Life, The Universe and Everything

Moving Users Folder from C:\ to D:\

2011-08-01T12:51:00.005-04:00

Warning: Follow the steps below at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for any damages caused as a result of following them. If you do choose to go ahead, remember to back up your data before going through the instructions. With that out of the way, read on.

I just got myself a new machine. The first time in eons that I have done so. As with all machines that I have owned, the first order of business was to customize it to my very specific settings. Among them was to move the Users folder normally found on the root of the system drive to a different drive. Reason being, I want nothing but programs and system software on the system drive, and all user generated data on a different drive.

I had done this before way back, and so had forgotten how I had achieved that task. And so onto the net I went to refresh my memory. Since the computer I have is running Windows 7, there was bound to be differences between how I did it last time and how I would get it done now.

The few links that came up initially involved some Registry hacking, which I am okay with. On researching some more, I found this LifeHacker site that showed a way to achieve my task without any Registry hacking. The thing that worked for it was use of symbolic links. I decided to try it out.

The instructions as laid out on that site are very simple to follow. I went through them without any problems. However, when I tried logging into my system, I got an error stating, "User Profile Service service failed logon..." No matter what I did, I wasn't able to log in. The LifeHacker site has an addendum showing what to do in the event one ran into problems. I followed those steps to try and recover my setup to no avail. Eventually I had to restore my machine to factory settings so I could log in again. Fortunately for me I hadn't yet set up anything else on it, so this wasn't as painful as it could have been.

I googled the error I had come across to try and figure out how I could resolve it. Nothing I found was of any help. At some point I remembered a way to recover a corrupt profile on a machine from a fix I had needed to do a couple of months ago and figured I would try that out on this machine. I went through the steps of moving the User folder once more, and at the point where I ran into the error tried out the steps of recovering a corrupt folder.

In detail, that involved:

- Backing up the corrupted user's folder
- Setting up a new user with Admin rights.
- Logging into that account in Safe Mode.
- Going into Regedit navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
- Deleting the key entry of the corrupted user's key
- Adding the user again from Control Panel
- Restoring their data into their new user folder.

I tried going through these steps but failed at the second one. At this point I tried a number of different things, all very experimental, to see if I could fix the problem. I went into File Explorer in safe mode and tried accessing the User folder from the C:\ drive and found I couldn't open it. That got me thinking that probably the link making process was not working as it should, since I ought to have been able to access the contents of that folder on the D:\ drive. This led me to try the following:

- Rename the key S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***.bak to S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***
- Change the value of the ProfileImagePath variable of the user from C:\User\username to D:\User\username.

This fixed the problem, and I was able to log in to my account. I was tempted to leave it at this, but then the nagging thought that this was just a stop gap measure kept bothering me. I did a test to see if the solution would hold by creating a new user. That did not work, since the new user's ProfileImagePath variable was set under the C:\ drive.

I reset the changes I had made and tried a different approach. I thought that since the previous two steps seemed to have somewhat fixed the problem, combining them with the LifeHacker steps would probably give me the full solution. I combined my steps with those of LifeHacker to come up with the following set of steps that eventually solved my problem (started from the point where the robocopy command is invoked in the LifeHacker steps):

- robocopy /copyall /mir /xj C:\Users D:\Users
- rmdir /S /Q C:\Users
- reboot into Safe Mode and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
- rename the key S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***.bak to S-1-5-**-****-****-****-1***
- change the value of the ProfileImagePath variable of the user from C:\User\username to D:\User\username
- reboot into regular mode and log into username account
- delete C:\Users
- mklink /j C:\Users D:\Users
- reboot into Safe Mode and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
- change the value of the ProfileImagePath variable of the user from D:\User\username to C:\User\username

I tested this by logging into my account in regular mode and it worked just fine. I also set up a new account successfully. The next test trying to access C:\User, which I was able to do. The final test was copying data onto D:\User\username and see if I could access it through C:\User\username. I also checked the disk space of both C:\ and D:\ after copying the data. D:\'s space reduced while C:\'s space stayed constant. Problem solved!

Been Gone

2010-08-30T09:30:00.004-04:00

Last time I was around, I can't remember! Missed my blogversary (May 23rd), my 3rd anniversary since moving back and my birthday (August 11th), and God knows what else! I figure I better at least post something before my birthday month elapses!

First, thanks to a great bunch that came together to get me a great cake. It was fun celebrating with them!

I have been taking a few random photos. I tell myself I need to get back to photography for photography's own sake, and not discard that for a purely moneymaking venture. There is so much beauty missed when the latter is the mindset. Here is a photo I took of a tire burnt, leaving just the wire treads and ashes.

Till next time, adios!

A first

2010-04-28T01:33:00.014-04:00

Two weeks ago I got to cover my first Muslim wedding. This was for my good friend Mukhtar of Bunduz. The wedding was in Arusha. Here are a few of my favourite images from the day.

Enjoy!

I also got a few cool shots of some of the guests coming up in another post

Bracelet

2010-03-04T15:53:00.002-05:00

I had a shoot with a couple that was plenty fun. She is expecting and they wanted photos of her before she gave birth. It is couples like them that make my job so much fun!

This shot from the set I took is a view emphasizing the lady's bracelet which she loves.

Site Changes

2010-02-25T15:22:00.003-05:00

I've made a few modifications to the site. Figured it was about time.

The first was to remove access to the online albums. I shall leave this for just clients and those they wish to share the albums with. Everyone else gets to see just samples from various weddings.

Next was to revamp the weddings page. Instead of the thumbnail selection, I decided to have just a single image per page, and have the user scroll through to see all the images.

Next was to add a People section. Here I showcase the portraits I've done, both in and out of studio.

There still somethings I need to do, like revamp the nature and scenery sections to look like the two previously mentioned sections. And I really need to migrate to a dynamic site!

Feedback and critique is always welcome. If something sucks, tell me so that I can work on fixing it.

Asanteni!

Insect

2010-01-29T15:00:00.002-05:00

Things like this were what got me hooked onto photography in the first place. It's good that I can get to enjoy them again!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-29T14:40:00.005-05:00

I know, January is done and now is when I'm doing this. Well, you see, I had taken a little break. Even from things photography. And try and engage the technical side of my brain a bit. But I hadn't completely abandoned it. Still did a few jobs, some of them with great pictures resulting. As soon as they are processed, I will share.

Part of my launch into the technical got me reviewing my site. I need to change a few things about it. While in the process of researching and finding out who got to my site and how they did, I came across two sites that were shown as referrers. Yet when I went to the sites, I didn't see any links to mine.

Scrolling to the bottom of the sites, I saw my images on there. Complete with watermark. At first I thought they had taken the images and copy pasted, but on refreshing the images changed. Still mine. Looking at the source code, it turns out the site owners just copy pasted my code that rotates images right on there, and they get to use my images free without my knowledge!

What a way to start the year. Hopefully there won't be any more such crazy surprises in store for me.

