Ben Wilhelmi

Bush flying in Tanzania

 

 

During my recent years with Safari Air link...

That tiny Go Pro camera to fix here and there outside the plane... great results, crappy manufacture sadly.

 

Fueling in the bush...an old military truck, a coupla drums, a fuel pump, Katavi park

One of the many visitors around or on the airstrip., Msembe, Ruaha park.

 

Busy day/night in the Selous reserve. 3 of our Caravan 208 planes after a rainy afternoon..

 

I took off at dawn, early mornings are not my things but starting at night and facing the wide sky lightening up has its perks. And in this occasion, I had slept next to the aircraft. Wake up, 2 min walk and start up...pretty cool. Breakfast on board. 

A day trip at Iringa airfield for these students. As everywhere they were more interested in pictures...

Boeing 727 dwarfing our Caravan. That venerable beast was a wonderful plane but few remains, getting old and abused. and very noisy. The noise abatement rules make their operations difficult. This one is operated in Kenya but here shot in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania.

Another early flight, Ruaha park.

Mtemere airstrip in the Selous reserve (now Julius Nyerere national park for half of it), on the edge of the Rufiji river. The plane looks lost on the parking spot.

My colleague Danie on take off, Msembe airtsrip, Ruaha park. Notice the distortion out of the exhaust.

Rolleiflex pictures, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s my beauty, a 1961 Rolleiflex 3.5F. Medium format film, that is 6x6cm negatives. Not the quickest camera I have used so far but I love it. Many masters of the previous century have used it beautifully. It is then a good incentive.

Infrared landscapes, Tanzania

 

 

Notice the Maasai woman in the middle.

 

 

 

 

 

Shot with a Rolleiflex 3.5F from 1961, medium format film. The film is the defunct Kodak Aerochrome.

Street photography, Arusha

 

Grilled corn, a delicacy available on many streets.

 

Another common scenery: cartwheels. The guy sleeping between 2 exhausting  jobs is also common. Can’t blame him.

 

 

 

The helmet looks a few sizes too big, but he has a got a helmet! Baby steps.

 

 

Rolleiflex pictures, Tanzania

 

 

a medium-format camera designed in 1929, hardly changed over the next 5 or 6 decades. Mine is  a 1961 model. Here loaded in Aerochrome infrared slide film.

 

 

those huge seeds, from sausage trees, are transformed in gourds.

 

aerial photography, Rolleiflex, Tanzania

 

an infrared color film explains the unusual colors on this picture, volcano Lengai.

 

details of colored salts on lake Natron…

Amboseli NP and Kilimanjaro, infrared film

 

 

 

 

 

shot with Rolleiflex on Kodak Aerochrome EIR film.

Infrared landscapes, Tanzania

 

 

This is lake Natron, an aerial picture, which is not as red as the pictures below because there is little vegetation. Only the mountain and the horizon show the infrared look.

 

Here is more red tones thanks to the grass and the trees. The triangle on the horizon is the volcano Lengai.

 

I was surprised to notice the rocks turning pink.

 

 

 

 

shot on a medium format camera, a Rolleiflex 3.5F and Kodak Aerochrome EIR slide film (most likely not available anymore)

photography in infrared, Tanzania

 

Old Masai men wise under a big tree. They’re having a meeting and in turn, women are not attending.

 

Serengeti sceneries below.

 

 

 

Wildebeests passing by...

 

As usual, shot on Kodak Aerochrome film and Rolleiflex 3.5F. Initially that was a scientific and/or military purpose film.

infrared photography, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

Green foliage turns pink whereas red, like the red cross on the tail or Masai clothes, turns orange

 

 

 

Again I used a now defunct slide film, the Kodak Aerochrome EIR, a red or yellow filter, and a medium format Rolleiflex.

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.

volcano Oldoinyo Lengai, aerial infrared

 

notice the pink spot on the right lower side of the picture: vegetation which showed after some prolonged rains.

shot on Kodak Aerochrome EIR film and Rolleiflex 3.5F medium format camera.