These last few weeks I’ve been immersed in a major displacement activity – both actually and metaphorically. While trying to find a good place to store Graham’s newish photo scanner, I decided I’d quite like to use it and revisit our old Africa negatives.
The Epson, however, was unknown territory. I’d done my original scanning using technology long since deceased, and I wasn’t altogether happy with the results, or with my editing. So first stop meant downloading software and all the nonsense that goes with it (compatibility/senescence issues – not mine – since both scanner and PC are only a few years old as far as their owners are concerned, but they are obviously superannuated in techno-ageist terms).
After several efforts, and two different apps later, I’m finally set to go, but then there is the issue of dealing with negatives that are twenty and thirty years old, were processed in Africa, have thus moved continents, survived several house moves, and not been stored very carefully. My original prints are in far better condition, some astonishingly sharp, but they are stuck in albums. So yes, as I said, a major displacement activity.
Yet it’s serious time travelling too, and every now and then a frame emerges and I am transported. The image may have lost clarity, but I’m there at first light, on the shores of Lake Elmenteita in Kenya’s Rift Valley.
The greater and lesser flamingos that inhabit this shallow soda lake never stop honking and grunting. It’s a seamless shifting soundscape that you hear all night if you are camping nearby. The loudness ebbs and flows, depending on where the flocks are feeding, but always strangely amplified across the shallow waters. At dawn though, you forgive the din, just for the sight of them through the mist. In the distance they look like scattered rose petals, and since the air is frosty at this hour, this sparks thoughts of celebratory champagne and ice bowls of strawberry sorbet…
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But let’s not get too carried away. If you venture out on the lake mud for a better view, beware. It’s slithery with flamingo guano, and the acrid smell of it, along with the soda, stings the nose, throat and eyes.
And yet…and yet these vistas have to be the most entrancing of all the many scenes in my memory archives.
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When we lived in Nairobi during the 1990s we came here when we needed a break from city living, staying at Soysambu tented camp. The drive up the Great Rift had its own thrills, both the astonishing views of the Rift volcanoes, and the hair-rising truck driving along the way. It was always a relief to turn off the tarmac and bump along dirt tracks to the camp. 
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The lake and its surrounding land is mostly in the hands of the Delamere family. From the late 19th century to the 1930s, the third baron Delamere was both an agricultural pioneer and prime mover in the shaping of the then British colony. Among other land holdings, he acquired 46,000 acres around the lake in the early 1900s. At some stage there were attempts to grow wheat there, but the soil was too shallow and the land reverted to bush. In our day, the fifth Lord Delamere, managed the place as a private game reserve (more recently the Soysambu Conservancy) and cattle ranch.
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The camp back then was sheltered by fever trees, sixteen tents each with its view of the lake and the remnant volcanic cone, known by local Maasai as the Elngiragata Olmorani, the Sleeping Warrior. There was always something to look at. The light on the lake changed every second and there were 400 species of bird to watch out for not least the campsite superb starlings, weaver birds, orioles, babblers, herons and storks – and then you might look up to see impala slip noiselessly through the trees or waterbuck out on the flood plain…
It could all have been a dream of course.
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Lens-Artists: Looking back This week Sofia wants to see the things and places we treasure and would like to revisit.
I have very few negatives of my old 35mm ( ruined in a flooding incident many moons ago) and no scanner.
So I improvised. I simply used my Canon and laid them carefully on a flat surface and photographed them.
After that, uploaded them and the wonders of computer technology took over!
Your images are quite beautiful, by the way. Number 5 especially. 😊
Thanks, Ark. I have re-photographed some of mine, not always very successfully, which is doubtless down to my not setting about it properly.
I’ve done something similar to Ark, but I’m very low on patience so the results aren’t always great. We have flamingos here, Tish, but never in that quantity. Almost a surreal quality to these photos. Love them!
Thanks, Jo. I’ve also tried photographing photos, but not got on very well with it.
Your photos are spectacular and your prose is so poetic.
“scattered rose petals” and “It could all have been a dream of course”
I’m shaking my head and smiling.
Thank you for that smile. I’m smiling right back 🙂
Great gallery, Tish. I think you nailed two challenges in a beautiful post. You looked back and showed us beautiful mood in these photos.
Oh thank you, Egidio. I’m v. happy to be considered a ‘double nailer’ 🙂
Beautiful photos and I hope there are more forthcoming. The transfer of photos, tapes, files to new media is an endless rock I’ve rolled up and down the hill many times. I transferred my father’s home movies to computer files and it took me years. Other than my sister no one in my family is much interested in seeing my grandmother playing with the dog, or pictures of the old house. However yours are beautiful photos in their own right.!
That’s so very lovely of you to say so, Stephen. But I know what you mean about toiling to transfer stuff to new technology and then wondering who was going to want to see it. That’s quite a big question in all sorts of ways.
Such wonderful memories. And the only place I have ever seen an aardvark!L xSent from my iPhone
Yay. Five star aardvark territory 🙂
“It could all have been a dream of course” – what a perfect ending to your post Tish. The aged quality of your images actually makes they seem quite dreamy, such an amazing post – you put us right there beside you. It must have been so amazing!!
Many thanks for that lovely comment, Tina.
PS. If it makes you feel any better, my sister-in-law took it upon herself to gather all of the old 8mm movies my dad have made of the family (parents and 5 children) over 40 years. She had them all converted to 8 mm tape. Then guess what – she/we lost the tape and it’s never been found. So be careful not to lose the originals!!!
Thanks for that, Tina.
Still on my bucket list but time as always is running short..I’ll just continue to visit with your wonderful read.