Originality

2009-12-26T09:01:00.004-05:00

It is not often that I get to photo a wedding that is absolute fun. Most days, photographing one wedding is no different than any other. And so it is refreshing when I come across a bridal party that is a blast to work with.

Such was the case last weekend when I got to work with a group that has made me encouraged that there is yet hope. The photo session was great, with the party doing all sorts of crazy antics, and being open to my crazy suggestions as well. Including the bride hanging out of the door of a bus in her full regalia kange style. If it wasn't that we had to be back at the reception, we would have gladly spent the entire afternoon at the photo session.

And when it came to the cake, these guys had it down pat. A log complete with a saw to cut it. Makes me wish I'd have thought of it before them! Now I have to just get my grey matter going. If only all weddings I covered were this much fun. At the very least, I hope I get one every now and then so I don't end up getting too jaded!

Omar Sosa

2009-12-26T08:14:00.012-05:00

I was recently at a concert by Omar Sosa at the Alliance Francaise. He is a maestro Jazz pianist. Together with his band of 2 other musicians, they are really great at what they do. Able to play multiple instruments, including using their own hands and mouths to produce beautiful sound.

I got a chance to photo them in action, exercising Ramon to the utmost. I was impressed by the quality of pictures I got photographing available light at up to 6400iso. Here are a few of the images I took, with the rest available here

Enjoy!

Didier Millotte

2009-11-30T08:24:00.009-05:00

The first week of November saw me at Brackenhurst for the week photographing participants at the 2009 Littworld Conference. This was a week of immersion into the world of publishing, specifically, Christian publishing. I had a good time interacting with the men and women from all over the world. Among those in attendance was Didier Millotte, a French artist who writes and draws graphic books.

Didier is one very talented man. In the first few days I hadn't quite noticed him, but as the various sessions went on, he caught my attention. During the keynote sessions, he would be hunched over his drawing pad, pencil in hand busy sketching. This would be followed by him painting his sketches, to produce stellar images. Think of those who do sketches in courts where cameras may not be allowed. He was like that. Seeing it happen in real time was amazing.

Below is a drawing he did during the closing ceremony of the MC in his kilt.

Here he is drawing the view of Brackenhurst admin building and surrounding vegetation...

Here he is drawing the escarpment the day we took a trip to Naivasha...

Here he shows an example of one of his published works at a workshop he was giving on graphical novels...

I leave you to guess what it was he was doing here (hint: 2 person mexican standoff...)

Him busy with the post standoff activities...

In just 5 minutes, he had completely sketched me. He later painted the drawing and gave it to me the following day...

I am very glad I got a chance to get to know Didier. I sure hope our paths cross again. Check out his blog sometime. It's in French for the most part, though he has some of the posts in English as well. Enjoy the remarkable sketches he has on there.

The Limos Are Here!

2009-11-30T08:08:00.003-05:00

Finally we get the real deal. Someone imported one, and it was used at a wedding first this past Saturday. Didn't see it myself, but my brother who was assisting me on the day captured it on his camera. A beaut!

Lake Bogoria

2009-10-31T10:35:00.003-04:00

I took this early last year intending to stitch the 11 images into one panorama but never got round to doing it. With Photoshop CS4's excellent stitching capabilities, that was now easy to do. The image is a 360 degree panorama of Lake Bogoria and surrounding scenery.

Portraits

2009-10-30T13:56:00.003-04:00

My excuse of a studio is finally operational. I am trying to develop a style of portraiture that is different from what you get in every place. Something that people will look at and see something different in the picture. But first I must master the basics of portraiture. Then build on that into my own unique style of capturing people on camera. Setting up the studio helps me in this effort. As time goes by I will share my progress.

I start off with a couple of pictures from a session that a friend asked me to do for her. I got these two printed to 8x12, and they look nice. I want to blow them up to say 20x30 and see how they look. For now, enjoy these...

Phones n Cats

2009-09-11T17:48:00.007-04:00

Got to meet up with some cool people Friday evening. At one point main point of discussion was on phones.

Then a cat showed up and demanded attention.

The cat got it's victory. Attention had now shifted from things phones to things cats.

Pride of Kenya Lion Launch

2009-09-02T16:29:00.017-04:00

I carry my camera everywhere I go. You never know what you might come across. Today was just such a day. As I was walking down Loita Street towards Kenyatta Avenue, I heard a marching band playing. I had no clue of what was going on. When I got to Kenyatta Avenue, I saw that it was the KWS band. Behind them 3 trucks with the lions from the Pride of Kenya program were slowly making their way down the road. Even though I had all sorts of things in my hands, I somehow managed to retrieve Ramon from his bag and started snapping away. I share with you images from the day.

Enjoy!

MTPA

2009-08-25T17:09:00.002-04:00

Press conference with the Mauritius Tourism and Promotion Authority. Like with all such entities, much was said, but almost nothing of what was said was relevant to the questions posed to them during Q&A.

Grand Mauritian 1

2009-08-24T16:31:00.004-04:00

A view from the balcony of one of the rooms at the Grand Mauritian. The water in the foreground is part of a moat surrounding some of the rooms. The water in the background is a section of the 1500 square metre swimming pool. They claim it is the biggest on the island.

Summertime

2009-08-23T19:01:00.006-04:00

Well, not quite. But this brought to mind the song by Will Smith and D.J. Jazzy Jeff. A bunch of freinds getting together and going out of town to a place of serenity, chilling with friends, without a care in the world. Just soaking in the bliss of being away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Good for the soul!

Living!

2009-08-21T20:37:00.002-04:00

After such a grueling itinerary, this was the perfect way to unwind!

Winin n Dinin

2009-08-20T17:00:00.001-04:00

The executive chef was on hand to serve us his best offerings.

Church bike

2009-08-20T02:51:00.003-04:00

Mauritians take their religion seriously!

Sunset framed

2009-08-20T02:47:00.001-04:00

A sunset view from the Intercontinental.

Moevenpick 1

2009-08-18T15:40:00.004-04:00

The first hotel we stayed at was Moevenpick. Very beautiful place that! Here is the first of a few images I'll post from that hotel.

And no, Rista, that's not the pool. I have just the pool treat for you in a future post...

Rainbow

2009-08-18T04:07:00.001-04:00

The trip was superb! I'll share photos from it as time goes by. In the meantime, here's a teaser. The light was magnificent that evening!

Mauritius is on my to-do-again list for sure!

Virtues to cultivate

2009-07-28T17:15:00.013-04:00

I realize I need to be patient and confident to get the images I want. At times during a shoot I get doubts on my ability to get great images. As a result, I end up taking a million images when one well thought out, well executed image would have done the job.

Jeff Ascough is a photographer whose work I admire. I hope to one day reach his level of skill, but in my own style. I read an interview he gave that highlights some of his philosophy on photography. His is a very well thought out, very purposeful way of doing things; something I need to work on.

In the interview, at one point he notes that it took him working almost 5 years before he turned a profit. That is patience. And diligence. And determination. Virtues I need to cultivate. I have been in business just over a year and a half. I still have time.

