The second installment from Bill Richardson's trip to Rwanda with Gustafson Photo Safari. If you missed it, you can click here to read part 1.

A few more comments about the genocide. Do not think the murderers were some primitive savages.  The scariest thing is that many of the worst murderers were community leaders.  Hate was generated by established radio talk show hosts who relentlessly berated the minority opposition.  One church massacre was led by its own pastor who told the victims that God did not want them anymore.  He later moved to Laredo Texas to live in a fancy gated community near his son who was an anesthesiologist at a Laredo hospital.  Many priests and mayors also were ringleaders. They would tell the people to seek refuge in the local church and then summon the militias to kill them all. The killings were low tech but resulted in a death rate 3x faster than the Nazi genocide machine.  Before making a judgment, think about this.  If people refused to participate in the killings, they were killed on the spot, so people participated to save themselves.

As to the mass graves, I had to walk down steep stairs into an open pit that was shaded by a roof. At first I could not see anything. Then I realized that a row of empty eye sockets were watching me from a row of skulls about 2 feet in front of me. The air was dusty and had a slight odor but not bad. I kept wondering if I was breathing dust from the bones themselves. The skulls were arranged on a shelf. Another shelf below that contained other bones neatly piled up. I had an eerie felling all the skulls were watching me and wondering what my reaction would be. I tried to show great respect and sympathy, said nothing and did not take photos.

As to the gorilla photography, it was pretty much a photographer's nightmare. The first 2 days led us into bamboo forests of dim and mottled light. In other words, the worst light possible. Before the trip I had been experimenting with high ISO noise reduction and was confident I could go as high as ISO 5000 and still get decent results (the higher ISO or light sensitivity you set in a camera, the more noise or grain there is in the photos). I set my camera for ISO 3200- 5000. The second problem was that the gorillas had become totally used to people. They simply ignored us most of the time.  Eye contact is important in a photo but they did not care. We were feeble, boring monkeys which did not matter in the least and were certainly nothing to look at. The other problem was that the bamboo is so thick that you had to be really close to a gorilla to get a shot. Even then, branches and vines always seemed to be in the wrong place. Because we were so close and because I was shooting in dim light with a wide open aperture, depth of field (the lack of it) was the final problem. Pretty frustrating for a photographer but it was fascinating to be so accepted by these wonderful animals.

At one point I was taking lousy photos of 2 juveniles wrestling next to my feet when someone pointed out a female with a baby sitting nearby. I alternated taking worthless photos of the fury ball rolling around near me and the mother/baby. The mother and baby were snoozing and not offering any good shots.  I was ready to quit. Then, finally, she yawned which seemed to fascinate the baby which looked up at her mother's gaping mouth ('My, what big teeth you have momma!'). At the end of the yawn, the mother looked right at me for a second. Thank you very much!

A few more gorillas including a juvenile that was theoretically napping but not too sleepy (did it want a tummy rub?), a silverback with bad table manners, a portrait (what is he thinking?), a foot in need of a pedicure for sure and a silverback contemplating the world.

This last one is two put together. I was so close I could not get the full gorilla in the viewfinder so I took a head/shoulder shot and then a lower half shot. I used Photoshop merge to put the two together. It does a great job and usually leaves no seams showing.