You have to get out of your comfort zone to experience magnificence. And that’s exactly what happened yesterday morning.

A few weeks ago on Twitter, a local photographer asked where he could get a good view of the sun rising over Johannesburg.  I’d been to the top of the Melville Koppies on a photowalk a few months ago, and guessed that would be a good spot. Well, to cut a long story short, 4 of us met yesterday morning before dawn to climb up the hill and watch the sun rise.  It didn’t rise in exactly the right spot, but it was magnificent anyway!

And yes, I voluntarily woke up at 4:15am to get to Henti’s house by 5am in order to get to the meeting place by 5:40am.

It was a good outing for my soul

I think I’m going to sell these as prints and canvases actually, that’s how much I like them.  There are also a few more photos in a Facebook album

Nicole and I had a plan for today… to explore the city.  I wanted to find new photoshoot locations and she wanted me to help her with her camera.  Our limitations at the time of making the plans were that our kids would be with us.  We didn’t think that the weather would turn as cold as it has.  Seriously, we could NOT have picked a colder day for this adventure.

We had planned to go to at least 3 lookout points over Johannesburg city, we made it to one.  We had planned to get to Newtown and possibly the old bank district, we only managed 10 minutes in Newtown.  We had planned to find the Westcliff steps and Hope Road and the forest in Bryanston on the way home… none of that happened at all.  LOL, so it may not have been as successful as we’d hoped, but it was worth it… Nicole got to see parts of Johannesburg she’d never seen before, and I found a new spot for photos, and we had the most awesome coffee and chocolate croissants at 44 Stanley.

It was just far too cold.  When we stopped at Melville Koppies at 10am my car’s thermometer was reading 3.5 deg C.  But I cannot describe how cold the wind was at the top of that hill.  It was just too freezing for words.  Then in Newtown my car told me it was 2 deg!! But it actually didn’t feel as cold as the hill.  But that was the end of the road for Nicole’s little Damian, he’d just cried and cried… we think because his hands were so cold… mine were like ice blocks and were actually hurting me!!  So we aborted our mission, and headed for a heater and some coffee instead

But here are some of the photos that I did manage to get…

I really need to do more things like this.  It’s good for my soul.

When I saw a tweet on Twitter about the road closures in Sandton today, and subsequent tweets explaining what the reasons were, I made sure that I packed my camera in my car with my trusty 70-200mm lens!  Thankfully, I had no meetings at the time of the parade, and 2 of my colleagues had their cameras ready too… and off we walked.

And I’m so glad I made the effort.  I got awesome photos, and got to chat to a few of the cops as well!

The parade was organised as a “show of force” to show that the police and army are ready for the Soccer World Cup that is due to be hosted in South Africa next month. It was also organised in celebration of the 3rd anniversary of Crimeline… which I’m guessing is why it all ended close to Primedia’s offices.

It was a very noisy few hours… with vuvuzelas blowing, music blaring and sirens and helicopters and people cheering… but the best part was seeing the pride.

Standing on Fredman Drive with the throngs of people and police watching the procession, I tweeted a photo of one of the vehicles and a policeman was watching me.  I told him what I was doing… and he said “It’s good, the world must know… we are ready”.  It was so so awesome to hear the pride in his voice and the look in his eyes.

And then I had to go back to work

I’ve also put more photos in a set on Flickr, if you want to see more

I met up with a whole lot of tweeters in Newtown this morning for a photowalk, and I really enjoyed it.  We didn’t get to really spend time in Newtown during the Worldwide photowalk a few weeks ago, and I’ve always wanted to walk around there, so this was an ideal opportunity.  I learnt a lot in the process about functions on my camera that I never knew existed, and I was in awe of some of the equipment that some of the guys were carrying.

First up, I have to show you my favourite shot of the day… taken right at the very end of the walk…

These painted silhouettes on the steps outside the Market Theatre were so very cool!

Some public water fountains next to the Theatre

I tried to push myself on this walk and take photos of things I normally pass by… as you can see there are almost no people shots! Next time though, I’m definitely not going to forget my tripod and triggers for my flash so I can try some strobist stuff like the other guys were doing!

So, after last week’s beach theme for my Weekly Winners post, this week is ALL urban!  Hope you enjoyed it

I was going to split the photos from yesterday’s photowalk into 3 posts, but I’m too impatient so this is a HUGE post!!   These are my favourite shots from yesterday, I liked the others I posted… but I love these!

I’m posting them in the order in which they were taking.

This church is an Anglican church in Braamfontein, on the same block as Wits University (where the walk started).

We walked over the Nelson Mandela bridge into the Johannesburg CBD to get to Newtown.  These are the cables on the bridge.

This is taken from the bridge.

A Malawian guy we met on the bridge…

Once we got to Newtown, we steered clear of the crowds that had gathered to celebrate Mandela’s birthday (hence all the flags).

This guy was a street vendor in Newtown selling posters

We’d spent so much time on the bridge, that by this time we had to make our way back, and we walked along a busy street with shebeens on every block, to get back to the main road to get back to Braamfontein.

This yellow building was actually a butchery.

Then we came across this group of kids that were dancing and singing on a street corner.  It was definitely the highlight of my day…it was also then, that I realised just how fast my new camera is! Love it!!  I took so many photos of these kids, here are just a few…

I wish we could have stayed there for longer, but it was getting late.  We passed a taxi rank before we crossed the Queen Elizabeth bridge back into Braamfontein, and I just HAD to stop and ask this man whether I could take a photo of him.  These makeshift barbers are all over the city, and I’ve been dying to take a photo of one… I know… I’m strange

And what’s a trip to the city without spotting a little crime… these guys were sitting under the bridge stripping copper wire that they’d probably stolen… blissfully unaware that I wasn’t taking photos of the city scapes like the other photographers

And the last photo… of the trains under the Mandela bridge.

It was a fabulous experience, and I actually want to go back to the city to “do” Newtown properly. These are definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, my weekly winners for Lotus’ weekly challenge.

My biggest problem now, is singling out my one image that I can submit to the photowalk site for prizes. LOL! Impossible task!