Ben Wilhelmi

wildlife from the air, photography

 

It’s not always easy to get pictures of animals at lower altitudes while zooming quickly overhead and holding the airplane controls at the same time . But it’s highly rewarding when it works.

 

Easier when keeping a few hundred meters above.

Flamingoes nesting on lake Natron.

 

Wildebeests and zebras.

 

More flamingoes in Arusha NP.

 

Zebras on a lake Natron delta. And wildebeests a bit further.

 

A lone wildebeest, a bit lost.

 

2 days ago a giraffe enjoying a fast shrinking water pond in the Ngorongoro area.

 

Scared Cape elands on the run (my secret location in case bloody hunters read this blog), these are the biggest antelopes.

 

Zebras again on Natron.

lake Natron, piece of art, aerial photography

lake Natron, a selection of aerial pictures over the years. Breathtaking place any time of the year.

B/W aerial photography, lake Natron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tanzania, flying the bush

 A selection of flying pictures showing the bush in Tanzania...

Infrared picture at Ngaresero, at the foot of an active volcano, Oldoinyo Lengai.

 

This is Seronera in the Serengeti. Far from the sunny clichés isn’t it?

 

Seronera again under a typical African sun.

 

Don’t laugh this is a real plane, a BN2 Islander. I flew some hours on it. Weird conception…like the motorbike type control. Funny to fly, like handling a motorbike.

 

Kogatende, a very wide and long airstrip, looking at some Kenyan hills, that is a common strip for tourist hauling but…

…some real bush airstrips are just like this one or worse. Just the minimum, just a dirt road otherwise used by jeeps or herds of cows. This is what I use regularly while flying for Flying Medical Service…much rewarding of course.

 

Over lake Manyara.

 

 

rugby in Arusha, part II

 

It’s interesting to watch still pictures after the rugby game, some images look more violent or spectacular than what we saw too fast. Many details were also missed in the action. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

drops of sweat flying off.

 

Rugby in Arusha

 

Karine and I went out for a little photographic exercise. Since I’m Belgian, rugby is not a sport I could have grown into… I admit I was quite surprised by the amount of energy these players produce. It was quite interesting to shoot. I’m used with my 400mm for wildlife, which is rarely so active! Except the odd cheetah or lion chase…

 

 

 

 

 

Notice here how the helmeted guy holds the ball and another player’s neck at the same time! I’ve got the full sequence, about 8 pictures, and the guy never let them go till they all fell down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenyan roads, photography while driving

 

That poor woman, not young anymore and obviously still working hard. That piece of leather strap must give headaches… I’ve seen this on Masai women (not men) too and some had a slight curved mark on the skull!

Not the most artistic pictures but if Karine and I had stopped every time we wanted a nice picture, we would hav never made it to our friends’ wedding… So let’s see these pictures from Kenya as a documentary.

 

African roads are notoriously dangerous, have been for a long time, but the recent boom in advertising doesn’t help. Every company, school, church (especially bloody churches) want their ads on roadsides. It gets cluttered like on this picture and drivers get distracted, especially by trying to read small and dirty signs.

 

Coke sponsoring a church, am I tripping?

 

 

 

 

A beautiful example of '”mishkaki”, the local nickname for such an overloaded motorbike. Mind you, the engine is only a 125cc at best on these cheap crap Indian or Chinese imports.

 

 

Bikers deserve some respect! They load incredible amounts of goodies on their bicycles and deliver far away. I’ve seen a guy with about 100 kg of charcoal once loaded in a less than stable fashion… the bikes look like the typical black old Dutch model but are Chinese, heavy and worn out. No gear of course. Respect!

Tanzania, infrared film photography

 

What’s the point f shooting people or landscapes in Africa with infrared films? Well why not? Anyway I saw one picture in a Nat’l Geographic magazine some months ago, shot in the Congo with the same film, the defunct Kodak EIR Aerochrome. These shots are from 2010 with a Rolleiflex 3.5F.

The striking difference is the foliage getting red. On black people the skin is getting red too.

 

Some old Masai men having a reunion under the big tree. Women forbidden! In Masai culture women are second class citizens and are kept in the dark... I once landed and complained about the bad airstrip condition to my Masai colleague. I wanted a message to be delivered to the leader to sort this out. My colleague answered that there was nothing he could do since only women were present. Just to deliver  message?? I had to insist to give a try but I clearly saw he rolled his eyes!

 

Masai women waiting in the queue for the doctor. Flying Medical Service operates about 30 outreach flying clinics in northern Tanzania.

