ARCHIVE KENYA 25 – MT KENYA, LOOKING DOWN ONTO THE CLOUDS (MONO)

 

 

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Looking down upon the cloud tops from just below the summit of Mt Kenya; August 1978.  It was ferociously cold, and the very jagged outline of the ridge shows the effects that frost shattering has on rocks at these altitudes, even here on the equator.

My previous post, shown below, shows the same view, but taken from an aircraft inbound to Nairobi: Mt Kenya is seen is silhouette, sticking up through the clouds.  The photo above was taken from Point Lenana, the small peak immediately right of the mountain’s main peak.
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Click onto each image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique for the upper image: Olympus OM-1 with the long end of a 75-150 Zuiko zoom; Agfa CT18 slide film, rated at 64 ISO.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 24 – MT KENYA (MONO)

 

 

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Mt Kenya standing proud of a blanket of stratus cloud; photographed from an airliner inbound to Nairobi, 25 Sept 1979.  At 17,057 feet in altitude, this mountain is second in Africa only to Mt Kilimanjaro (19,341 feet), which is just over the border in Tanzania.

The barely seen, ghostly grey shapes in the foreground are the Aberdare (aka Nyandarua) Mountains, a line of volcanoes on the eastern shoulder of the rift valley.    

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window.

Technique: Olympus OM-2 with 50mm Zuiko lens; Agfa CT18 slide film rated at 64 ISO.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 23 – THOMSON’S GAZELLE (MONO)

 

 

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Male Thomson’s Gazelle, Nairobi National Park; late 1970s.  This is the smallest of the open plains gazelle.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 22 – THE HUGE SKIES I MISS SO MUCH!

 

 

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Skyscape on the eastern side of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve – the huge skies that I miss so much!; April 1979.

Notice the effect of the polariser, which turns the sky at upper right almost black.  If such a photo can have a subject within it (i.e. as opposed to the subject being the whole skyscape), I think that here its the large cloud at top right, which is well defined against the very dark (polarised) sky, and which is at a compositional strong point –  the intersection of the upper and left hand thirds.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: Olympus OM-1 with 28mm Zuiko lens and polarising filter; Agfa CT18 colour slide film rated at 64 ISO.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 21 – KITCHEN TABLE STILL LIFE, NAIROBI STYLE

 

 

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Kitchen Table Still Life, Nairobi style: biro (for scale), shattered pieces of Cockroach, and a parasitic worm that has just squirmed out of the Cockroach’s ruptured entrails onto my kitchen table top; Nairobi; probably about 1980.

I saw the Cockroach running across the table as I came into the kitchen to make breakfast, and a blow swiftly killed it. Going on preparing breakfast, I noticed waving movements out of the corner of my eye and on closer inspection watched fascinated as the worm writhed its way out of the roach’s corpse, only to die itself a few moments later, in the arid and completely alien environment of my kitchen table top.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window … if you’re into this sort of thing …

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 20 – RAINBOW, LAKE NAKURU

 

 

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Rainbow in Lake Nakuru National Park, against a dark, stormy sky; and with Yellow-barked Acacia trees on the right (also known as “Fever Trees”, as formerly thought to be the source of malaria); June 1980.

Note the difference in brightness of the sky on either side of the rainbow, and also how the sequence of colours in the rainbow’s dim reflection is opposite to that in the rainbow itself.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: Olympus OM-1 with 28mm Zuiko; lens Agfa CT18 slide film rated at 64 ISO.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 19 – MAASAI WOMAN 2 (MONO)

 

 

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One of two Maasai women that we met as they walked together across the open grasslands of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, amidst the large mammals – Elephant, Lion, Hyaena, Buffalo, Hippopotamus, Leopard, Aardvark, Cheetah, Gazelle, Baboon, Giraffe, Black Rhinoceros and so on – that are an integral and accepted part of their everyday lives; April 1979.

Inevitably being effected by western culture to some extent, many Maasai still lead fairly traditional lives. I have lightened the whites of her eyes, to give the photo more punch.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

The portrait of the other Maasai woman is here .
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THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.
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ARCHIVE KENYA 18 – LIONESS, AMBOSELI (MONO)

 

 

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Lioness relaxing in the midday heat, Amboseli National Park; July 1978.  Probably after having made a kill earlier in the morning.

This photo was of course taken from the open window of a vehicle; opening the door and getting out would have produced a very different outcome and I would most likely not be writing this now.  One of the memorable quotes from the film Apocalypse Now was “Never get out of the boat!”, which related to American soldiers during the Vietnam war always staying on board their patrol boats on the Mekong River – to go ashore was asking to be killed by the Vietcong.  And I said the same thing to each safari group I led, very soon after I’d collected them from Nairobi airport – for herbivores as well as carnivores, however docile and peaceful the animals may look, never, ever, get of the safari vehicle unless I say so.

Technique: probably OM-1 with the long end of a 75-150 Zuiko zoom.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 17 – DAWN, LAKE NAKURU

 

 

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Dawn mists rise above Lake Nakuru, central Kenya; January 1978.  The large, white birds with huge bills in the foreground are White Pelicans.  In the lake behind them are the trunks of trees that, flooded by the lake, have been killed by the high concentration of sodium bicarbonate in its waters.  Cormorants (the same species as in the UK) perch on these dead trunks, and a nest of sticks is also visible.

This lake is over a mile above sea level and so, particularly after a clear night, the whole place can be pretty chilly by first light – standing around taking pictures, waiting for the sunrise, we were well wrapped up!  At altitudes a little above this – and right on the equator – frosts can occur.  Vivitar 400mm telephoto on Olympus SLR, mounted on a tripod.

Click onto the “early morning” tag (below) to see more images from the early hours of the day.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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ARCHIVE KENYA 16 – WARBLER AMONGST ACACIA THORNS

 

 

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Small warbler – perhaps a Cisticola – amongst fearsome Acacia thorns, any one of which could so easily transfix it; probably in Nairobi National Park, in the late 1970s.

The Cisticolas are a group of small warblers that that all look very similar to each other; they are the archetypal “small brown birds”.

Click onto the image to open a larger version in a separate window – recommended.

Technique: OM-1 with a Vivitar 400mm telephoto; Agfa CT18 colour slide film rated at 64 ISO; Lightroom.  This would have been taken from the window of my car, from one of the tracks in the National Park.

THE ARCHIVE KENYA SERIES

I’m re-posting photographs that I took in Kenya over 30 years ago.  You can find more context here .  Click onto the “Archive Kenya” tag (below) to see more of these film images from Kenya.

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