LAMU KENYA – We took a long walk in Lamu today, ending up at Anidan orphanage on the edge of the town. Anidan defied our expectations. It’s full of happy kids of all ages, 240 of them. It draws its population from the entire region. Children are orphans or abandoned or badly abused. It was started by a wealthy Spanish family that has a house in Lamu Interestingly the house is operated as a hotel, Red Pepper House, when the family is not in residence. Red Pepper House is our first choice for hotels in Lamu.
I took the Alpa with me on the walk. It’s poorly suited to photographing children – it works best on landscape and architecture – so I didn’t get any pictures of the kids that I’m proud of.
LAMU, KENYA – Another productive day with my Alpa TC and Phase One IQ 180 in Lamu. And another day of poor self-control editing. So I’m giving you five images out of many possible candidates from a walk on the beach, a walk around Lamu and a ride to lunch on a dhow.
LamuNancy in LamuBeach??DhowSunrise Lamu
LEMARTI’S CAMP, KENYA – So we’re packing up to leave Lemarti’s Camp so I thought that I should give you a few images of it. Here are images of our “bathroom” and of the massive fig tree the anchors the site of the camp.
Our bathroomLemarti's tree
A wall at the airstrip for our flight to Nairobi, and thence to Lamu.
NORTHERN KENYA – We made a long drive to a Maasai market. This is a one day only affair that appears periodically at various sites. The main trade is people bringing goats to sell and buying clothing, vegetables, household items and so on. According to Lemarti full-grown goat fetches $120 or so, which is a lot of money in these parts.
I’m going to trouble you with eight images today. Editing has been really difficult. I could probably do better if I had more time. At least the images aren’t of airport lounges.
First, four images taken in a small settlement that we drove through to get to the market – images that fit into my “small towns” body of work. All taken with my Alpa TC, Phase One IQ 180 back and Schneider 35mm Digitar.
Lparle 2004Lion TearsSunrise Butchery and HotelVideo Show Room
Now four more taken with my Panasonic GH2 at the Maasai market:
Maasai womanMaasai market dayChickenWoman in shoe shop
LEMARTI’S CAMP, KENYA – Maria caught up with us in time to board a bush plane to the Northern Kenyan foothills where we’re spending three days at Lemarti’s Camp. This is a “tented camp” far north of the beaten path, owned by our friends Anna Trzebinski and her husband Loyapan Lamarti. Lemarti is a Samburu Maasai; Anna is a Kenyan of European descent. We’re here to see Anna and Lemarti and to soak up some Maasai culture. We weren’t planning any game drives (we did that last year), but ran into a herd of elephants in our long drive from the dirt landing strip to the camp.
This is a remarkable site, which (like a lot of Kenya) gets under your skin. We arrived in time for tea, dinner and a sunset. Images captured with my Alpa TC, Phase One IQ 180 and a Schneider 35mm Digitar.
KAREN, KENYA – Here we are in this suburb of Nairobi which either is or isn’t named after Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen), depending on who you talk to. Karen was the site of Blixen’s coffee plantation which forms the backdrop of Out of Africa. Back in the day this was the bush, now it’s a suburb.
We’re staying at a relatively new hotel, Hogmead, in Karen for one night to catch our breath from travel and to wait for Maria. Hogmead is in a large, beautifully restored, colonial house. I wonder how they get away with the Harry Potter name? They’ll probably be getting a nastygram from Harry’s legal team. Here it is captured with my Alpa TC, Phase One IQ 180 back and 35mm Schneider Digitar lens.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK = A travel day. I’m on my way to Nairobi to meet Maria who has been climbing Kilimanjaro. It’s a long trip: 7 hours to Amsterdam (overnight), a three hour layover, and 8 hours to Nairobi. Travel days are a problem for me in terms of my one photo every day project – I tend to be stressed and the insides of airports aren’t that interesting.
I’m traveling with my Alpa TC, my new Phase One IQ 180 digital back, and three lenses. This is an odd kit to take to Kenya because there are no long lenses and its slow to operate. It’s unsuitable for a game drive and barely usable for people. But it does capture landscape beautifully, and the large intensely detailed files can find magic in pedestrian scenes. I’m also taking my Panasonic GH2 and some lenses, which for me and many other shooters has supplanted my large Nikon kit, which I sold last year.
Anyway here we go, long suffering reader, with a landscape out a window at JFK. taken with my Alpa TC, Phase One IQ 180 back and a 35mm Schneider Digitar XL lens.
A dreaded travel day
On this day one year ago: a landscape out my window. Interestingly I took a similar picture out my window last week (July 14, 2011) – the moon is in roughly the same position once every year.
