I haven’t had time to work on any photos from Prague. So, I’ve reached into my file of completed pictures. This may be my favorite photo from my entire time in Africa. When I walked over to try to take this photo her entire face was covered by a leaf. Then, she reached up and moved it just long enough for me to grab three exposures
It’s snowing here, I’m hoping it sticks but it doesn’t look too likely.
I’ve made it to Prague! I’m staying in a pretty cool little hotel/hostel called the Mosaic House Hotel. It’s got a very tempting bar downstairs in the lobby. I did set out with my camera earlier but it turned out to be more of a scouting trip. The sun set surprisingly early, it dipped below the horizon by 4pm. However, at 5pm it still looked like the sun had just gone down. It was quite strange. I think I’ve found some good shots and plan on going out tomorrow morning to get them before there’s so many people about.
“At the crossroad, which way to go?” sounds like it could be a line from a blues song, maybe it is. This is another shot from Rwanda, and if it looks vaguely familiar it’s because you’ve seen part of it at the top of this page. Just to the right of this shot is an orphanage that we visited. When we got there the kids came running out and greeted us. One even embraced Cameron in an enthusiastic hug. We’d brought a football for them, which they quickly went about playing with, and destroying. We’d been there about twenty minutes when we discovered that the ball had split. Fortunately, Cameron had packed the roll of duct-tape he’d insisted on bringing to Africa. He’d also insisted on bringing parachute cord, which was vindicated when it acted as a belt for me during white water rafting and a chin strap for Soniko’s hat. We got the ball patched up nice and quickly. Then, 2 minutes later, it happened again. Cameron went to work and covered the entire ball in what had to be two layers of duct tape. It’s officially indestructible.
When Cameron saw my banner above all he said was, “Why did you take a picture of a dirt road?”
I didn’t have much of an answer at the time but now I remember. I set up for this shot because I liked the contrast between the wet and dry tracks. I got all set up and a truck decided to drive up the track on the left, moving me aside and sloshing the water about as it went. I thought it was going to ruin the shot. To the contrary, the truck pushed the water up so that the wet soil met the dry at the midpoint of my frame. Excellent timing.
This is the view in the opposite direction from the previous photo I posted. This is the Waterford winery and was our firstwine tasting stop. Just before coming here we’d been to the Spier winery to interact with the cheetahs at Cheetah Outreach. Our visit to Waterford was a great experience. The building is beautiful. It’s definitely got an upscale feel about it, which was interesting as we traipsed through in hiking boots and shirts surrounded by a much smarter looking crowd.
We decided to do the wine and chocolate pairing. This involved 6 wines, 3 of which were paired with custom-made chocolates. One of the chocolates had rock salt in it. It tastes pretty horrible on its own, but paired with the wine it was incredible.
This photo gives a good indication of why Rwanda is called the land of a thousand hills. We stopped off on our way from Gisenyi to Musanze at the twin lakes, Burera and Ruhondo. We drove up to a viewpoint and along the way came across loads of kids. Everywhere we went in Rwanda the kids would ask us for our empty water bottles and we’d been wondering what they used them for. Today, we found one use. It seemed like every single child on the way up this hill had a plastic bottle full of grasshoppers to hand. Apparently, they fry them up with chilli oil. We didn’t get an opportunity to try them prepared in this manner, but one member of our group did get to sample a grasshopper. I came back from taking a few other photos and he said, with a surprisingly concerned tone to his voice, ” So… I just ate a live grasshopper.”
As it turns out he’d asked one of the kids what they do with the grasshoppers. The kid proceeded to demonstrate how they prepare them for cooking, removing the legs and wings and then said that some people eat them live. Apparently, it tasted like a grass paste.
This photo is a combination of 7 exposures ranging from -3 to +3. The image produced by Photomatix had a lot of noise so I used Imagenomic’s Noiseware Pro to smooth out the sky and hills in the background.
