Innehållsförteckning för November 2014 från go!

Travelling with a photographer can be a pain. Just ask my wife. We’ll be driving along and suddenly I’ll swerve off the road and run off into a field with my camera bag. When I return to the car, I’ll promise that this time was the last time, only to repeat the exercise when the road crests the next rise and the view is inevitably better. Photography is a fantastic hobby because you can never master it. Landscapes, light, people, animals… you can’t control these things. Even the pros will admit that they learn something new every time they go out into the veld. This month we’ve put together a 30-page photography special for beginners and enthusiasts alike. Find out where to go for prize-winning wildlife images on page 58,…

Fly a kite in Muizenberg The 20th International Kite Festival will be held in Muizenberg, Cape Town, on the first weekend of November. This colourful occasion attracts kiters from around the world, plus thousands of spectators. There will be kite displays, competitions, workshops, demonstrations and food stalls. All funds raised go to Cape Mental Health. Entrance fee: R30 per adult; R10 per child under 12. Where? Zandvlei, Muizenberg When? 1 & 2 November More info: 021 447 9040; capementalhealth.co.za Klein-Kariba is open again The popular ATKV resort Klein-Kariba near Bela-Bela reopened in September this year after closing six months ago to repair flood damage. On 13 March this year, a nearby river burst its banks and caused nearly R50 million worth of damage to electrical wiring, water pipes and sewerage…

It’s good to know a few survival skills when you’re hiking in a wild place, starting with always knowing in which direction you’re supposed to be going… Find north using your watch. Facing the sun, position a twig at 12 noon on an analogue watch so that the shadow lines up with 12. This is how you know you’re facing in the right direction. Then draw an imaginary line that bisects the angle between the shadow and the current position of the hour hand. This is north. Find south using the stars. Locate the Southern Cross. There are a few clusters that look similar to this constellation, but the true Southern Cross has two bright pointers (Alpha and Beta Centauri) nearby. Then draw an imaginary line from the apex of…

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi & Maputaland Join go! and Mpafa on an unforgettable eight-day tour of northern KwaZulu-Natal. Experience Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve and the coastal beauty of St Lucia and iSimangaliso, as we travel north to the wild beaches of Maputaland and Kosi Bay. We’ll also spend time in Tembe Elephant Park and end the journey in Ithala Game Reserve. Bring your family and your vehicle, and let’s go find some adventure. TOUR DETAILS Dates: 23 – 30 November 2015 How long is the tour? 8 days, 7 nights Departure point: Ulundi, KwaZulu-Natal End point: Ithala Game Reserve Accommodation: Luxury chalets and guesthouses Cost: R13 650 per adult; single supplement additional 30 % Botswana, Caprivi & Victoria Falls If you’ve been itching to explore Botswana and the Caprivi, join us on an 11-day…

What’s inside? WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY The nine best places to get prize-winning images. Action guaranteed! – 58 TAKE YOUR PIC A selection of top reader photos, plus why we think they’re great. – 69 DARKROOM Explore the brave new world of Instagram and cellphone photography. – 75 PORTFOLIO An eight-page celebration of light, the most important aspect of photography. – 78 CAMERA GUIDE Looking for a new camera? We’ve chosen 17 cameras and smartphones for travel, wildlife and outdoor photography. – 86…

FOR BEGINNERS If you want to capture family memories at the seaside and take decent animal photos in the Kruger, you need an uncomplicated camera with a versatile zoom lens. 1 Canon SX510 HS See that blurry dot in the distance? Is it a rock or a lion? With the 30x optical zoom on this inexpensive point-and-shoot, you’ll be able to find out in no time. Highlights: The camera is easy to operate and the 12,1-megapixel sensor uses the latest technology to reduce noise and enhance images taken in low light. The “Zoom Framing Assistant” helps you maintain focus while you’re following a galloping springbok, and the optical image stabilisation will ensure you get a sharp shot of it before the cheetah brings it down. Niggles: There’s no option to…

My mom makes the best curry lamb sosaties. She insists it’s the marinade, but no one can cook lamb over the coals like she does. It might seem like the men in our family are the braai masters: They stand around with tongs and opinions about the best type of wood and the ideal grid position. But in reality, my mom calls the shots. In the braai movie of my life, she is the mafia boss – the one who gives orders without many words; who with a solemn nod of the head signals that the grid should be lowered an inch. And when she squints ever so slightly, you know it’s time to take the sosaties off the braai – no questions asked. Like any good don – or…

