TRUNKS OF LOVE

THEY SAY AN ELEPHANT NEVER FORGETS and I can only add that experiencing elephants will be something you will never forget.

My trip to Botswana, Africa, was one of the highlights of my travels. To be so close-up to nature and completely surrounded by the wild is magical, almost surreal. You feel emotions well up inside that are hard to explain or contain. 

Watching a large herd of elephant rush down to the river’s edge to bath and play is just overwhelming and the experience leaves you breathless. The interactions between elephants are so human and heart-warming. As with any little clumsy creatures, the babies can keep you entertained for hours. They are infinitely adorable! Take a look...

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

"A Diamond Is Forever" is the catch phrase used by the De Beers mining company to market diamonds, and Ian Fleming’s 1956 James Bond novel and movie, 

Diamonds Are Forever.

The De Beers advertising campaign in the 1940’s is one of the most successful ever created. It turned the diamond into a symbol of LOVE, and the more expensive the diamond, the more love. They used Hollywood to get momentum, giving diamonds to movie stars to wear on screen and in public. Credit for making diamonds into such popular tokens of love and eternity goes mostly to the early days of Hollywood and the first legendary movie divas like Mae West, Greta Garbo and Rita Hayworth. 

Around 1950, they started using the "A Diamond Is Forever" tagline in their print advertising, and it accomplished their goal of positioning diamonds as something you buy and never get rid of - much like the romantic vision of love.  LOVE, ETERNITY, ROMANCE, FIDELTY, PERFECTION, SUPREMACY  are some symbols that are now closely connected with diamonds. People were convinced that a diamond engagement ring was essential, and that the quality of the diamond correlated with the love the man had for his woman. Unlike precious metals, diamonds consistently continue to increase in value as engagement rings are constantly being purchased, but are rarely resold.

                How can we forget Shirley Bassey's title track to James Bond's movie Goldfinger

Let Love Sparkle on !!!

PHOTOGRAPH LIKE MONET

DON'T JUST DUMP IT ....TURN ON YOUR IMAGINATION Photographers are encouraged to be ruthless in deleting any shots that are ordinary or simply not good enough to be proud of. I, however, feel that we can challenge ourselves to take our most awful boo-boos and change them artistically to create something totally new. I have created some great 'backgrounds' and 'modern art' doing this. I invariably discard them at some stage, but the time spent fiddling around with adjustments is therapy in itself. This week I pulled my car over to take a photograph of a lovely sea view but was almost blown away by gale force winds. Before jumping straight back into my car, I took a quick snapshot of the leaves on a tree blowing around in a frenzy. The picture was a disastrous blur, but when I looked more closely I suddenly saw what looked like my very own Monet of sorts!
Claude Monet was a famous French painter whose work gave a name to the art movement Impressionism, which was concerned with capturing light and natural forms.  Monet's Water Lily Pond

Erika's photo unedited and uncropped - just as it turned out

You get the gist of it...whatever you create you attach whatever meaning you want to it...then leave it behind and move on to create again.

EAT BREAKFAST OFF A SHOVEL !!!

"THERE'S A GREAT BIG COLOURFUL WORLD OUT THERE" 

Making every moment count  is something we all enjoying doing especially when we find the opportunity to spend time with someone we don’t get to see often.  That’s exactly why my youngest brother and I decided to explore Cullinan, a small town, rich in history, 30 km east of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.

The town is named after diamond magnate Sir Thomas Cullinan and on 25 June 1905, the famed Cullinan Diamond, the largest in the world at 3,106 carats was discovered. 

We strolled through the quaint main street, lined with Jacaranda and Oak trees and sandstone cottages, now used as shops and restaurants. The place was buzzing with visitors in and out of the antique shops, coffee shops and arts and crafts stalls.
 After hours of looking for interesting GEMS,  antiques and second hand 'finds' we settled down for a very late breakfast at Oppistasie, a full a-la-cart restaurant in the old station building, built in 1902 and situated literally on the railroad tracks. 
The food was served on shovels with short handles...a real talking point!

THE SMOKE THAT THUNDERS

There are experiences which are simply outright awe-inspiring that you could add to your bucket list too!!! 

https://youtu.be/CpaVFe9a2bA 

In February this year I was able to tick off another of my ‘bucket list’ items....a magical trip to experience the Victoria Falls, a waterfall in southern Africa on the Zambezi River, at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Local people call the falls "Mosi-oa-Tunya" - the smoke that thunders.  They could not have expressed it better. You literally get ‘misted over’, even soaking wet, by the spray of the falls. While some visitors wore raincoats or kept a safety distance from the drop of between 90m and 107m into the Zambezi Gorge, the thrill seekers stood dangerously on the edge of the gorge, deafened and exhilarated by the thunderous roar of the water. It is not hard to see why this spot is one of the most spectacular natural wonders of the world.  With an average of 550,000 cubic metres of water plummeting over the edge every minute, I remain as much inspired as David Livingstone must have been in the 1860's.

Photo Theme: FEATHERS... "Some say angels are near when feathers appear"