I stop the rambling now, and let you enjoy images.

This is Ridiculous!

2009-07-16T14:56:00.001-04:00

This is ridiculous. A Prado full of 17/18 year old boys armed with AK47s just drove down the road near my dwelling place robbing people along the way. They see you with a good looking jacket, they have you take it off and throw it into the car. And they make sure you have seen the weapons, just incase. A butchery where I buy meat from just lost 10,000 shillings. The only reason I was not caught up in it is because I took a walk to the shop barely 10 minutes after they drove by. The neighbourhood folk congregating around are the ones that made me aware of what I had missed by a little. This really is ridiculous!

Lights!

2009-07-09T12:14:00.005-04:00

I was approached to do photography for a company that distills and bottles alcoholic drinks. They want to use images of their products on a site they are having designed for them. Photographing bottles is a pain! Not considering the lighting issues, the reflections are a killer. The images I came up with are far from my satisfaction. I am making it my mission to figure out how to come up with well lit, clear and free of unnecessary reflection bottle images. My understanding is, there is a huge market for that kind of photography around. I took a look at the KWAL site, and I must say the images of the bottles on it left me feeling like it could have been done better. Motivation enough to master this very tricky art!

To do this shoot, I had to borrow lights from a friend. Let's just say I am now fully sold on having my own pair! The quality was out of this world! My brother happened to come along as I was setting them up, and I did a few test shots with him as the subject. Top notch quality! Even Ramon was impressed! I also took a few test shots of a cactus plant I got as a gift (long story for another day if I'm bribed well enough :) ).

I was to return the lights today, waiting on word from the bottle clients on whether I would be given the shoot or not. Yet I had caught the bug. I had to have lights like this. So today I spent it walking around with my friend whose lights I had borrowed window shopping for a pair of my own. I got a good deal on the same type as my friend's, and now I can say that Ramon and Raul have been joined by my latest photographic acquisition. It's time now to do some serious shooting!

I have also ordered the book, Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting which according to many sites I visited trying to figure out this bottle photography thing has been recommended as the one stop shop for all things light. The authors cover it to a great detail, not in a cook book kind of way, but drilling down into the theory of it. You end up with a great understanding of light after reading it. They also have an entire chapter on photographing reflective objects. I hope to get it end of this month, and when I do, it's going to be nothing but light, light light!

In my web searches, I also came across the Photoflex Lighting School which looks very promising. It has step by step instructions complete with photos of the setup. The resources for the determined person are there aplenty. Time now to take advantage of all this and take my photography to the next level.

Tomorrow I have a model shoot. That will be my first job with my new lights. Exciting times these!

On Hiring a Photographer

2009-06-09T07:34:00.008-04:00

Looking for a photographer? The following series of articles gives an excellent overview of what to look for in your search for one. I especially like the third point, which is, look for the photographer that takes photos in the style you like. If there is one thing I have learned in my brief time doing photography, trying to get a shot based on direction from the client has resulted in work that I am not proud of in the least. But working with a client that likes my style and leaves it to me to capture the wedding (or any other event for that matter) as I see best has resulted in work that I love and value highly, which translates to a satisfied client.

Read the series of articles at

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Sold!

2009-06-08T05:27:00.005-04:00

I just sold my first cake ever yesterday. Very interesting, since baking has purely been just to satiate my own sweet tooth. A friend who tasted one of my cakes asked me to bake not one but two of them for an event she had. How cool! Interesting way to supplement my photography income.

Thanks to EK13, I now know that 3 of my photos appeared in a magazine article. I need to figure out how to get paid for these things! I'm losing out on revenue! And as if it isn't bad enough I didn't get paid, I also didn't get credited for the photos!

Another friend told me a shoot I did for her last year was finally published in a French magazine, Miss Ebene. As soon as I get a scanned copy I'll share it here. And yet another magazine, Esquire (China edition) has some photos I took of Prof. Wangari Maathai. This, too, will be shared as soon as I get scanned copies. Good to know folks all over are seeing my work.

One thing I have realised though, I'd much rather get paid than credited. At least for the Prof. Maathai shoot I am getting paid. Money sure makes more sense than credit!

This week I go on a road trip taking photos for a magazine that is planning future articles. As soon as they publish I shall share it on here.

Have a great day.

Throwback

2009-05-30T05:34:00.003-04:00

Today I share some pictures from my trip to the US. It was great going back through different places in and around Boston, giving me a strong sense of having never left in the first place. Despite that, I am still solidly convinced that home is where it's at.

On to the photos.

I loved the juxtaposition of retro and current.

This is walking distance from MIT. The sign itself should clue you in to that. Where else would you have Infinity Pharmaceuticals and a Science Hotel?

Jet contrails, clouds, silhouetted cranes and buildings... Ramon did well.

Diagonals, verticals, curves. And a cross at the top of the bridge which I didn't notice until later.

Total Relaxation

The pastel colours drew me in to this scene.

Boating season beckons.

The flare of the sun between the two buildings... sweet!

Check out the above plus a few more photos on my flickr stream. Have a great weekend and a superb Madaraka Day!

Panic? No way!

2009-05-23T03:52:00.002-04:00

And we have the third year just gone by as of the stroke of midnight. Not as prolific now as I was back in the day, but it still keeps going.

Remember, don't forget your towel, and even more important, Don't Panic!

This and that.

2009-04-30T14:17:00.004-04:00

I guess the photo of the place I asked you to identify was too obscure. That's the lobby area outside the MBA classrooms at the Strathmore Business School. Here is another view of the area.

Plans for the Month of Photography to be hosted by Alliance Francaise in June are moving along well. There have been interesting submissions to the Duka theme. It should be a wonderful exhibit. Dates for two workshops have also been put in place. There will be a beginner's workshop on the 16th and 17th, and an advanced workshop on the 18th and 19th. Space is limited for each. Only the first 15 to sign up shall participate. And it is free. To sign up, contact Danson Kibandiko at +254726325426. Exciting times for photography.

My days of being Stateside seem to not have drawn to a close. And no, I am not relocating back to the US. I will just be paying a month long visit. Gives me a chance to visit some of my old joints. Meet up with my very good freinds. Check out various photography resources that I took for granted while living there. Also get to talk to a friend who is now a great photographer in her own right. Head out to some great places to hike and take great nature shots.

Especially that last bit. I am sure we have plenty to be found in the Ngong/Karura forests right here in Nairobi that are worth photographing. But the fact that I need armed escort to go about doing stuff there... eek! And not just because of wild animals in there. But also due to people that would deem it necessary to force me to part ways with my equipment. I just wish that was not the case. And so it will be refreshing to walk in a wooded area without worrying about my safety or that of my equipment in that regard.

I found a great blog that deals with the business of photography. It's part of the wider American Society of Media Photographers site that has proved to be a wonderful resource. We need something like that in Kenya. How great it would be to find photography speciic business advice. Anyone know of a resource like that please feel free to share in the comments.

