a boy from the town	shepherd with new-born kid	general shop	girl in market selling tomatoes

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Copyright
All the photographs on this site are  ©A R Murton 2003. They may be used for non-profit educational and development purposes providing copyright is acknowledged.
For any other use please ask.

Photography
The photos were taken during a field trip while studying failed handpumps for water in the area around, but not in, Singida town. This gave a number of opportunities to visit villages within 20km of the town and many of these photos are connected with water, wells and pumps. The rest of the pictures were taken in the town and the area easily accessible on foot, including the two lakes and nearby communities.

Policy: Photographs of People
I didn't go around just snapping things or people. I always asked if it was alright to take someone's picture. This results in a 'posed look' rather than capturing a more natural scene but I think it would be discourteous and intrusive to do otherwise. I usually resisted requests for money for a photo but often gave away small amounts to those who asked, whether taking a photo ot not. I didn't consider that I was paying for the photos and I hope they didn't. I often agreed to take a photo and to give them a copy.

Equipment
I used two 35mm film cameras: a Minolta X-300 and a manual plastic Russian Cosmic Symbol, which I carry as a spare or when I'm worried about loss or damage. It's quite light can take good pictures but with no meter, the exposure is down to guesswork and not being SLR, the focus and composition are more difficult to get right. The earlier village and pump pictures were taken with the Cosmic as I was travelling on a motorcycle on bad, dusty roads to poor villages and I also felt awkward about displaying my relatively great wealth. When I relaxed about the wealth differentials and the risk of camera damage, I used the Minolta.

Processing
Eight print films were processed in Singida by Ali Shamoon behind the Florida Snack, and all seemed good at the time. I gave away lots of prints to the subjects, intending to scan the negatives at home. I later found the negatives were very badly scratched which was a big disappointment. I believe the scratches occurred due to poor handling during processing. I also took two other print films and four slide films which were processed when I got home.

Photo Quality
The quality of the pictures here is rather variable, for which I apologise. I bought a slide and negative scanner which is poor (PrimeFilm 1800U, don't buy it!).

I recently borrowed a Minolta Dimage slide & negative scanner and re-scanned them all, so the results are now much better. All pictures have been scanned at moderate resolution so file sizes are small, resulting in shorter downloading time. I might even get round to touching up the scratches... but don't hold your breath. The scratched negatives and the incorrectly exposed Cosmic pictures are the worst, followed by scanned slides. Correctly exposed, unscratched negatives have produced the best results and I'm very pleased with some of them. I'm disappointed by some but I think it would be a shame not to let you see nice pictures of modest quality, so I have included them.

One major shortcoming of my pictures is that often faces are not well-lit. In bright conditions it is easy not to notice this. Dark skin needs light to be seen clearly and I should have used fill-in flash.