I keep working on my video skills. Tigris is in Lilongwe this week, so I picked up an older project: the documentary about photographer Ronald Dula. Yesterday he photographed a wedding (on a Thursday!) I filmed him, and understandably, the couple want to have a video. So I spent this morning doing something I thought I would not easily do: edit a wedding video. It is a bit of a strange wedding video, because it looks at the wedding from the view of the photographer. That makes sense for my project, I wonder what the couple will think of the video.

After the wedding (actually I had to leave early) I taught my class at the Polytechnic. They came up with some interesting ideas for their photo story. Next week they will come with the photos. I can't wait to see what they make!

After that we had a long meeting with the staff of the journalism department of the Poly. We went over all the exam questions, to see if we can help each other improve the exam quality. This was useful for e, because many of the lecturers are more experienced than I am, before I only taught at diploma level, and degree level is a different story. There were a few exams that I would have failed. I hope my students are not more advanced than I am. With photojournalism, that will be ok, but they must know a lot of material to pass. Very interesting questions, which I cannot reveal before the exam.

A few things have happened since my last post.
I spoke to Maclan at the Polytechnic about the program there. I want it more practical. As it happens: he wants the same. So for the last four lessons I gave my students the homework of creating a photo story. This ties in nicely with the workshop we had with Unicef a few months ago. So one group will create a photo story about child rights. Each will create a short photo story on one child, and together we have a nice piece of work.

Then I have been working on my video skills: I am producing a music video. More news will follow.

Today I spent most of the day together with Joke working on the visual guides we made for Save the Children. Artwork was done by Hamilton Kameza, and he did a really good job. We have adapted them to Zambia. Interesting work, and it is a good tool for home visitors there to work with.

Freda, who always does a great job on production for me (finding the right models, locations and what have you) called me to ask for a copy of a photo. She has often posed for me for testing techniques and equipment (and she reflects the light beautifully).
 When I teach lighting I always notify students, that you can often see the lighting set up of a portrait reflected in the eyes. All photographers look for this at some time. But then I noticed a self portrait: you can even see me reflected in her eye.
Talk about students: my students at the Polytechnic University agree with me that we need more practicals. That s more work for them and more work for me, but it will improve the quality a lot. So I have homework for this weekend: review the curriculum.

Me at Real Printers

We did photos for Business Partners. They are a finance company with a social approach. They fund businesses with loans from US50,000 to US1,000,000. For their website and leaflets they need photos of businesses that would be eligible. It was fun. Here Freda helped with production (as always: efficiently) and did some behind the scenes photos.
Then for construction we went to Mpamba, the Amitofo Care Center is expanding.We got some good construction photos and then went on to see the temple there. It is beautiful and something you don't come

Freda at the Buddhist Temple

accross often in Malawi.

farmers club in the tree nursery in the rain

Now I am back from Dowa and Neno. I made photos for the Clinton Foundation. It is an agro forestry project. Farmers in Malawi grow trees, the trees fix carbon from the air. The farmers sell their carbon credits in the west. So the global environment improves and the farmer in Malawi makes money. On top of that: in Neno they grow grafted mango trees, so they produce high quality mangoes for sale.
The first day we had bad luck with the weather: first very strong rain, where I could get some photos of soil erosion. Otherwise it was not possible to do much. After that a drizzle. I could work in that, with someone holding an umbrella over my head to keep the camera dry. This limited my movements a little. But the real problem was that all subjects looked wet and miserable. Not the way to promote their carbon credits!
On the way back a river crossing was flooded. We found a way around it, which took about a half hour extra.
Fortunately the next two days were fine, dry and even a half hour of sunlight through the clouds. That worked well, and I got all

flooded river crossing

mango stones are dried on a mango leaf before they are planted.

photos done. Interesting experience with an interesting project!

farmer and District Magistrate Marsen Nyambi

Christmas holiday

We are back from Christmas Holiday. We went to Nyala Park in Chikhwawa, which is always nice. Staying over at the Sports Club. It was really nice to view these young giraffes.
After Nyala Park we went to Mulanje Mountain. Always beautiful landscapes.
We were staying at the CCAP Guest House in Likhubula.