A friend who is in the fashion industry bemoans the dearth of photographers in that field. So today she tried convincing me to rethink my decision not to do fashion photography, as she says there's plenty of work. I told her I'd think about it, especially during my sojourn away, and see what to do about it once back.

I leave you with a photo I took of a bride just prior to leaving for the church.

This is a look similar to that I have seen various photographers do, and I hope to perfect it over time. Check out some of the photographers profiled here for examples of the kind of look I am hoping to get.

Have a great Labour Day!

Into 2009 Q2

2009-04-12T05:33:00.007-04:00

So much for the resolve of more frequent posting. I've resigned myself to the reality of having to post when the sun, moon and earth all align themsleves in perfection.

This is an interesting article about the declining fortunes of art galleris in New York. The quote below from the article regarding the pricing of Hiroshi Sugimoto's photographs stupefies the heck out of me:

The prices of some of his meditative seascapes have been reduced from $450,000 to $360,000...

I find this cartoon funny. Photoshop is great. But should be used wisely. As I keep reading from many photographers I admire, some of whom also use Photoshop extensively in their work, always strive to get it right in camera. Makes for a much more pleasant Photoshop experience, since you have a great picture to begin with. Trying to fix a badly taken picture is very much like the cartoon up above.

One such photographer I absolutely admire is Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs. His HDR images are out of this world. What a true inspiration. Check out for example the image in this post. I decided to try out something similar, but with results not as polished as his. More practice is required.

Who can guess where this was taken? (The first to guess correctly gets a 6x8 print of my choice if residing in Nairobi, otherwise I'll email you the original resolution image to print out yourself).

Trey points out something I hadn't otherwise realised. HDR is a good alternative to use in capturing the interior decor if you are limited in the lights at your disposal. Excellent way to get the various subtleties of textures and light as he writes. Food for thought.

Have a great Easter!

Month of Photography

2009-03-18T04:33:00.001-04:00

The month of photography is coming up in June. This time round, they are having local photographers exhibiting during the entire month, with the launch date on June 2nd. The theme for this year is Dukas. Anything from a small road side stall to an estate kiosk to a shop in Westgate Mall. So long as it is small (meaning Nakumatt, Uchumi and their likes are not part of the definition) or family/community owned, it is fair game.

Where do you come in? Well, I am part of those tasked with coming up with images that will be curated for the show. I am in search of a shop that I can use as my subject. If you have one, or know of one, let me know so we can figure out how this will work. What you get out of this is free photography higlighting your business. At the end of the exercise, you will get all the edited images on disc free of charge from me. If some of the images I take are selected for the exhibition, these will be printed and on display at Alliance Francaise where it will take place.

With that in mind, the following are the criteria you need to meet for me to work with you:

Willing to have me photograph your shop.
Willing to be photographed as well as your employees if any.
Willing to have prints made and displayed out of the images taken.

If this is all agreeable to you, get in touch with me and we can get things rolling. This needs to be done quick since work on initial selection of images begins in 6 weeks. Between now and that time, I have an obligation to provide about 10 images per week for critiquing. It is out of the 60 images critiqued that 4 or 5 will be selected for the exhibit.

Re-invention. Or is it Rejuvenation?

2009-03-09T03:37:00.000-04:00

This video by photographer Zack Arias and this post by Mwari have struck a chord with me deep in my photography psyche. I need to re-invent myself. I need to get that burning passion back. I need to stop this scary slide into viewing photography as a chore. And so I have decided to go out and make beautiful photographs. Non work related photographs. Those that inspire me. And give me a thrill. And most of all, I need to post more on here and on my Flickr photostream. So dear watchlady, if you notice me slipping on this, don't hesitate to call me out!

To start off, I'll share a picture of my 5-day old nephew.

He is a spitting image of his father. Ain't no need for any DNA testing here!

And now, images I took while at the mechanic's place getting my car fixed.

That's the housing of the distributor. The springs with the counterloads inside it had gotten messed up, causing two parts in it to slice through that thick metal. Had this gone unfixed, the housing would have been cut in two. Loss of power while driving is what made me go get the car checked out.

You can view the rest of the photos from this series here.

Enjoy!

Some link love.

2009-02-23T16:55:00.009-05:00

There is plenty going on in the photography world of egm. Thanks to the month of photography, a forum arose that enables photographers to meet twice a month to do nothing but talk photography. Initially we had no defined structure, but now there are the beginnings of one. The best thing out of all this is the critiquing of photos that happens during the meetings. What a way to grow as a photographer when your work is put under scrutiny. As someone pointed out, you need a thick skin, since people will tell it like it is. But more than just telling it like it is, they will also point out how you could have done things different to produce an image that communicates better your vision. You can also push back as a photographer, since you might have chosen to approach the photography a certain way based on certain criteria. If you share this with your critique audience and they get your point by looking at the picture, then you will have communicated your vision. There are exciting times ahead, with the month of photography coming up in June that we have to prepare for. There are also hopefully going to be photography excursions, some of them weekend long.

The other day I went through my Google Reader and found I had blogs I hadn't read in eons. Thanks to the hectic schedule I've had, there was little time for much else. I am just now getting to work on the second to last album from a December wedding I covered. Considering it takes almost 3 days to work on each album, and counting the other jobs in between that I have coming in, getting the time to sit down and read blogs was really impossible to do. And so I have been reduced to just skimming through them rather quickly, making the odd comment here and there if I find something striking.

Right now what forms the bulk of my reading is Strobist. Like this guy did last year, I have decided to dedicate 2009 to learning all I can about light. And how to control it. Isn't photography painting with light after all? I feel that I have quite a bit I need to master when it comes to light. I have an idea of how to take pictures, but when I think about it deeply after an honest assessment, I feel that most of the times I am probably lucky. I do not have an intuitive feel to light. I cannot get consistent images. By December 2009, I hope I shall be able to percieve light in a whole different light (ouch! :) ). David Hobby who is the guy behind Strobist captures very well what my goal is in his introduction to the second level of lighting tutorials he has written with the following:

But some among you will find that having the techniques under your belt will free you so that you are capable of doing just about anything you want to do with light.

I do not spend a lot of time dissecting technique when I shoot. I don't think of light in terms of f-stops and shutter speeds any more. Lighting ratios are gone, too. Inverse square rule - never much fun to begin with - is history.

Now, I think of light in the same way that I think about music: Genre. Style. Volume. Ensemble. Mood.

Or sometimes I think of light in terms more like food: Flavor, spice. complexity, simplicity. Do I follow the recipe, or do I ditch it and improvise?

It is a wonderful thing, this here interwebs (TFC '08). Anything you want to learn you can from it. If you are patient. And willing to put in the time and effort. The resource DH has at Strobist is something I would definitely not mind paying money for. Yet it's there for free. I'd be a big fool not to capitalise on this!

