Ben Wilhelmi

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.

B/W infrared photography, USA

 

 

 

 

 

Rolleiflex 3.5F, Ilford SFX 200

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.

 

infrared photography, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shot on Kodak Aerochrome EIR slide film, loaded into a Rolleiflex 3.5F

aerial photography, Rolleiflex, Tanzania

 

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

 

details of colored salts on lake Natron…

B/W infrared pictures, Tanzania

 

while on a Flying Medical Service tour, I loaded my Leica M6 with Maco IR films and a 89B filter

The Rift Valley, the mythical Rift Valley. Here is the aircraft and the clinical hut at Engoveroni.

 

Herders eyeing me suspiciously…

 

2 opposite views of the active volcano Lengai.

people in line, yes in line!, waiting for the vaccinations.

Amboseli NP and Kilimanjaro, infrared film

 

 

 

 

 

shot with Rolleiflex on Kodak Aerochrome EIR film.

Tanzania, flying the bush

 

Caravan landing in the hilly area around lake Manyara.

 

Twin Otter landing.

 

Big puncture obviously, on a replacement tyre. I was angry at the Dar es Salaam workshop who had given us that piece of crap which was worse than the previous punctured tyre…

 

Melted battery terminal resulting in 3 days in a hotel waiting for the new battery.

 

typical scene in a park: a Land Rover alongside an airstrip.

 

Sad view in Arusha airport, a lousy pilot trashed this F406 on take off. He could have killed dozens of people, not only his passengers but also the various people in other aircraft or on the airport. He had stopped a few meters short of a big plane being boarded and the fuel station…

 

A Cessna 206 dwarfed by a huge Mil 26.

 

Flying loosely formation with a Cessna 404.

 

Ndutu airstrip quite flooded and momentarily out of service. This strip is famous for being soft when wet. Rains can be intense and change the landscapes within minutes.

 

One of the Flying Medical Service 206’s and active volcano Lengai shot on infrared film

random pictures in Tanzania and around

 

 

Me having a haircut in South Africa while on a long bicycle trip from Arusha to Cape Town.

 

Tanzania below:

An old weekend bike trip around mount Meru near Arusha.

some difficult passage.

 

My longest flying job in Tanzania, with Flying Medical Service.

Taking a short cut through a 600m high gorge. Watch rocking videos on my Vimeo account.

 

Amazing  encounters with chimpanzees in Mahale.

 

Walking safaris in Katavi.

 

Infrared picture in the Rift valley. Volcano Lengai.

 

Colleague landing in bad weather, Serengeti.

 

Aerial view of the mythical Kilimanjaro at about 20.000 feet high.

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.

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.

infrared photography in B/W, Tanzania

 

Old-fashioned way to shoot, that is with film, here a Rollei IR 400 combined with a Leica M6 camera, a 28mm lens, a 89B filter and a tripod.

this trapeze-shaped mountain is a holy active volcano named Oldoinyo Lengai, Rift valley. Interesting how most volcanoes are highly respected and idolized in the world.

Local people are expecting our medical visit every 2 weeks on each airstrip we operate. Flying Medical Service operates about 30 airstrips in the beautiful Tanzanian remote bush. I must say I really enjoy flying this kind of operations…

The same volcano from another location.

B/W infrared film photography, the bush in Tanzania

 

Rift Valley, northern Tanzania, while I’m busy flying for the Flying Medical Service mobile clinics, I always bring a couple of cameras. From a 1910 folding to digital Nikons via Rolleiflex and Leica M. I hope to use Karine's latest Contax 645 soon! The patient are usually Masai in that area.

This mountain is an active volcano, Oldoinyo Lengai seen from Ngaresero airstrip.

 

 

The volcano again from another airstrip, Engoveroni.

the medical hut, 2 rooms, quite a luxury.

The Cessna 206, a workhorse to compare with a Land Rover.

 

These pictures were shot the old way, that is on B/W film. This implies usually a very slow speed due to the dark infrared filter which explains the blurry people when in motion. In this case the Rollei IR 400 film in combination with a filter 89B was equivalent to a 6 asa film… I thus also used a tripod. The lens was a 28mm F:2.0 mounted on a Leica M6.

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.