radio control equipment and the day arrived when we m

The Matric Farewell at Maranatha Christian School on 13 October 2017 was a special occasion for me because I could try out my Canon 1DX Mark II in ever-changing late afternoon lighting conditions. The addition of a decent flashlight contributed to my success. The photo above of a stunning couple made life even easier.  I only needed to make a tiny adjustment to brighten the photo ever so slightly. It was very sharp just the way I took it. The girl's makeup was picture perfect. When I enlarged it for a closer look in Photoshop it was perfectly focused even when I zoomed right into their faces. This is a close crop from a portrait picture and all the fine detail is there. I couldn't have asked for better results. They arrived in a shiny DKW car. A closeup in the car. The couple have just arrived - car in the background They got the royal treatment arriving on the red carpet. This is the same photo as the one at the top (uncropped).

Ray-Ban Aviators sunglasses have always been my first choice in sunglasses and BMW my premium brand of motorcycle. Two things very dear to me. But there's a mystery behind this story on a particular day going back ten years from today. It flashed back into my mind and I decided to share it with you. This picture is almost exactly as I remember it. It was a sunny day with puffy clouds chasing each other against a bright blue sky - the perfect day to don my favourite Ray-Bans. After many years I managed to acquire a magnificent BMW 1200 RT motorcycle and I climbed aboard for my trip to the centre of Johannesburg. Nothing compares to the exhilaration of riding one of those machines. Travelling in a car doesn't come near. The trip into the city was fantastic and I felt like the king of the road. Midday traffic was busy and I parked my bike two blocks away from the Carlton Centre. Being in a hurry to get to the Foto Shop in the centre I grabbed my films and walked brisk