I doubt that the tradition of witches coming to the door at Easter has Christian roots, but it is wide-spread in Sweden.

Afterwork …

One more …

Both were taken using a Leica IIIf, Fomapan 400 developed in D76. The first one used a Summitar (wide-open at 1/40) and the second a 35/2.5 Color-Skopar, also wide-open, at 1/20.

Back to my routine, back and forth …

On the train between Copenhagen and Malmö.

But it is nice to be home.

Both taken using a Leica IIIf, 50/2.0 Summitar, Fomapan 400 developed in D76 1:1

I haven’t been working on my gallery, PAW or blog (at least, not noticeably working on them) for a couple of weeks because I have been away, in Zomba, Malawi. I am working in a bi-lateral research project between NTNU in Trondheim, Norway (The Norwegian Technical University) and Chancellor’s College, University of Malawi. In Malawi I am working with the Centre for Language Studies.

I took my Rolleicord V this time and took a couple of rolls. It was immediately recognized as a camera in Malawi, not just a curious little box. So people on the street would often like to have their portrait taken.

This young man was a filmmaker. He was working on his film, “Give me back my property” and is evidently inspired by Kung Fu films. He practised martial arts.

This next man is someone I would pass by every morning as I walked to the office.

I met these girls as I was walking down to the market on a Saturday afternoon:

Individual 1

Individual 2

Individual 3

There are more pictures taken with the Rolleicord in the gallery: here, here and here.

The thing to do on a Friday night in Malawi, and many places in Africa, is to go out dancing and drinking. All things considered, I got the impression that dancing was more important than drinking. Some were drunk, but not many, if you take consideration for how many people were at the club.

I met this man both nights that I went there. He is the one who asked:

Have you tried malawian girls?

No.

Why?

I’m married.

(High five … he liked that answer)

Together with Jannick.

A happy couple.

The man recognized me as I walked around town a few days later, stopped his car and came back to greet me, to make sure he got a copy of the picture.

Dancing …

And the owner, Joy …

.

Some of you might remember Phillip Tambala. I met him on my working trip to Malawi in November last year. I wrote a little report at the time.

One thing I knew I wanted to do this time, was to get a roof on his house. He had put up the walls, but couldn’t afford anything more.

It is a little late, but anything is better than nothing. It is late because the rainy season has been going on for a couple of months and a wall is collapsing in the little hut he, his wife, his two own children and four adopted children have been living in.

Word gets around and Phillip was waiting for me when I arrived. I knew he would be. I was prepared for it and was very happy that what I wanted to help with was exactly what he wanted help with. We hadn’t discussed it before.I didn’t have time to go to the bank so I sent him with some cash to change. It wasn’t enough, but he bought what he could and hid the sheets in the market for safe-keeping:

Believe me, if I tilted that camera upwards and caught some faces I would have left the market as an unhappy man.I took these on my lunch break and by then I had passed by an ATM and pulled out the rest of the cash so he could buy the remaining sheets. While we were at the market he introduced me to his sister:

He is holding the portraits from last year in his hand.I took some more of his sister because she wanted some too the next time I came down.

Just another view taken of her in her daily environment. I bought some cucumbers (5 for 75 cents) and some fruits.

I haven’t done much in the way of processing the images. I am using a laptop (untested) that I brought down. It has Ubuntu installed and I processed the Nikon raw (NEF) files using the GIMP and dcraw (both are available on GNU/Linux).

At work there is an activity called “On the Fly”, where those who work there contribute every month and the employer more than matches with some funds. Each department then carries the responsibility to arrange something for the others.

The R&D section … is probably not the most exciting group. We don’t dance and came under fire for not arranging a good summer party with dance. So another department decided that we needed dance lessons, “linedance”.

Afterwards we all went out to eat at a place called “Carlslunds” in Odense. Their specialty is “egg cake”. It is basically an omelette, about an inch and a half thick, in a cast-iron skillet, covered with about 2 pounds (I am not exaggerating) of thickly sliced bacon and pork rinds.

But since most people who read this belong to the LUG (Leica Users Group), I’d better put up some photographs taken with a Leica this week (the previous two weren’t).

I spend a lot of my time at bus and train stops, like Lindome Station:

and, Korsvägen (Crossroads) in Gothenburg:

Those were both taken with an M3 that I am testing, an M3 and an old, silver Summicron (nice lens).

Besides those, I took some portraits of Ewa with a 35/2.5 Color-Skopar, an Industar-26 and an Industar-50, in that order. They were all taken with the lens wide-open onto Kodak Tmax400 developed in D76 1:1.

Bessa T with a 35/2.5 Color-Skopar

Leica IIIc, Industar-26

Leica IIIc, Industar-50 (more or less like an 50/3.5 Elmar, but a real Tessar instead of just being close).

Jag har och försöker att alltid göra en svensk version också. Det är nytt för i år.

Neither of us smoked anymore. It just seemed like the thing to do at the moment.

Someone in the family was wanting to sell two M3’s and assorted accessories. She had been using them herself, but they came from her father. She had moved on to a digital camera.

I’ve been thinking about them and borrowed them to test them out. I’ve never been happy with the rangefinder/viewfinder that Solms put into my M3 when they did a CLA.

The first is of Rebecca, in the kitchen:

I wanted to see how the old lens would perform with backlighting to. Ewa probably thought I’d have been infinitely more useful if I devoted some attention to putting together the lamp from IKEA.

The sun is coming back, very low on the horizon, but headed upwards …

This is Masthuggskyrkan (Mast-maker-church). In the photo below you can see how masts make up the upper section in the background.

The church was almost intentionally blown up during the second world war. It provided a distinct landmark for enemy ships that might come into the harbour.

Fortunately it wasn’t. It provided a panorama view of the city of Gothenburg (Göteborg) and Ewa and I went up to see the fireworks.

Afterwards there was a simple service.