I got half a tour of the hospital yesterday. They brought me into the X-Ray room, the equipment was from the 40′s and the dark room caught me off guard.
Dark room
November 14th, 2007This was hard
November 14th, 2007
I have been doing fine emotionally to this point. This is a HIV center for teaching and helping out this people effected by HIV and AIDS. These kids were amazing, the teacher they had was fantastic to. But they are directly effect of HIV/AIDS or have it.
I meet with some the mothers. Single mom with 5 childern husband died of AIDS etc…
Hard very hard not getting emotional about it.
After this I realized I need to take the morning off tomorrow and wander around.Need to clear out the head.
St Thaddeaus
November 14th, 2007I saw two orphanages yesterday, and I say one today. This is me and the kids at St Thaddeaus. We were singing and running around. The kids love seeing there photo on the back of the camera.
New Paradise
November 14th, 2007
Hi Everyone,
The internet has been down and me and the other 8 volunteers have been trying to get on line.
Here is a photo from the New Paradise, The kids were fantastic and a lot of fun to play with.
Day one – kind of
November 13th, 2007I am off to my first orphanage today. Geffory is picking me up at 1300. I am slowly getting the lay of the land. There are about 8 volunteers here with me and spent some time with them last night at the canteena, having stale donuts and Chi tea.
My room is better than my fears, but I was woken up last night by ythe cry of a dog or something. It seemed like there was some sort of gaming going on beween the animals at 2 am.
On a nicer note being woken by kids singing at 8 am on there ways to church was a nice alarm clock.
The network here is slow. I will be down grading my olympus camrea so I can post images.
More soon.
We have lift off
November 12th, 2007I made it. lots of stories on that ride. But that will have to wait for another day.
My stomach is in knots, I sleep a little in my three days of traveling. So, we are off to get water and drop me off to where I will live.
It is a complete culture shock. but I should get the acent down soon.
I hope to post images, more on that tommorow.
in the uk
November 11th, 2007i have made it to the uk.
the e-mail system here is cryptic. but all is well.
i am about 1/4 threw my trip to get to tanziania.
i hope everyone is doing well.
And we are off…
November 10th, 2007Well, I am off…
It was a day of running around but I got what I could get done, done.
Meindert asked me yesterday if I was traveling light, I answered “yes”.
Well, I need to rethink that answer. I am not traveling light. Honestly, I do not know how it all got to weight so much, but it has.
In other news, I met with Gail today and she has given me a list of contact and orphanages that I will visit. It is all starting to feel real now. 13 visits in total and I hoping to spend a day looking for animals. We, will see how it all goes.
Big thanks to Lisa and the kids for sharing this dream with me. It has been a lot of work on everyone.
I will update as soon as I can.
More amazement
November 9th, 2007
Designer Tom showed up today with a grocery bag full of stuff for me to take to Tanzania. Ten thousand thank you’s to him and his church for putting this bag together. I will pass the bag to Dr. Sam when I arrive.
On Directing Film
November 8th, 2007
I have started or should I say continued thinking about the stories that I will be photographing and filming in Tanzania. I really have no script for this trip, other than I know that I will be photographing a lot of orphanages. I often fear that it all might become to fragmented, but then again fragmentation can become a rhythm of miniature master pieces.
Years ago Andrew suggested me reading this book “On Directing Film” at the time I had put together a short film that missed target badly and I was in search of repair. I pick the book up today for the first time in a few years and started flipping threw it realizing that it was time to revisit this book and ideas and that the theory of directing film is similar to that of still photo’s.
To simplify, It all comes down to the story line, the feeling and editing.
Weather Check
November 5th, 2007
This weeks weather
Days away from leaving on my trip, and I think it is a good time to take a look at the weather. It looks like a lot of 8′s
I think I have a warm trip to come, in my reading there was a remark that it sometimes takes a week to get used to the heat. I will let you know!
Why a cage becomes a home.
November 2nd, 2007
As part of my trip, I will be leaving behind two Olympus camera’s and teaching kids how to use them. The program is designed so they will create images that a EPIC Change will turn into cards that they will sell online.
