"Mercury Down II" The sun sets and the mercury indicator starts to drop after a very hot day in Namibia - Copyright Mitchell Krog / Living Canvas Photography. All Rights Reserved.

For the budding and professional landscape photographer there is virtually endless landscape photographic opportunities in Africa and Southern Africa. South African photographer Mitchell Krog is no stranger to the African landscape and spends many months a year exploring, discovering and capturing breathtaking images of the beautiful African landscapes. Mitchell chooses to completely avoid re-capturing images which have been captured a million times or more, “I just don’t see the point in photographing things that have are captured 100 times a day when there is just so much that has NOT even been photographed yet” he says.

"Drakensberg Sunrise" - The sun rises over the beautiful and majestic mountainous region of the Drakensberg of South Africa. Copyright Mitchell Krog / Living Canvas Photography. All Rights Reserved.

The greatest parts of the undiscovered African landscape are only accessible via foot and often many kilometers of walking can be involved simply to capture one image. As Mitchell Krog says, “This is the game unfortunately and quite simply if you’re not willing to go the extra “mile”, excuse the pun, you will not return home with any new or unique images that have not been captured already. The Drakensberg region of South Africa, of which the greatest area lies within the province of Kwazulu Natal, is a good example. Photographers seeking to cover this area really need to go many extra miles to get to unique locations and in the Drakensberg there literally is endless locations on offer. The Drakensberg is so diverse and the landscape is ever changing, the light is so dramatic that you could sit and photograph the same scene every day for 365 days and not one image would be the same, it is for this very reason that I can say the landscape opportunities of the Drakensberg are endless.”

"Table Mountain at Dusk" - One of the most photographed mountains in the world, Table Mountain. Copyright Mitchell Krog / Living Canvas Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Similarly the Western Cape region of South Africa is also very mountainous and has some very dramatic landscapes. The Cape weather is rather unpredictable but this coupled with dramatic light seems to make for a good recipe for excellent landscape photography opportunities. The Cape is one of the most photographically covered regions of South Africa but this does ot mean that there is not still many landscape photography opportunities in store for the visiting photographer. No doubt South Africa will see many international photographers visiting our shores as the World Cup Soccer draws closer and it will be interesting to see how fresh eyes portray our beautiful landscapes.

Danger Written In The Sky. Multiple Lightning Strikes Light Up The Summer Night Sky. If Only Man Could Learn To Harness This Energy. From Mitchell Krog's Lightning Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

For many years SA photographer Mitchell Krog has watched and studied electrical storms and to this day still stands in utter amazement at this incredible force of nature. In recent years he acquired the equipment and skills to finally capture them on film and he has produced an endless array of breathtaking images. For Mitchell it is not about simply capturing a lightning strike on film but more importantly capturing the entire scene and telling a story through his images. “With any form of photography if you can captivate a viewers attention, draw them into an image, tell them a story and have them study it for more than just a few seconds you have imprinted an ever lasting memory” says Mitchell. Lightning photography can be a very lonely passtime, only those with enough dedication, patience and endurance to be out at strange hours of the night will stand a chance of capturing unique, sometimes once in a lifetime images.

The Big Detour. A passenger aircraft destined for Lanseria airport bypasses a massive storm cell. Missing dinner and spending many lonesome hours outside comes with the job of photographing lightning storms. From Mitchell Krog's Lightning Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

As with any form of photography, timing is of the essence. If you are unprepared, unwilling or unable to drop whatever you are doing at a moments notice you will miss opportunities. “I cannot tell you how many evenings I have rushed out of the house just minutes before dinner was ready only to return home several hours later, but nature waits for no man and if you are quick to seize the opportunity you will reap the rewards” says Mitchell. Mitchell’s Fire and Ice series, capturing a grassland fire which was started by lightning strikes  was one such occasion. He explains – “I was cooking dinner when I heard thunder approaching, I took a quick look outside and saw the sky glowing red from a grass fire, I dropped everything, rushed outside and managed to capture a few frames of this scene before the storm extinguished the fire it had started. This entire window of opportunity lasted a mere 20-30 minutes and was at it’s best stage for around 5-10 minutes.”

