"THE HOME OF MALKA AND RACHEL" says the sign. Last year the donkeys lived in the kibbutz olive grove, grazing on the underbrush and contributing manure fertilizer. But this year they were spotted eating olives (!) so they were moved to their own paddock, at least until we harvest all the olives.
Nothing like a good dust bath on a hot day. Yes, it's still hot and dry in Israel, despite it being "winter."
After she saw Malka roll over, Rachel had a go at it too.
Two donkey friends and a cloud of dust.
They are so sweet! Gotta love donkeys. . (Linking to Camera-Critters.)
I have always wanted to make travel videos. When I started working as a tourist guide in 1998 I had a little video camera which I filmed my tours with. Back then I didn't know anything about editing. The video was basically what I shot and I had to make sure the video was rewound just far enough for the next shot to start where I wanted it to. All those videos are somewhere on VHS tapes in a cupboard at home. Somewhere I kinda lost the whole video thing and started enjoying photography and blogging. But as a blogger I started to feel like I'm falling further and further behind many other travel bloggers who started including more video on their social media platforms.
A few weeks ago we headed out to the Tsitsikamma for a day and I decided that it was time to give video a go again. Rather than go out and take photos all day, I took video clips on my DSLR camera and on returning downloaded a very easy to use video editing program. This week I finally had a chance to play around with it and once I started I couldn't stop. I realise that with the DSLR obviously not having an anti-shake like a video camera has I should probably have used a tripod, but I live and learn. I must say that I was quite impressed with the end result. Obviously, I still have a lot to learn, but you can definitely be sure that you will be seeing a lot more video from me in future.
So here it is, my first video called A day in the Tsitsikamma. What do you think?
Everyone has seen pictures of Tines Square and many of us have walked through it. It used to be rather tawdry but the city cleaned it up, after a fashion. Now it's all megawatt advertising glitz and family friendly if your eyes aren't too sensitive. During my recent visit, many of the blinding signs were advertising movies. Incongruously, the display on Walgreens pharmacy was rotating beautiful black and white photos of African people. It was packed during a damp, chilly autumn evening.
Tomorrow, some on the people in the swirling scene.
Beneath the plaza of the World Trade Center is a museum about the devastating events of September 11, 2001, and the thousands of people who died that day. I've been there once before and I still find it a very difficult place. The horror and suffering it depicts are overwhelming, almost too much to bear for the living sixteen years later.
Olivier and I visited it on the last afternoon of our meet-up in New York. I took a lot of pictures on my first visit. but could not make more than a few this time. It was just too hard. As you descend the escalator into the cavernous space you are met with the sign in the first picture and wonder if it will literally be true. Just beyond is the mangled fire truck. The blue escalator in the last picture is the exit back upstairs. Stairway to heaven? The color could not have been accidental.
