tom.k's blog

Today, I concluded my Namibia album. May be, I will upload a couple of shots from time to time. I wanted to say thank you for all for your encouraging comments and faves. Usually, I didn't reply directly to your comments and said thank you. My apologies for that.

I should have written this much earlier, but had this ideas just yesterday. In a german speaking forum www.nikon-fotografie.de/vbulletin/cmps_index.php a group of people started a project to support a region in africa, the Mbulu region which has massive water problems. So far, they collected about 10.000 Euros. Concluding a calender with 12 africa pictures will be produced and sold. The pictures will be selected in a competition. The shots in the competition can be seen here www.nikon-fotografie.de/vbulletin/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=525

I am sure this calender will be fantastic. All return from this calendar will be given to the project. Thus, buying a calender is not only beneficial, but you also get fantastic 12 africa images.

From what is written shipment to europe seems not to be a problem. In case, I would be happy to ask them for any other shipment destinations. Just drop me an email.

Everything started with this picture:

www.nikon-fotografie.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=43703

Some info about the Mbulu calender project:

www.nikon-fotografie.de/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678

The shop where you can order the calender:

www.nikon-fotografie.de/shop/product_info.php?info=p134_NF-F-Afrika-Kalender-2008.html

This is the organization which will receive the donation

www.solidarmed.ch and this describes the project for which the money will be used

www.solidarmed.ch/silvia/publikationen/SolidarMed_aktuell39.pdf

My shot which was selected for the calendar (so far no public announcement has been made about the selected pictures, but I suppose this will happen in the next few days, if not hours)

Shadow and light.

You can also help, if you help to make this more public. Thanks!!!!

After we left the Etosha National Park, we visited a San village. It is said, that the San were the first inhabitants of southern africa. They are also called bushmen. Compare their physical constitution with my shots from the Himbas. The San are just 1.40 to 1.60 tall and their whole constitution is very airy (hope that's the right word). Today it is estimated that in about 100000 (that's what Wikipedia is saying) Sans are living in southern aftrica. The Sans are typically not able to live according to their traditions. For instance, they cannot really hunt, because they do not own the land.

We actually visited what they call a living museum. After arrival at the village, we paid a specific amount (which is solely for the people of the village) and then they changed into their traditional clothes and demonstrated their traditions: They walked with us through the bushes, showing us how they used to hunt, what is eatable etc. Then they manufactured bows, arrows and embellishments and finally danced.

Although, this all sounds just like a show for tourists, it was very different, since it was very obvious that they enjoyed it. And my impression was that they would happily return to that way of living. Having visited the Himbas and the Sans, I question myself what right the so called civilized world has imposing our standards onto that people.

Bush walk

Huts

San children

The next stop on our trip through Namibia will be Etosha National Park. An area of about 24000 square kilometers. Almost a quarter of this area is covered by a salt pan which is dry most of the year. Only part of the area is accessible for tourists. Usually you start your game drives from one of the camps of which there are three in the park. All three camps are near a water hole which is illuminated during the night providing a program better than cinema. One night we saw about 120 elephants at the water hole which was quite spectacular. The game drives during the day leads from one water hole to the next, usually hoping to see lions or leopards.

But see yourself....

Out of the light

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My travel through Namibia commences. The next stop is at the semi-nomadic people, the Himbas. Besides the landscape of Namibia, this was one of the most striking impressions of this whole travel. The Himbas life in Kraals, an assembly of a few clay huts. They still live to the most simple standards, which nobody could imagine, no tv, no radio... nothing. Just the huts where they sleep on a fur. They feed from corn and once a week they'll have some meat. They are totally adapted to their environment in which water is sparse. Thus, they use it accordingly, just for cooking and drinking. They never wash therselfes with water. Instead they put a creme on their body which consists of  pounded special red stone and fat. Further, they expose their body to smoke, produced by burning a self made mixture of herbs.

It is striking how little they need to be content, compared to our way of life which seems to be well on the way to destroy our planet.

Himba Kraal (1)

Himba Kraal (2)

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After Swakopmund which is located at the coast, we move on the east. The landscape changes and gets a bit more wavy. In some areas huge rocks are lying around making you wonder who stacked them there. The drive leads us into the Damaraland so called after the ethnic group, the Damaras. The Damaras and the San (bushmen) are the oldest ethnic groups in Namibia.

Our destination is near to one of the most comprehensive places where rock gravings have been found.The age of the rock gravings is estimated to be between 1000 and 10000 years. Unfortunately, I had to made compromises and was not able to visit the rock gravings. Well, this is a reason to come back .

The will to life.

More pics on my photostream.

It was hard to say good bye to the desert. But everything comes to an end. So, we had to move to our next destination in Namibia, which was Swakopmund located on the coast in west Namibia. It was a long ride, which took us about 5 hours. And when we arrived it was cloudy and hazy not the best conditions for photography of pelicans and flamingos which I planned to do in the lagoon of Walvis Bay. But anyway, once we were there I took a couple of shots.

It's a long way

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after spending two days in the Namib. The ultimate experience was a flight over the Namib. Well to be honest for my wife and my daughter it was a bit windy , since the co-pilot window was left open. Thus, I had not to shoot through the window. The results will be uploaded over the next days to my photostream.

into the Namib. After having spent two days with me in Namib Rand, I actually lead you into the Namib itself.

Trails...

A 300 km long and nearly 150 km wide sand sea which stretches at Namibia's west coast. It's reputed to contain some of the worlds highest and most picturesque dunes. The dunes are composed of colourful quartz sand, and come in hues which vary from cream to orange, red and violet. Unlike the Kalahari dunes, those of the Namib are dynamic. Over time, the wind shifts and sculpts them into a variety of distinctive shapes which you will see when I take you on a flight in a couple of days.

After having spent 3 fantastic weeks in Namibia, Germany has me back again. As you probably can imagine, I had  a lot of photos in my luggage which await uploading to my PC, sorting and processing. Thus, for the next couple of days, I will be rather busy and not being able to look at your photostream. So, please bear with me....

The last couple of weeks I was very busy preparing my travel to Namibia which starts tomorrow. Thus, I couldn't spent any time visiting your photostreams or upload photos. I'll be back in August with - hopefully - a couple of nice shots. So stay tuned ;-)

After flickr screwed up completely - as an adult I am not willing to accept that flickr decides what I am allowed to see and what not -, I came across ipernity. Since it looked appealing, very much like flickr and given the greasemonkey script which made image migration a snap, I decided to give it a try. And the best thing, I already found some of my flickr contacts here. So let's see, how things turn out here....