Documentary & cultural photography from East Africa

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Fishing (f)or pictures in Meponda, Mozambique

Stress in life seems to come in cycles and right now we’re in one of those cycles rather than out. Living in Africa certainly brings its own unique set of stresses, though in America we certainly weren’t stress-free. Planning time to get away is critical and life-giving and a few weeks ago as our family camped out on the beaches of Meponda in northern Mozambique, we hadn’t a care in the world…for a few days at least.

For me, Meponda presents not only sun and sand, crocodile hunting at night and wakeboarding by day, but a unique lakeshore opportunity for a photoshoot of Yawo faces. A few years back I went into the village and shot some images I still love dearly. I think it was a time when my D50 was still new; when I was still shooting in JPEG instead of RAW. (See my “Faces of Meponda” shots on RedBubble) So I was a bit eager to see what I could do this time with my D90 on RAW setting. I had already spent the night before trying, mostly in vain, to capture the excitement of being out on an inflatable boat with a spotlight looking for killer crocs. Perhaps the morning would be better?

I awoke earlier than the others and borrowed a bike to get to the top of town to a place where I could easily see each bay on the beach stretching out before me. I snapped a few pics for our host who wanted a shot like this and took a couple of snaps along the way back home. I was eager for a cuppa and thought I was done with the mini shoot. But then on the beach, just down from our camp, I saw a group of guys working hard at pulling in their fishing net that had been laid down the night before.

I walked over to them, greeting them in the Yawo language, and made a decision right then and there to set down the camera and take a place in line heaving the heavy load into shore. It was a conscious decision to not try to document it, but instead try to experience it. Why? I don’t know, but let me tell you this work was not easy. As I grabbed, time and time again, the rope attached to a net in the water, I became quickly exhausted. But refused to give up (though I’m sure they weren’t expecting me to do the entire job). One fisherman sat on the sand behind me, taking the slack rope and rolling it into a neat pile. Two men were ahead of me, closer to the water, and we all worked together in rhythym. Someone hummed a traditional tune of some sort and I smiled inwardly at the good naturedness I find all around me in Africa. Singing can go a really long way to making the tedium of life closer to enjoyable.

Eventually, we had to move closer to the same number of guys who were on another end of the rope further down the beach. And, panandi panandi (little by little), the net did come to shore with the night’s catch. It was a mix of a strange blue fish, brilliantly colored, and smaller varieties that added little to the color palette. The guys expertly separated the fish from the net and threw them into a makeshift hold on the sand while I struggled to get the fins unstuck from the net.

Finally, at the end, I grabbed my camera after asking permission to take their pictures. And, for my troubles, I was offered a fish (though I declined). My reward was already obvious. I had had an experience I won’t soon forget and felt that I understood just that much more about the life these fishermen lead along the shore of Lake Malawi. We shared moment in time, and I still got some shots. This time, with more of a connection because we were now friends. I wasn’t just some white stranger who walked up and shot pictures.

African Muslim Sheik

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Last week, I visited a stately old Ya*o friend across the border for a quick photoshoot with an anthropologist friend of mine in hopes of capturing that perfect image for his upcoming book. Here are my favorites from the shoot.

Beach boys of Meponda, Mozambique

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Macros from Meponda, Mozambique

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A few macro images from over the weekend as our family descended upon the lake in the small town called Meponda in Niassa Province The first is a shot of our lovely salad. I couldn't resist, especially with those big chunks of feta cheese. The other images come from a mosquito net that had tiny red bugs crawling all over.

From Lichinga to Mapudje: simply breathtaking!

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Official business card of Ajambule!

Cultural, NGO & documentary photography in east Africa

It's been on my to-do list for a while: make myself a business card. Finally, after an hour of fiddling around with stuff this morning during some time off, here it is, shiny and new! Now, to start handing them out to NGOs and the like...

Abstract Macro

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The other day I was playing around with my 10X macro lens. Being new to the whole business, I found that there are some challenges to this whole macro shooting thing. wind becomes very noticeable; even the lightest breeze starts to make one wish to swear like a sailor lighting becomes a factor... harsh light is bad, cloudy overcast days are good a →

Altar boys

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These young Malawian boys were helping out at the Roman Catholic wedding mass I attended on April 10th near Mangochi, Malawi.

The River

standing over the edge of a small gorge

I took some South African visitors out to the nearby waterfall this past Friday. We didn't stay nearly long enough, but the sight was stunning anyway. Here's a few favorite shots.

Natasha & the ladies getting ready…

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