Dispatches from Africa #2: Lake Natron, Flamingoes, and the Grugrux King

This shallow salt lake is famous for its pink color and an incredible amount of flamingoes: A perfect breeding ground, Lake Natron is host to 2.5 million of the distinctive pink birds that live in the Great Rift Valley.

My Masai friend Thomas did a great job of sneaking close to the birds and waiting until I gave him the signal. Some other members of the team offered some blockage from the persistent wind oscillating the camera on what was never a perfect tripod. But once I had the RED ONE set up with a lens filled with birds, and the 4k sensor set for 120 frames per second, I was ready.

I gave Thomas the signal, he scared up the flock, and filled my frame with so many birds that I knew it was going to be an amazing, surreal shot.

Two out of three rubber tripod-leg caps decided to stay in the mud afterward, and were plucked out by Thomas. I would have liked to stay on the water's edge, following the birds and getting more shots. But with the RED on my back and the eight-person Land Rover looking smaller than a Matchbox, I got walking. Not before putting on the album I finally remembered I had on my iPhone, though: the Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey & The Grugrux King.

You know how music often becomes associated with trips? Our finished film will be filled with such music; from orphans to Masai Warriors, organized groups of dancers to an impromptu a capella treat by the porters on Kilimanjaro.

But I will also forever link DMB to my trip. It's One Sweet World!

More later,
Mark