First Friday

The main menu for First Friday.  More to come -- salads, sides, drinks and DESSERT.  Yummy.

Sunflower study (O) with canis interrupus

the photographs and the photographers

On this past camping trip we were all wielding cameras.  As we have been sharing photos, it was really fun to see that we were taking pictures of each other.  Here are a few photographer/photo combos.

Owen and the posse (O managed to get his paws on every camera, I think)

Me and the girls

Victor at the rapids

my favorite wildlife photo from Victor: amazing little Kingfisher.

Dave was too stealthy (and too busy watching for kids and crocs) to get a candid 

photo of, but here he is saying, "Dude, Owen?! Give me back my camera!!" 

I'm guessing this is Emily's photo with Dave relegated to bokeh.  

Kaingu Safari Lodge, Kafue National Park

 

There is a break in the action every October: the kids have half-term holiday, there are two Zambian holidays and there is a momentary lull between the dry season and the rainy season.  It's the most obvious time to GO CAMPING. Once the rains start, planning a camping trip becomes exceedingly difficult.  Travel becomes difficult and sorting out 'what if' is so out of the question that after October, tent-camping is pretty much off the table.  The down side to camping in October is that it's exceeding warm, HOT even.  For our camping trip, the lodge weather station was registering 36 degrees and 24% humidity.  We were parched.  But parched is better than waterlogged. I'm from Seattle, so I speak with some authority about being cold and wet. 

We are lucky enough to be friends with PLANNERS and so they booked this amazing spot almost as soon as we all got back to Lusaka.  They booked and said "who's in?"  Five families later...the plans were in place and before we knew it, we were off and running. 

I'm in the middle of a little camera crisis....the scenery and the company allowed for hours on the the river (with ele- and croc-watchers!) to sort out some issues with my now-fussy kit.  It also allowed for some time with Thing 1 who has a keen interest in photography and was after some photos like the ones he admires on his instagram feed.  We had a nice time sorting out exposure and shutter speed, but the question of the health of my gear remains outstanding.   Here is one of the results from Owen's handiwork.  Nice, right?

The best photos from the trip, however are the ones that the kids took of each other.

Finn, pleased as punch with a weekend away from school and sports and time with his friends (including his big brother!) to goof around.

The wonderful girls, age 2-12.  

(@the_owen_jennings in case you want to follow him on instagram....)

"See any crocs?"

 TJ's arty photos of the highly poisonous eurporbia.

The littlest scene-stealer 

The whole gang

I set up the camera and tripod to keep the kids busy while we took down tests and tried to fit everything back into the cars.  The photos are hilarious. I have more than a few nose-smudges on my lens!

(yes, we made shirts for the trip!)

(at least I know whose nose print that is...)

There are about 100 more of these, but I'll spare you the full collection.  Except, maybe you need to see a few more....Note that the older, wiser girls (as opposed to the moms) elected not to participate in selfie-mania.  Smart.

Even Kebby got in on the action.  (This was long after the kids had left.)

This is a normal picture of Kebby.  He was our guide for fishing and hikes.  Awesome guy.

Did I really just do a blog post after almost a year of posting NOTHING?  Yup. 

Best for last.  The planner and the non-planner. She made this trip happen.