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Stone Town, Zanzibar
Just saying the name evokes wanderlust in most people. A truly exotic location with strong Arabic influences and a wealth of great travel photograph opportunities. With friendly people, a maze of old buildings, stunning doorways, good food and beaches to relax on. What more could you ask for?The photographs are all from Stone Town over just a few days. It was completely safe to walk around and with a couple of words of Swahili and a friendly smile the Stone Townians were happy to let me photograph wherever I wished. I always ask permission first, some say no, others want money in which case I generally chat and move on. I have found a good way of breaking the ice is to take a photograph of yourself or some building close by and show them it on the back of the camera. People then cue up to be photographed and the main problem you’ll have is getting a natural looking photo.
During a brief storm I took shelter opposite a corner shop. I gesticulated that I’d like to take some photographs and got a nod to say that was OK. I used a wide angle lens (17mm) on a 5D which gave me the framing that I wanted. Several people came to the shop but when the lady in red turned up I knew some great photographs were possible. In the photograph featured the woman looked around to talk to the man on the extreme right of the photograph.
I came across a number of groups of boys playing marbles but the best photograph was of these two boys in one of the many narrow streets. I originally showed them a picture of them together and then let them take some photographs of each other. I then waited for them to return to playing and they were more than happy to have me snapping away as they played. The extreme wide angle gives a little distortion but I think it works well.
The girl by the door was very shy and when I first waved to her she disappeared. Probably a natural reaction to seeing me! We played hide and seek a couple of times while I quickly put on a 70-200mm lens to get a tighter framing and waited. She came out again and I took the photographs before she disappeared again. A wave and a smile was returned but when I went to show her the photograph she ran off!
I had to include one of the doors that you will find, in various states of dilapidation, around Stone Town. There are many to be found and you may prefer some of the older less well kept doors with character but I liked this grand doorway to a Mosque. Due to the very narrow streets I had to use an ultra wide angle again and then correct the excessive barrel distortion in photoshop.