Thanks for all the feedback. Nice to get this up and see you like them. Don't hesitate to critique the photos, though, I think we can learn a lot from each others' points of view.
@ maddoc, Rayt, and others: I am sorry, I don't have a blog. I am building a website at the moment, just to get some photo work online --not for publishing any written stories (at this point in time, at least). I do understand your curiosity, but it's very hard to start describing my experience in Kinshasa and the weeks I spent in the forest & savanna ecosystems there. As a project wrap-up, I have written a 17 pages long detailed report but that is in Dutch, so it won't be of much help I am afraid.
However, if you have any specific questions I would be glad to answer them. For instance, I got a PM from someone interested into getting into volunteering and shooting documentary. Also, the questions raised about gear problems I can answer of course:
I do not baby my MP, and I do not use a case. I wear it around my shoulder the whole time and it bumps around when I bump around (e.g. in the Toyota Land Cruiser we sometimes used, but also in the forest itself when jumping over creeks, dead trees etc). Of course I am careful enough not to drop or smash it, but that's about it.
My MP was a bit out of (vertical) alignment before I left for Congo but there was no time to get it fixed. As a result my framing is not the way I intended it to be and I have the impression that things got worse in Africa. As I didn't notice this problem in time, I was not able to systematically correct for it --e.g. when framing horizontally I always lose out on the bottom and have more of the sky than intended-- but this should be possible and it's the way I work-around right now. A bit frustrating, I guess I'll just have it fixed.
Now about the climate. Not surprisingly, it is quite hot (30 degrees C/ 86 F is pretty average) and very very humid. Around noon, the savanna vegetation gets dryer (down to 60-70% relative air humidity), but inside the forest itself RAH is always around 85-95%. In the evening, at night, and in the morning it is 100% everywhere. During the four+ weeks spent in very rough terrain and without any dry shelters other than my small sleeping tent, this never posed a problem to my gear. In the morning, when I had left the MP on the floor next to my sleeping mat (so inside the tent), it often was just plain wet underneath, with water dripping of when I picked it up. [I should mention that we camped at the forest edge and mostly got up before sunrise, at 4 or 4:30. We then marched for about one hour to be inside the forest close to the apes when the sun came up.] I learned to put it on a bag or so, but sometimes forgot. I have also slept in a hammock for several nights... that was even worse (you wake up feeling cold and completely wet around 2 o'clock at night). Anyway, humidity-wise the MP or lens did not complain. I never hesitated to change films or use the camera under any circumstances. Sweat on it continuously, took it out in a tropical rain storm once, no problems whatsoever.
Dust can be a problem in dry regions, but mud and dirt is its cousin in more humid environments. I never cleaned the outsides of my camera, except for the UV-filter I had always attached to the 35 (my one and only M lens). The relief in the summicron is now full of tiny particles and I am not sure how to clean it out (nor am I very worried about it damaging anything).
Alright, this should do for now 🙂 --notice how I still have not written anything about the project/research/animals themselves...
Have not gotten to scanning the Tri-X, I promise I'll free up some time in the next few days. Thanks again.
