Samburu, Kenya. July 2011
It was just another good hot morning in Masai Mara. Must have been somewhere around March of 1998. I went out with a friend on a footpath we use to walk quite often just outside of the Lodge he lived in and there was a Lion footprint in the fresh mud. We both came up with the idea to cast it with plaster and went to get some plaster to do it. We didn’t estimate the size well and mixed too little, we poured more, adding a new mix to the already dried plaster in the footprint. In short, we made what we call in Hebrew- BALAGAN, a total mess.
When waiting for it to dry we started to learn from out lesson and planed to make many more, but when lifting it- it was perfect. I still have it in my house, and that plastered lion print takes me right back to that hot morning in Masai Mara so many years ago.
Yes, we had tried to make more, I have a box full of them put away somewhere. Nothing came out like thiat first one.
While guiding groups in Africa I have little chance to play in the mud with plaster, though every good footprint brings up the wish, so occasionally I photograph them.
This Lion footprint was taken in Samburu- July 2011. Just looking at it made me think of the one I have at home and wondered if my friend that is still leaving in Mara had ever tried again to cast a good print.
This photograph is also the last one that was taken and stayed with me when my camera was stolen. A good Masai would say that as long as it was in the camera, the power of the Lion protected it from being taken away.
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה