Ben Wilhelmi

B/W film photography, Masai people.

 

 

One of my little privileges of living in Africa is having the time...well I am obviously still a bit obnoxious about it but I have some free time nevertheless and opportunities, like bringing vintage cameras to remote areas, here around lake Natron with a magnificent 1961 Rolleiflex allowing 12 shots per medium format film roll, very old fashioned.

Why...? Because l can? Because l couldn't afford such an expensive camera 20 or more years ago. And well it is just about driving a venerable car or listening to a LP...

 

Aerials over lake Natron, Tanzania, analog pictures

 

 

Lake Natron is a magnificent salt lake in the Rift valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shot on a vintage camera, a 1961 medium format Rolleiflex camera and chrome films.

Random aerials, Tanzania

 

 

It took me a while and a picture to notice at the same time a reflection and a shadow of an aircraft. "They have eyes but don't see" says the latine proverb...

Here over lake Natron salt flats.

 

Flamingoes taking off. Lake natron again but on a normal looking area where the water reaches 3m deep.

 

2 young Masai boys. Their white make up and black cloaks indicate the boys were recently circumcized, paving the way to warriorhood.

 

I was lucky that day...what a scenery.

 

Lake Natron again, always a different coat.

Aerial photography, Tanzania

This big country is a marvel for a pastime like aerial aerography...

 

Delta on the northern part of lake Natron, where salts mix with fresh water from a river coming from Kenya, Southern Ewaso Ng'iro, Rift valley.

 

Low pass to greet a Maasai walker.

Minimal art?

 

One of those airstrips in Tanzania, along lake Natron, not too far from the volcano Lengai.

A non-perennial lake at the foot of mount Kitumbeine received unusual visitors.

I enjoy looking for various subjects of total different composure,colors and style like this psychedelic spiral of salt in lake Natron...

Versus this same lake natron, another day and welcoming flamingoes slightly disturbed by my approach to land nearby

Aerials of lake Natron, Tanzania

A stunnig salt lake in the Rift valley, northern Tanzania. It used to be said most inhospitable yet it is opening to tourism. Let's not open the debate but I feel privileged I usd to visit and overfly this place for many years when visitors were rare.

 

Because the lake is shallow, a little or big rain and a variable wind will give a new coat on a regular basis. This explains why in the 6 years l flew there a coupla times a month l never got bored!

 

 

This red pattern tends to be the most common one.

 

Ph is over 10, wildlife in the lake is limited to flamingoes but on the outskirt there is a bit of normal life, including fish and some mammals.

 

 

 

This zebra and birds are keeping their feet safe on a river delta.

 

Some days, it looks like the lake is mourning...

 

Caught in the dust.

 

 

Aerial photography, Tanzania

Tanzania is such a big country gifted with many beautiful landscapes. Not only that, those landscapes vary tremendously come the rain seasons.

 

Salt lakes are perfect examples of ever changing colors and patterns. Here is a detail of lake Eyasi.

I guess pelicans visiting Tanzania.

 

The Ruaha river after the rain season.

 

The famous wildebeest migration near the Mara river, here on the Serengeti side.

 

Lake Natron, another salt lake.

 

The Rufiji river in the Selous reserve.

 

Lake Natron again.

 

A typical homestead like millions in the country.

 

Tarangire national park. Quite famous for its elephants.

 

Lake balangida, a lesser known salt lake. Those white dots are salt extraction activities. I would guess operated by local people only.

Aerials of lake Natron, Tanzania

 

A few pictures of lake Natron and its surroundings, Rift Valley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old pictures with Flying Medical Service

I'm faffing around through my old pictures from 1999, the year I arrived in Africa, here in Tanzania.

 

One of my first proud Masai warriors posing for me. Impressive guys for a newbie. Greater Serengeti.

 

A village in western Tanzania, Kasulu.

My colleague Steve on take off, Olpirikata, Sanjan plains.

The stunning lake Natron, I couldn't Believe such a marvelous and stunning place could exist. Rift Valley.

Teenagers are the same everywhere.

A Flying Medical Service Cessna 206 on landing.

Me on my first time in the bush, Olaika, Greater Serengeti.

FMS has a knack for the craziest and or most beautiful places to land and operate. Olorbelin, lake Natron, Kenyan border.

My second emergency! This man had been dragged into a brawl with cow thieves. An Arrow landed through his forehead to his lower jaws. He sufefred a momentary speech impediment but sadly lost one eye. I had been in Tanzania for 2 weeks ...

 

Landing with a strong crosswind, Ngaresero, Bottom of the Rift Valley. The mountain is the active volcano Lengai. Another stunning place to operate into.

I was using a great SLR film camera, a Minolta X700 which I still use once in a while.

Aerials and others, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

Shadow and reflection on the salted surface.

An extinct volcano on the Kenyan border; Shombole.

The Cessna 206, the workhorse I used by then.

Monik, one unchartered airstrip on the western shore.

The only breeding place in Africa for flamingoes. Let's hope that salt factory planning will never see the day, will never have a chance to ruin the whole lake as it has happened in lake Magadi, Kenya.

The main neighbor is that active volcano, Oloinyo Lengai.

Aerials, lake Natron

A magnificent salt lake in the Rift valley, northern Tanzania, that offers a stunning range of colors and patterns over the years. Flying in the area never fails to make my day…

 

 

 

 

Lake Natron, aerials

 

Being based in Dar es Salaam and in the Ruaha doesn’t give me many opportunities to fly to the north of Tanzania. I miss lake Natron and its salt colorful patterns, its endless artistic creativity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerials, Tanzania

 

Hippos in the Luwego river.

 

In the Selous game reserve.

 

Unfortunately I’m not too sure of the reason behind this minimal art sea surface.