Fire and Ice. An early Spring lightning storm starts a grass fire and is captured here with strikes falling around and into the fire. Minutes later the storm extinguishes the fire it started and the moment is gone. From Mitchell Krog's Fire and Ice Lightning Photography Series. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Safety is an important part of watching and photographing lightning storms. Finding a safe location with a good view is of the essence, you need to be able to see the storm approaching and be able to determine if you are in any way in the path of danger. “If your view is in any way blocked a storm can sneak up right behind you so a 360 degree view is preferrable, you also need somewhere safe to escape to. I’ve often been watching a storm in one direction when right behind me another one is brewing, so I always keep a watch all around me. Standing outside with a metal tripod and an electrically charged camera when strikes are falling too close is asking for trouble” says Mitchell. Mitchell insists that climbing on the roof of your house or any metal structure is a big no-no and could quickly cost you your life and he always promotes safe lightning photography. “There is just no image worth losing your life over” he adds.

Killer Storm. On the 23rd of November 2007 this mammoth supercell emitting lightning strikes up and out of it's core was captured by Mitchell Krog. The strikes emanating from the centre of this storm cell were kilometres in length and streaked across the night sky. This same evening several massive storm cells circulated through Gauteng and claimed lives in their path. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

More articles and images in this series on Lightning Photography will follow in the coming months.

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The strange craft which fleeted across South Africa's night skies on Sunday the 18th of October 2009 causing UFO reports to flood observatories and Radio 702. Most people in South Africa thought they had seen a UFO but this object turned out to be a Centaur rocket carrying out tests when they passed over South Africa. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Information from http://www.planetarium.co.za/ thanks to Claire from the Planetarium for doing so much research into this event.

Hundreds of South Africans saw a star-like point moving across the sky while emitting “haloes” or “bubbles” of light just before 9pm on Sunday evening October 18th. This strange sight turns out to have been a Centaur rocket carrying out tests as it passed over South Africa nearly three hours after launch. The mission (AV-017) is a project of United Launch Alliance – see ulalaunch.com for a nice video of the launch and a 23-page “mission overview”. The purpose was to launch a US Defence Force weather satellite (DMSP F18) into orbit.

Event timeline (all times are South African time)

6:12pm – Atlas V rocket launches from Vandenberg Airforce Base

6:16pm – booster rocket shuts down and is jettisoned over the Pacific

– Centaur main engine starts

– payload fairing jettisoned

6:27pm – Centaur main engine shuts down

6:30pm – satellite released

– Collision and Contamination Avoidance Maneuver

6:46pm – testing begins

8:57pm – testing ends

9:10pm – Centaur main engine fires for 4min to send the rocket away from Earth (into an Earth-escape trajectory)

9:17pm – “blowdown” of the fuel tanks

9:56pm – burn off of residual hydrazine

What caused the bubbles?

Possibly venting of fuel during the tests, or firing of “reaction control” motors used to change the orientation or spin of the vehicle.

Tests carried out on the Centaur

Since the DMSP satellite was relatively light, the Centaur rocket had fuel left over after completing its mission of putting the satellite into orbit.  The collision and contamination avoidance manoeuvre gets the rocket a safe distance from the satellite.

After this, the Centaur is in free-fall – a (almost) zero-gravity state that can be created on Earth for a short time by dropping something from e.g. a tall tower, or in a plane for a few minutes (e.g. NASA’s “Vomit Comet“).  The test phase of the Centaur lasted about two hours.

The tests carried out during this time were described by ULA as:

“zero-g, long-coast propellant management . . . we do zero-g settling by very reduced motion of the settling thrusters . . . [and then] settle the propellants against the wall of the tank by spinning the stage with no settling thrusters . . . [and] some venting during zero-g.”

Before re-starting the engine, the engineers also planned “a pulsed chilldown demo . . . then some experiments related to the depletion of [the engine]“

One interesting use for these tests is to see how feasible orbiting “filling stations” are.  These would be useful for future manned spacecraft missions to the Moon or Mars, that would have to carry large (heavy) amounts of equipment into space.  Some of the experiments that would be useful for the design of these orbiting “propellant depots” include spinning the spacecraft to settle the fuel against the sides of the container, and firing small rockets or venting small amounts of fuel to push the fuel against one end of the container.  A large fuel tanker in zero-gravity has problems that include leakage of the hydrogen fuel (hydrogen molecules are very small and eventually leak through the walls of containers), and keeping the fuel cool.

United Launch Alliance has a great collection of (fairly technical) publications related to the future development of space exploration – see their publications page, especially this one which mentions using the DMSP-18 mission for zero-g propellant tests.