We stayed in Musanze, Rwanda to visit the mountain gorillas. My hotel room had a view of the Volcanoes National Park. I had decided that this would be a great shot in the morning as the sun rose and side-lit the volcanoes. A great shot that is, if not for the rusty chain-linked, barbed-wire fence blocking my view. Still, I resolved to get this picture, I thought maybe I could find a hole in the chain-link or a gap in the barbed wire. I paced the length of the property to no avail. I spotted a 7 foot tall wall and considered how to get up there for a clear vantage. I’d have had to climb up about 30 feet back from where I needed to be and balance on the slanted top of the narrow wall. It was wet and I decided not to risk it. Instead I struck out onto the street hoping to find a vantage point next door.
I had only planned on stepping out quickly, so I hadn’t brought my bag. I was just carrying my camera, with lens attached, and tripod. It was pretty nerve-racking stepping out on the street with my gear exposed and I decided not to stray too far. In the end I spent about 2 and a half hours wandering around the town greeting locals as they went to church or carried their goods to market. Many even stopped to watch what I was up to. Rwanda really is a friendly place, with an incredibly safe feel about it; especially when you consider the general reaction from people back home to the idea of going there.
I even picked up an assistant! An eleven year old who watched me extend one leg of my tripod and came over and started extending the other two. He followed me for two hours, helping me set up my tripod, pushing the shutter button and enjoying the multiple shots he was taking. He even suggested pictures to me. One of which I think could be very good if I can figure out how to process it. To get it I had to shoot directly into the sun.
Today’s photo, though, is the first one I took on that walk. So, it’s actually the road right outside my hotel.
I’ve called this photo Safe Harbour, but that’s probably debatable. It was taken the morning after our first night camping on the Lower Zambezi. The day before, after a few hours of paddling, we’d had a taste of the upcoming rainy season. Clouds loomed and bellowed across the sky. We saw rain falling in front of us and behind. It was also raining to our left, where the storm was coming from. Debate raged, while the wind picked up, as to whether or not it was heading directly at us or would pass just behind. Our Zimbabwean guide, called CB, quelled the debate. He was a soft-spoken individual, typical of the people we’d met during our time on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. He told us we’d be making camp an hour earlier than planned. The storm was heading straight for us and the strong winds increased our chance of capsizing. We began to paddle a bit harder than the previously relaxed pace of the day. The landing spot pictured above came into sight and CB gestured for us to head in. At this point, we experienced just how terrifying an angry hippo can be.
“Paddle! Paddle! Paddle!”
CB was suddenly animated and we spun around in our seats to see what was happening. The second-last canoe was moving faster than I knew a canoe could. I swear it was actually on a plane, the nose rising and falling with each paddle-stroke as it ploughed through the water. About five feet behind was a hippo, surging through the water with it’s head bobbing up and down with each forward thrust. We’d find out later that, apparently, one of the people in the last canoe struck what he thought was a rock with his paddle. As you can probably guess, it was a submerged hippopotamus – the creature second in line to the mosquito for causing the most deaths per year in Africa. The chase probably spanned about 15-20 feet or so, before the hippo calmed down, but it definitely gave us a taste of what we’d gotten ourselves into.
Once we reached land and pulled our canoes ashore, the rain set in. Most of us had rain jackets. Chris and I had lightweight rain jackets that didn’t shield you from the impact of the rain, and this was rain like I’ve never experienced. It was coming in sideways and the drops must have been the size of marbles. You could feel the impact of every single one. We were better off than George though, an Aussie we’d met back in Livingstone who decided to join us. He’d left his rain jacket on a bus a few months earlier and, not having any need for one in the dry season, hadn’t replace it. Four of us stood next to each other, with our backs to the onslaught, for him to hunker down in front of us and try to stay dry. It didn’t work very well. The rain didn’t take long to pass and we set about making camp.