My husband Scott Soper and I are on an 18-month journey around southern and eastern Africa. We’re travelling in our 1973 Series III Land Rover named Ndoto, which means “dream” in Swahili. It’s truly a trip of a lifetime – we’ve clocked more than 30 000 km in 10 countries so far. I took this photo on a beach in Lutoboka Bay on Bugala Island, part of the Ssese Islands archipelago in Uganda. The archipelago is made up of 84 islands in the north-western corner of Lake Victoria. Scott insisted on setting up our camp like this – he’d always wanted to surprise me with our own over-water bungalow! Our time in Lutoboka Bay was one of the highlights of the trip thus far. We read, napped and enjoyed the…

Alice Inggs Alice recently joined the team as a journalist. For her first story, she did a wild hike in Namaqualand (p 38). So this was your first time in the Northern Cape? Yes. The topography of Namaqualand was more varied than I’d expected. There’s more than just rocks and dust up north. The landscape is also mostly unchanged. You can imagine yourself as one of Lawrence Green’s prospecting characters in search of the fabled copper mountains. Advice for a multi-day hike? Keep a bottle of Energade handy at all times. Neon electrolyte goodness. What do you never leave home without? Sunblock. Dream summer holiday? I went to the Seychelles once as a child and I’d go back for the ox carts on La Digue and the amazing kiwi fruit…

Meet the author Jerry Buirski is well known in local scuba-diving circles. He’s a wreck hunter, spearfisherman and a scientific observer with more than 1 400 sea days on Antarctic trips alone. You Should Have Been Here Yesterday! is filled with vivid anecdotes from his life at sea. Where does your love of the ocean come from? My best holidays have always been at the seaside, ever since I was a kid. My dad taught me how to fish and I spent hours practising the perfect cast with a Penn reel. Later I started snorkelling at Infanta and diving in my uncle’s old diving suit. What inspired you to write the book? I wrote a chapter about my shark encounters for Al J Venter’s book Shark Stories (2012). A few…

You can watch the National Geographic channel and Gorillas in the Mist all you want, but there’s nothing that prepares you for that first breathless moment when you come within metres of a group of wild mountain gorillas, deep in a central African rainforest. Lock eyes with a 200 kg silverback and all the other wildlife experiences you’ve had – seeing leopards, lions and rhino in the bush – pale in comparison. Humbled doesn’t quite begin to describe the feeling of spending time with these great apes, who are thought to share 98 % of their genes with us, as they casually go about their daily business. It’s not quite a camping trip to the Kruger – tracking mountain gorillas involves flying halfway across the continent and spending more than…

It’s the saddest selfie in history: Farthest South, 17 January 1912. Captain Robert Scott and his men had just found a devastating letter at the South Pole. The frozen message was left in an ice cairn by the unstoppable Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, confirming that Amundsen had been the first human to reach the southernmost point on earth. Amundsen had beaten the five-man Scott party by just a month. With hollow eyes gawping out of sooty, frost-bitten faces, Scott and his men look like a gang of Victorian chimney sweeps. They had just man-hauled for 1 300 km across the world’s coldest, highest, driest and windiest wilderness. The look on their faces says it all: If you’re not the first, it doesn’t count. Scott’s men perished on the return…

Jon Minster, assistant editor @jonminster VSCO Cam is the Leatherman of photography apps – it does a little of everything – but it works best as an image-editing tool. You can adjust exposure, contrast and tint, or apply one of many interesting filters. After you’re done editing, you can post your photo to Instagram, or you can share it to your “Grid”, which is your home on the vsco.co  website. You can browse other photographers’ Grids and get inspiration. The app is available for iOS and Android. Cyril Klopper, web editor @cyril_klopper I’m a fan of Wood Camera for shooting and editing pics. What I really like is its lightning-quick loading time and the impressive collection of filters that add texture to your photos. Some, like the Galaxy…

I turn off the N1 and a kilometre later the bakkie’s tyres are singing on gravel. I breathe out, happy that the snake of long-haul trucks in my rearview mirror has been replaced by plumes of dust, and little else. “Little else” is the theme for the day. The Moordenaars Karoo isn’t known for its roadside attractions – there isn’t a farm stall or Wimpy toasted cheese in sight. In terms of distance, there’s not much to separate this gravel route to Sutherland from the tarred alternative along the R354. The gravel route will take a little longer, but what’s the rush? This is beautiful country and the kudus are as sneaky as the Laingsburg speed cops: You might not see them, but you can bet they’re there… I ease…

