Civil Twilight - Holy Weather

I first heard these guys in Cape Town, South Africa.  It must have been 2001.  I had met Richard who plays drums while on holiday in Plettenberg Bay and got to know him and Andrew (guitars) over the years while living in Cape Town.  From my first time hearing them I was blown away.  These guys just love to rock it out on stage and would often get completely lost in a little jam session that would last 5 minutes or so mid song.

They have put out some quality tunes over the years and after a lot of hard work got noticed in the US (rightfully so!).  They've since signed with Wind-Up Records and have put out two great albums - the second one just released in March, 2012.  I may be a bit bias, but I highly recommend this album.  I haven't been able to stop listening to it since it came out - it's TIGHT.  An album worth your every dime/penny/cent.  If you're fortunate enough to be on their tour path in the States, do yourself a favour and go enjoy listening to musicians who play with so much soul.

Civil Twilight - thank you very much.

A Guest at a Wedding

I attended a wedding as a guest this past weekend and took a camera along - I can't help myself...  It was such a different experience being at a wedding and being able to just do my own thing and enjoy the party in a care free kind of way.  Below are just a handful of observations taken with my 50mm 1.4 (which I cannot get enough of by the way - thanks friend for selling it to me).

The Lake District - it has won my heart.

Ukraine - The Train

Ukraine, the 2nd largest contiguous country on the European continent with a land area of 233,032 square miles makes it an interesting land mass to cover.  Travel by train is rediculously affordable for any 1st world resident, but train travel across such an expanse makes it rather time consuming.  None-the-less, we set out to travel from Kiev to Mariupol by train and went with 3rd class to maximize the savings seeing as travelling 1st class was unnecessarily expensive.  It was quite a trip.

I hope to do a nice post of the trip soon...

Ukraine

A little while has passed since I last put something up.  Between weddings, moving house and a trip to Ukraine I have not had much free time.  I can't wait to share the trip here, but for now here's an image that includes three things I love.

Midweek Sunset...

No words needed...

Beautiful Birthday Girls!

When visiting my family and friends in South Africa, I had the honour of capturing my best mate’s two beautiful girls’ shared birthday – born on the same day two years apart!  How crazy is that hey!   Chantal did an absolutely amazing job at making their birthday such a beautiful one.  Children’s birthdays are so awesome!  It’s that time when you get to forget about all this crazy adult behaviour and just run around like a crazy sugared up maniac getting drunk on all the laughter and excitement in the air – I LOVE IT!

These two little angels are something special.  And when you have such special kids, you can’t help but look at their parents.  Chantal and JP are GREAT - great friends, great spouses, great parents.  They live and love passionately and this is seen in their children who are just full of love, laughter, life and joy.  After spending a weekend with them, I felt myself left craving after what they had.  Thank you my friends for sharing your life and love with me.

Ok, before I start crying here are some pictures!  Haha!  I’m a big softy!

PRICELESS….

cousin Jacques – this little dude couldn’t get enough of the party treats!

No place like Grandma’s arms!

Oh the excitement!

 

All images are the copyright of Rudolf Muff (Rudolf James – Photographer), and may not be used without permission.

I’M GOING TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS!

I just got my email…

Dear Rudolf Muff,

Congratulations! You have been allocated some of the greatest tickets on earth!
This email is from the London 2012 Ticketing team, confirming that your Olympic Games ticket application has now been processed. Your new Olympic Games ticket reference number is….

We are delighted to confirm that you have been allocated the following tickets to the London 2012 Olympic Games:
Sport: Gymnastics - Artistic

I’m so stoked!  Bring on a bit of London Olympic action – YES PLEASE!

Will China do it again?

Renewed Inspiration

So I went to the annual David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation "Wildlife Artist of the Year" exhibition at The Mall Galleries in London on the weekend.  It was pretty spectacular!  I had a great time and enjoyed the work on show.  A massive congratulations to Zimbabwean David Filer who claimed the title with his stunning graphite pencil drawing of an elephant and her calf.

As always, it was great seeing what Emily Lamb has been up to, major inspiration she is!  Young and full of new ideas bringing such a fresh take of wildlife art to the art world.