Apart from Strobist, the other site I shall spend quite a bit of time on is Luminous Landscape. They have everything on landscape photography, which is my passion. I hope someday to be good enough at it that I can liv off of selling fine art prints of landscape photos of Kenya. With that, I have decided that the other thing I need to read up on is the physical geography of Kenya. I read some place that to succeed as a photographer, you need to know not just the technique and artistic side of photography, but you also have to know your subject well. You have to have such a depth of knowledge in your subject that it becomes second nature to you, thereby giving you a better insight on it and how best to capture it on camera. Any of the photography greats in whatever genre are people that have studied their subjects to great depth. Unfortunately for me, I have yet to come across a descent book on Kenya's physical geography. If anyone knows of a place I can get one, please let me know. My next stops are the department of Geography at UoN and the Kenya National Library. Hopefully they will be able to guide me.

As I work on developing my landscape photography, weddings

and other events

continue to earn my bread and butter. I came across a great post that discusses the cost of doing business. This is the initial post, with this one looking at it from a slightly different angle. He also provides this link that helps you calculate the cost. Though it's been formatted to accept only dollars, I just put in the numerical amount in Kenya shillings disregarding the dollar signs. It is pretty nifty.

These should be enough links for the time being. Have a great day!

Final images from Zanzibar

2009-02-02T03:32:00.018-05:00

These are the last few pictures from Zanzibar. The bulk of those I took shall be put on the Bunduz gallery soon.

Apparently we were very lucky to catch sight of these dolphins. In total we saw 5 of them. We were told that you can go to view them and not catch sight of any at all. So to have seen 5, that was a real treat.

There was an abundance of cats in Stone Town. Some like this one were rather freaky!

Public TV redefined.

Real life Discovery Channel.

Christians form just 3% of the population in Zanzibar. Hindus also are at 3%. The rest is Muslim. This was the first church built in Zanzibar.

One of the many mosques there...

What Ramon want's to be when he grows up.

Shisha time!

In a comfortable setting.

Beautiful effects of light.

Market scenes.

Finally, a view of one of the narrow streets of Stone Town.

More from Zanzibar.

2009-01-14T01:19:00.035-05:00

But first, a word from our sponsors :). I had another shoot with KilaKitu Clothing this past weekend at Maasai Lodge. I know I had said that fashion photography was not my thing, but then I figured this was a chance to explore Maasai Lodge photographically, and so why not do it if only just for that. Turns out this was a much better experience than the last one, and definitely a lot more organized. Keeping the models to a minimum number helped a lot.

Maasai Lodge turns out to have been a much better venue than Ole Polos, much to my surprise! It offered a greater variety of scenery to work with.

I was so impressed by it, that I hope to go back there and spend a whole weekend just taking photos while staying in their very affordable cottages.

And now onto the main course. Here is the second part of photos from Zanzibar. Enjoy!

2009 Begins

2009-01-09T06:24:00.021-05:00

Happy New Year! To start off 2009, I'll just let some of the pictures I took while in Zanzibar to usher in '09 speak for themselves. Here's to more photos in the coming year!

This is the first part of a series of photos. The next parts shall come in due course. Enjoy!

2008 Ends

2008-12-25T13:37:00.019-05:00

A year has come and gone. How fast time goes. Just like that!

Thanks to a tip from TFC, I learned that one of my photos has appeared on Boing Boing. How cool!

Ramon finally checked in. Initially I thought this would be Ramon, but turns out he ended up being this instead.

Up next is a pictorial comparison of Raul and Ramon. Ramon is on the right in the pictures.

Bottom

Top

Left

Right

Back

Front

I will not give a review of either. For that, you can check out the excellently done reviews by Thom for the D200 and the D700. Instead I shall just point out features of the D700 that I appreciate as improvements over the D200.

Noise performance is tops. I can shoot at higher ISOs with the D700 than I can with the D200 without comparable picture degradation due to noise.

The navigation wheel at the back of the D700 has a button at the centre that is easier to press than the mechanism on the D200.

The viewfinder eye-piece on the D700 is part of the camera body, unlike that on the D200 which I have lost, replaced and lost again! There's also a lever that you can use to cover the viewfinder on the D700, unlike for the D200 where you need a seperate piece to cover the viewfinder in shots where that is needed.

Zooming on the D700 is a 1 button affair, unlike for the D200 where you first press one button, then press another as you scroll a wheel to zoom in or out.

A plus for the D200 over the D700 is the stiffer focus lock lever on the former which makes it harder to accidentally switch it. There have been times during the few moments I have worked with the D700 where I found I couldn't change the focus area as I had accidentally switched the focus lock lever. So now I have to be more careful when shooting not to switch it.

The flash sync and power ports on the D700 are covered by rubber covers attached to the body (thus making it much harder to lose them!), unlike for the D200 where those ports are covered by plastic screw-on covers. The flash sync port cover is already lost (see Left View picture above), and I have seen a number of other D200 bodies where that cover was lost.

These are my initial thoughts on the two cameras. With time I'll have a more informed opinion of both machines.

Before I leave camera manenos, I have to point out this lady who got a superb cake and gift from her husband on her birthday.

How neat!

In terms of weddings, this has been my busiest month. I had 4 weddings to cover over the period of a week. So it was a case of charge batteries, download pictures, format compact flash cards, shoot wedding, repeat. On one of the weddings, the deliverable was a disc of images. However, the bride called me later and asked if I could get an album ready for her before Saturday, as she and her husband leave for the US Sunday. So I spent this week sourcing an album, then getting images ready to print, then mounting them on the album, and finally packaging it. This meant working right up to Christmas Day. The end result was worth it.

Incidentally, on my way to shoot the wedding above, I had some interesting car issues. I was supposed to be at the venue at 7.30am. So I leave my place early at 6.45am. I pass by the petrol station to fuel my car. I go to start it after that. Nothing doing. Try again, still nothing. Turns out the timing belt in the engine had gotten cut. How weird for it to have happened where it did! Fortunately I was able to get another car to drive as this one was attended to.

I picked my car up two days ago. I drove around, and found that it still had a problem starting after some time staying off. I took it back to the mechanic to check it out. He asked me to park it at a place he could check it out. Just as I go to drive it there, the steering mechanism broke down. How lucky that happened right at that point, and not while I was on the main road! This car is jinxed I tell you.

From the Small World department. On one of the weddings I did, it turns out the mother of the bride is good friends with my aunt. And the groom is good friends with a guy I went to high school with. One of his grooms men is good friends with another friend of mine. I tell you, one day I'll wake up to find I am related to every single human being at this rate!

At one of the weddings I did, I had to help out some of the grooms tie their ties. Turns out that is a skill that not everyone has! So my camera was put down for a moment and ties were tied.

The evening party of that particular wedding was different from most others I have attended. They even had 1 man guitar present! One interesting bit about the evening was when the MC called upon the bride and groom to give their accounts of how they first met and got together. About the only thing that agreed between both accounts was the venue and time of their first meeting. Beyond that, eh, each had some salt and spice to add to the tale. Very interesting that.

That was one of two weddings with huge bridal parties. There were 7 groom's men, 7 bride's maids, a flower girl and a page boy. At the other wedding there were 8 groom's men, 9 bride's maids, a flower girl and a page boy. Choirs these! So it was an interesting challenge during the photo shoot. Fortunately the bridal parties were easy to work with, so we had fun during the photo sessions.

