Fat Aubergine Restaurant, Pietermaritzburg

I love the Fat Aubergine. I am off to have lunch there today and will be dropping off a CD of images I took of their delicious food.

Margie does cooking courses and catering as well.

Maryann Shaw

Mobility Magazine article

Mobility magazine cover image of Victoria Mazabuko, aged 16. She bought her bicycle by growing indigenous trees at her home in KwaJobe in northern Zululand. (picture Maryann Shaw)

To read my article published in Mobility magazine, have a look at the digital version You have to "register" but it does not take long at all. The magazine is about the transport industry and issues around the subject and is an interesting read.

My story is about the "tree-preneurs", many of them school children, who through the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme are growing indigenous trees and trading them for goods. Many rural school children are "buying" bicycles this way, and no longer have to walk long distances to school each day.

Maryann Shaw

Travels, Year End and 2010

Over a month into 2010 and it has been too long since I have posted on my blog. I have so much material I can add, but I need to make the time.

Towards the end of the year there were trips to Oribi Gorge, Underberg and Sani Valley Lodge and then a road trip from Pietermaritzburg to Cape Town before Christmas that took us meandering off the obvious routes and finding some interesting places to stay such as the tipis at Outeniqua Trout Lodge along the spectacular Prince Alfred's Pass....

Sani Valley Lodge was a rather luxury self catering affair, I usually go for a more rustic set up. The setting is stunning and fishing excellent, and it is as the name suggests, a good place for a day trip up Sani Pass. Here are a couple of pics from Sani Valley Lodge... I will post images from our travels as I get them processed for stories.

Maryann Shaw

The plight of the Vultures in Southern Africa

I spoke to Sonja Kruger who runs the Maloti-Drakensberg Vulture Project

Helping out Wild Dogs

The KZN Wild Dog Project run by the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) seeks to facilitate the expansion of the range for wild dogs in order to protect them as they move across KwaZulu Natal... click on the image below to view in readable size

Umgeni Valley Reserve

Article published in The Witness 14 October 2009

30kms from Pietermaritzburg there is a place you can run or walk with zebra, wildebeest and other wild animals, and then head off for breakfast at the nearby farmers' market

Click on image to view image at readable size

Maryann Shaw

Mkhuze Game Reserve

Vulture Capture in the Underberg with KZN Wildlife

I Spent two days in the Underberg with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Ecologist Sonja Kruger and her team who are capturing vultures in order to fit them with satellite tracking devices, and while they have the birds on the ground, they measure them and take blood for genetic testing.

A 6am start at the vulture "restaurant" (a local farmer leaves his dead livestock for the vultures to get rid of) in front of a hide, Sonja and Carmen, a Spanish volunteer, uncover the traps and strategically place morsels the Bearded Vultures particularly enjoy. In the ten days they have been doing this so far, they have managed to catch four Bearded Vultures and one Cape, and successfully fit the devices that will transmit GPS co-ordinates for 6 hours every 48 hours. This gap in transmission is so that the solar panel on the device can recharge the battery for the next transmitting period.

Knowing where the vultures travel, where they their spend time, will significantly aid the efforts to help these birds that are in serious trouble from poisonings, inadvertant and deliberate by some farmers, by poaching for muti, by electrocution on powerlines and by diminished habitats.

On day two I join the second site on the farm, where Ben Hoffman from the African Bird of Prey Sanctuary sits for hours in a Gilly suit (read Yeti outfit!) It starts out freezing in the early morning and then must be sweltering in the furry mass... but with no hide Ben has to be close enough to run and catch a bird if it lands in a trap, as they are very gentle traps and the birds can escape pretty easily and one has to react fast.

KZN Wildlife intern Mxolisi and I sit in a bakkie slightly further away, but he is also ready to run and catch a bird if it lands in his trap. He later takes over in the Gilly suit, sitting for four hours in the hot sun, birds circling but none landing that day. Patience is certainly the name of this game.

Maryann Shaw

Tree-preneur trades his trees for a bicycle

Spamandla Ndila, aged 14, purchased a bike on Friday 21 August 2009 through the Wildlands Conservation Trust's Indigenous Trees for Life Programme. The programme operates in 23 needy communities across KwaZulu Natal, and children and adults grow indigenous trees that they trade for goods at tree stores. The trees are collected and are then planted in areas identified for reforestation carbon sinks or urban greening projects.

