Unique Architectural Panoramas capture it all

Over the past 15 years while I’ve been photographing apartment projects, I’ve looked for ways to capture wide architectural vistas, project views and especially difficult, the entirety of small furnished spaces, like those tiny studio units. Three years ago I started creating panoramas. It took nearly two years to perfect.

Why Ethiopians put Coca Cola in red wine.

 While dining in an upscale local restaurant in Ziway, Ethiopia, (dinner US$1.49), I noticed the waiter serving red wine to the well-dressed trio at the next table. The waiter properly pulled the cork, and with a quick flick of his wrist, he poured out some of the wine onto the floor. Setting the wine bottle onto the table, the smartly-dressed waiter then popped the cap on a Coca Cola bottle and poured the contents into the vino bottle to replace what he had discarded. Then he served the mixed wine.

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Being a curious worldwide wine lover, I asked the waiter about this Ethiopian mixed drink. He replied, in a manner that subtly implied the whole world did it this way, “Ethiopians add Coca to red wine to decrease the alcohol content. And we add Sprite to white wine.”

Is this an idea for worldwide-designated drivers?

 

These are bottles of Red Wine and White Wine produced by Ethiopia's only winery prior to the French arriving several years ago as mentioned in a previous blog.

What happened when I gave cameras to remote tribes

For my First Stories (Undiscovered Myths) Project, I live with and study the Myths and Archetypal Dreams of Africa's most remote tribes, including the Mursi.

Since tourists flock to Ethiopia's remote Omo region to photograph the Tribes people, especially the Mursi women with the lip plates, I thought it would be fun to give Nikon cameras to the Mursi. My original idea was for the Mursi to photograph tourists as they photographed the Mursi, like everyone looking in a photographic mirror. Unfortunately, no tourists came to Belle, the remote village where I chose to live for a week in January of this year.

So what subjects did the Mursi--who are considered by far the most fierce of the Omo tribes—photograph for the first time in their lives? Well, duh, they photographed each other. 

Actually, the very first subject was me while taking a photograph of the first Mursi photographers. This was the first time they had ever held a camera.

Even the elders got into taking photographs. It did take this guy 3 snaps before he figured out he had to take his finger off the front of the lens.

No one did a selfie.

My personal Mursi guard, Mamoosh, became very popular with the ladies when he had the camera. 

My guide Andu, said that he had never seen the Mursi so "calm" as during our visit. Usually, the Mursi—the fiercest of the Omo tribes—are constantly agitating for something, like money.