So today is Christmas. I wish y'all a most wonderful day today (even though there's just 2 hours left of it as I type this!). Here are two pictures of rings from recent weddings to close out my contributions to your pictorial enjoyment of 2008. Have a blast in 2009!!

November

2008-11-23T03:29:00.017-05:00

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!

More from October

2008-10-29T17:08:00.013-04:00

October draws to a close. What a month it has been! I wish all months were like this one jobwise. There's been so much to do, I have had to painfully turn away some jobs. On one day as I was covering the wedding of my friends mentioned in this post, I had calls from two different people asking if I was available. One of them even asked me if I could ditch the wedding and do their job instead! It's times like this that made me realise getting Ramon is now a matter of my young photographic venture's life and death. And so the quest for that has been put into gear in a major way. I hope to have Ramon join Raul before December gets here.

I had fun covering my friends' wedding. That showed me what can happen if you have a couple that is completely free and relaxed before the camera. You can get some amazing shots! I hope I get more chances to cover weddings that are as much fun as this was.

In the tiny world department, the most recent wedding I covered was for this couple where the groom is a guy that was in the same high school as me. One of the bride's maids was in the same university as me. One of the couple's friends helping out was in the same primary school as me. The only institution missing is nursery school, though I'm sure if I searched hard enough I might have found someone!

During that wedding, there was a concurrent celebration of sorts by Delarue. At one point in the evening they had a fireworks show. I was able to capture the couple on camera with the fireworks in the background. Had I known that this would go down, I would have had the couple at a more strategic location that would have better captured that scene.

I was able to attend the rehearsal for the wedding a day prior. Before the rest of the crowd got there, I decided to take a few fun photos. Imagine my joy when I discovered a number of dragon flies buzzing around! Raul on tripod was quickly set up, enabling me to get a few lovely shots.

Remember when I vowed to never cover a funeral? Well, it looks like I will have to remember the saying, "Never and Always are two words you should Always remember Never to use!" Yup, I got suckered into covering one. At least just the church bit of it. And I couldn't really say no to this, as it was for a friend. One thing though, out of this came several jobs! So I cant' really complain. Because of that gig I was referred to a PR company that does work for Microsoft. MS has had a series of events this week, and I was asked to cover them.

The biggest thing about covering certain jobs is the fact that you have to be chonjo always, even in the midst of great temptation. The first event I covered was a dinner at The Stanley. The food they have is already tempting enough as it is. Add in the fact that I hadn't had a filling lunch that day, and you can begin to imagine the suffering I went through. At one point another photographer and I said we would sit to eat, only for the guest of honour who we had been waiting for for ages to show up and mess up those plans. Fortunately for the other photographer, he could go and eat, since he was covering the event for a magazine. But for me, the PR firm needed to have photos of every stage of the event, so I couldn't just up and leave! We KYMers were being served at a different part of the hotel.

This reminded me of an event I covered for EABL early this month. Had I been one to drink, I think standing there amidst all that free alcohol I would have gone certifiably mad.

See what I mean? Look but don't touch! They also had some serious mbuzi choma going on. At least during the formal part of the program, these were off limits. But after the main job was done, we were told to go wild. So that wasn't totally off.

To their credit, MS and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports did have a media breakfast yesterday at The Stanley, so it wasn't all bad. This was a chance for them both to give a press conference, and since it was that early in the day, they organized for us KYMers to get fed. Good stuff that!

It's tough being a celeb. Eric Wainaina was not part of the program on Monday. But because the guest of honour was late, and Eric happened to be around visiting a friend, he got asked to perform. He gave a rendition in acapella of one of his songs. Then he sang happy birthday to a lady in attendance. On his way out, he got asked by a number of people for a photo opp. Though he had to leave to prepare for an early flight the following day, he still made time to pose for photos with people. All with a genuine smile. A very gracious guy that!

What is it about Kenyans and having words on pictures? I was at a function earlier this year displaying some of my work, and this guy came up and said if I wanted to sell my photos locally, I would have to have some words on them. Gah! That's like telling Leonardo Da vinci that the Mona Lisa wasn't complete without words on the painting! Well, it appears that for this market, that just has to be the case. I wish it wasn't so. I have sold two pictures so far, and both have had to have words on them.

I seriously wish I could get the people who would appreciate the pictures in and of themselves without any words to sacrilgeously massacre them! I feel like I have sold out by selling those to pictures with words on them. But beautiful pictures on my computer does not rent or food provide! However, if the coming months turn out to be as bountiful as this October has been, then I can do away with that blasphemous action, and focus instead on selling what I want to sell.

Fortunately for me, during the Stanley event on Monday I was able to see some great photography on the gym walls at the hotel. I talked to the gym manager who said he was open to seeing some of my work and evaluating whether they could be hang on the walls. I am working on getting some of my best photos printed and mounted onto stiff paper as a portfolio of sorts and meet with the manager. A plus side for me is, these are pictures of things Kenyan. The ones hanging on the walls currently are all of places outside Africa, let alone Kenya!

To close, I leave you with an introspective post of a wedding photographer whose work I greatly admire. Enjoy!

Mish Mash

2008-10-11T03:49:00.005-04:00

Down to 1 post a month. That's sad! But, such is the way of life. Too much going on that makes regular posting impractical.

September was a dead month! Very few jobs coming my way. I thought it was just me, but I hear from others they faced similar stuff. October, by contrast, has been a great month, with a job almost every other day! And this barely two weeks into the month. The funny thing is, I had put out an offer to friends for free photo shoots. I needed to practice photography! Otherwise I'd find myself regressing. As soon as I'd put out these offer, jobs started streaming in. So that offer had to be placed on hold.

The highlight of October will be covering the wedding of two good friends of mine. 3 days before the first anniversary of the first wedding I covered from start to finish with Raul.

I had my first engagement session late September. A couple that is getting married in December wanted to have photos of both of them taken. So I spent about an hour and a half with them having a blast taking their photos. What a way to break the ice with a couple, such that by the time of their wedding they are comfortable enough with you that they look free and naturally relaxed in their pictures. Something I probably need to do more of.

Some of the downtime afforded me opportunity to try things other than photography. So I decided to try my hand at baking. The problem with that is, once you know how to bake something, then you keep doing more of it, and before you know it the kilos start piling up. So it has to be controlled!

The holy grail of baking is the black forest cake. I tried it the first time round, and it came out less than I'd expected. But some friends that tasted it said it was okay. Maybe they wanted to spare my feelings, bless them.

Round two turned out much better. Still not perfect, but closer to it. And tasted a whole lot better! I used up an entire 250ml bottle of Viceroy on it. Maybe I should not say that out loud lest I get murderous glances from some that shall remain unamed!

Kirima in this post reminded me of days gone by when photographing things as simple as bees on a flower provided much excitement to me. I realise now that there's a danger of being too focussed on the money aspect of photography that you lose the passion for photography in and of itself. Which, if one is not careful, can lead to sub-par images. And so I am taking it upon myself to re-ignite that passion. Thanks Kirima for that reminder!