 

 

 

 

My beautiful Rolleiflex, from 1961 and still working perfectly.

Paris, street photography on B/W films

 

Jim Morrison’s tombstone in le Père Lachaise. So many fans were paying visits and trashing the neighboring tombs that fences were set around.

 

A long piece of grass, le Champs de Mars, opposite the Tower. Couples love the place for lying around.

 

Le Louvre and the eyesore glass pyramid. Well some people like it though. The arguments hardly subside.

 

 

In Montmartre area. Lately the artists have to pass an exam to prove they deserve the title of artist and perform on the spot. Nobody should then be disappointed by a poor caricature or portrait.…

 

 

The metropolitan had an original idea during the sunny months of the year: an extra line operated on boat on the Seine river.

 

le Sacré-Coeur.

 

Le Palais Royal and the Buren columns. Such a pretty girl I remember with such an ugly little annoying dog…

All pictures shot on Leica M6, and Ilford Delta Pro 100 films. An excellent camera for street photography too.

Arusha in Tanzania, street life photography

 

When locals or expatriates moan about Arushan authorities doing not much about the road situation and other things (though IMF gave money years back), they have a point.

This is straight in the town center, one example amongst many others where pedestrians risk their limbs…

 

 

 

These guys deserve some respect: they push various goodies all day long and sometimes real heavy stuff.

 

Empty spaces are quickly filled up in town, various “business” people will sell whatever you need. Food of course followed immediately by cell phone vouchers. Tanzania is indeed the fastest growing country in Africa in term of mobile network. Not that surprising since the landline system was hardly better than sending running messengers to deliver your messages.

 

Coca Cola, you know you’re in the middle of nowhere when there is no Coke to be sold. Impressive how that company managed to spread out efficiently in remote parts of the world. You might run short of fuel, electricity, water, various imported goodies but never, just never run short of Coca Cola. Somebody said Coke CEO’s should also be in charge instead of some lousy actual governments. Sometimes I think the idea is not so bad….

 

 

 

 

 

random pictures, Tanzania

 

One of my favorite pictures of lake Natron, a salt lake, over the years.

 

Breakfast with an hyrax in the Serengeti, he was not even interested in my food! (un daman en français)

 

A graffiti, self explaining. Young men seem to be the same all over the world!

 

Soldier watching my plane with an AK 47 in Uganda. The 5th airplane that I used to fly and subsequently been destroyed afterwards. There is a thing in flying in Africa….3% of the world air traffic, but about 30% of the world accidents….

 

Same airplane, I had to fly with that thing straight in my face, order from the boss….

 

When I’m busy shooting videos while flying. That triple suction-cup system is pretty amazing.

 

Over lake Natron.

 

Karine and I playing with an elephant, great moment!

 

We had a real pet hedgehog but it was easier to fly with a fluffy toy to copy the dwarf’s trips in “Amélie”. (“Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain”)

 

Extra filter to shoot with infrared film. I love this camera!

 

Aaah Coke in Africa….you’d be surprised in which remote bush place it is still possible to find one bottle! This sign has been there for at least 13 years, half embedded in the mud wall.

aerial photo, fishermen on lake Eyasi

 

lake Eyasi is a salt lake south of Ngorongoro crater. It’s not as striking as lake Natron but still surprising once in a  while. That was in June and after 13 years of flying in Tanzania, I got a surprise that day by spotting fishermen and a series of temporary camps alongside a freshwater river feeding the lake. Never seen or heard of them before.

 

Obviously vegetables are welcome too with fish.

 

 

 

Pelicans must be serious competitors.

 

 

 

 

 

A cropping of the previous pictures. Fish are smoked under the sun on these oven.

 

For those who wonder: Nikon D300s, well any DSLR would do, and a new lens I was experimenting, a 85mm. A light and short lens with the D300s is a good combination for me. I have used smaller lenses so far. Since I get to fly with my left hand at the same time, a long lens is not my first choice to handle with the right hand only: it’s heavy and unstable as soon as it pokes a bit out of the window. So a short lens!

miracle healing in Tanzania

 

The Babu…which means grandfather in swahili is also the nickname of a local charlatan, pastor Masapila, in Samunge, northern Tanzania. He has attracted flocks of naïve people in his remote bush village under the pretense he could cure any disease, one million patients would have rushed there according to the local newspapers. Why is that retired pastor more attractive to gullible people is a mystery. Indeed he is not the first illuminated man to claim he has a hotline with his god.

