day 22 :: photographering [retroactive]

I find it very difficult to take pictures here. I thought it was all me and I SUCK at taking pictures and then I watched my screensaver for a while, all these lovely pictures with lovely colors in Rwanda and Uganda and Kenya and Tanzania and Liberia and I realized that it’s not me, it’s the light. The light, it is harsh. The light, it is strong. It just wrecks the photos.

My photos in Elsewhere were nice.

My colleague concurred and said he used to think there was something wrong with his camera because his photos always turned out washed out and then he went to Nairobi where the air is clear and cool and they started turning out all pretty. So, hmph.

But I keep trying. It’s best in the evening, when I can take photos in the golden light of the declining sun.

I took this one on the airstrip just before sunset, and turned the camera around to show the ladies.

Digital cameras are the best invention ever. Before, it was all take-take-take when it came to photos, but now when I take a picture, I have something to give back. People can see themselves in the camera who might never have seen a photo of themselves. Sometimes, people are shocked. “Is that me? Is that what I really look like?” they ask their friends. Smaller children sometimes can’t find themselves in the photo until someone else points them out. “That’s me? That’s what I look like?”