"The mothership is watching us". What many would love to believe was a UFO turns out to be something actually from this world. A centaur rocket is captured dumping excess propellant into the atmosphere as part of a testing phase of this rocket launch. From Mitchell Krog's Astrophotography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to order prints

of Mitchell Krog’s images above please visit www.livingcanvas.co.za and send an enquiry form through and someone will get back to you with pricing and shipping info. Details on the front page of the web site.

More articles at: http://selenianboondocks.com/2009/10/av-017-bubbling-ufos-and-centrifugal-settling/

The Voortrekker Monument with the Magaliesburg Mountains in the Distance Photographed from Fort Schanskop in Pretoria. From Mitchell Krog's Urban Landscape Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

South African landscape photographer Mitchell Krog often travels to various locations around South Africa, no matter where he ends up he always seems to find a landscape photography opportunity, be it pristine landscapes or cities full of human elements. It’s all about conditioning, says Mitchell, too many photographers have conditioned their minds to thinking a landscape photograph must be “pure” and “pristine” when quite simply life and our planet is just not that way. We are after all humans and as photographers we should not only seek out untouched landscapes but also from time to time include evidence of our impact on the planet in photographs, including human elements can often add great impact to images.

The Iconic Telkom Tower and The University of South Africa UNISA Buildings at Night Photographed from Fort Schanskop Near the Voortrekker Monument Just Outside Pretoria. From Mitchell Krog's Urban Night Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Cities are full of exciting things to photograph. Virtually every city in South Africa has a history going back 100 years or more, there are monuments, museums and lots of modern architecture just begging to be photographed. Of course crime in South Africa is always of concern to a photographer but there is a multitude of safe locations around city centre’s and for those safety conscious individuals, shooting in groups is often advisable. Botanical gardens offer a safe haven for photographers and most major cities in South Africa have one with very reasonable access fees, some even free.

South Africa's Rugged Coastline Offers Un-ending Opportunities for the Landscape Photographer. The Coastline of the Western Cape is among the most popular coastlines for landscape photographers. From Mitchell Krog's South African Landscape and Seascape Portfolios. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The Western Cape coastline is undoubtedly one of the most popular stretches of coastline for both South African and International landscape photographers and this region of South Africa has bred some really talented photographers who truly appreciate and understand the gift that they have on their doorstep.

Panorama of the Kogel Bay, Western Cape Coastline at Sunset. From Mitchell Krog's South African Landscape and Seascape Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The Eastern Cape stretch of coastline becomes even more rugged and is a place full of adventure and there is a reason why it got named “The Wild Coast”. For photographers this stretch of coastline involves much walking and climbing over dunes and dangerous rocks but only those willing to go the effort of getting to the best locations are the one’s to return with beautiful images of this coastline. There are many parts of this coastline, also known as the “Sunshine Coast” that have hardly been explored, least of all photographed.

Approximately halfway between industrial centres Port Elizabeth and East London sits a quaint little seaside coastal town called Kenton On Sea. Nestled between the Bushman’s and Kariega Rivers it’s an ideal holiday destination and full of opportunities for the landscape photographer. The area has many pristine beaches and a declared nature reserve along the shoreline ensures that no housing developments can spoil the coastline.

Carriage Rock is a recognisable landmark on the Kenton-On-Sea, Eastern Cape coastline. Captured here at sunrise by South African Landscape Photographer Mitchell Krog. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Carriage Rock, a recognisable landmark at Kenton-On-Sea captured at first light with movement in the water by South African fine-art landscape photographer Mitchell Krog. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Moving further North along the coastline we get to Kwazulu Natal with Durban as the metropolis. Durban and the surrounding coastal towns has for many years been the top location for holidays. It’s a half day drive from Johannesburg and even in winter the weather is warm and mild, making it the ideal all year round destination. This stretch of coastline offers some wonderful opportunities for the landscape photographer but much of this coastline has had poorly planned developments encroach right onto the beach fronts. There are still many areas where development has been kept more inland allowing the photographer to capture images with hardly any human element in them. South African fine-art landscape photographer Mitchell Krog however believes that photographers try too hard to capture pristine images without any human element visible and including such elements in a landscape image can add a great sense of scale, impact and drama to an image.

