Zanzibar, Tanzania

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

Worldwide | Sunday, October 17, 2010 | flickr photos

Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, is a photographer’s heaven, not only because of its natural beauty but also because of the richness of its culture. The beaches are chalky white, the water aquamarine. The sun sinks into the Indian Ocean as fishermen direct their dhows landward, hauling in the day’s catch. Acrobats practice flips on the beach as a crowd gathers to watch. A little girl in a pink dresses sits on her front doorstep, somehow retaining an air of serenity, as she watches the narrow, stonewalled alleyway team with activity. Life on the coast is never drab; and I made it my goal to capture that as best I could.

Having spent over half my life as a missionary kid in East Africa, I’ve developed a deep love and appreciation for the adventure, the wildlife, and the diversity of cultures that Africa offers. I picked up photography at 15, and a budding photographer couldn’t have asked for better subjects. I initially got into photography so that I could take pictures of the gorgeous birds I had spent years bird-watching with my Dad. My photography has now developed into a much broader goal of capturing beauty—be it in wildlife, in landscapes, or in people. Nonetheless, the fact that one of the goals of the Bhutan trip is to take pictures of the rare White Bellied Heron makes me very excited. I’ve also lugged my dSLR through some pretty remote places (across the Rift Valley Escarpment and up Mt. Kilimanjaro to name a few), but the possibility of adding Bhutan to the list is most appealing.

Why should I be chosen? Frankly, because I have just as much passion about photography as I do about adventuring in remote landscapes and exploring the intricacies of foreign cultures.