Lindi Through a Lens: My Sticky-Shoot Chronicles
okay so i land in this coastal town called *Lindi, camera bag practically fused to my shoulder, and immediately regret not bringing a shirt that breathes. like, seriously-why do we photographers romanticize tropical locations? it’s just sweat and sand in every lens cap. the humidity here could wring out a sponge and still have enough left to fog up my viewfinder. i just checked and it’s that 87% air-soup feeling where stepping outside feels like diving into a lukewarm bath-hope you like that kind of thing.
spent yesterday stalking the fish market at dawn, which was basically just me and three generations of women gutting tuna like it’s a competitive sport. the light hits those silver scales like someone spilled diamonds in the gutter, but papaya vendors keep walking through my frame carrying fruit blocks bigger than my head. tried shooting a portrait of this old guy repairing nets, but his grandkids kept photobombing with expressions that said ‘we’ve seen 100 tourists do this exact thing today’.
“don’t bother with the ‘sunset cruise,’ my cousin’s neighbor’s sister said they once saw a dolphin but mostly just drank overpriced beer while the boat drifted into mangroves. better to buy street food and walk the beach.”
someone told me that the old fort is haunted but only if you take photos inside without leaving an offering of kanga cloth. i left a red scarf instead of cash because i’m cheap and also didn’t want to look like a tourist paying for supernatural experiences. when you’ve had enough of Lindi’s slow pace, Mtwara’s spice farms are just a short hop away if you can tolerate more heat and donkeys blocking the road. the real gem though? i overheard at a dhow-building workshop that the guy carving the hulls once apprenticed in Zanzibar-his hands smell like salt and stories.
tried shooting the port at noon because the light was ‘dramatic’-read: like staring at a white wall for three hours. my camera started glitching from the heat, and now half my shots have weird green splotches. maybe it’s humidity, maybe it’s the universe telling me to hydrate. found this coconut vendor* who doesn’t speak English but laughed when i showed her my blurred attempt at her stall. she gave me three coconuts for free after i mimed dying of thirst. worth every drop.
check out this Lindi food guide if you wanna avoid the tourist traps i fell into, and TripAdvisor’s Lindi page for the ‘must-see’ places i skipped because they were too crowded. the local photo forum says the best light’s at 4:17pm-set an alarm if you’re serious. oh, and whatever you do, don’t trust the guy with the parrot on his shoulder-he’ll charge you more than your lens repair bill.