Enough of this mchanganyiko maalum of a post. Time to go off and click away. Nice weekend y'all!

Hit me!

2008-09-03T11:46:00.000-04:00

The Matrix is a great movie. Full of good stuff that. I watched it again two nights ago, the first time in eons that I had done so. And in less than two days after the fact, two things that I saw in it manifested themselves in a way in my experiences. One of which I shall share today.

There is the scene in the movie where Morpheus challenges Neo to hit him in a sparring construct. This challenge was issued after Neo told Morpheus that he knew Kung Fu. Try as he would, Neo did not hit Morpheus. When asked why, he responded that Morpheus was too fast. To which Morpheus responded, asking Neo if being strong had anything to do with anything in the computer program they were in. He told Neo that he (Neo) had the technique down pat, and that he was fast too. But he was not letting his mind go and exploiting his full potential.

That is the situation I find myself in. I keep telling myself that I still need to get this piece of equipment, or that kind of break, or this kind of opportunity in order to take my photography to the next level. This, I have come to realise today, is hampering my ability to grow. For quite some time I was wondering why I felt like I had stagnated, and now I realise it is because of the limits that I have imposed on myself. There is much more that I could achieve, if only I can let my mind go and just let these limitless posibilities engulf me.

I do intend to hit Morpheus. I know I can! So from now, no more holding back. It's all out war!

It wasn't so bad!

2008-08-11T05:34:00.002-04:00

One year has elapsed since I moved back home. It's been an interesting year this. First couple of months I was on holiday mode. Then I went to trying to figure out what I was going to do.

I settled on photography. I had no idea what that would look like. Today, things look great. The business is doing good. Clients are coming in steadily. I am glad neither the chaos at the beginning of 2008 nor the great Belgium debate messed things up.

Yes, Belgium. I did get an offer to join a company in Belgium doing electronics engineering design work. The pay would have been out of this world. Not to mention the chance to tour Europe during my stay there.

My desire to stay in Kenya, however, won out. I am glad it did. Otherwise I'd have missed out on the fun I'm having living life!

Time to execute for the coming year...

Bomas Saturday

2008-07-29T11:45:00.003-04:00

Saturday I got to cover my first concert type event. And what a challenge that was! This was the live taping of the Idols Finale. Though I was on the front seat, that didn't make it any easier! You see, we were not allowed to stand at any time during the entire 90 minutes it took to record the show. Nor were we allowed to use flash. Failure to adhere to those two rules meant immediate eviction from the place. That's when I came to appreciate some of the features of the D200 which make it less difficult to capture photos in certain conditions. This experience farthered my resolve to get my hands on a D3. And some prime lenses.

This was my first time watching Idols. I've just read bits and pieces here and there by various writers about it. That was the extent of my knowledge of it. I didn't even know who the contestants were! So it was interesting being in this place I had almost zero knowledge of.

The show was nice. The two sang very well. The other contestants that didn't make it this far sang very well. The finalists of the previous competition sang very well. And they all looked good.

After the show there was the press conference for the finalists, the sponsors and the judges. Some interesting questions were asked. Journalists can be a cruel bunch! One of them asked Eric if he felt good that it was Nicollete and not Trina he faced in the final. Whether he found he could take it easier since he faced a lessor opponent. How do you ask this in the presence of someone that doesn't really feel the good about losing out in this competition? Eric put him in his place. He stated that Nicollete must have been superb to have gotten to where she was, and so he was at the same level of attention with her as he would have been with Trina. Whether his statements concerning Nicollete were accurate or not, the fact remains he made her feel good by that response, given the circumstances. I admired him for that.

I also got a chance to cover some of the chilling at the tent set up for the competitors and M-Net's guests before they went to Galileo's. It was interesting how everyone was clamouring to be next to these people. I met a lady there I went to school with who I told that this was my first time ever watching anything to do with Idols. She asked if I lived under a rock vile it was all over tv. I told her that I didn't own a tv, and that if I did, I could be least bothered by Idols. It meant nothing to me whatsoever. This, contrasted with everyone around me who wanted to be next to them.

The thing that jazzed me most was how Eric got super bodyguard protection. Yaani surrounded kabisa with people being pushed away. There was this guy who approached rather enthusiastically asking for an autograph. The guy was roughed up, lifted up and dumped on the side. This guy has just won Idols! He isn't a superstar! I guess people are banking on the fact that he will become a superstar someday, and so they want something to show that they were with him at some point.

This clamour to be associated with them was not limited to just the fans. Even the bodyguards themselves wanted that. A couple who saw me taking photos asked if I could email them any pictures where they appeared with Eric. I guess this is a human thing. I wonder who I'd want to be associated with. Definitely the musicians don't do anything for me, as shown by zero interest in Idols. Mabye some well known photographer.

Anyways, I now leave you images as a slideshow taken at the event. Enjoy!

Papparazzis: Godsent or Menace?

2008-07-24T08:18:00.002-04:00

Ssembonge raises a very interesting point in his comment on this post. That papparazzis should be outlawed. It has been interesting seeing the papparazzi phenomenon, first as an independent observer, and then as a photographer myself.

The first time I got to know of them was at a wedding I attended during one of my trips back home while I was still based in the US. It fascinated me that I could buy prints taken of me at the same event only hours after the fact. I never did buy any, however. But the thought that I could had I wanted intrigued me.

After I took up photography seriously, I got to see papparazzis in another light. One that was not as favourable as before. It felt like they got in the way of properly carrying out my work at events where I was hired as the main photographer. But then I managed to get around that by being more assertive. So for now it is no longer a problem for me. Once I have made known to the relevant people that I am the main photographer, it's easy from there on. During group shots, I tell them to look just at my camera, ignoring all others. It doesn't always work, but for the most part it does.

The reason above is why I find it very hard to cover an event where I am not the main photographer, even though I may have been asked by the main people at the event to help out. I did a wedding two weeks ago as a favour for a friend. Though everyone had been alerted to my presence, I still did not feel 100% at ease. I made sure to talk to the main photographers and alert them that I had been asked to help out so they wouldn't think me as an unwelcome outsider.

When it comes to the issue of whether papparazzis should be allowed to do their thing or not, I find that there are mixed feelings among people. There are those like Ssembonge who would rather they don't exist. I have covered weddings where they even had security to ensure said papparazzis were not even allowed into the venue. At one wedding I covered, my brother was helping me out with a second camera. Since the bride hadn't met him yet, she thought that he was a papparazzi and asked me about him. I told her he was with me, and that calmed her down. But one other guy that was there unkown to either of us was promptly shown the door.

At yesterday's funeral, I got to see some guests who were walking in give any papparazzi that tried to take their photo a warning glance. Clearly they did not want their photos taken. At the start of the day at the funeral home, I was taking pictures when one of the family members looked at me badly and said she hoped I was not a papparazzi since she wouldn't buy any of my pictures. Were this not a funeral, I would have found that very funny, since my photography style is anything but!