Glad to provide alternative travel, Beverly 🙂
Thanks for the beautiful views of memories of Africa. A valiant scanning undertaking and worth the time
Many thanks, Rebecca. Your encouragement is much appreciated.
Wonderful evocation, Trish! Thanks.
Many thanks, Sarah.
So excited to see this and determine to remember your photos that I assigned you a new name, Tish. Sorry!
That’s quite all right, Sarah 🙂
Am touched by your excitement 🙂
Actually, Tish, what excited me – and you certainly do not have to go into this here or at any other time – is to imagine what the first-hand knowledge and imprint on you of this wonderful natural environment has done for you – or any – life.
My brain closed of this line of thought after a few seconds because the subject is vast, partially intimate, and how would I know this for you, anyway?
I reckon the scanner has done a pretty decent job on these slides, but it’s your lyrical account of the lakeside scenes that brings your experience alive for me!
Some of these are beautiful. I like the green/yellow cast that some of your photos have. Especially the photos of the waterbirds look lovely and unusual.
I too have old 35 mm films stored. I was wondering whether the time has come to dispose of them finally, but your scans have made me think again.
Dreamy. Your photos are beautiful, your post amazing. The yellowish tinge makes them magical. I’ve been having the same problem, my negatives are in poor condition and the prints are in much better shape.
Yes, that yellowish tinge. I couldn’t seem to banish it. But then as you say, it adds a certain something too 🙂
These elderly photos have a dream-like quality that is really engaging. So glad you’ve resurrected them.
Thanks, Margaret.
pin sharp just would not suit these memories – off colour gives them an old world charm which is what you describe so well when you were young and easy under fever trees (apologies to Dylan Thomas)
p.s. bravo with the techie side of things – bringing back such memories
V. grateful for the cheering on, Laura. Thank you.
What wonderful memories Tish. The pictures scanned from slides were wonderful.
Many thanks, Anne.
😊
😍
Yes, do get carried away, Tish. Your descriptions add to the nostalgia of the sepia tinted heirloom photos. I wonder how much it has changed?
Thanks for egging me on, Tracy! As to change, well the low-key camp we used to stay at is now a v. upscale Serena Hotels safari camp. Fabulous little video of the lake here:
https://www.serenahotels.com/elmenteita
The Delamere family, who still live across the lake and also run a beef ranch, are concentrating on the Soysambu Conservancy (as in private reserve) which extends up the Rift Valley to Nakuru National Park where there’s another soda lake. In other words, they have facilitated a rather fabulous wild life enclave which people can visit by day:
https://soysambuconservancy.org/about-us-conservation-in-kenya/
My favorite bird. Wonderful post. With the color shift in some film over time, it is hard to know what a scan will look like. When you have time to fight with the scanner, you could try scanning a few album pages to see if that might give good results. 😊
Thanks for that suggestion, Marie. It might involve a bit of a tussle, but worth a go for some images.
I admire your patience with technology and the great task of resurrecting the slides, Tish. The flamingos 🦩 on the shallow soda lake must have been a sight beyond beautiful. Thanks for taking us along on this enjoyable journey of the past.
So happy you could join me, Dina 🙂
I love then ending, “It could all have been a dream of course.” Some of my most amazing past experiences feel like that, since they are so different from my normal – but, for a moment, they were my normal. Do you miss Africa?
Thanks so much, Snow. And yes, I do miss East Africa, the scents of the bush mostly, but also its people with their enduring sense of humour. Come to think of it, even at the time we were there, much of it was dreamlike. Life in HD. That could also be quite wearing – sensory overload.
Epson, I have had my share of heartache with it. Great memories and this trip was worth the effort of getting them scanned
Many thanks, Ritva. One thing I’ve learned is to save the original scan, and edit a copy only!
Very good advice
Dear Tish
We really love your greenish pictures much more than your last picture and the first two.
Thanks for sharing
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks. Klausbernd. Most of the negatives are somewhat discoloured, and not improved perhaps on my blog’s yellow background. Ah well. Something to do on rainy days 🙂
Dear Tish
We like them as they are. They are significantly different to those pictures we have seen too often in National Geographic and similar magazines.
Don’t ‘improve’ them.
Keep well
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks for that FabFour. Actually, too, when I check some of the images against the original photos, the light was often as dreamlike as it appears on the scans. But then that comes of getting up at 5.30 am to take them 🙂
A beautiful post with magical photos and text. I can imagine the flamingos.
Many thanks, A-C.
O beautiful.
Thank you.
Well done Memsahib. It can be a pain, but it’s worth the work. That should preserve those memories. I’ve used scanners but not anymore. I take a picture of the photo and then photoshop it for adjustments.
Ahhh. Flamingoes. I close my eyes and I can smell and hear…
Asante sana Tish.
Asante sana to you too, Brieuc. As to flamingos – some sensations just weld themselves into the memory banks, don’t they.
They do. I particularly have very strong visual images. I can close my eyes, I am in Tsavo or Lake hannington. 😉
PS. The Delamere family is still around? Amazing.
My parents were offered to buy a hotel in malindi. My father said no. What a shame. We might be settled in Kenya now… 😉
Kwaheri sassa
The 5th Baron died just last week aged 90. His grandson succeeds him.
And thoughts of life in Malindi – the light and smells of the Kenya coast just came rushing back at me!
It’s nice to hear the wazungu can still live in Kenya…
Malindi was indeed special…
Kwaheri sassa
Such beautiful memories. Thank you for sharing them. Every now and then some incident triggers memories of what had happened earlier and makes us smile.
Thank you, Lakshmi.
Nice post 🌺🌺