Zurich: Part One

Rennette and I spent hours just walking through the streets of Zurich with our cameras. In my younger days I used to devour the guide books on the places I visited and then was sure to visit all the recommended monuments, churches and museums. This time around I didn't even open a guide book and far more enjoyed walking through the streets, soaking up the atmosphere and culture, while studying everything, from big buildings to small keyholes. Here are a few images, trying to capture the "big picture".

Swiss countryside

So I'm back :) It was a wonderful trip and exceeded all my expectations. It was incredibly hard to leave my family behind and during the entire journey I felt lost and bewildered. But once I saw my wonderful sister waiting for me on the other side, I put on my big girl panties and approached the adventure with the enthusiasm it deserved. It was fantastic to be in Europe again after all these years! I also enjoyed having adult conversations for a full 10 days without interruption and I will never forget the time my sister and I spent together. It was also fantastic to have someone with me who is just as fanatic about photography than I am! We spent hours walking around with our cameras, looking for new and interesting things to capture and the best part was looking at the results at the end of each day. It's still amazing to me how two people can walk in each other's footsteps and seem to aim their cameras in the same direction, but still end up with totally different images.
I'm so glad I went on this trip - it has enriched, energised, enlightened and entertained me. It was a privilege and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity.
Obviously, I took an obscene amount of photos and I'll try not to bore you with too many repetitive images.
We took a trip from Zurich to St Gallen and surrounds and I fell in love with the Swiss countryside. Unfortunately, it rained the whole day, but I was not about to neglect my camera because of a few drops of water!

Off I Go

I'm off to Zurich tomorrow to visit my wonderful sister. This is the first time that I am leaving the house without either husband or kids. If I can manage to push through the anxiety of leaving them and traveling on my own for the first time in 11 years, I know I'm in for a fabulous time! I plan to take loads of pictures and will surely have lots to show you when I get back in two weeks. I'm hoping that this will give me a fresh perspective on life and teach me some new things about myself. Deep breath....and off I go!

Sea views

Flying high

I've been a bit bored with my work lately and have started to experiment more on the editing side of things. It's actually quite amazing what you can create with just a standard digital image. It's a great creative outlet and even though I have started out as a purist (take the picture as you want it to be, with minimal editing afterwards) I've started to appreciate more drastic techniques in changing my images. I'm considering printing this one on canvas to hang in Joubert's room. It looks more like a painting than a photo this way and even though I know it's him in the picture, it could be any boy, anywhere.
Anyway. It might not be your cup of tea, but I quite like it :-)

Petting tortoises

We saw loads of tortoises in and around Yzerfontein and the kids (especially Emma) couldn't resist taking a closer look. Joubert is a little more cautious around them as the last time he picked one up, it emptied it's bladder all over his hands :-) Emma just loves them and kept on shouting "stop, STOPPP", whenever we approached one. After the 30 millionth time we decided to develop sudden loss of hearing :-)
It was a small miracle that we didn't drive over this teeny tiny little baby - I don't think I've ever seen such a small tortoise!