It quickly became evident that this would be an interesting night. We were setting up on sand, amongst dried elephant and hippo dung. As it turned out, the grassy, muddy field behind us was a popular night-time feeding place for elephants and hippos. On top of this, it was hot. Keeping the fly sheet on the tent was not an option, so we slept with nothing but a mesh tent separating us from the outdoors.
A quick wave of our flashlights revealed the startling close glint of eyes in the darkness and we settled in for the night. Just prior to falling asleep I heard the trumpet of an elephant. It sounded like it was right outside the tent. I remembered CB’s advice that we would hear animals and they would sound far closer than they really were. With this in mind, I drifted off to sleep. I woke up a few times in the night, once to the sound of hyenas, another to the sound of lions, and repeated the mantra that they could be heard form a great distance away. I drifted off comfortably each time.
However, we had at least one very close encounter. In the morning, my tent mate Chris told me he’d woken up to the unmistakable thud of elephant dung hitting the ground. We’d become accustomed to this sound on our elephant-back safari a few days earlier. He said he actually felt the vibrations of it hitting the ground. Sure enough, we found a fresh deposit just outside our tent. I only wish he’d woken me up so I could try to shine a light outside and spot one. This might be why he didn’t wake me up.
As I mentioned this photo was taken in the morning, just before the sun came up. I’ve combined 7 exposures from -3 to +3 in Photomatix and then cleaned it up in Photoshop.
This is another shot from Victoria Falls. We came across this, the Angel’s Armchair, on the way to the Devil’s Pool. During higher water, when you can’t swim in the Devil’s Pool, people swim here. They jump off the rocks to get in. Water would be flowing down into it from above and then tumbling over the edge. In the distance you can see the bridge that joins Zambia and Zimbabwe. The river is the border.
This bridge is a bungee jumping site. When we went rafting we had one solo traveler join us who happened to be in the same hostel. The day after rafting, upon returning from our elephant back safari, we sat down for a beer. Two seconds later the guy we’d been rafting with the day before burst in. Now, this individual was pretty chilled out the day before when facing category five rapids. At this point though, he was jittery and speaking in rapid fire asking if we’d had a good day, what we’d done etc. and not waiting for an answer. He ended this delirious monologue with, “I need a beer. Anyone need a beer? I’m gonna get a beer.”
After he returned from the bar, still sporting his wild eyes and jittery demeanor, we managed to get out of him that he’d just been bungee jumping. He was definitely still buzzing and stayed that way for an hour or so. We left him at the bar to explore the curio market in Livingstone and returned an hour later. He was no longer there. Apparently, he’d hung around for another half hour then suddenly crashed and gone to bed. It was 3 in the afternoon. He reemerged at 10pm. I think he’d had a total adrenaline overload.
Speaking of rafting, if you click this image to go through to my portfolio, then click it again and select the “O” size you’ll be able to zoom in and see a group of people preparing to go rafting from the Zimbabwe side.
On my recent trip to Africa, each of the five of us had one thing we really wanted to do. Soniko’s one thing was an elephant ride. I didn’t find it that appealing until we got to Livingstone. Then, for some reason I decided it had to be done. So, off we went, along with Chris and Shannon. When we arrived the head guide told us that all but three people would be riding tandem. A man there with his two daughters was quick to jump on the opportunity to ride solo. He was quickly followed by Chris and Soniko. My slow reactions meant I had to share with Shannon. Nothing against Shannon, but having your own elephant would have been pretty cool.
In the end, this worked out in my favor. As it turned out one of the elephants allocated for Soniko and Chris didn’t feel like going for a walk that day. They don’t force these massive animals into anything. So, Soniko and Chris ended up sharing an elephant. I have many close-ups of this situation that I don’t think I’ll release to the world. It’s hard to look good when you’re riding tandem on an elephant with another dude.