Spamandla is a "tree-preneur" at the Buffelsdraai Indigenous Trees for Life Programme near Durban and has grown 539 saplings. He said he will use his earnings to buy food and things that his mother needs, now that he has his bike. He said he will use the bike to go to school, ride with his friends, and go to the shop for his mother. In this picture he gives his little brother a lift.

Maryann Shaw

Nelson Mandela Capture Site

47 years ago today, on 5 August 1962 Nelson Mandela was arrested near Howick in KwaZulu Natal. At the side of the road there is a plaque.... that is barely legible now unfortunately. I was expecting the plaque to tell the story and explain the circumstances of his arrest...

It reads: This monument was erected by the people of Howick to commemorate the site of arrest of President Nelson R. Mandela on 5 August 1962.
The plaque was unveiled by the President of the republic of South Africa on occasion of receiving honorary citizenship on 12 December 1996

Article from Montage, Autumn 2007

I wrote this article my capacity as photo editor at Images24, the syndication unit for Media24. The theme was social issues, and I highlighted some of the issues facing South Africa and the images we had in the collection that reflected these issues. Since those days, Gallo Images started distributing the Images24 content, so the images featured here can be found at their website

Click on the image of the article to see it in a readable size.

Maryann Shaw

My 2 cents on the 30$ Time Cover

So I believe Time magazine bought an image for 30$ for their cover. Interestingly, it was to illustrate the fact that everyone is cutting budgets and saving where they can...I think the cover looks tacky and the photographer has not been paid according to the usage, but is the illustration not apt? If Time is saying this is all we can be bothered to pay for photographs, this is the product we produce...then that is the message we receive. I still believe that you get what you pay for.

Microstock has been eroding the value of professional imagery for years now, not that it is the singular culprit. The fact that anyone with enough money to buy a decent digital camera can call themselves a photographer and can submit (often quite decent) images to stock libraries, and online databases of images grow by millions within a year, this will clearly lead to price cuts.

I owned and ran a small online photo library from 2003-2005, and now, in 2009, I am not able to charge the same clients (mainly SA magazines) a higher price than I charged in those days. This because in order to make the sale, I have been forced to drop prices for rights managed imagery.

WHY?
There is a lot more product around than in 2003. There are many places where magazines can source images for free (with Digital photography, PR agencies, tourism agencies, and most companies all have a library of images they do not mind supplying to magazines in order to get publicity, so why would a magazine pay an agency for an image of a lodge in a travel story, when the lodge will supply beautiful images, plus a few wildlife shots, for nothing) These are real factors, as well as the dominance of one or two major online stock libraries, including iStockphotos.

Editorial budget cuts have editors looking around for further cheaper options, and there is always a "photographer" who can do the job, and is quite willing to do it at a lesser rate than what the actual going rate is. One of the problems here is that no one REALLY knows what the going rate is.

Photography seems to be a profession that many people think they want to get into, and with there being so many semi-professionals out there (some of whom are people with full time jobs who then undercut the industry to get their work published) the photographers who are doing this full-time are finding what is left is slim pickings.

The Time magazine Cover issue is interesting in that it is a high profile user of imagery that people feel has stooped to using microstock, where one expects to see quality photojournalism on their cover. Also, why should Time "get away" with only paying 30 dollars?

Unfortunately, due to the market forces, this is what we are working with, and we just have to continue valuing our own work enough and hope there are enough clients in our environment who are prepared to pay us a professional wage for a professional service. I still believe that you get what you pay for... I have had clients say a rights managed image is too much, they can get the same for $7, and then they come back and need the image because their $7 image just did not cut it.

The Quarry in Hilton, KwaZulu Natal

The Quarry in Hilton is best known as the place where the shopping centre is... in this picture that is where the green roofs are... and there are one or two coffee shops that afford a view of this magnificent body of water.. there is quite a lot of bird life around here. I was lucky enough to get access from this side, where the Quarry Cottages are located, self catering accommodation that is part of the Midlands Meander....

Maryann Shaw

The ubiquitous "person on cell phone"

We still get asked for pictures of people talking on cell phones, for use in magazines and such... and still the cry is "we need pictures of REAL South Africans".....

