Thursday 12 August 2010

Team Up Thursday Photography Challenge {& a tour of Port Elizabeth}






My TUT partner, Tania chose the topic for this week - Trees. Her photo is the first one - below - and this is what she has to say "
I chose the theme TREES since it is almost the start of spring and some of the trees are in bloom already. This one I took in the Pilanesberg and I found the contrast interesting, seeing that the grass and all is still very dry and brown and then here and there, these VERY green trees."














Now for my thoughts:- At first I thought "No!" because we only have a couple of palm trees in the garden and, being winter at the moment, they are not looking particularly stunning! I wasn't looking forward to hunting down a beautiful tree in Durban as it's rather chilly here right now, then I remembered that I had taken some "tree" photos in June, when we were visiting Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.

While my photograph is not technically brilliant & not perfectly focused {due to it being windy} I like that I caught the sun shining through the bare branches & oversaturated it to show the "sun circle" in the sky above the tree.

If you are interested in photography & want to join in feel free! Just find yourself a partner, follow the format & you're on your way! Just remember to link up to everyone else at the bottom of your post.


Tania http://littlethingiesofme.blogspot.com

Helen http://helentilbury.blogspot.com

Stefanie http://semplydone.blogspot.com
and Lynette http://creativemoments-lynette.blogspot.com

Andrea http://andrearobertsontoo.blogspot.com
and Claire http://www.mcgeers.blogspot.com

Berta http://rboice.blogspot.com
and Corey http://livingandlovingeveryminuteofit.blogspot.com

Megan http://mentalinventory.blogspot.com
and Melody http://thehipmommasjournal.squarespace.com

Cat and http://juggelingactoflife.blogspot.com
Shayne http://scrappy-time.blogspot.com


Joanne http://worth-it-all.blogspot.com

Seeing as I was in the folder I decided to go through it & select some more photos to give you a tour of Port Elizabeth, a big, beautiful, sunny, beachy, FRIENDLY town, refreshing coming from Durban, the clickiest port town on the South African coastline!

It was during the FIFA World Cup & quite a few of the trees had been beautifully painted {by the residents} with the designs & colours of the National flag.

I edited the one above, just for fun, to really make the flag colours "pop"!

Looking at these "World Cup" images makes me nostalgic - it really was the best time I've had living here!

On my little "photographic outing" we started off at this gorgeous little coffee shop in Walmer. Honestly THE best milkshakes I've EVER tasted & cappucinos to die for!

Then we headed "downtown" to this little deli - that unfortunately was CLOSED due to the owner being ill...

So we just drove up down all the quaint little roads looking for photo-ops. The architecture was really quaint & the colours of the houses was so unstereotypical. I loved that!!

Quite a large sector was run down, but beautiful nonetheless...

Obviously chief satanist lived here - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuw!!!

I would LOVE to paint my home this colour but my hubby would be VERY unamused...

Of course there were all sorts & some very beautiful B & B's around too...

I would give my eye-teeth to live here - WOW! It looks like a grand old home now separated into two but can you imagine how grande it would be to knock through & make one lovely big family abode???

This reminded me of one of my fave movies "Life as a House" with Hayden Christiansen...mmm...

And I love how you can see the car mirror here {had to lean over hubs to get that one as he was now getting a tad irritated at my photo obsession & didn't get "why" I wanted to take so many photos of other people's houses} lol...

My, my, my! Is that a great garage door or what???!!! I loved this town!!! Here it's Tuscan all the way, which, while lovely, can get a bit {yawn}...

And how's that slogan? This town is obviously full of individuals as opposed to the clones who all seem to live in Durban!

There was a really eclectic assortment of stores too...{love the traffic light in the bottom right there...just sayin'}...

GREAT pillars!!!

SUCH a pretty place - can't wait to go back!!!

And a real Miami-style beachfront too. Hope you enjoyed the tour! Layouts to show off tomorrow so hop on back!!




8 comments:

tania said...

loved your photo from the first minute i saw it, the colours, that glare your lense made and the sun at the back,beautiful. well done friend:) thanks for the tour of PE, i have never been to PE:(

Pearl said...

oooo ! I enjoyed your photo treats too ! I didnt realise you were Tania's partner ! lol
great armchair travelling for me here ! ;)

Stefanie said...

Hello there
Great shots of PE, I thought they really got into the world cup soccer spirit 0 seemed to be more than CT but then I did avoid the CT city centre, LOL.
Lovely tree shots as well, esp love the sun flare you got.
Takes skill, that does.

cat said...

Lo0ve your sunspot picture. I am particularly fond of PE so thanks for the tour.

Ella Swan said...

Pleasure girls - thanks for the positive feedback! Loving sunflare shots at the moment...

Andrea said...

Great TUT post, just getting to it now as has been a crazy week with the Summer hols, in fact mine and Claires only went up late last night. Cool theme and one I think we may have to try in the not too distant future...you both captured it brilliantly.
xxx
A

Diana said...

Great photos. Makes me want to visit there... .

Ella Swan said...

Hi Diana ;-D Thanks for all your comments! Will get to answering your questions soon. Has been fun reading all your comments - good to have you back - will pay you a visit asap ;-D