A successful sosatie is a balanced mix of meat or fish with veggies or fruit – and an all-important marinade. It’s a combination of ingredients lovingly concocted, skewered and braaied. There might not be any skewering and braaiing when it comes to wine, but getting a good mix of flavour notes is just as important. The best way to do that is to go for a blend. A good blend not only tastes delicious, it’s also great at taking on the complex flavours in food. The Spier Signature cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz blend (2013, R54), for instance, is excellent with a braai. It’s far more common to see cabernet sauvignon and merlot mixed together and labelled as a“bordeaux-style blend”. But the addition of shiraz brings a lovely smoky spiciness to…

Vingerklip, Namibia Vingerklip is one of Namibia’s most remarkable rock formations and there’s no mistaking why. Like a solitary stubby pencil it juts out of the landscape, shaved down over millennia by the Ugab River. This river has also erased the surrounding high land, working away at the canyons that used to be found in this area until only a few solitary stone pillars remained. The rock finger stands on a hilltop 929 m above sea level. The rock itself is 35 m high. You’re not permitted to climb the formation, but you can make the short walk from the parking lot to the base of the finger. From this position, you have a 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape. It’s an experience you won’t forget in a hurry. Where?…

Rik Rhino surveillance camera Unlike other camera traps, the Rik Rhino RhinoCam doesn’t wait for you to fetch it at the end of the month to download the pics. As soon as this surveillance camera spots a Knysna ellie or a yeti, it sends a photo via MMS directly to your cellphone or e-mail address using a GPRS antenna. Yes, you no longer have to leave someone in the campsite to guard your possessions when you go for a game drive. The RhinoCam will let you know if someone is trying to run off with your Weber. Farmers can also mount cameras to gates to monitor access, or at water points to check when pumps need to be tended. The camera shoots 8-megapixel images or 60-second video clips and is…

Famous Dinosaurs of Africa by Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan (Struik Nature, R130) If you’ve visited the South African Museum one too many times, this book will satisfy your young dino enthusiasts. Famous Dinosaurs of Africa goes beyond the well-known T. Rex and Triceratops and introduces the “terrible lizards” that once roamed our continent, including Rugops (“wrinkle-face”) and Nqwebasaurus (the only Xhosa-named dino). Colourful illustrations, size scales and fact boxes will interest those with even the shortest attention spans, as well as cultivate an interest in our fascinating palaeontological heritage. A must-have reference for school projects. – Alice Inggs Behaviour briefs: Quick guide to southern and East African mammal behaviour by Chris and Mathilde Stuart (Struik Nature, R50) Ever wonder why tsessebe high-step, springbok pronk and dik-dik use dung middens? In this pocket…

1 Obey the instructions of your guide at all times. Gorillas are wild animals and there’s a strict protocol to follow when you visit them. Don’t have a staring contest with a silverback – you’ll lose! And turn off your flash. 2 You’ll be close to the gorillas so you don’t need a long lens. A combination of a wide-angle zoom like a 24 – 70 mm and a regular 70 – 200 mm lens will cover all the bases. If you don’t have a D-SLR, don’t despair, a point-and-shoot will do. Just switch off all the beeps and sounds. 3 Lighting in the forest can be tricky. You might be in full shade (good) or in dappled shade (not as good). Check your exposure constantly because the dark gorillas…

Wild Shots is Africa’s most respected annual gathering of top wildlife photographers, where the power of photography to educate, inspire and conserve is discussed. Top nature photographers will present their latest work, tell tales from the field, lead workshops and debate hot industry topics. Wild Shots is open to everybody: professional, amateur and budding photographers, plus nature enthusiasts. SPEAKERS INCLUDE WHEN  Saturday 15 November from 9 am to 6 pm. WHERE  University of Cape Town Main Campus COST There will also be two workshops on Sunday 16 November. See the website for more details. For questions, or to register: www.wildshotsevent.com  info@wildshotsevent.com…

What a wagon! Francois Potgieter Nikon D7100 Nikon 14 – 24 mm lens FRANCOIS WRITES: I was in the Tankwa Karoo about seven years ago, where I saw two old ox wagons and a steam tractor in a farmyard. The image stayed in the back of my mind so I sought out the same spot when I visited again this year. I visited on two afternoons – luckily there were some clouds in the sky on the second day, which enhanced the sunset. TOAST SAYS: This photo has a fistful of ingredients that make it special. At its core is the ox wagon, which looks like it could tell you a thousand stories. Then there’s the soft, warm afternoon light that seems to be draped over everything. And of course…