Skywatch Friday - Heavenly Skies

It's still Friday, so I guess I can do a Skywatch post. Sunrise over the historic St Phillips Church in Richmond Hill.

For more great pictures looking skywards visit the Skywatch site.

Skywatch Friday - The old and the new

An impromptu airshow at the Zwartkop Airforce Base, Pretoria in April 2011. Sue and I popped in to visit the airforce museum and next thing we knew there was a display put on by a Gripen fighter jet and a de Havilland Vampire.

I had to wait for them to land to get some shots, as my poor old Panasonic Lumix could not focus on them quickly enough when they were in the air.

The SAAB JAS 39 Gripen, which recently replaced the SA Airforce's aging Cheetahs (Mirages) was quite impressive.

I was amazed that this old bird is still flying. I remember watching the Vampires flying over Pretoria, before I went to school way back in the 1950's. Mmmmmmm..... that dates me somewhat, but then I am also still operational.

You can see more pictures from around the world at Skywatch.

Constitution Hill - Historic Buildings

Looking down Constitution Hill towards Algoa Bay.

Commenting right

I don't know if it is just me, but when I try and comment on blogs where the comments are set to "Embedded below post" and you first have to select your profile from a drop down box, my comments never go through.

It happens like this. I read a post and then select "comment". The comments box pops up below the post and I write my message.

Then I am asked to "Select profile" and I select "Google Account"

I am taken to the page that tells me to sign in. "Why," I ask myself, "I am already signed in."

But being conditioned to the cyberworld and to logging in and passwords, I dutifully type in my email address and password and press the "Sign in" button.

And hey presto I am transported back to the comments page. It now time to do the the word verification thingy. When that is done I hit the "Post Comment" button and I am immediately taken back to the "sign in" page.

Now if I was really compliant I could spend the rest of the night repeating the process. But I am not and that is the end of my social networking.

So if you have your comment form set to "Embedded below post", the chances are that I have visited you but was not succesful with posting my comment.

I still find the most user friendly way to comment on Blogger is with the "pop up window". If you are worried about spam, you can still set word verification. And if the occassional spammer gets through, Google automatically trashes it.

UPDATE and solution to the problem, thanks to Katney:

Max, here is the "detour" till they do get it fixed. When you hit that sign in page, uncheck the "Remember Me" box. It will let you get the comment published. Hopefully, they will have the issue resolved soon, it has gone on way too long.

Crossing the line

It was a cold and windy night in the Bay and Suzie-K and I hit the road to find some photo opportunities. Now when it comes to photography I may be something of a perfectionist - I tend to stick to what is safe, like the good old nicely composed sharp pictures.

Well, tonight I may have broken the mold..........no tripod, dirty wind screen, hand-held camera, moving car ..........etc, etc, etc.

And I like the effect.............

I think I a going to explore this a bit more.

Edward Hotel - Historic Buildings

Built back in 1903 the Edward Hotel on Belmont Terrace retains its old world charm and is still a premium venue in the city, for accommodation and conferences.

A big plus for the hotel is that it is situated on Belmont Terrace, oveloooking the Donkin Reserve and Algoa Bay.

Richmond Hill Walkabout

Yesterday morning I walked across to the park to look at the sunrise and ended up taking a stroll down th the Russell Road Cemetary. There is nothing like the early mornning light to for photography.

View down Callington Street towards Algoa Bay

The sun reflecting on the road in Kemsley Street

View from the Russell Road Cemetary

Dutch Reformed Church in Campbell Street starting to catch the suns rays

Edward Street Synagogue basking in the early morning rays

The old Erica building is very photogenic, espeacially in the morning

Skywatch Friday - Sunrise over Algoa Bay

Getting back into photography with a DSLR is quite an adjustment after becoming accustomed to a compact digital camera, with a super zoom. Yes, I could put my new camera on automatic and use it as a point and shoot, but then I may as well have stuck with what I had.

For me one of the attractions of an SLR is being able to choose my own settings. It is a more measured style of photography, that requires more thought than the compact, but not quite the same as my first 35mm camera, when I used a hand held light meter and had to work out all the settings manually. It took a while to set up the shots back then but the results were good.

This is one of my first shots looking towards the Bay and st Phillips Church, Port Elizabeth.

I have a lot to learn with my digital DSLR, but I am going to have a lot of fun getting there, even if I have to wade through the 340 page manual.
Check out some more great pictures from around the world at the Skywatch site.