At the boma

The morning between the crater and Tarangire we spent at a Maasai boma, the arranged kind of visit where both sides know the shape of it. They came out in their colours to meet the vehicles, a wall of red and blue and purple against the dust, and it is hard not to photograph even knowing it is partly a performance.

The elder was the frame worth staying for. Once the welcome had settled he stood still and let me work, and the portrait dropped away from the group and became one lined face in the morning light. Both readings again, the beadwork and cloth in colour, the face alone in mono.

The group is the 55 stopped right down at ISO 800; the portraits are base ISO 64 once I was in close. A staged morning, maybe, but the man in front of the lens was real enough.