WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA

Justin Hawthorne

With the onset of spring in the Western Cape it always brings fantastic hiking excursions with lots of floral beauty!

September kicked off with a wonderful day at Groot Constantia Wine Estate where we drank fine wine, feasted on delicious food at Jonkershuis Constantia and did the Chocolate & Wine pairing in the Cloete Cellar. You don’t get much better than sipping on Gouverneurs Reserve Red while soaking up the history of this farm. After many hours of great company and being spoiled, I decided to stretch my legs and walk high up onto the mountain slopes. It was a fine #SpringDay – sun shining warmly and hardly a breath of wind. I eventually made my way back down to the historic quarter, after enjoying the floral splendors of Clivias, Lobostemon & Pincushions to name a but a few. That’s when a snapped this photo of the Manor House through the bare vines. I went for a classic old black and white styled composition due to lighting, season, and to emphasize the history of the estate.

Late one evening we took a quick dash up Elsie’s Peak and weather conditions were playing along for some golden hour sparkle as we ascended. At the summit the cloud on the horizon resulted in an early sunset, but improvising we lingered to wait until a few lights came on in Clovelly to snap a photo across Fish Hoek Bay. This image turned out to be my most successful photograph shared on social media platform, Instagram, behind my Table Mountain Snow video from July. On the descent I also took a number of long exposure images overlooking Glencairn & Simon’s Town which were beautiful as the bay was calm…meaning mirror-like reflections.

On a recent hike up Lion’s Head I had been photographing many plant species in flower while spiraling my way up the peak. The colours are just fantastic at this time of year, but added to that we had a cold front rolling into town. The bizarre weather included thunder & lightning, warm & humid conditions before becoming smothered in cloud for a while. Things cleared a little before the low cloud came rolling over Camp’s Bay and Kloof Nek which created a spectacular sight! I used the flowering blue Lobostemon in the foreground to add a dash of colour to the image.

Just before the month end I went to catch sunset along the coast with family. What had been promising conditions with amazing clouds & lighting with a south westerly breeze turned gloomy in the final hour of the day. This resulted in a pretty flat sunset, but the moody conditions near Scarborough got us improvising our composition to get a great shot. Stumbling upon old fishing traps washed up on the rocky shore meant vibrant colours in the foreground gave the shot just what it needed under the grey sky.

*A monthly series of four highlights from my work and play, shared via all social platforms.