On Location
It’s not just the landscapes that can prove interesting – or dangerous – in faraway lands
Tom Mackie takes a risk, shooting among mozzies in Madagascar
As the sun sank behind the majestic baobab trees, I watched as all of the other tourists headed back to the safety of their cars. Baobabs are often referred to as upside-down trees, as the root-like appearance of their branches spread out above a bulbous body. They have been known to live more than 1500 years. Darkness crept in and it was like a scene from a vampire film, where no one was safe after dark. As I stood there, waiting for the colourful afterglow to fill the sky, it wasn’t vampires I was afraid of… it was the blood-sucking mosquitoes! Malaria is a major health problem in Madagascar and I wasn’t about to become a statistic.
I came prepared, wearing mosquitorepellent clothing, a hat with a built in mosquito net and gloves. My guide came to check on me and stopped to chat with a local woman. She asked him what that crazy Western man was doing out here, ‘If he doesn’t catch any disease from the water, the mosquitoes will finish him off!’ As the mosquitoes started to cover me, looking for any access to my skin, I fired off several shots, while the colour in the sky peaked with a golden yellow at the horizon, graduating to magenta blue. Feeling confident I got what I wanted, without a single mosquito bite, we headed back to the jeep.
The next day I was sitting by the pool at my hotel, chatting with a couple that had been out shooting drone footage of the baobab avenue, and the woman took off her black leggings to go for a swim. It looked like her legs had been used as a pincushion. I said I hope you’re dosed up with your malaria pills and shockingly she said she didn’t bother with them. I explained that her black leggings are probably the worst thing to wear in mosquito infested areas as they actually attract them, but at this point I realized I was talking to a moron. It doesn’t take much to do a bit of research before visiting countries regarding issues that could affect you for the rest of your life.
Lemur on me
One of the other well-known features of Madagascar is, of course, the lemurs. These strange animals look like a mixture of a dog, cat and squirrel, and are only found in Madagascar. With around 100 species of lemur, the most notable, after being popularized by the Disney film Madagascar, is the ring-tailed lemur. Probably the best place to see lemurs up close is at the Vakona Forest Lodge. I canoed over to several small islands where the lemurs live. The ring-tailed lemurs have an island to
themselves – their stardom must have gone to their heads… I was able to wander around one of the islands looking for lemurs with non-distracting backgrounds, when I came across what appeared to be a rare two-headed lemur! I thought I had found something unique, but it just turned out to be a couple of cosy common brown lemurs. I used my 70-200mm f/4 lens at 200mm.
The difficulty in getting good images of the lemurs is you’re mostly shooting upwards into the trees, with bright spots of light coming through the foliage. This tends to be distracting and can cause problems with exposures, so I preferred to look for lemurs that were at eye level. These two were slightly backlit, which made their faces look too dark and lifeless. So I used the pop-up flash on my D810, with the power output reduced, just to give a little fill-in flash.
There were times when the lemurs were too close; as I was stooping down to stay at an even level with one, another one jumped on my back. I thought it was funny, until I remembered that lemurs can carry rabies, so I gently removed it.
Madagascar is a fascinating place, full of unique animals, unusual trees and landscapes – just don’t forget to pack the mosquito repellent!
I thought it was funny, until I remembered that lemurs can carry rabies, so I gently removed it