Photographer, Technologist, Father, Explorer.
Photographer
Photography has been a tale of two halves for me. I bought my first camera in the 1990s, a Nikon F-801s. It was incredibly expensive to take pictures on film, and I never enjoyed the printed results, and eventually drifted away from taking photographs altogether.
A combination of smartphone camera technology and online sharing ability (aka the digital revolution) rekindled my interest.
I bought a 2nd hand Sony A6300 in 2018, upgraded to a Sony A7R3 in 2020, and have spent a lot of time rediscovering my love for photography.
Read my Photography posts. Alternatively take a look at my People, Pet, Sport, or Leisure photographs.
Technologist
![Leon Kotze professional](https://www.kebnoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20180309_2247.jpg)
You can find out more about my first career by visiting my LinkedIn profile. I studied Electrical Engineering way back when the internet was in its infancy and have lived through an era of substantial technological change.
When time permits, I love dabbling with code. I worked as a software developer for about a year, which convinced me that I didn’t want to code for a living.
Read my Technology and Effectivity posts.
Father
![Leon Kotze family](https://www.kebnoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20160917_1237-1080x675.jpg)
Any father will understand the unique challenge of raising children, especially two wickedly curious boys. I’m writing this in 2020, a year of profound change, and am spending much time contemplating what the future has in stock for them. And how we prepare them for their unique challenges to come.
Explorer
![Leon Kotze adventure](https://www.kebnoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20171217_2003.jpg)
My travel-log includes South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, USA, Swaziland, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
I have lived and worked in South Africa, the UK, and Spain.
Things I have done include, but are not limited to:
- Scuba diving off the Great Barrier reef,
- Bungy jumping 102m at Skipper Canyon off the now-closed Pipeline bridge,
- 10,000 ft tandem skydive over the UK countryside,
- Chocolate Making classes, and
- The London and Barcelona sprint triathlons
Read my Anecdotes.
Younger years
I found these during a recent clean-up, and they are too good not to share.
![Leon Kotze school](https://www.kebnoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20160219_0484.jpg)
![Leon Kotze young man](https://www.kebnoa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/20190618_0010.jpg)
Kebnoa
Finally, answering the question. What is kebnoa? I wanted a unique six-letter name for a website and used random.org’s string generator to generate hundreds of words. After selecting a few, I liked and then putting them to the test by asking friends and family which they liked.
Kebnoa wasn’t actually on the list. However, it prompted a few people to suggest it, and it stuck. Now my online name is Kebnoa.
Thank you,
Leon