View of the amphitheater of the Drakensberg, Northern Drakensberg, Kwa-Zulu Natal
Hlalanathi - it is a Zulu word which means
"come sleep/stay with us." It is a holiday resort with a lovely
restaurant and a golf course.
My wife and I made our own long weekend and
decided to spend time here and visiting brand new friends whom we met through
our mutual love of photography. Photography! There is a magical device that you
can hold in your one hand capturing a specific moment in your life; it is
called "a camera." Of course you know that as well as I do. It still remains magic to me. In a fraction of a second, it captures a moment
you will never ever relive or experience again.
It is like the Tugela river that I captured
in my short video that you can enjoy. Well, all truth be told, as the English
would say, it was the Tugela River in Kwa Zula Natal on 30 January 2020 at a
specific moment in time. No one, that includes me, will ever be in a position
to ever see the Tugela River as I saw it when I captured it; and while I was
capturing it, it disappeared towards the
ocean never to be found again. You can listen to the Tugela murmuring in the background. Susan Sontag was that philosopher that encapsulated
these ideas of mine very succinctly- click on this link to read a bit about her.
The Tugela River is in a constant process
of remaking itself every moment of the day and night. As I am sitting here in
the silence of our chalet and while my dearest wife is sleeping, I can hear it
distantly rumbling a bit louder than yesterday. The reason for that? Because it
rained higher up in the dragon and the water level is somewhat higher than
yesterday. And yet the very river that I am trying to capture, is disappearing
downstream, so to speak. The mountains are constant. The river not.
The monochromatic image of the river and
the dragon mountain as a backdrop is a creation of my own. Of course the scene
does not look like that at all. Once again I was creating another picture in
your mind. I personally like monochromatic images and always think of Ansell
Adams and his iconic black and white images.
Having said that, I was privy today to a
most spectacular scene where the dragon took centre stage. This scene is
monochromatic! Deep dark clouds gathered, wind howling, trees bending in the
wind, veld flowers flattened to the
ground - all of this with the sky turning black. The clouds were all shades of
black! So, in a sense, my black and white image is not in toto unreal. It is in
another sense a virtual reality shot of a most spectacular scene.
Please read Psalm 8. If you haven't got a
Bible, I suggest that you get one. Come to think of it, it was written specifically
for you and me
I will leave you to it to give your dreams of my story
and my image, wings!