What shocked me more in this case is the backing he received from various government people AND his bishop in Arusha who dared to publicly lash out at the babu’s critics since “it was a sin to criticize any servant of god” even if he is responsible for many deaths…now some of the bishops in Arusha are a league of their own. Words like heroin, tax evasion, embezzlement, prostitution, witchcraft…have been  read in newspapers about them but that’s another story.

Funny enough that healer’s son died, which would prove either his father's so called powers couldn’t cure him, either he wanted to have him dead. Well I’m sure the regular gullible people will mention something about god’s ways to implement suffering on earth for good reasons…

Some good people, even with official religious positions, have publicly questioned the scam but with little success. When people want to believe in a new prophet or cure… 

Finally the operation has finally collapsed, either potential patients ran out or either they had finally opened their eyes or they died. Sad news for many entrepreneurs since they lost on transport, housing, food…

I wonder if there will be any known numbers on how that crisis has affected general health. We already know many people died, including many children due to parents’ stupidity, because they had stopped their regular treatment for that herbal soup. Doctors were going crazy because of that unfolding drama, though some doctors believed in the miracle, sigh…Cancer, diabetes, heart or kidney problems…sad diseases but they only affect the sufferers directly if they stop their medicines. AIDS is another story: one thinks he is cured and resumes momentarily a normal life while contaminating others, or healthy people start to behave dangerously thinking they’d only have to visit the healer and swallow his soup in case of contamination. Those are the numbers to watch.

The pastor tried to revive his miracle scam recently with fertility treatments but to no avail luckily.

Flying Medical Service in Tanzania

 

Flying Medical Service operates 2 Cessna 206’s based in Arusha. Our flights are focused on outreach clinics and medical emergencies but hospital staff transfers or helping other NGO’s members are allowed too.

So here are some pictures of our operations in the bush, my favorite part of the job. We go to one of the 3 hospitals in the bush, embark a doctor and nurses and medical supplies, from there we hop to nearby bush villages. The longest flight is about 25 minute long but the walking challenges are then important due to the heat, the lack of proper road and the rough terrain. Cliffs, mountains, valleys, lakes, wild animals…

 

We treat mostly Masai people for they are numerous in northern Tanzania but Sonjo and Mang’ati tribes are also present. There are more than 100 tribes in Tanzania anyway.

 

Vaccination is the most time consuming activity we encounter like giving polio drops in this picture. But measles, tetanus, pertussis… are also given. Weight checks for babies are also very important.

 

 

Old Masai man sorting some ‘dawa’, that is medicine, he just received.

 

One of our main challenges in flying the bush is airstrip maintenance. This strip looks great and wide but there were holes in it. This picture is unfortunately typical of our problems: Ezra here is busy working while the obnoxious Masai dude is doing nothing. They just hate performing menial jobs even for their own benefits, so regularly we close down some strips for lack of maintenance. Then we wait for them to ask for our return usually under their women’s pressure.

 

A typical village in the bush. Notice the fences made of acacia branches to protect from wild animals.

 

Some strips are provided with a hut for the doctor and the nurses to perform.

 

People sometimes ask for a picture with the airplane on the background.

 

Northern Tanzania is an amazing country, not short of great vistas. That peak is Oldoinyo Lengai, an active volcano in the Rift valley.

lake Natron in the Rift valley, aerial photography

 

Another selection of my favorite place to fly over. I guess I’m by now the guy with the biggest number of Natron aerials. Check on my Vimeo account for videos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

street photography, Arusha

Arusha can be extremely annoying, awful traffic jams, bad drivers, authorities ball scratching, bad roads, olympic sleeping security guards, poor electricity management (if management at all) but looking for details in this town can be rewarding or helping to reassess your situation. Is is really that bad to suffer some power outage or bad roads when there are people like the man below trying to make a living from metal scrap? Once in a while Karine drops me in town on her way to work and I wander around with a camera. Don't dress like an Indiana Jones tourist or a surfer-backpacker helps to blend in. While driving, snapping away is also a good way to document street lie...

 

 

Back from shopping?

 

Arafat's fan.

 

Empty or unused spaces tend to be quickly and temporarily repossessed.

 

 

poor guy, and he still managed to briefly smile at me!

 

 Nice contrasts and difference in style.

 

the bush around Arusha, photography part II

 

 

As I said yesterday, women do the hard work, that is performing water duties. 20 lt on a head. These women are somewhat lucky: donkeys are available…

…while men tend to relax, here at a food shop.

