Street photo in San Francisco...

I caught these two old timers resting/sleeping in the winter sun on a bench at the pier in San Francisco. It was quite cold and the winter sun was welcome. Again as we said before, with age comes more sitting around on benches, - and why not?

They looked dressed for this morning out, like it is the highlight of their day. I liked the way the old man had the newspaper on-top of his head to shade the sun.

1st of December...

With the fear of sounding like everyone, -  can you believe it is the 1st of December already?
As we go into the festive season I want to wish all of you a peaceful time.
Always remember what this time of the year means and where all Hope lies and spend it with your loved ones.

                                Imagine - John Lennon, Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York.

Street photo in Prague...

We were coming out of the Starbucks in Prague, - a place we frequently visit on our travels, and were standing, thinking where we should go-to next when I spotted the above scene.

The old man was talking to a few pigeons on the ground next to him. He was waiting for the tram and probably started talking out loud as we so many times do. (Although we won't always admit it) None of the people in the restaurant behind him noticed, - witch is sad as this old man was probably going to an empty home with no one to talk to?

So with age comes more sitting around on benches. Luckily God provided winged friends to talk to and get some of us through the day!

Street photo in Barcelona...

I made this image in the streets of Barcelona when my family and I traveled there this year. It reminds me so much of how quick life races by. Before we know it, if we are lucky, we are the one sitting on the bench feeding the pigeons.

What I noticed about the couple was the look on the old man's face, - almost a sneer of annoyance as the food he was feeding the pigeons are finished, or because the wife wanted to get home so she could get the flowers in water?

The wife is sitting shading her face from the sun with flowers. Was the flowers a gift from him or did she buy it to brighten-up her day?

Open mine shoot...

Just a short blog today, - as his time of the year we are at our busiest and there is very little time to touch ground and as you know, rather busy than sitting idly around.
So I did a shoot today at an open mine where they are taking grade of rocks and mixing it for building purposes. Quite interesting if rocks and that kind of thing rocks your boat.

Obviously I can't show you much as the client needs to approve the layout and the whole brochure.
But just to show you it is not always glamour and models in the Advertising World/Photographic world here is a panoramic I took of  part of the mine.

                                            7 images stitched together around 50 MB J-PEGS

On days were the shoot is not so interesting as what you had imagined, I always try to chat more with the people that work at the said place. On this occasion we had a gentleman by the name of Piet who showed us around and organized the trucks, access and whatever we needed. What an interesting and friendly guy.  He speaks in a soft voice and can communicate with the workers in three different native tongues!
Piet made a hot summers day very interesting and told me that his background is actually Tobacco Farming!
As Forest Gump said himself, - Life is like a box of chocolates, - you never know what you will get?

So to Piet and all his workers in the mine today, - have a great one!

Toddlers, - hordes of them...

After I was recently interviewed by a New York based photographic company it became clear to me that the world outside Africa have a blurred view of some of the real, everyday problems the normal parents face in their day-to-day lives. As with all parents they want the best for their children but reality is often far removed from what they want and what they can do.

Please don't get me wrong, - this is NOT a black/white race thing! I see the same thing in rural areas as well as in city/populated areas, - children goes to schools, private or government, black and white and after school there is no one at home to supervise and so they roamed the streets. Many parents leave home early in the morning and return from work often late in the day. What to do with the children in order to make sure the idle hand are not up to mischief?

It is people such as Mary-Jane that identified this problem and decided to do something about it. She had very little resources but that didn't detour her, she started a day care center that cares for more that 40 pre-school toddlers and young ones.

If you look at the picture above you will notice that although Mary-Jane don't own a lot she gives so much with all her heart. I also have to point out that on the day we visited the pre-school a lot of parents did not bring their children as they didn't want their children photo/video-graphed.

Not only does Mary-Jane play, care and do activities with the children, she and her helpers teach the children to read and write, paint and teach life-skills to them. The children get a warm plate of food at least once a day. Mary-Jane does all this with her own money. Her husband is working and they are doing all this with the salary he earns and small donations some parents contribute to the center. Some people are very poor and cannot contribute anything.

The love that i saw between Mary-Jane, her helpers and the children are heart-warming. One could really see that there is a very strong band between them and that the children are enjoying themselves very much at the care-center. With some-one like Mary-Jane watching over their children, I am sure the parents have one less problem to worry about.

Of old people in rural areas...

It was a drive and a half to get to the far-off rural village in Giyani in the Northern part of the country. As with so many other rural parts in our country it is the same here, - the youth are leaving the rural areas as soon as they finished school and head for the cities in search of jobs. This leaves the older generation behind with no one to care for him or her.

Now these old people are left behind with nobody to help them do the normal day-to-day things we take for granted. Sure, some of the children send their parents money but a most are left without care. Some are sick and need care and medicine, food, cleaning of homes and help with washing themselves.

It is here that a young man saw what was happening and decided to extend a helping hand towards these old people. Earnest got a few willing helpers together and started a project where they go from house to house to make sure all the elders are taken care of. He sees that they take the right medicine on the correct times, help with the cleaning of their homes and help to wash the old ones.

He also established a community kitchen where all the old people that he care for come together once a day and receives a worm meal. Some old people have to be helped to this gathering and it is the only social interaction they get with others.

Here is Earnest with his community of old people that he cares for...

Of cause it is not only old people staying behind in the villages but also very young children. Earnest is also trying to educate these youngsters to care for themselves as well as for the elders.

As the sun sets over this far off place in the country, these old people can sleep a bit better knowing that there are people caring for them.