I had the opportunity to travel to Africa for the past 15 days. A former Post-Dispatch coworker, Daudi Msseemmaa, moved to Tanzania about two years ago. Last week he married a Ugandan woman. I attended the wedding. I’ve never seen so many photographers at a wedding - a paid professional, a friend of Daudi’s, a videographer and several other guys who just showed up.

My favorite was Venice. He’s Daudi’s friend from Tanzania and a photographer in training. Daudi asked him to photograph the ceremony. Although the ceremony was in Uganda and a traditional Tooro (the tribe Daudi’s wife hails from) celebration, Venice wore his traditional Maasai clothes. His sandals, made of old tires, are the perfect photographer’s shoe. They never wear out!

The uninvited photographers at the ceremony had an interesting idea. They took tons of photos of the guests and a few of the bride and groom. Then they ran the rolls of film to a one-hour photo. By the end of the ceremony, they shared the pictures with the attendees, and, of course, charged for the photographs. A lot of the film looked expired and chemical stains were on many of the pictures. However, the community valued these photos that they weren’t able to take themselves. The photographers do well, selling the photos for 25 cents each.