OK Masai men are a special breed. They only care to exercise for their cows that they revere over anything else. They’d see nothing wrong with the Tunisian jackass hardliners who want to modify the old law and now declare women “complimentary to men”. That has been the case in this culture for centuries… as a female friend put it mildly: “in my next life, better come back as a Masai cow instead of a Masai woman”.

 

 

20 lt in balance! Years of practice!

 

The well in Lengijave, the place is usually busy of course.

 

Few Masai women are dressed in black. I have to enquire for that dress code.

 

Mount Meru, one of the 5 highest mountains in Africa, at nearly 15.000 feet.

 

A pretty girl who pretended to be shy, just a bit.

 

 

the bush around Arusha, photography

 

Drive just a few miles off Arusha, a half decent town, and there is the bush right away. Karine  and I spent last Sunday afternoon north of Arusha just cruising around in my Land Rover which was more than happy to see some action, since I’m always using my bicycle or motorcycle in town.

 

Lengijave area, women (and girls) still do the water or firewood runs. Men? Well, the few we saw typically didn’t seem to do much except chatting up under the shade of a tree or in front of a shop.

 

Mount Meru culminating at nearly 15.000ft.

 

Little boys are also at work albeit an easier one: lead the herds of cows or goats.

 

Kids were usually more than happy to pose for us. Last time, a teacher even thanked us for visiting their remote and forgotten village. Obviously no tourist ever wander out there. Marketing is the key…

 

 

 

Dust! Fine dust like flour. If the wind is coming from the wrong direction, you’d better be careful otherwise a dust cloud could engulf your jeep. Tracks tend to be badly run down, Arusha municipality doesn’t pay too much attention nor anything else out there…And the next rains are not expected till November.

 

Drivers don’t show any respect for pedestrians…

 

 

Last picture of the day, a beautiful glow on Mount Meru. It was gone within a minute.

cattle in Tanzania, aerial photography

 

goats or cows…boring isn’t it? Well a Masai herder would strongly disagree with me. Anyway seen from the air, those herds take another dimension and these people deserve some respect to lead and keep safe animals through the wild. I might even envy them sometimes. After all these are the original cowboys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wildlife, aerial photography

 

here is a collection of various aerial and wildlife pictures here and there in northern Tanzania. I’d like to remind the new visitors to my blog that I fly AND shoot myself, so please be kind to the flaws these shots might present. I can’t afford a private pilot with a helicopter…nor can’t I waste my boss’ money for my passion. I fly once over my subject and keep on. Many times I wish I could circle and circle again to improve some shots….

This herd of zebras roams not far from Arusha, quite a nice feeling to know about that feat…

The same, a bit cropped.

 

Somewhere in the Serengeti under low light. Not a great picture but I have got none other with a green background. Mental note…

 

Flamingoes on lake Natron. Notice the shadows and reflections.

 

Some giraffes near Ngorongoro.

 

Wildebeests in a delta on lake Natron.

 

Giraffes with Ngorongoro range in the distance…

 

…and zebras nearby.

flying the bush, Tanzania

 

When someone asks me what about flying airlines, this is what I try to explain…

with a colleague above the vast Tanzanian savannah.

 

On final before landing. Seriously the airstrip is just at the end of the gorge. But OK this is not the normal way to do it.

 

A friend enjoying our airstrip for a visit.

 

Mahale on lake Tanganyika.

 

Kiba in the Selous, a rough strip.

 

 

Getting ready for the night, that is spreading acacias branches around the plane, that is to keep the hyenas off the tyres. They seem to enjoy eating them…go figure.

 

Damaged propeller back plate. The attached cone was thus giving strong vibrations. I thought I never make it to landing…

 

No mechanic available, I removed the cone and the vibrations stopped even with the twisted back plate (the yellowish thing) still on. I kept on like that for a while and only flew back to Arusha a few days later without any problems.

 

A colleague on take off while we’re busy refueling the other Cessna 206.

photography in a Masai village, part II

 

 

Every 2 weeks on a rotation basis, Flying Medical Service sends a Cessna 206 with a doctor, 2 nurses and some medical supplies to about 30 remote villages, mostly Masai. This one, Engoveroni, is spreading around a few of those ridges. One of those ridges, see yesterday post, welcomes the airstrip.

 

 

This is the medical hut, a luxury as not all the villages have provided us with one. Personally I prefer to help out the nurses while out of such a hut, enjoying the sun and cool air at 2000m.

Nice vista on the volcano Lengai.

 

A rare secondary school in the remote bush.

