This week Paula’s set us a very different kind of challenge. She asks us to show her a zoomed in – zoomed out image. I’ve applied so much zoom to this photograph that the detail is abstracted. I rather like it – the patchwork quilt effect. It is a view of smallholder farms at Escarpment, just north of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. I was out with Graham (in his capacity as Smut Survey Team Leader) looking for outbreaks of a fungal infection on fodder grass. You can read the full story at an earlier post Looking for Smut on Kenya’s Highland Farms. Escarpment was one of the locations we surveyed, and living up to its name, it lies on the easterly elevation of the Great Rift Valley.
(Click on the image for a larger view). The old volcano in the Rift is Longonot, and the zigzag of road seen faintly to the right of the valley bottom takes you to Lake Naivasha. Even now, after so many years away from Africa, this view stops my breath. And then I find myself breathing in – thinner air at 8,000 feet – whiffs of dust, thorn trees, diesel, roasting maize at a roadside trader’s hearth…
Tish Farrell 
Ah, Tish- this love affair will never end. 🙂 🙂 I like your abstract too!
I think you’re right, Jo. But then the Rift was probably where we all evolved, so it’s somewhere in the genes 🙂
Oh, great response to the challenge, Tish!
🙂 🙂
the second picture is nice, but there’s too much red in it.
I did de-saturate the image somewhat, Shimon, but it is an old photo, and Rift soil is very red after rain as has just happened here 🙂
Do you ever work with the color?
Yes, but some of the photos scanned from negatives seem to need so much adjustment, you lose the thread of what you’re aiming for. I do see what you mean with this photo, and will have another go with it. On the other hand, the pinkish glow is maybe fitting – looking back on times past through rose coloured specs.
Every time I read Graham being in charge of a smut survey team I laugh, and I am darn sure you do it on purpose, as well!
Who me? On purpose?
Et tu, Miss Tish?
🙂
Zoom in gives you an aerial view, one of the things age has taken from me sadly. No more window seats for me – I’m beyond dancing the Economy Wiggle to get out of my seat. (A preoccupation at the moment – this time next week after 30 hours in transit I’ll be in Warsaw, wondering when to inform my family, who don’t know I’m coming. Off the ego trip, and back to that second photo. I love that panel of light, and your love of lost times – which aren’t really lost. You recover them beautifully.
Thank you, Meg. And your secret trip to Warsaw. So exciting but I definitely do not envy you those 30 hours.
I’m so glad you share your traveling adventures with us.
Thank you, Beverly. So kind!
Wonderful photos and narrative. What a wonderful experience. I like your abstract photo also.
Thank you, Irene.
Fabulous memories there Tish. Africa has certainly got beneath your skin.
It did! Thanks, Jude.
Knowing how much you love Africa makes me happy Tish.
That’s very lovely of you, Gilly 🙂
Oh those are great zooming in and out. You’d never know the close up was from the same photo without your telling. Did I mention I love your header, Tish?
Thank you, Ruth, for both those very nice comments.
Definitely a very abstract look on the zoom in. What a patchwork effect, but I love the zoom out with that lovely apricot glow in the distance
Thank you, Pauline 🙂
Those are very interesting & different studies of the same scene!
The wide angle is so lovely – you’ve managed to capture such diverse feels for the foreground and the background!
And your abstract patchwork zoom in is lovely!
Thank you very much, Ju-Lyn 🙂
Breathtaking photo Tish 😊
Many thanks 🙂