Category Archives: Books

Landscape AstroPhotography by Mike Shaw

Posted on by July 21, 2021

My own copy has arrived in South Africa. As with all my books, it is lying on my table and no-one is allowed to touch except me. One should not attack a new book. The covers should be opened gently and pages turned slowly one by one. A book needs to adjust to its surroundings and get used to its new owner.

In due course when this process has run its course, I will tell you more about this wonderful publication….

My first impression was the weight of the book. A great deal of information lay waiting behind the impressive front cover. For a day or two I pondered over the enormous task the author had undertaken. Somehow I just knew that I had laid my hands on a special publication.

The moment of thruth. Hands washed, I turned the cover and paged gently. Goals, history, learning curve, creative vision, correct subject lighting, technical proficiency, practicing with your equipment, BASIC ASTRONOMY, sunrise/sunsets, solar cycle sunspot progression, timing of landscape photography, analemmas. Beautiful layout of stunning images and the coolest diagrams with the turn of every page. I realised that I had only reached page 100 and there were 340 more!
 
Will I ever become the professional landscape astro-photographer of the calibre of Mike Shaw? Most probably not, but I will have a better understanding of what I am actually doing when I point my camera at the night sky. Most important, I will have a better appreciation of the art of the professional landscape astro-photographer.
 
What I hold dear is how Mike Shaw always shares his expert experiences without an attitude of: do as I say. In this book he lays emphasis on reflecting your personal creative vision.
 
I would say Landscape AstroPhotography is going to be more important to me in the long run than buying extra expensive equipment. It will provide a solid foundation to build apon in order to reflect my own personal vision.

At Home in the World

Posted on by July 21, 2018

2015-06-04
Joyce-MaynardI think there was one copy of Catcher in the Rye, which belonged to my English Literature teacher, doing the rounds and by the time I left school it hadn’t landed in my lap. I was eighteen with a whole new world out there and I embraced it leaving everything to do with high school behind me – even J.D Salinger. Now I can’t remember if or when I read Catcher in the Rye eventually. It certainly did not leave a lasting impression.

Salinger was the last thing on my mind when I stood in the biography section of our library. I was actually looking for an interesting read for my husband when I came across At Home in the World  by Joyce Maynard. I loved the cover photo and popped the book in my basket. I did not get around to reading it but decided to extend the loan by two weeks.

Who is Joyce Maynard who feels At Home in the World? The library’s info  dockets obscure most of the inside cover and front page photos.There is a nice photo of the good looking author on the back flap. “Joyce Maynard is a well-known journalist and broadcaster in the United States. She is the author of several books, including To Die For (which was made into a film by gus Van Sant starring Nicole Kidman), Baby Love and her memoir Looking Back, which she wrote at the age of eighteen”

There are family photos- one has become my favourite: a young girl sitting on steps. There are also a few sketches that accompany a letter: “Dear Jerry” Now I’ll have to read the book because I can’t find my magnifying glasses to read the letter!

OK, but maybe I could save some time. The front flap seems to have quite a lot of info. “Maynard wrote a cover story for the New York Times Magazine called An Eighteen Year Old Looks Back on Life. Among the hundreds of letters she received in response was one from the famously reclusive author J.D. Salinger” Goodness gracious, Salinger after all this time.

I have read this book from cover to cover. Now there are two more books lying on my table: Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey.

Looking back on life, I remember eighteen and I remember Salinger but all of that has taken on a new dimension and I  can’t really decide whether or not to  like Salinger.

I should have spent more time writing about Joyce Maynard’s Memoir but I feel the need to publish this today. In any case, it is her memoir and everyone  should read it in her own words.

And on remembering being eighteen, who could forget the lyrics in the song, I’m Eighteen? If we had Facebook in those days this would have deserved a smiley.

Lines form on my face and hands
Lines form from the ups and downs
I’m eighteen ,eighteen, eighteen
and I like it, like it..
I’m Eighteen © Copyright Writers– A.Cooper/M.Bruce/G Buxton/D.Dunaway/N.Smith
published by- Bizarre Music/Ezra Music Corp.

To read: An Eighteen Year Old looks back on Life
https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/maynard-mag.html

Claim to the Country

Posted on by January 15, 2020

June 2010

Claim-to-the-CountryA few years ago I was asked to illustrate Bushman folklore as an extension to my astronomy activities. I soon discovered that trying to imitate Bushman drawings and paintings was not as easy as one might think.My son’s advice was that I slaughter an animal and go searching for just the right stick to dip in its blood. From further research I also found out that I would have to smoke certain substances and do foot stomping around a fire in order to reach a trance-like state and then only if I had been ordained as a shaman I would be able to project my visions of enlightenment on a suitable rock face.

I decided to approach the task with a digital camera, pencil sketches, colour kokis and computer editing. My first line of reference was a paper published by A.Slotegraaf (ASSA) and W.P.Koorts(SAAO) in MNASSA 65(7&8) 104 on the Xam astronomical references in G R von Wielligh’s Boesman-Stories.

During further research names like Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd, David Lewis-Williams, and Pippa Skotnes became familiar. However I only became aware that a magnificent book, Claim to the Country by Pippa Skotnes had been launched in 2007 while on a visit to our local library where it was being displayed on the “New in the Library” shelf.
I booked it at once. My first impression of the book was its weight which was quite a factor as that day I had decided to walk to the library. Weight bearing exercise is good, I kept telling myself all the way home.
I looked at the cover. Claim to the Country -The archive of Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd. I immediately sensed that this book was something most precious and it felt as though I needed permission to read it. I wondered whether the library staff had not mistakenly put this book in the lending library instead of in the reference section.
In her introduction Pippa Skotnes writes:

“This book is the result of a twenty-year love affair with the archive. My intention has been to publish and index the major part of the archive. I have tried to present  the reader with something of the experience of being in the archive, of the physical presence of the documents, the shape of the pages, the colour and texture of their surfaces, the signs of use and age and fragility and the sheer volume of material it contains. To reveal how knowledge and understanding is never something that can be achieved alone, or just through one medium.To help better understand what it means for all of us that the people who lived in southern Africa long before any newer arrivals settled in the country, no longer survive through their language or culture or intellectual traditions. This book also tries to be a beautiful book.”

I must agree that this book is the one of the most beautiful academic books I have seen. Although I was able to borrow the copy from our library again and again, I decided to spare the heartache if I ever  had to see one page damaged and so Claim to the Country was placed number one on my wish list that Xmas.

(When you’re good your wishes come true – Claim to the Counrty now has its rightful place on my bookshelf!)

Courage and Rice

Posted on by May 16, 2015

June 2010
When far away is closer to home than one thinks…..

courage-and-rice   David-Grier   David-Grier--Great-Wall
I have two special friends in Taiwan, who over the years, have painted a vivid picture of their surroundings via regular emails. Both are celebrating their birthdays this week and celebrations have included a trip to Taipei, I decided to pay a visit to the library’s travel section. The book I was looking for, was not available but another caught my eye.
Every now and then, I discover a book that for some reason blows my mind. The inscription on the spine was not easy to read for a spectacle in-betweener (I’m at the now-I-need-them, then-I-don’t stage) but this book in larger format than its neighbours and  vivid  red dust jacket was calling for closer inspection. I felt its weight, saw the minimalistic design and as I gently brushed my hand over the front cover I read:

courage and rice
my journey along the great wall of China
david grier. Continue reading →