5 minute read
My Environment
Hermanus celebrates its flower power
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Everyone is invited to join the Hermanus Botanical Society at the annual Hermanus Flower Festival in the Fernkloof Nature Reserve gardens to celebrate our natural heritage over the Heritage Day long weekend from Friday 21 to Monday 24 September.
The theme this year is Watching Water in recognition of the need to understand how precious our water is and how it can best be managed and conserved.
The Festival is open to the public from 09:00 – 17:00 each day. For only these 4 of the 365 days in the year, there will be an entrance fee to Fernkloof Nature Reserve: R25 for adults, R10 for Senior citizens on Friday 21 September, and children under 12 or in school uniform enter free.
There will be a special Family Challenge testing your environmental knowledge to celebrate Heritage Day on Monday 24 September. Keep an eye on the website www.fernkloof.org.za for all the details or follow the Hermanus Botanical Society on Facebook.
Click on the link at the bottom of this page to read more!
Come do the Funky!
Dust off your mountain bike, grab you trail running shoes out of the cupboard and load the family into the car – it’s time to make your way to the funkiest festival in the Overberg!
The Funky Fynbos Festival, which kicks off on Friday afternoon 21 September and runs until Sunday 23 September, will be hosted at two iconic venues in the Gansbaai area. The first is the Lomond Wine Estate where all the sporting events can be found, including MTB and trail running, a biathlon, canoe race and fishing competition. Wine tasting, craft beer, artisan stalls and the Gansbaai Academia Marimba band can also be enjoyed among the vineyards and around the Lomond dam.
The second venue is the Gansbaai Harbour, where you will find the Funky Fynbos Market, live music performances, fun activities for the kids and much more. Bring the whole family for two fun-filled days!
You’ll find all the details at funkyfynbos.co.za. For enquiries, contact Caron Lee at funkyfynbosfestival@gmail.com or Glenda Kitley at glenda@gansbaaitourism.com
Jean Tresfon: the story behind the shot
“Photography has the ability to either shock and galvanise people into action (in the case of showing the horrible side, such as mountains of dead abalone), or to amaze and inspire them to protect our coasts by showing them the wonder and beauty of what we still have left that is worthy of protection.”
– JEAN TRESFON.
Jean Tresfon is a marine conservation and wildlife photographer who specialises in underwater and aerial images. He lives in Cape Town and his passion lies in capturing alluring and unusual wildlife images to showcase both his city and his country as a superb photographic destination.
Jean is also a pilot and has found that flying and diving share a common trait. They both allow a different and unusual perspective. More recently, he has started building a collection of aerial images to showcase the magnificence of the Western Cape.
Jean’s foray into underwater photography was a natural extension of his many years spent diving. He found it so frustrating to try to explain the wonders of the underwater world to his surface-dwelling acquaintances that he started taking a camera with him on his dives. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
DIVE ROBBERS For five days, Jean Tresfon had been trying to photograph the feeding frenzy that develops when sardines and herrings migrate off South Africa’s Wild Coast. His luck finally changed in clear water a few miles off Port St Johns. “Activity was intense, with dolphins herding the fish into a ball from below, while Cape gannets rained down from above. I couldn’t wait to get in the water.” Gannets were plunging down several metres at great speed, catching and swallowing several fish in a dive. In contrast, Cape cormorants diving from the surface were much less successful. But what they lacked in fishing skill they made up for with thievery. “In this picture,” says Jean, “the gannet is desperately trying to swallow a herring as a gang of cormorants gives chase.”
What is Conservation Photography?
Skilled photographers have long been using the camera to tell stories, to document wildlife, as well as to document changes in the natural world caused by human interference. Wildlife photography has been a genre for nearly as long as the camera has existed, but it is only recently that ‘conservation photography’ has been recognised as an important speciality. It might sound self-explanatory, but what exactly is conservation photography and how is it being used?
Conservation photography is a relatively new art form. It aims to capture iconic and thought-provoking images by skilled and passionate photographers to give a voice to our fragile earth. It raises awareness, focuses attention and often evokes strong emotions. The images can be uplifting and inspirational or they can depict the horrors of the critical environmental issues challenging our society today.
With electronic media at our disposal, iconic photographs can spread rapidly. They can bring us the awe-inspiring beauty of fynbos in the Cape Mountains, or the excitement and delight of seeing a whale breaching and her calf attempting to do the same.
Contrast that with images of a rhino calf trying to prod its slaughtered mother, face hacked off, to please get up. Or a baby orangutan clinging hopelessly to its dead mother’s chest.
Both types of images convey a strong, thought-provoking message. Conservation photography can bridge language barriers and can be easily understood. It is increasingly being used across the globe to promote and garner support for conservation of the environment. A visually powerful photograph can evoke strong emotions that inspire us to action, change our collective behaviours and in this manner reduce our negative impacts on our fragile earth. In the words of Peter Chadwick, another well-known conservation photographer:
The story behind the shot is the topic of the talk guest speaker Jean Tresfon will give at the Whale Coast Conservation Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 18 September at 17:30 at the Green House. All are welcome. Contact Anina Lee on 083 242 3295.
