The Liemba ferries people the length of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, from Mpulungu, Zambia to Kigoma, Tanzania. It is an overnight trip and one not to be missed should you find yourself in East Africa. The ship puts in at a few ports along the way, with most of the stops offshore. These images were taken throughout the night, when the ship became a floating market, with goods of all kinds on and off loaded. Dugout canoes and small motored boats would appear out of the darkness, transfer people and cargo, and dissolve back into the night.

For many residents this is their only tie to the world beyond their village, their internet equivalent, if you will. The photographs, blurred and unmoored, capture the exotic dreaminess of that most memorable night.

I love boats and being on the water. I particularly love boats from eras that now seem lost to us. The MV Liemba is the last surviving steamship in Africa and its story is well worth reading. In addition to its role in the First World War, it had a starring role in Hepburn and Bogart's African Queen. The ship has been sunk, scuttled and again resurrected to serve as a heartline for travel and trade.

Visit www.liemba.org for a short ride on an unforgettable ship.

Liemba at Kigoma, Tanzania

Pattern on the side of a fish, Shedd Aquarium.

Boat repair, Ujiji, Tanzania

This rock is near to my cabin on Lake Vermilion in Northern Minnesota. It is banded iron, 2.4 billion years old, a sedimentary rock long since compacted into its present form. What I love about it is that it records earth's first breaths as well as the earth's rusting.

The alternating bands represent the introduction of oxygen into our atmosphere and mark a geologic time sometimes refered to as the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE).

Boathouse, Stuntz Bay, Lake Vermilion, MN

Gerace Research Center, San Salvador, Bahamas

Driveway, Gerace Research Center, San Salvador, Bahamas

San Salvador, Bahamas

Angel's Island, San Francisco

Spice bees, Mpulunga, Zambia