November

Due to pressure from unidentified sources, I shall update! Enyewe, this month has gone by fast. With so much to do, I have hardly noticed it doing so. Just to show you how bad it is, my calendar was still on September right through to the end of October. And since it has superb pictures, I figured I'd enjoy October's picture during November. Meaning in December I'll enjoy November's. Total konfyushon!

This has been my learning/pro bono month. Starting off with learning... Strathmore Business School has various sessions they have for business people every now and then. Two weeks ago they had a series of breakfast lectures featuring visiting professors from the Lagos Business School, with whom they partner. The sessions they held were on Strategic Leadership, targetting top executives of leading businesses, Business Growth, targetting SME's (they had some of the recently listed top 100 SME's in attendance), and Talent, targetting HR folk from different companies/organizations. They also had a follow up session for a seminar held sometime back on Strategy in Action. This was moderated by Sunny Bindra. Incase you are wondering what this has to do with photography, worry not. I was asked to cover the various lectures. What an assignment this was! Being paid to learn. Excellent deal if I may say so! All lectures provided very insightful ideas that I could use in my own young biashara. Interacting with the various attendees was also helpful. In one of the sessions I got to meet two friends I hadn't seen in years! That was a week well spent.



Then moving on to the pro bono... The week after (last week) was when the main bulk of the SAMOSA Festival took place. Someone I had met during the month of photography workshop had asked me to help out with photography. He had stated that since the budget they were working with was limited, I would have to offer my services free. In exchange I would get publicity on their site. That sounded good to me. So I helped out with photography for the various events they had. The highlight for me was the play Oceans Apart featuring Yusri Warsama and Shane Solanki. They are both British poets who are superb at what they do.



The play explored the trials cross-cultural relationships go through. Interwoven in the play was the poetry of the two that talked about their own journeys in this issue (Yusri is of Somali origin, Shane is of Indian origin). What was amazing about the two is, they had never worked together before. The play they wrote just two weeks prior to the initial performance, rehearsing it just a few times. Talk of sheer talent! You could have thought they had performed the play countless of times before!

The audience loved the play so much, that it was insisted a second showing had to be given. In between both shows there was a discussion on Triple Heritage that was moderated by Rasnah Warah. The poets were challenged to incorporate some of what was discussed in the repeat performance, which they did very well. I did ask them to consider coming back in future and showing the play to a wider audience, as I believe it sends a message that is pertinent. How pertinent it is shocked even me, after a member of the audience in the second show stated that he broked down several times during the play overcome by emotion. This is because he said the play was pretty much the story of his life. His girlfriend is from a different race. His family loves her and has accepted her, but her family will have nothing to do with him. What a quagmire!

On to both learning and pro bono... Bankelele has an excellent post on the Tujuane Mixer held last week Friday.



I was to attend the event as a member of the network, but then got asked to cover the event for them. Not a problem. I figured I was going to get fed both physically and intellectually, so why not. As Bankelele writes, there was a great deal to learn from Dr. Mulengani Katwalo's lecture. Touching on some of the points Dr. Katwalo talked about, I figured I'd try and relate them to my specific situation.

1. Training/skills dvelopment: I realise the truth of what a friend of mine who does software development once told me. The skills of your core business you pick up easily, but what of those other skills needed to run a successful business? Book keeping, marketting, etc? Unless you can hire someone to do that for you, initially these are things you have to do for yourself. Thanks to the various Strathmore Business School lectures I have covered, I have picked up on some of the basics as I do my job. There are others, however, where I'll need a more structured approach to learning. There's plenty of resources available to assist with this.

2. Innovation: On the R&D question, there are a number of resources I use to further my photography. For landscape photography which is my number 1 passion, there is the ultimate site, The Luminous Landscape. There are also various forums on different photography related sites such as those found at Nikonians. For what earns me my bread and butter, there are resources such as the Digital Protalk which has excellent material. David Ziser who is the blog's author has very many years of experience photographing weddings. I especially like his Business Day Thursday series of posts where he touches on all the things apart from the actual photography itself that makes one an all rounded successful wedding photographer. Some of what he has talked about I have actually incorporated into my venture.

At the very least, looking at various photos taken by other photographers and trying to figure out how they came up with such shots is something I need to do to grow. Dr. Katwalo's warning for us to not stop innovating is something I constantly think about in my job. Especially since as a photographer I run the risk of having every single wedding look exactly the same if I'm not careful. Something as simple as getting to know my clients prior to their wedding so as to figure out how to best capture them on the day itself in a way that brings their unique personalities into play will guarantee that each wedding will be different.

3. Cooperation or competition: This is one that elicits a lot of gasps from people. They wonder why I am so free with information about the various things/resources I use for my work. How can I so freely tell them where and how I get albums, get prints done, get framing done... etc. Apparently I am supposed to be silent on all that, or dogdy at best with the information. Why? So I can have an edge over others. If that was the case, I wouldn't be here today. Why do I say that? Well, two of the people that gave me guidance earlier this year are both photographers. They were very free with their information. Telling me where they did various things, how they did them, etc. I am eternally grateful for them. I figure I might as well pass on this information to others. It's not like it is copyrighted or anything. This conviction was further reinforced by something I read in the Digital Protalk blog linked to above. David Ziser stated that the best way to grow as a photographer is to share ideas with others. That way you can bounce things off of each other and progress. Secrecy will just kill you eventually.

