one week November 2007, around the active volcano Oldoinyo Lengai,
Rift Valley, Northern Tanzania.
The ash fall out was spectacular some days. Up to 70km away at times.
Those images were shot early morning when the light is said to be “cold”
in photographic terms, as opposed to “warm” in the late afternoon. “Cold”…
hence the blue metallic tone sometimes. The ash is normally grey. The grass has
been burnt or at least dried up by the hot ashes.
the little dots are Masai villages.
that grey layer of ashes has reached 40cm! No way for the animals
to survive, even with only one centimeter anyway. The grass tasted so
awful the animals preferred to starve.
that was nice to fly alone as I could yank the aeroplane the way I wanted,
let the controls free and shoot vertically. Passengers sometimes….
the cold blue is perfect here;
not very obvious on these low resolution pictures but the details are
interesting. In A3 or so, the gullies, the cow tracks, the old fields…
show up really well under the not so thick layer of ashes. See the square on
the right side of this image? A field
partially covered
on the outskirt of the ash fall out, the grass is more visible.
the aeroplane shadow…
this picture is the same as the one before but enlarged and cropped for clarity.
Animals are still visible in the enclosure. But that didn’t last, they had to leave.
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