SA Rocks

I have decided that it’s come to the point in the SA Rocks flickr group that the photographers need to be rewarded! We have loads and loads of incredible photographs.

I am going to try my hardest to provide as many of the photographers with exposure here as possible! I will link back to all of their websites/blogs/flickr accounts where I can. For now, let’s get going!

I’m going to start with Coda simply because he was one of the first and most active contributors in the SA Rocks photo-pool. Let’s not be too wordy about this all and simply let Coda’s work and words tell you more about him:

My journey into digital photography began 7 years ago, and I’ve have had a camera attached to my hip ever since. I’d best describe myself as a nature & landscape photographer: the result of growing up with a passion for the outdoors, Cape Town as my playground, and the luxury to travel around a region as beautiful and culturally diverse as Southern Africa.

I like to think that the phrase “Ready, fire, aim!” best describes the way that I approach my every day photography: with reckless abandon! Otherwise I make time to visualise a photo before I take it, which I learnt as a web designer during the initial design process. I also enjoy shooting panoramas, street art, live bands and night photography, while aspiring to the underwater and aerial fields. So it’s a big part of my life, but no more than a hobby and creative outlet. And for that reason the majority of my photos are freely available to share and remix for noncommercial purposes.

I first joined Flickr to easily photoblog a backpacking trip around Western Europe, but became addicted shortly afterwards and created my first group, for Cape Town. Three years later, I now administer 15 groups and have uploaded over 3,700 photos across 60 sets. When I’m not uploading or geo-tagging my own photos, then I’m commenting on or favouriting others. Needless to say I spend more time on Flickr than I probably should, but the feedback and inspiration I receive in return is enough motivation to continue. I also use Flickr to network and exchange ideas with other photographers (via meetups), to host a showcase of my design work, and to share my personal experiences on the web via screen shots.

My current equipment includes a Canon G7 compact, a cameraphone, Photoshop, AutoStitch for panos, and an eye for seeing everything as a potential photograph!”

I am personally enthralled by coda’s point, shoot, ask questions later approach to photography. I love watching my feed when his photos appear in the SA Rocks group! Thanks for your participation coda and may your lens never get scratched!

If you want to subscribe to the SA Rocks Flickr group feed click here now to grab the RSS.

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South Africans David Goldblatt and Barry Lategan are among 22 photographers from around the world who will be honoured at the Royal Photographic Society’s prestigious annual awards ceremony in London on Thursday.

Goldblatt and Lategan will be awarded honorary fellowships for their “significant individual achievements and contributions to the art and science of photography.”

About Goldblatt:

Born in Randfontein in 1930, Goldblatt has been documenting the changing political landscape of South Africa for more than five decades. His retrospective exhibition, David Goldblatt 51 Years, has been seen in New York, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Oxford, Brussels, Munich and Johannesburg.

He has won the most prestigious photography prize in the world, The Hasselblad Photography Award. He is the only South African artist to win this prize, and received it at an award ceremony on the 25th November 2006 in Goteberg, Sweden.
About Lategan:

South African born Barry Lategan came to England to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, during which time he was called to national service in Germany, where his interest in photography developed.

He opened a studio in London in 1965, where he took the first photographs of Twiggy, before moving to New York to live and work between 1977 and 1990.

Lategan’s photographs have been published worldwide in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and Life.

Info sourced from sainfo, lensmodern and Goodman-Gallery

Source: SouthAfrica.info
The all-in-one official guide
and web portal to South Africa.

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Happy Spring Day from SA Rocks and the SA Rocks Flickr group!

Photographers who featured in this little collage: Steve Crane, Debby Champion, WayneTD, ethekwinigirl and ndorfin.

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Citi Life is holding a photography competition over at their website. Thanks to the SA Rocks Flickr group I found out about the comp.

It’s really simple. Upload some amazing photos you’ve taken to do with SA and if you have the most votes at the end of August you win a car. Easy.

The quality of the photos right now appears to be fairly low so I emplore you to send in your photos and up the game.

If you haven’t had a look at the SA Rocks Flickr group I suggest you do so. There are some amazing photos and photographers in the group. I am sure that one of them can definitely win the car at Citi Life. See for yourself:

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Senses of Africa the first International solo exhibition of the work of Lorraine Ralfe.

Lorraine has been photographing South Africa’s most beautiful flowers for quite some time. This is her very first exhibition abroad. I think it is quite incredible that people from a completely different culture, continent and country show interest in South African flowers and culture. Brilliant.

The exhibition is not the only impact that Lorraine is making. She has apparently featured on Hong Kong radio stations and has also managed to do a podcast of the event and her experiences!

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Since starting the SA Rocks group on Flickr there have been some amazing additions to the group. I thought it was time to give back some exposure to these talented photographers.

Go to the SA Rocks Flickr group to see more:

Contributors to this post:
Steve Crane
Coda
Calico182
Wayne Champion
Granny Smiff

Top contributor on the SA Rocks Flickr Group: Calico182

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Geeks, creatives, muzos & freedom fighters for the common good ..boys & girls of TALENT across this beautiful land.. this one’s for you >>

If crowdsourcing and wikis, collaborative creative projects and flickr have been a part of your life recently you want to pay attention to this. The founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales and Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig are going to be in South Africa this month!

The shape of our reality is changing, and the global economy is morphing and moving at a pace that is mindblowing from a macro level. These two men are at that leading edge. Driving its progress and monitoring its boundaries as it heaves and swells with the force of millions of people’s contributions to our evolving metabrain.
No mistaking, this is deep. If you want to interact realtime with true genius: I suggest you go to iCommons, check the program & if you aren’t in Cape Town, go book a flight, pronto >> you don’t want to miss this.

And besides – there’s a PARTY! afterwards on Friday 20th – I know all you Jozi guys need an excuse to come to Cape Town, this may be the one!

PS. even if you can’t come to join us – sharing is caring – we’d LOVE it if you grabbed the pic & link above & shared it on your site :: the more support we can show for this the better for ALL of US

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The incredible initiative by Photography.com that I have spoken of previously has come to an end. There are too many incredible photos for me to put up here so I suggest you hop on over to the results page and peruse the photographs that made it through to the end.

A brilliant day that illustrates the marvels that one tiny area in one tiny part of one large city can hold. Some of the inspiration included topics such as Tokoloshe, Bundu Bashing, Snake Eyes and Technophobia. If you think you know what I am talking about go and see what some of the photographers who took part saw.

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I have created a South Africa Rocks flickr group. If you are a flickr member and have any photos of SA that you would like to promote, please feel free to join the group, add your photos and expose the beauty in SA.

As soon as there are enough photos to display I will be placing a flickr badge on the SA Rocks homepage so the more we all contribute the quicker the badge will go up!

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Kate inspired me to haul out my collection of photographs from previous years in South Africa and Grahamstown in particular. Here are a couple from my personal collection:

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