So today Lungi posed for a few real South African pictures... and we did a few other scenarios other than the cell phone... Lungi works in a cooperative with five other women entrepeneurs in Pietermaritzburg, she makes bags and clothing... I will post some pictures of their premises and her wares soon...they have some impressive products.

Maryann Shaw

Faces in Places

Been meaning to put this guy's picture here for a while, took his picture from a balcony in Ballito on KwaZulu Natal's north coast. He caught my attention and was keen for me to take a picture. I always wonder why people want you to take their picture when there is no possible chance of you delivering them a copy.. but I am very happy to have such a happy open portrait of someone.

He was working in the gardens, and when I left a bit later I tried to find him to get his name... but unfortunately I could not see him. So anonymous smiling man in Ballito he remains.

Maryann Shaw

Wildlands Conservation Trust's Conservation Space Projects

From 1-3 July 2009 we visited some of the Conservation SPACE projects in Zululand and Maputaland, in northern KwaZuluNatal.

The Asuthuthuke Permaculture Project not far from the boundary of Usuthu Gorge Community Conservation Area, (in the north-west corner of Maputaland near the border with Mozambique) is a beautiful oasis, a vegetable garden brimming with beautiful spinach, huge cabagges, green peppers and other fresh veggies.

To the east, past Ndumo Game Reserve and just south of Tembe Elephant Park, the 2000 hectare Tshanini Community Conservation Area is joining with land to its north, from the Bekhula Community, which means the Tshanini conservancy is now joined with the tar road. Bush is being cleared for fencing to be erected. This extra space added to conservation in the area is hugely important, the Tshanini area has been shown to be very rich in birdlife; the sandforest and woodland of the area providing perfect habitat for endemic species. The community are developing tourism activities and facilities, and community members are being trained as guides.

Maryann Shaw

Kingsley Holgate Boundless Southern Africa

Story for www.gotravel24.com by Maryann Shaw

Tembe Elephant Park in KwaZulu Natal is home to 220 of the largest elephants in the world; a big five reserve, it shares a border with Mozambique in the north Photos Maryann Shaw

Kingsley Holgate is on the road again. The large man with huge grey beard, something of an icon in South Africa, constantly stops to engage, inform and give of himself; I was pleasantly surprised not to meet a macho “camel man” guy – but a true professional, an adventurer who uses the brand he has built of himself as modern-day explorer heading into Africa…to do good.

From Tembe Elephant Park in Northern KwaZulu Natal, across the border to the beautiful Ponta Mamoli in Mozambique, Maryann Shaw tagged along for five days of Kingsley Holgate's latest expedition for Boundless Southern Africa.

Click here to view the story


Ponta Mamoli cabins in the casuarina trees, a minute's walk from the beach Photos Maryann Shaw

Jealous is the freedom of fools...

May 2009: St Lucia Border South Africa/Mozambique
Boundless Southern Africa Expedition
www.boundlessa.com

Comrades Marathon 2009 at Harrison Flats

This man was taken in an ambulance after 34kms, which he covered in a time of just over 3 hours.

Run Walk for Life and Toyota Runners...at speed at 7.45 am.


24 May 2009. Comrades Marathon. Four kilometres beyond Cato Ridge on Harrison Flats, approximately 34 kilometres into the race that started in Pietermaritzburg as it is a down run to Durban. Russian twins Olesya and Elana Nurgalieva, the first two women passing this point, who went on to come first and second respectively in the race, finishing in 6:11 and 6:13.

They passed us at 7.53am.

Soccer soccer soccer

I guess June next year looms, The FIFA2010 World Cup Soccer that is, so every photographer should be going to their files and finding all their "cool" images relating to football, people playing and enjoying the game, and get them ready and waiting for a buyer.

This pic was taken on my way up to Pietermaritzburg last year when I moved to that city from Cape Town. These guys were having a game in the dust right next to the main road at Aliwal North, which is in the Eastern Cape but just before the Free State border.

Having lived most of my life in Cape Town, it has been really good to explore a new part of our country in the last seven months, as KwaZulu Natal had not been on my previous routes as much as I would have liked.

Now I am here. And it's great. Sure I miss Cape Town, but it is not that far away.