Everyone seems to have a different idea of what they want to see updated first on this site. I think it’s telling that all the people who wrote me emails or left comments asked for sketchbooks or souvenirs but the winner of my anonymous poll was finances. I’m not surprised, “how much did you spend?” is the one question on the tip of everyone’s tongues. I haven’t added up all my expenses yet and I’m not looking forward to it. A year’s worth of bank statements are sitting beside me now and haven’t moved since the day I got home.
I will update the finances, of course, and I know it is always more than I estimate. If you just can’t stand the wait I would guess that it’s somewhere between $20,000 – $30,000 over 14 months. Although that sounds like a lot of money (some people have suggested I should have put a down payment on a house instead) it’s less than I would spend living in Chicago.
After a long rest from this site I finally sat down and sorted through my photos from East Africa. I’m a little disappointed in these photos because the lighting is often overcast and I didn’t have many portrait volunteers. Still, there are some nice atmospheric shots on safari, beautiful stormy ocean scenes from Zanzibar and the much-anticipated mountain gorillas. That’s twenty two photos of gorillas, if you can bear it.
You can start from the top, at the main gallery page, or jump ahead to the following country galleries: Uganda / Democratic Republic of Congo / Rwanda / Tanzania / Zanzibar
The Madagascar gallery was already up back in June but I’ve added a few photos to the Tana Gallery which I took the day before I flew back to Nairobi. There are some nice market scenes and a few others I really like—This girl with a balloon and women selling oranges in the market in particular.
This photo isn’t a favorite because it’s a good photo, but because of how it happened. I was taking a photo of the detour sign next to this man for the Design section, which greatly amused him. He kept warning me to be careful because of the traffic speeding around me. Then, when I finished, he looked at me and pointed to himself… he wanted a picture! It’s sometimes hard to get people to agree to portraits in Africa, but this man thought he was a star once I pointed the lens at him.
Some pictures are not what they seem. These boys hanging out at the Uganda/Rwanda border look greatly offended to be in the photo even though they insisted I take it and were actually really excited. Of course, there’s often a request for money in certain areas of the world. These adorable little girls on Kendwa beach in Zanzibar literally grabbed my camera bag and yelled “photo! photo” until I agreed. Before I would take the photo I told them I wouldn’t give them money. Immediately after I released the shutter the girls circled me yelling “money! dollar!” The mean-looking boys in the first photo were much nicer than those two cute girls, despite how they look through the lens.
4 responses to “The Gallery is Open”
I think your pictures are wonderful!! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Stacy.
Hey Megan,
I love all your wildlife pictures. Especially the picture of the Hornbills (type of bird)! You truely have a photographers eye!
PS—Can’t believe that you think that your trip cost was around 20k? Yikes! But it was a 20k well SPENT, that’s for sure!
Pura Vida,
Claudia
PSS—how do u like being back home?
I don’t know how much so far…
As far as being back home, well I like having toilet paper and a hot shower. But I feel guilty taking a hot shower or using too much toilet paper… using toilet paper at all to blow my nose, even!