The "Mother City" is a photographer's dream, offering an seemingly endless supply of impressive landscapes and cityscapes making it the perfect place to practice and hone your photography skills, whether your're a beginner or a pro. And needless to say, Instagram ❤ Cape Town! Here are nine terrific examples.
Situated on the slopes of Signal Hill above the city centre, this district also known as the Malay Quarter is one of the most colourful in Cape Town. It's also steeped in history, having been home to the city's Muslim community for more than 175 years (the Nurul Islam mosque was established in 1844, and the Bo-Kaap Museum, in an 18th-century house which is the district's oldest, shows how a prosperous Muslim family of the time lived). And by the way, the next-door De Waterkant neighborhood is a bit less ostentatiously chromatic but still plenty picturesque.
Cape Town Stadium
Built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, these days this 15-storey, state-of-the-art stadium one of the city's most iconic landmarks and is also used for rugby, tennis, and concerts. Its crisp, curving, and elegant modern design - which appears to change colour depending on the weather and time of day - lends itself plenty of photo ops both inside and out.
Bernard Gagnon
Also known as the Cape Town Castle or simple The Castle, South Africa's oldest surviving manmade structure has stood as a historic local icon since 1679, when it was completed by the Dutch East India Company.. Once located on Table Bay and now part of central Cape Town after land reclamation, it's now home to three museums and provides some great scenic grist for your camera (plus come at night, too, when the walls are gaily lit with multicolour lights).
Located in the City Bowl district at the heart of downtown Cape Town, one of its oldest squares (built in 1696 as a slave market) is cobbestone-paved, pedestrian-only, and serves up plenty of photo ops both day and night, thanks to street entertainers and bustling stalls that sell a variety of fascinating wares including colourful souvenirs to and African art. Speaking of art, you can also pop into Greenmarket's best known building and one of the city's oldest, the Old Town House, now home to the Michaelis Collection, strong in Dutch and Flemish old masters. Hard to get a bad shot here!
Ossewa
This is indeed indeed a long street, but the stretch right near Greenmarket Square in particular just exudes energy and excitement, and it's been famous since the 1960s as a funky "bohemian" and nightlife hangout, with myriad bookstores and antiques shops as well as bars, clubs, cafés, and restaurants (especially African cuisine). Come here in the daytime to capture its various examples of its ornate Victorian and Cape Dutch architecture (with the Blue Lodge, above, being a good example of the former).
Begun in 1901 and finished in 1936, the seat of the Angican Church of southern Africa's neo-Gothic exterior and soaring interior with its beautiful stained-glass windows will also give your camera (or smartphone) plenty to work with. It's also right in city centre, two minutes from Greenmarket Square and four from Bo-Kaap.
Brendon Wainwright
Table Mountain
Two miles long and more than 3,500 feet high, this flat-topped is a dramatic, ever present part of the city landscape and a surefire photography bonanza whether from near, far (like here, captured from another mountain called Lion's Head), on top, or from below. Up top it's also home to a national park. The only limit to portraying this Cape Town icon is your vivid imagination.
With 300 acres (123 hectares) of beautiful marinas, more than 450 cool eateries and shops, 22 heritage sites and museums, and scenic waterfront promenade, urban photographers will find plenty to occupy themselves at the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. Two attractions here which may be of special interest are the Two Oceans Aquarium (with more than 3,000 marine species native to southern African waters as well as the cold South Atlantic around Antarctica) and Cape Wheel, a Ferris wheel that offers breathtaking views over the waterfront area, centre city, and Table Mountain. Day or night, it's all good
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA)
Occupying the renovated historic Grain Silo complex at the V&A Waterfront, Africa's largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from throughout continent and the African diaspora serves up plenty of arresting visuals for your camera. Woza Afrika!
All this whet your photographic appetite? Start planning a trip to Cape Town today!
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