October 2020 - Knysna

The view across the bay at Knysna

A year ago, I was visiting my friends in South Africa – one of my favourite countries and some of my favourite people. This time, unlike my usual visits, I didn’t spend time in one of the game parks, but instead did a 5- or 6-day trip along part of the Garden Route. 

I went with the son of my great friends, Mark and Jeni; Grant is a brilliant guy – who trains pilots for a living – and lives in Port Alfred quite close to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. I flew to Johannesburg, and then on to Port Elizabeth where he picked me up. We spent a very happy few hours at the beach before going off to our Uber for the night. 

The following day we went down the coast to a town called Knysna where we stayed for a couple of nights. A very pretty little place – and the marina had a huge range of tourist shops and restaurants. Also, a stunning view across the bay. One evening, after we’d had a good meal we walked around the shore and the marina. The sun was going down and I saw this houseboat sitting on its own with the opposite side of the bay in darkness behind it; and a gorgeous sunset over the hills.

One of the things that photographers like to achieve in their pictures is ‘separation’. If you have more than one thing in the picture, it really helps to make sure that the objects (may be people of course) are separated from each other. Not necessarily by much, but it seems that a small amount of space between things helps to keep the photo looking less cluttered. So, in this photo, it was important to have a small space between the roof of the houseboat and the shoreline of the hills in the background. Several of my photos didn’t have that gap – but this one does – phew!