A Lonesome Fisherman at Sunrise on the Kwazulu Natal Coastline. Including Human Elements in a Landscape can add great impact to a photograph. From Mitchell Krog's South African Landscape and Seascape Portfolios. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Landscape photographer’s generally seek the best weather for a photograph and will often pack up and go home if conditions are not optimal. Come rain or shine a landscape or seascape photographer should be prepared for any weather that nature cares to throw his or her way. Instead of packing up, a photographer should learn to use the conditions available to their best advantage. Cold stormy days can produce images otherwise unobtainable when the light is too bright. Where human elements are unavoidable a photographer needs to get creative and seek out intimate parts of the landscape.

Where it is difficult to keep human elements out of a photograph, a photographer must get creative and isolate intimate parts of the landscape. From Mitchell Krog's Landscape and Seascape Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

SA born landscape and seascape photographer Mitchell Krog regularly travels to coastal destinations around South Africa and has produced numerous masterpieces. Mitchell believes that for photographers the South African coastal landscape offers endless opportunities.

Internationally the Western Cape is well known for it’s Fynbos Floral Kingdom which is the most diverse floral entity in the world. There are still new plant species being recorded all the time and the Fynbos biome is protected and heralded worldwide. It is however constantly under threat from development but environmentalists are quick to pounce and take action to ensure that the Fynbos is there for future generations to appreciate. Many communities have stood together and proclaimed conservancies to ensure that development is kept low-key and that new developments do not come along and bulldoze the fynbos without knowing what they are actually destroying.

The Cape Fynbos is as diverse as life itself. From Mitchell Krog's Cape Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The diversity of fynbos plants is greater than that of the tropical rainforests, with over 9000 species of plants occurring in the area, (and new species being recorded annually) around 6200 of which are endemic, i.e. do not occur anywhere else in the world. Of the Ericas (Heaths/Heathers), 600 occur in the fynbos kingdom, while only 26 are found in the rest of the world. This is in an area of 46,000 km² – by comparison, the Netherlands, with an area of 33,000 km², has 1400 species, none of them endemic. Table Mountain in Cape Town supports 2200 species, more than the entire United Kingdom. Thus although the Fynbos comprises only 6% of the area of southern Africa it has half the species on the subcontinent, and in fact has almost 1 in 5 of all plant species in Africa.

Many of the fynbos seeds germinate only after the intense heat of a fire, and so fire is a necessary stage in the lives of almost all fynbos plants. Out of death comes new life, the simplicity of it is just beautiful. World Famous Rooibos Tea (Aspalathus linearis) and Honeybush Tea (Cyclopia intermedia) are of economic importance and are grown and harvested in large quantities in the Cederberg area. These two crops make up a very important export for South Africa and provides jobs to local communities. Proteas and other floral species are also grown in many areas and their flowers harvested for export, you will often see a King Protea (Protea cynaroides) when walking into an international hotel. Restios (Reeds) continue to be used for thatching as they have for hundreds or even thousands of years and there are many different species some growing only 30cm tall some 3 meters. Fynbos areas are popular attractions for tourists, especially in the vicinity of Cape Town, and are also important recreational areas for locals.

The Recognisable and Most Photographed Mountain in South Africa. Table Mountain panorama at sunset. From Mitchell Krog's Cape Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The Cape attracts photographers from all over the world and there is no wonder why. The face of the Cape is constantly changing and as a photographer you could never dream of photographing it in it’s entirety in your lifetime but it certainly does not stop us trying. The coastal belt stretching from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth is so diverse just exploring one area properly could take months and with photography it’s all about timing. Those photographers unafraid to get their feet wet or put their camera equipment at risk in the icy cold waters of the Cape will be sure to return with beautiful images to treasure for a lifetime.

The well known and well photographed Kommetjie Lighthouse at Slangkop Punt near Cape Town. From Mitchell Krog's Cape Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The first European to reach the cape was the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, who named it the “Cape of Storms” (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as “Cape of Good Hope” (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the great optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India and the East. Many a sea going vessel has fought the waters of the Cape during a storm and lost.

The Fairest Cape of Storms. This tiny panoramic image does no justice to the full sized image clocking in at around 84 megapixels. From Mitchell Krog's Cape Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

South African Fine-Art Landscape and Wildlife Photographer Mitchell Krog, regularly travels to the Western Cape for Photography. This is the first in a series of articles dealing with his Cape Photography trips and three never before published images are included in this article. Mitchell has spent much of his life in environmental and conservation circles and has spent years fighting for the protection of the fynbos against unscrupulous developers and golf estates. Mitchell has been writing environmental, horticultural, technology and photography articles for nearly 16 years and has been published both locally and internationally in all sorts of publications and web sites.