 

Cattle! A Masai man is nothing without his cattle. That and many wives of course. Here is the main street in the village.

 

 

Ridges and gullies all the way till the horizon. Quite a mission to visit a neighbor in that area!

 

That airstrip is everything but a textbook airstrip. A steep and slanted slope amongst many peculiarities. Here the doctor and a patient under the wing while the mothers and kids are being vaccinated in the hut.

 

The funny aspect of this very picture is due to a very old camera, technology from the 30's. All the pictures above were shot with various cameras anyway, film and digital.

photography in a Masai village, Tanzania

 

Engoveroni, a big but scattered village in the Rift valley near the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai. Flying Medical Service operates an airplane to serve a mobile clinic out there

Beautiful area, isn’t it?

 

There is even a secondary school out there. These running pupils seem happy to go home.

 

 

 

 

This village is much better than others, look at the corrugated roofs.

 

and even a shop or 2.

 

 

The main street.

 

Here is the airstrip, a crazy one to be precise. The whole area is located at 2000m on the slope of a crater, Empakai, which explains the gullies and ridges. So a ridge has been used for the strip. Wind, steep slope (11%), short (450m), rough…if  things go wrong, there is for instance a nice gully to welcome any veering aircraft… For a real bush pilot, this is a challenging and dream place to go.

Lake Natron, a 5 min flight overhead

 

That lake… I’d like to see (by myself that is) if other salt lakes in the world are equally stunning. Here we are for a quick flight over the southern part. I had to go and check an airstrip on the SE shore where we haven’t landed for a while, so that gave me the opportunity for a low flight here. I was quite excited in anticipation by those 5 minutes of flying!

This salt pattern is a classic here though the usual hues veer to the red.

 

 

 

Those islands will disappear soon with the evaporation process. The lake is quite shallow, 3 meter deep at best. Notice the majestic volcano Lengai on the horizon. The beast has been quiet since the violent eruptions in 2007 and 2008.

 

 

 

 

Salts pushed by winds and waters.

 

One of the few fresh water sources around.

 

 

The usual residents, flamingoes.

Aerial photography, Tanzania

 

This country is just a pure beauty. I never fail to see something known or new or at least under a new light, depending of the time of the day or the season or the weather conditions.

Here are Mt Kilimanjaro ( L ) and Mt Meru (R ), seen from 100 km away, an exceptional visibility that day.

 

 

lake Natron and an old volcano, Shombole.

 

 

 

Rice fields in the Rift Valley.

 

 

 

A rare waterfall in this normally dry river bed.

wildlife, B/W photography

 

 

Burma, B/W film photography

 

a good old Leica M at work with B/W films.

About 10 years ago, Burma was still far from any kind of promised reforms. Let’s hope for the near future…

Lake Inle, a lovely area. I had rented a bicycle for a few days, or boats for a day trips.

Some idiot tried to ruin the picture nevertheless this charming girl seems happy to pose…

 

Since I sport a similar haircut, I got some extra smiles from the monks. Each man is supposed to attend a religious retreat in his life. Some guys seem to bow to tradition pressure as the news have shown lately or my personal experience by then where a junkie monk asked me for weed or at least some money to bet on sport games.

 

young sisters from the Padang people. The myth about elongated spines that would break if the jewel was removed seems to be unfounded. X-rays have shown normal spines … On the contrary the jewel pushes down on the collar bones.

northern Italy, aerial photography

 

Lake of Como area. Splendid isn’t it?

New York City, some street photography

 

 

Car plates, colorful America

 

“Land of Enchantment”…well deserved nickname but it could have been applied to most of the neighboring states…

same state and 3 different types of decoration. Bet there was more.

this plate was attached to a truck which condition didn’t look any better than the plate one.

 

I suppose this was a pro-life statement.

 

tasty frame that piece of barbwire…

bush photography, Tanzania

 

I can’t always choose the best time of the day for beautiful lights…

 

Arusha, street photography

 

if you don’t look too much like  tourist, that is for example like Indiana Jones funny copies or bright colorful beach bummers and without  a huge camera gear, you’ve got a chance to blend a little bit. Easier to snap a few shots. I should post some tourists pictures one day… hilarious sometimes.

 

Taxi bike. Notice the cushion for the client.

 

Another typical scene, a street vendor carrying his goodies on a board.

 

typical in A-town, street vendors will install their carts and goodies on the pavement, sometimes in front of another shop. I always wonder how come there is no more often some fighting in the streets.

 

some murals exist here and there to deliver a message, about attending schools, aids… another post I should do one day.