Despite this, in a way they were lucky to get their elephant. As Shannon and I trundled along at a comfortable pace we heard a crack from behind us. Chris and Soniko’s elephant had just ripped a branch off a palm and was tearing away in the wrong direction – nimbly crushing the branch with ts trunk. Our driver (no idea what you call the guy steering the elephant) told us that their elephant tended to misbehave and preferred going where it pleased. It became clear they were in for the more exciting ride. The guides had taken the head elephant, along with the solo man’s two daughters, to bring Chris and Soniko back to the herd. This never really happened and gives rise to today’s photo.
About halfway through our trip all the other elephants did as their drivers told them and we all waded through ankle-deep water. That’s elephant ankle depth. As usual, Chris and Soniko’s elephant did its own thing. She had spotted a shortcut and there was nothing that could change her mind – she was going to swim across that river. This photo captures the moment as their driver is attempting to help Chris get his foot back in the stirrup. They’d had to lift their feet as high as they could to keep them out of the range of crocodiles.
This was a tricky photo to take and process. I shot three exposures hand-held. That’s not necessarily a problem, but it became more difficult due to two factors. First, I was on the back of a lumbering elephant. Second, the elephant was facing the wrong way, placing these guys over my right shoulder. To overcome these issues I zoomed out a little further to account for the bouncing camera and set a larger aperture than I’d have liked to speed up my shutter speed. I felt like I’d turned my upper body so far that my shoulders were perpendicular to my hips. It hurt, but going home without this picture was not an option.
In processing it quickly became clear that the pictures were far from aligned. I had to put faith in Photomatix’s auto align to fix this for me. It did a pretty good job except for the island on the left. This was completely blurred out. I wish I’d noticed the issue before my last check of the picture. Masking this area out didn’t look quite right, so I started from scratch. I actually used the selective ghosting tool in Photomatix to fix this. I also used this on the trees in the background, just to be safe, and of course the moving elephants.
An earlier post mentioned our attempt to go out with the fishermen. We didn’t manage it but on our walk back we heard singing coming from this building and realized it was a church. The entrance was via a steep muddy slope, and it was raining. The church was full of people singing and dancing. It turned out that they were practicing to film a DVD the next day in a garden just up lake Kivu’s shoreline from our hotel.
The next night we went down to the dock again so I could take some photos of the fishermen departing. Singing could be heard from the church once again and we found the choir practicing. We were greeted with the same friendliness as the night before, which we’d come to expect everywhere we went in Rwanda. This time I had my camera out and once it was spotted they asked if I’d like to take some photos. I’d noticed this vantage point the night before and went straight up the partially constructed stairs. The night before I’d have gotten very wet up here. I asked about the roof and it turns out that they’re in the process of expanding the church.
Between the fishermen singing their way in and out and the church’s bells in the morning followed by the songs of the choir there’s always some sound to be heard in this little area of Gisenyi.
On day four of our canoe safari on the Lower Zambezi most of our group was enjoying a lazy afternoon snoozing in the shade or fishing. For a few of us, boredom set in and we decided that it was time to go for a swim. It may seem like a simple activity, but when you’re surrounded by hippos and crocodiles you err on the side of caution. We had a chat with our guide who said that we’d be safe in the shallows of this sand bar on the opposite side of the river. So, we piled into the canoes and made our way upstream before cutting across to the island.
It all went smoothly until we got close to the island and realized that what we thought was a rock was a hippo. A hippo that seemed to enjoy disappearing underwater and popping up in a completely new location. Our three days of canoeing experience told us that as we moved into the shallows the hippo would head for deep water. Fortunately for us this is exactly what happened and we pulled our canoes ashore.
We knew that we could swim off the sandbar. What we didn’t ask was where off the sandbar. The area where we pulled our canoes ashore was deep and we knew we couldn’t swim there. Everybody began wandering around our private island looking for shallow water and I began looking for a photo. There was this small pool of water which lent itself nicely to catching a reflection of the mountains in the background. In order to maximize the amount of reflection I set my camera up as low as I could.
If you click on the image and open up a larger version you can see our campsite in the middle of the far bank. It was a great place to spend three nights. I’ll be posting the morning view from our tent soon.