Spring has arrived in full force in South Africa, it’s the 1st of September and already we are set for day time temperatures reaching near 30 degrees. As Spring returns so does a plethora of life return to our gardens and there is no better time for Photographers in South Africa to get their Macro lenses dusted off and get crawling around in their gardens. Macro photography is one of the most enjoyable forms of photography.You can also get started in Macro Photography without breaking the bank.

A Banded Bee Captured in Flight Near a Salvia clevelandii x leucophylla Flower. From Mitchell Krog's Macro Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Only once a photographer has crawled around their garden for a few hours with a Macro lens do they realise how much life is in the garden normally unseen to the human eye and the more you start crawling around as a photographer the more you actually see. Of course it goes without saying don’t go sticking your fingers into dark places and watch out for spiders and snakes. With Macro Photography it is quite essential to learn to use flash to freeze action and ensure sharper images. There are many ways of doing this. You can use a standard flash unit attached to your hot shoe or you can make yourself a bounce card to force the light down towards your subject. The best way however is to purchase a Macro Ring Flash unit which sits around the lens itself and pushes light directly onto your subject.

A Mantis/Stick Insect Photographed in the Dead of Night using Macro Flash Techniques. From Mitchell Krog's Macro Photography Collections. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The night time garden is full of life, most insects come to rest at night and this is one of the best times to get out and photograph them as it does not involve you chasing them around the garden in the daylight. This however requires that you absolutely positively need to have flash lighting to assist you.

If you are relatively new in photography and have wanted to experiment with Macro photography there is no better time to get started. A good quality Macro lens is relatively affordable and Macro ring flash units are also not too badly priced either. I can assure you that Macro photography is very addictive but also very enjoyable and rewarding and you get to appreciate a whole part of life that most people do not take notice of.

A Bee in Flight Coming in For Landing on an Aloe mutabilis Flower. From Mitchell Krog's Macro Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Watch out for more Macro Photography Articles and Image from Mitchell Krog

You Can See Forever and a Day. The views from Magaliesburg stretch far into the North West province. From Mitchell Krog's Magaliesburg Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The Magaliesberg Range has a very long geological history. Its quartzites, shales, chert and dolomite were deposited as sediments in an inland basin on top of the 3 billion year old Archaean Basement Complex. This process of sedimentation lasted for about 300 million years. About 2 billion years ago a massive upwelling of molten magma resulted in what is now known as the Bushveld Igneous Complex. The enormous weight of this intrusion depressed the sediments that lay beneath and tilted the sediments along the edges so that the broken scarps faced outward and upward, and the gentler dip slopes inward. During the same period these sediments were fractured and igneous intrusions of dolerite filled the cracks. With the passage of time these intrusions eroded, especially on the dip slopes, forming deep kloofs or ravines providing excellent rock-climbing potential to modern man. This large dogbone-shaped area is now termed the Transvaal Basin and includes the lofty escarpment of the Transvaal Drakensberg overlooking the Lowveld in the eastern part of the country. Massive outpourings of igneous material of the much younger Karroo System later covered the Transvaal Basin, but this was subsequently eroded so that it only remains along the Transvaal Basin’s southern rim.

The Beautiful Golden Winter Colours of a Winter Sunset Over the Magaliesburg Mountains. From Mitchell Krog's Magaliesburg Photography Collection. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

The Magaliesburg Mountain range forms a natural barrier between the lower lying Bushveld to the north and the cooler Highveld to the south. The range receives rainfall in summer in the form of thunderstorms, with an average of 650mmm annually. In winter frost occurs frequently in the valleys on the southern side of the mountain, but almost never on the northern slopes. Mitchell Krog, a specialist and award winning lightning photographer has produced some incredible lightning images from Magaliesburg.

Fire and Ice. The First Electrical Storm of Summer Sets The Grass Lands Alight. From Mitchell Krog's Lightning Photography Portfolio. (Copyright Mitchell Krog - All Rights Reserved)

Watch our for more in photos and articles in this series about Magaliesburg.

~ Mitchell Krog