We drove for 10 hours but only covered 200 km. The destination was the East African village of Loliondo, where a retired church pastor nicknamed Babu had dreamed up a miracle medicine that would cure all incurable diseases such as AIDS and Diabetes. The treatment had gained incredible popularity, and hordes of East African people (and a few tourists) made the treacherous journey to visit the spiritual healer, often leaving their doctor prescribed medicine behind. Why would they need it?

We were lucky because we managed to get there when it wasn’t so busy. But this was THE thing to do in Tanzania at the time. Babu and Loliondo were all over the media, and rarely shared the front cover of the local newspapers. We heard that there was usually a six day (yes, six days!) wait time, and that wasn’t hard to believe as the vehicles lined up for kilometers.

Our rickety old Landrover was uncomfortable, but compared to most of the travelers’ conditions, it should have felt like royal treatment (AC would have been nice though). The windows were usually closed to keep the dust out, despite the stifling heat. Every fifteen or twenty minutes you would see a broken down vehicle, and there were many stories of people dying because the journey was too rough. Wealthier individuals, such as political figures, would arrive by helicopter and this seemed like cheating to me. The journey is the destination, right?

Babu had proven results because two people had claimed to be cured of AIDS as a result of drinking the medicine.  But the medical community seemed unimpressed, especially since unwell people stopped taking their medication. One doctor explained that there is an inexpensive and not all that accurate preliminary AIDS test. If the test results were positive, the patient would be given a more accurate and more costly test. Now, the patient may choose to forgo the secondary test because, well, it costs a lot more for potentially bad news. On the other hand, a cup of miracle medicine and another inexpensive and inaccurate preliminary test, and they may have been cured!

Babu would dip his cup into the green bucket, fill it, and pour the liquid into the empty cups. The tray of full cups was then carried off to the vehicles where they would be emptied as quickly as they were filled. The used cups were washed in the basins that can be seen in the background. Babu would do this methodically for 12 hours of the day. He filled each cup himself because he was dedicated to his cause.

We drank the herbal tea-like drink, but reluctantly. At first Char and I opted to share a cup. Not that half a cup less of bacteria laden, tepid “miracle medicine” would make the week go by any smoother (read: E. coli bacterial infection), but we were told that it wasn’t possible to share. So we took solace in the fact that it had been heated up to be pretty hot (read: not boiled) a couple of hours earlier. Fortunately, we didn’t get sick and that bodes well for it’s miracle medicine status.

Our visit was in March of 2011. Since then the popularity of Babu and Loliondo has died down but we were told that he is working on a new medicine. Some are now calling Babu a false prophet and some still believe in the goodness of his medicine. We weren’t there to judge.

On a side note, this was the first time shooting with the Zeiss 21mm Distagon lens. Almost all the photos from the series were shot with this lens in MF, so I had to be really close to the action, and I lost quite a few good shots because they were out of focus, especially images shot in strong sunlight.

A portrait of a Marabou Stork from East Africa. I’ll let you know when I spot a Blobfish as well.

A while ago I mentioned bringing 25 disposable, single use cameras with me on an African trip, and giving them to children that live in an orphanage. Well, now we have a bag full of processed photo prints along with the negatives, and each envelope is labeled with the name of the corresponding child. Of course the kids got a copy of their photos, and they LOVED it. Our goal is to create a gallery exhibition and show off the images that have a distinct “kids-eye-view,” and hopefully raise some cash to donate back to the orphanage. A lot of the images are washed out and really grainy, but that adds to the fun. I’ve borrowed a lightbox and loupe from a fellow photographer and soon some friends and I will be digging through looking for some gems.

I just grabbed two envelopes out of the bag and quickly sorted through the prints, and these two stood out. The photograph above was shot by Rosena (eight years old). I don’t know why the one guy is isolated from the group, why he is darker than the rest, or what he is doing in the bush.

The photograph above was shot by Marietha, who is also eight years old.

I’m really looking forward to working on this project as part of my East African re-contribution efforts.

The Zeiss 21mm 2.8 Distagon is a beautiful lens. It’s the sharpest lens that I use wide open, and by 5.6, the sharpness becomes ludicrous. The build quality is what really sets it apart. Once you handle it, you realize that most other lenses feel like toys, and this one is going to last. But the most impressive thing you’ll notice is when you look through the viewfinder. What you see is a big bright, high contrast image that actually aids manually focusing the lens. That alone made me completely uninterested in the Canon 24mm 1.4, which was on the list of wide angle prime lens candidates. The difference is quite staggering, with the the Canon image feeling much more ‘muddy’.

There are two downsides to this lens:

1. Manual focus: This isn’t such a big deal considering the focal length. I wouldn’t want to be using a 50mm or 85mm with MF, but at 21mm there is a large enough DOF and that leaves a bit of room for error. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve lost my fair share of good shots because they are out of focus. But you eventually learn to make it work. I’ve also changed the focusing screen in the 5D mkII and that has helped with accuracy.

2. Smaller aperture: compared to the Canon 24mm 1.4 or even the Sigma 20mm 1.8, this lens is a little slow. But I like the fact that I know exactly what I’m going to get. And with the high ISO capabilities of camera bodies these days, I haven’t ever needed a wider aperture.

The one thing that needs to change on the Zeiss 21mm 2.8 Distagon is the big bright chrome ring around the front of the lens barrel (filter threads). It shows up a lot as a reflection in most situations when shooting through a window, and that is really tough to fix in post, so much that I’m considering painting it black. I searched for a design rationale, but could find anything on the issue. I wonder if it’s a marketing thing, similar to Canon’s red ring on their L glass. I sent an email to Zeiss asking them about it, and will let you know what they say.

Overall, I’m completely satisfied with it, and it seems to compliment the Canon 35mm 1.4 L quite nicely. These two lenses were acquired to replace the Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L zoom that I didn’t like.  I use the 35mm when I absolutely need AF, and 21mm when I need something extremely wide. There has only been one time when I wanted something wider, and in that case, I stitched the shots together. The downside is that when I’m shooting with the 35mm 1.4, I’m wishing it was as good as the Zeiss.

25 single use, or disposable cameras with black and white film just arrived in the mail. Whatever could I do with them? What is …film? Where is the sepia button? I can’t take good pictures without that!

Seriously, though. We’re going to be handing them out to children during our next trip to Tanzania. 25 cameras x 27 exposures is 675 photos, give or take a few. It will be interesting to see if even one of them turns out nicely, although we should always re-evaluate what it means to have a “good photo.” The point is not to get amazing images, but to give a child a chance to have a little fun with a camera and get some photos that they can keep. I’ll then scan the negatives and upload them here, and it should give us a glimpse into the life of a child that this old, fat mzungu wouldn’t be able to show you.

I planned to do this last year, but failed to find the right disposable cameras. Black and white disposable cameras are getting harder and harder to find, but luckily I found enough here. Strangely enough, the cameras advertised on their site look a lot different then the ones I got. The camera inside the box is branded by Kodak, but the box has a “SOLO with flash” logo on the front, with no mention of Kodak at all.