The biggest fear of those sharing these things is that by doing so the competition will eat into your market. My belief is, there are so many other things that factor into someone making a decision as to which photographer they will use, that a competitor knowing where I buy my albums should be the least of my worries. Personality. Reliability. Professionalism. Are these on point? If not, then you knowing where I do my prints will mean zilch.

Having shared information with other photographers has, instead of being detrimental, turned out to be superb. Every single person I have given information to regarding various aspects of my venture has in turn shared with me their own resources. And even better than that, they have all referred others to me when they were unable due to various commitments to do work for said people. This is how it should be. If I am deluged by work, I know I can call upon a photographer friend who can take up the slack. Had I been secretive with my information, do you think they would have thought of me when extra work came along? I believe the cost of being secretive is much more than the cost of sharing information freely.

A very recent example of how I got such work is a photo shoot I did at Ole Polos two weeks ago. One of my very good photographer friends had been asked to do the shoot, but he was unavailable that weekend. So he had the client contact me. This client is part of Kila Kitu Clothing who are launching a line of cowboy shirts made of recycled material. The shoot we did was for the intial batch of shirts they have made which they want to feature on the site. They chose Ole Polos since they wanted the rugged look to go with the shirts.



Having gone through this shoot, I came to learn something. Model fashion photography is not for me. There is waaaaaay too much interaction needed between photographer and model for my liking. In terms of having them pose a certain way, and how I need to direct them. I may have mentioned this before of my dislike for posing people. And how I would much prefer having people just doing their thing and me clicking away. Now unless I'm working with a professional model with years of experience, chances of that happening are slim. The other thing I dislike is how I have to have more than just my camera and lenses for such a shoot. Reflectors. Strobes. Gobos. Too much! While I had none of this during this shoot (much to the chagrin of the person directing the shoot), it was obvious they were needed. We still managed to pull it off, but after some improvising.

I think that is why landscape photography is my true passion. The only extra accessory I need other than my camera and lens is a sturdy tripod. And I work in solitude. No need to tell the lake to look a certain way. Or the mountain to turn this direction. I just compose, frame, and click the shutter. Bliss! The good thing about doing these various types of shoots is that with time I am discovering what aspects of photography I like and don't like. Makes it easy for me to narrow things down. Now I know that fashion photography goes into the column of things I don't like.

Which brings me back to the point on sharing info. Knowing I don't like this, I can refer such jobs to other photographers who I know have a passion for it. Practical example: I was asked to do a job photographing a landscape artist's work on various compounds around Nairobi. How did I get this job? From another photographer who had been asked to do the same, but who stated that that was not his strength. He told the lady that I loved doing that, and so asked her to contact me. When I showed her some of my work (especially that done at Ajabu House in Naivasha) she was convinced I was the one for what she had in mind. Had I not been free with my info, I doubt my photographer pal would have pushed that job to me.

On to other things. Thanks to the Microsoft/Mini stry of Youth Affairs and Sports job I had in October, I got to learn something else that I have since done something about. Presentation is key. The PR firm behind that job insisted that the discs had to be presented a certain way. Something I had not done previously. Mostly out of ignorance. This job showed me that small things like these do matter. For that particular job, I got the discs printed by a third party. I wasn't happy with the work done, and so I figured I needed to get a printer of my own. So I went out and got the Epson RX290 which can print onto discs. Now I can give a polished product to my customers. Something said by someone during the Ole Polos assignment lent credence to my decision. He said that you don't find Eric Wainaina or Boyz II Men (3ToC, this is not an excuse to give a valid comment just because you saw these two names in one sentence :) ) coming out with a chart topping album, only for them to burn it on disc which they then label with a marker and proceed to sell. Very shoddy that. Which is what I had been doing. From now on it is printed discs for my clients.

A friend of mine recently saw some of my work printed and instantly fell in love with them. He says he can help me market them. He asked if I could get more shots like them. That rejuvenated my passion for photography like nothing else has in sometime. I realised at that point that I had started going throught the motions. Go to an event, shoot, come home, edit, burn on disc, print if needed, deliver. Not good for creativity that! And so this request to get more landscape photos is very welcome. I now need to go and get a good book on Kenya's physical geography so I can better arrange for my shots (yet another aspect of R&D as mentioned by Dr. Katwalo!). When this thought of the book came to mind, I recalled that in high school, physical geography was one of my best subjects. I loved it kabisa. I was intrigued by the various land formations and how they came to be. I think that is where the seeds of my landscape photographer were sown. Years later after getting the photography bug, the most natural progression was for me to capture on camera what nature has so graciously given us. My idea is to capture as much of Kenya as I can. Preferably places that have not been covered much or at all. For those that have been covered much, I hope to capture them in ways different from the standard. Look at them at different angles and see how they can be portrayed thus. This means my 5am wake up times shall be revived. Anything for that superb photo!

I think this is update enough. If you thought this was too long, blame the unidentified harrasser mentioned at the start of the post :). Have y'all a great day!