Understanding a camera is the easy part, understanding the photography is the hard part. I have asked a few freinds to help me with this issue and I have got a fantastic minuter of different answers. The reality is they are all correct.
I need to let go and see what happens. To much plaining is too much.
Illustrate feeling
And the best images ask questions, like why is that rabbit in a cage and the cage is not catching the rabbit.
(a few years back, a rabbit started eating our garden. I went on a full attach to get that rabbit. Months later of failed catchings it snowed, the rabbit was able to eat the bird seed and use the cage as shelter.)
Oh, the list’s I could list
October 27th, 2007I seem to have so many list right now and everthing is living in a pile in my office.
Tomorrows is the day that I turn that pile into something understandable. That and I compare it to other list that I have found on the web.
Fellow photographer and traveler to parts of Africa, Steve Simon has posed this great list of things that he is taking on his next trip… Take a look at what he brought.
BTW this is also a test of the blogging camrea that I am take with me… Let see what that image looks like…
To understand Africa you need to learn Africa
October 26th, 2007
I will be the first to tell you that I don’t know the complete story of the histories of the countries that make up Africa. Though there is nothing better than going to Tanzania and forcing yourself to learn something.
I feel lucky that Lisa picked up the book “Unbowed” the memoir of Wangari Maathai. What a great read, to learn about the changes of Kenya in the last 60 years (there have been many). She has a great story telling ability that makes want to reach out and learn more. Also, as a historian makes me want to cry at what we have-lost.
How many photos…
October 17th, 2007 
One of the keys of this trip is image storage. I decided early on that I was not going to bring my laptop and in one of my photography magazines I read of this great product call the photo safe. It is cost effective, simple and did one thing well, store images. So, early on I went out and got one, the 40 GB one.
40 GB, that’s a lot of images, 7000 with my Nikon currently, but if you break that out over 14 days (like I did a few nights ago) that’s 500 images a day. This scared me and honestly my fear was that this is not enough and that the storage might start censoring myself. That might sound funny, but I can shoot 120 images of a barn in a hour, put me in a orphanage in Tanzania and how many will I take. It really is a question I can not answer.
So, I have gone out and purchased another one. This way I can create some sort of back up and it will give me enough space to feel like I can be creative if I want to.
No Dennis… It has not been bad
October 13th, 2007
The copywriter at the office has asked me, more times than I can count if the medications for the trip where costly. For the most part no, if I was going for more than two weeks they may add up, but for the most part my copays took care of everything.
I think my issue is going to be finding the fatty meal that I need to take with the Malarone.
it’s all about the glass
October 11th, 2007
A few days ago I stop by the local camera (the Camera Corner) store to pickup an extra lens cap for my Nikon. Carl has been a great help the last 6 months with some small projects so I fingered I would buy the lens cap from him. He was looking at my camera and exclaimed something to the effect, “great camera and very nice lens, but why are you destroying your image quality with the cheap UV lens filter”.
He was right I did have a cheap filter on the lens, but I never of it down grading my image quality, I always thought of the lens and never beyond it.
Good lens = good photo
Good lens, poor filter = ok photo
So, I left his shop with a new Rodenstock filter and a little wiser.
Stuck in the arm
October 4th, 2007
Well, today was the day to go to the Travel Clinic and get my shots. I went to the clinic in Danvers and meet with Kathleen Tremblay R.N., F.N.P.-C. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is going on this type of trip, the whole crew there was fantastic and went over all possible issues and options that I have for medications and shots.
After five shots my arms feels like lead weights, but it is one more thing to check off the list.
Lisa also came back from Barn & Noble with this great book from Lonely Plane “Healthy Travel Africa”. So, It but be the be safe day on the road to TZA.
Lets Go Solar
October 3rd, 2007 
Well, yesterday was a fantastic day when it can to new power solutions for my trip. My ASI rep from (Source 4) Ken stopped by with a small solar bag that Gemline has donated for my trip. I am ecstatic about this because my camera batteries will charge with this setup nicely.
He also had 3 crank flashlights for me to take with me. One of them has a USB power out on it and during my quick tests I was able to start charging my ipod from the crank…