 

The Indian Ocean and its beach can offer a lot of different sceneries.

 

 

Arusha one early morning.

 

Swollen river around lake Natron.

Aerials, Tanzania

 

2 details of a fabulous salt lake, Natron.

 

Another salt lake, less colorful than Natron, Balangida.

 

Indian ocean, a reef above and a delta below.

 

Lake Tanganyika, clear water this one.

 

A swamp in the Selous. Some rains have started to fill it up again.

 

A sisal plantation.

 

The great Ruaha river, Ruaha park.

 

Near Ngwazi, some floating vegetation on a pond.

Aerials over lake Natron in 15minutes

 

The camera metadata don’t lie, those pictures are stretched over 15min, between 2 airstrips on that wonderful salt lake in northern Tanzania, in the Great Rift valley, the Gregory Rift to be precise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15min and that was just a selection, I took about 100 pictures, it is just impossible to be bored (well maybe some teens can)

Lake Natron fly-over in 10 min

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial photography, Tanzania

 

Salt pans, lake Balangida, southern tip of the Rift valley.

 

Monik airtrip, lake Natron. That mountain is the active volcano Lengai.

 

 

Sunrise on the Indian ocean.

 

Luwegu river, southern Selous.

 

Drying Katasunga river, Katavi NP.

 

A dust devil on the burnt Katasunga plain.

 

A reef in the Indian ocean is  by fishermen and their nets.

 

In the Selous reserve, some floods from 40 years ago haven’t totally disappeared. The dead white trees are numerous to tell the tale.

 

Aerials, lake Natron

 

Flamingoes nesting, young and adults together.

 

The western shoreline of the Rift valley.

 

More flamingoes.

 

Aerials of lake Natron in 8 min

Yes, 8 minutes between the 1st and last picture! That lake is just an 8th wonder… from bland colors to the brightest palette.

Except green, those salts can offer any color, adding black and white on top. Green colors though can be seen near the deltas where fresh waters come in and start to mix with the salts.

Ph can hit 11. No surprise only some algae and flamingoes thrive in that environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture shows the right orientation, you’re watching at a perfect reflection in the water.

 

Air temperature hits 45C sometimes. Those salts can be boiling hot. I remember feeling the heat through my soles. Now those Maasai kids just wear sandals made of old tyres…

 

Lake Natron, Tanzania, aerials over the years

 

OK OK I’m just a little bit biased over that stunning salt lake located in the Rift valley.

 

 

The salts offer all the rainbow palette but green. About shapes, well there is quite some diversity as well.

 

 

Just to add a little touch and leave nothing to the other lakes, natron is surrounded by an extinct volcano, Shombole on the Kenyan border, and an active volcano, Lengai to the south.

 

 

Another big touch is the presence of flamingoes. Not an exception in the various lakes of the Rift valley but Natron is the only breeding place for them in Africa!

 

 

Aerial details, lake Natron

 

For those who jumped on the band wagon recently, these close up pictures were shot over lake Natron, a salt lake in the Rift valley, northern Tanzania.

 

 

 

 

 

Artistic aerials, lake Natron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial pictures, Tanzania

 

Bahi swamps, west of Dodoma.

 

Stonetown, Zanzibar.

 

Some wildebeests (des gnous pour mes amis francophones) one early morning in the Serengeti. A vertical shot and long shadows on the menu.

 

Stunning details of the salt lake Natron.

 

 

Lake Balangida which might be the most southern salt lake in the Rift valley near Singida.

 

These mounds are made of salt collected by people on the same lake.

 

The Ruaha river on a sunrise take off.

Lake Natron, natural art

 

A selection, just a small selection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerials, lake Natron

 

That salt lake…ever changing its wardrobes! rarely a boring day over there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerials, lake Natron

 

It has been a while since  posted some pictures of this artistic piece of art that is lake Natron…time to address the issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Natron, Aerials

 

Enjoy the salt patterns and incredible colors of that natural masterpiece

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial pictures, lake Natron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerials, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerials over lake Natron in 5 minutes

 

Yes this diversity of pictures is offered within 5 minutes. What a stunning place, never boring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B/W art photography, aerials over lake Natron

 

my favorite photographic exercise: aerial photography over lake Natron, northern Tanzania. This salt lake is a natural piece of art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerials over lake Natron, Tanzania, 10 min

 

Another set of pictures shot on the same short 10 minute flight between Pininyi and Njurlan on lake Natron shore. I doubt any map shows those 2 villages…

Isn’t it fascinating to observe so many different patterns and colors on the same day within 20km or so?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Natron, Tanzania, aerials in 10 min

 

Between 2 airstrips around that incredible salt lake, a flight of 10 min, 10 min no more I swear will offer that much diversity! How do they say, the world best kept little secret?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lake Natron in B/W from above.

 

Northern Tanzania in the Rift Valley lies this stunning lake, part of a chain of salt lakes all the way up to the Death Sea.

 

 

 

Aerials, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

 

Though the Natron is a salt lake, there is wildlife on its shores.

 

And a few villages too. I have no idea what those Maasai kids are doing on that boiling hot pan of salt.

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Natron, aerial photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lake Natron, aerial photography

 

That salt lake is located in the Rift Valley, northern Tanzania. These pictures were taken, not only the same day but within 8 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazing place, isn’t it?

Flamingoes on lake Natron, aerials

 

 

 

Those white dots are nests.

 

 

The chicks are grey initially.

 

 

B/W aerial photography, lake Natron

 

 

 

 

Aerial images, lake Natron, Tanzania

 

This must be ma favorite place to fly over… all pictures here shot on the same day.

 

 

 

 

lake Natron, B/W aerial photography