Professional Photography in Cape Town

Published in the Peoples' Post - 27 September Having a digital camera without a computer is like being in an or orchestra without a violinist. Although it is possible to get photos printed directly from your camera’s memory card at the photo shop, you miss out on a world of opportunities by not having a computer with some basic image editing software installed. Most digital cameras come with some type of image editing software, but there are also a number of great free packages available via the internet. All you need to do is download them, assuming you have a reasonable internet connection. There is a big difference between comprehensive image editing software suites such as Photoshop CS and simple image manipulation software such as Irfanview. The most basic programme should allow you to make minor adjustments to the light levels in the photo, convert to grey tones, crop the image, rotate it, resize it and save it to a new filename. You can download Irfanview free at ...

Interesting pre-dawn shoot at the Southern Africa Large Telescope a the SA Astronomical Observatory near Sutherland. Photo  taken over a 10 minute exposure at 5 mins 20 secs. Shutter button was pressed at approximately 6 a.m. This was about 1 hour 45 minutes prior to sunrise, but the reflected glow from the eastern horizon bounces off the side of the SALT scope.  Later, during the exposure, a vehicle occupied by off-duty astronomers pulled up alongside and spoiled the lower half of the picture with red and orange light from their brake lights and flashers. Fortunately this did not affect the upper area of the image, where the main action is. The lens flare near dead centre however comes from that vehicle. Astronomers posted at SALT and the other SAAO scopes are not only permanent staff but also come from all over the world to do observations and research. SALT is one of only two such facilities in the world. The other unit is at Austin, Texas. Yes - and it was c...