While on my trip back to South Africa, I went through some goods sitting in storage at my folks' place and I found a picture of a painting I did for school back in 1999.  After looking at all the art on show and looking at some art I've done over the years, I've decided it would be a good thing to put the camera down for a few evenings a week, step away from the computer screen and put brush to canvass again.  I love my photography, but there is something so liberating and peaceful about sitting in front of a blank canvass and painting away.

Here's the painting I did of elephants with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background.

FUN!!

I had such a great family shoot with an awesome family while in Cape Town!  While editing the shots, I came across this one and I just love it!  How much energy, fun and youth is captured in this moment?! 

My Hombre Jean-Pierre

Now, I haven't shared my love for food much on this blog or on the ole facebook page, but if there's one thing to know – IT’S THAT I LOVE FOOD! My brother from another mother, partner in crime, friend until death Jean-Pierre Lenferna Dela Motte is an incredible chef (understatement of the decade).  The dude is a magician with food!  Why am I sharing this you may ask?  Well, from time to time, when he has the time (father of two beautiful little girls, husband to a lovely wife and full time chef) he likes to blog a bit about his food and it's a great read!  So head over to http://soulfoodcrazy.blogspot.com/ and give his stuff a read for a bit of food inspiration!

Taken on my recent trip to South Africa – JP, Arielle and I.

There’s No Place Like Home… Part III

This was shot in George, a City/Town about an hour away from home.  My mate and I went down to the dam to just have a bit of time out together, it was good.  So beautiful I had to take a photo.
click for a larger view.

There’s No Place Like Home… part II

As mentioned yesterday, I have a few panoramic shots of areas around the Garden route that I’ve snapped while being out with friends.  A policy I’ve tried to keep to while on my trip is to have my camera with me wherever I go.  I can’t say I’ve managed this all the time and the one time I wish I had, I was in the bank when I got a call from my brother – “boet (brother), get down to the beach, Orcas are in the bay and they’re right up near the beach hunting dolphins!” – unreal!  Something hard to watch I’m sure, but something I would find incredible to witness.  The first thought that went through my head was “get your camera!” and only then did I remember it was at home with batteries charging – SCHOOLBOY ERROR!!!  So I rushed back to get it all, but by the time I got to the beach all the  madness had ended and the Orcas were nowhere to be seen.  Sometimes I think I should just enjoy the moments with or without the camera.

Anyway!  Here’s the landscape shot of Wilderness beach at sunset. I had friends waiting at the restaurant so this was literally a stop shoot and go pic. What a spot!

There’s No Place Like Home…

Over the next few days, I’ll be posting a few panoramic shots taken in my “back yard”…  The Garden Route is one of the most beautiful places I have seen.

This is Robberg Beach taken at dusk.

A View From Above

As some of you lovely readers may know – I have finally made it back to my homeland South Africa for a bit of a visit.  After a long 2.5 years since my last return, I thought it was time to make the 11.5 hour flight to Cape Town and the 8 hour bus trip to my home town.

One thing I love about flying is the aerial views you get.  It’s a completely new and fresh perspective of the incredible planet we live on.  A photographer who’s aerial work I love is Vincent Laforet – I highly recommend you take a look at his aerial photography. When I heard my seat was a window seat I was so stoked!  Camera by my side as always, I looked forward to waking up to a sunrise and an open sky with mind-blowing views.  I’ve put a few images down below. 

The first thing I saw when I woke up and opened the blind was this breath-taking view.  An ocean of clouds and the most intense, golden light streaming from behind them.

The Namib Desert – what a sight!  At first I thought I was seeing an ocean full of huge swell, but when I took a second look I could see that it was actually a ripple of dunes over a huge desert.  The clouds combined with the rows of dunes made for a great photographic opportunity.

After the desert we headed over the ocean.  A low sun over a blue ocean gave some great colour and the clouds floating above the ocean gave a real sense of depth.

“good light”…

One thing about flying to Cape Town International is the juxtaposition of wealth and extreme poverty, of amazing natural beauty and saddening decay and waste.  I find these views a reminder of the situation so many have found themselves in without any choice and can only be left feeling challenged to remember how good my life is and the great responsibility we all carry to help the poor and needy.  A life lived selflessly is a life lived well.  The two shots below are of the Northern Suburbs and a small informal settlement located in the Modderdam area behind the airport.  Two vastly different areas not very far apart.