Tag: people

People helping people

The staff of one of the ‘soup kitchens’ in Nuwerus, a suburb of our village: Napier, Western Cape, South Africa.

28 Volunteers with a multicultural background are engaged in feeding about 500 of the poorest people in our village. They all are very grateful for donations from private people, businesses and the farming community of Napier. From left to right: Wilbur Adams, Johanna Jaars, Lena Volkers, Sabine Arends and Nita Arends.

Here some additional pictures of people helping people. Lockdown Humanity in the first degree:

For people traveling in South Africa

A great stop over between Cape Town and Cape Agulhas. Within 100 meters also a chess board maker, a toy museum, a candle factory and an artist who creates working miniature steam engines. Walk a 100 meters extra and, for foodies, there are Pascals and Napier Farm Stall. And, if available, we can introduce you to other artists nearby.
 
Who said there is nothing happening in Napier?
Private Gallery is where my work and that of my wife Yvonne come together…

Ordinary people ….

…. or is it extraordinary?

I prefer to portrait people as they are; not as they want to be seen. That makes me a very difficult photographer for wedding and event shoots. But there are also many  exceptions and these extra-ordinary people insist to see themselves through my eyes. With portrait photography I like to shoot at an unexpected moment. With the processing I add, erase, tone and texture etc. etc. until I’m content with the result. Take for example the portrait of Zama (move with cursor over the images to see the captions). Zama puts IsiXhosa magic in her profession which makes her one of the best baristas in the Western Cape, South Africa. I pictured her, this afternoon, during a break in the kitchen of the eat cafe where she works. Zama is a very sweet and proud personality, hard working to get her child the best education possible. She has humor and is a great communicator once you get to know her but also very discreet and distinguished.

And so every portrait should tell you its own story about the person or at least provide you with an idea about the personality (as I experienced).

The best compliment for my portrait photography I got from an international operating photographer in Washington DC. This colleague identified Beatrice as coming from Northern Germany, possible from Berlin,  business-wise plus also radiating an alternative lifestyle. Beatrice lived in several places in Northern Germany but was born in Berlin and regarding the rest my colleague also hit the nail on its head. If that is not extra-ordinary?

Zama: IsiXhosa magic behind the coffee machines
Kobus
John
An American in Stanford
Reading the menu “I think I take it all”
Hatman
Mr. S.
the smile
Proud Daddy
Hatwoman
Clive; the early morning gardener
Koos
Emily
Beatrice

My ego tripped this morning

For what it is worth: one of my images became the banner of the Facebook page Cape Reflections. The administrator of this group wrote a review and that made my day ( 😉 ).

“The banner photograph at the top of the Cape Refections Group Page was the most liked image posted to the page in May as voted for by our members. Congratulations Herman van Bon! Herman is one of our regular contributors. He posts a range of his photographs to our page and it is always exiting to see which way he will point his lens next. Not only are his subjects carefully chosen illustrating a deep interest in nature and people and the world around him but he will often exercise his creative energies further by manipulating the image using a variety of tools available to the digital photographer, some times to very dramatic effect.”

The picture was one of a series of which I published a few in this blog some days ago. Herman van Bon Photography