And then there are those that welcome papparazzis with open arms. I did one wedding where at the express wish of the groom several papparazzis were called upon and asked to help cover the event, complete with selling the photos during the reception. There were about 5 of them, in addtion to myself and the other official photographer. I also have a wedding coming up where the groom's side of the family wants papparazzis present to assist.

And this is not limited to just low budget weddings. I was told of this high profile wedding with a very big budget where the family wanted the photographer selected to do some papparazzi style photography in addition to what he was offering as the main package. This photographer doesn't do that. But because his doing it would determine he gets the contract, he just had to.

So, are papparazzis a menace, or a necessity? It depends on who you ask. For now, for as long as there are those that want their services, they are here to stay. If you outlaw them, those that want them will be up in arms. So I guess the best thing is to just work things out such that you can have them not barge in on your event if you don't want them. That, or just let them be. I don't know. Personally, I have learned to live with them. What is your take?

Funerals are not my thing.

2008-07-23T12:12:00.001-04:00

This morning found me outdoors in a cemetry covering a funeral. This was my first time ever doing this. And my last. I have decided that funerals I won't do. Even if I get offered good money. It's just not my thing. I mean, how do you go snapping away at people grieving even if it's them that want it? If someone enquires about it from me, I'll direct them to other photographers.

Today's funeral was extreme. 5 cameramen: 3 still, 2 video. And that's just the official ones. Of course the papparazzi were out in full force. I saw 3 at the cemetry. (An aside, one of the cameramen had Raul's twin. Right down to the flash, vertical grip and missing flash sync connection cover. Had I not being carrying Raul in my hands, I could have sworn he stole it from me!).

If you think the above was bad, there was a funeral next to the one I was covering where, eh, I just got bemused. You know the way after a wedding service people pose with the bride and groom outside the church? That's exactly what was going on. Complete with the person co-ordinating the posing. I kept hearing, now it's the siblings. Okay, after siblings, let us have the uncles and aunts. Okay, now the cousins. I couldn't believe it.

And so, as a PSA, let it be known Raul will never ever cover funerals. At least not while being handled by yours truly. If someone wants to borrow the camera to cover one, by all means let them do so after having left me a sizeable deposit to replace Raul should the grave suddenly appear too attractive to him, as well as paying a good use fee. Big enough to deter anyone from using Raul thus.

I follow Alain Briot's outlook on photography. I will not cover things that evoke negative emotions. That's why I didn't take shots during the chaos earlier this year. That is why I am choosing not to cover funerals. Others that have no problem covering that can and are very welcome to do so.

Mariana and Everest

2008-07-07T11:17:00.002-04:00

In this photo business, there are days when you feel like you've been tossed into the Mariana Trench and forgotten about, having never existed. Yet, at other times, you feel like you are atop Mount Everest, highest being in the world at that pont. Such are the emotions evoked in me in just the past one week.

For the first case, I was so happy and all set for a big budget wedding I had gotten work for. Everything had gone well, the deposit had been paid, and we were discussing album options. Then one day, out of the blue, the wedding planner calls me and tells me not to bother. Some family members (not even the couple, mind you), thought I was too expensive, and so they didn't want to use my services. Ouch! After having beseeched another friend who had been contemplating that date for her own wedding to move it to another one that she and her beau were also considering! Hmm... next time I'm not even going to bother. Once someone has booked me, that's that. Good thing the deposit is non-refundable, as per my conditions when doing a booking. Otherwise this would have stung even more. So much for that.

Well, over the course of the week, I put that behind me slowly. Figured something else would come up, and even if it doesn't, I can have another studio session for more practice photography. No point in dwelling on this and missing out on other things. Good thing I did that. I ended up enjoying the weekend greatly. Good stuff all around, including my first evern ngurario. I had been asked to go do photography for this event, as some sort of interview. The first part of doing the actual photography seems to have gone well, in that folks were happy with my conduct. The next part, of the actual product itself is still in the oven getting ready. I'm sure the pictures will turn out great. My hope is that they will be great enough to get the actual wedding come October. Sunday was spent with good friends catching up over some good kuku after a long time without meeting. What a way to decompress!

Then the Everest moment. Remember the month of photography? Part of that exercise was having photographers submit 5 images from their work which would be curated by Gerard Planchenault (the Nikon France trainer who facilitated the workshop), and out of those he would select a few for printing and exhibition. In talking to some of the organizers of the event, my understanding was, about 40 people submitted their work. That's 200 photos. Out of those, only 50 would be selected. Which means, at best, about 1 photo per person for the 40, then maybe those that got lucky, a second image. Today I learned that the original exhibit area had already been booked by someone else, so now they have to use a different location, which fits just 35 images. That means, with just one photo per person, 5 people would miss out. So you can imagine my Everest moment when I learned that 3 of my images were selected! Ah, talk of a reversal of fortunes within the space of 1 week!

I am stoked! Big time! The opening was set for today, but has since been postponed to Thursday. I am okay with that. So if you find yourself free Thursday evening, drop by Alliance Francaise first floor at 6.30pm. If you can't make it that day, the exhibit runs for the better part of this month, so just drop by and see the pictures. I saw thumbnails of some of the others selected, and they all look great. So you should be in for some good photography!

To close, I leave you the three images that were selected from my submission.

Have a nice day!

Photographing people and studio lights.

2008-07-03T10:49:00.002-04:00

I am very impatient when it comes to children. Or so I tell myself. It was with wonder, then, that I got called to photo the son of a friend. I suppose desperate times call for desperate measures. Either I force patience upon myself and get some great photos, with the subsequent payments coming after, or I just be my normal impatient self and brush away that job. Good thing money-sense won out! And it was a surprisingly good shoot. Didn't have as many problems as I thought I would. I guess the presence of a big camera pointing at him made the boy more receptive to my guidance.

Talking of photographing people, I now know that studio portrait work is not for me. I just don't have the personality to interact with models in a way that brings out the best pictures. So I either work with an assistant who will engage the models as I shoot, or I try my hand at other aspects of photography. That explains why I am more fond of capturing moments at weddings in a photojournalistic style, with my clients being almost oblivious to my presence, as opposed to me directing them on how to pose so as to get certain shots.

How did I come to this realisation? I was fortunate to have at my disposal a studio, with complete lighting and backdrops for an entire afternoon on Saturday. And I had some friends come in as models to aid in that. The owner of the studio was with us throughout as we went throught he paces. He guided the models on how to pose and guided me on how to best capture the models. Even though I have decided that this is probably not my line of work, I nevertheless appreciated the time he put in teaching us that day. He extended an invitation to get back another afternoon and do some more shooting. Most definitely I intend to honour this invite. It would be stupid of me not to! Maybe after a while doing this my stance towards studio portraiture will change.

The best thing about that day was the realisation of just how wonderful off camera lighting is. No wonder these guys are so cookoo about that whole arena! To them, the first and only commandment is: Thou shalt NEVER use on-camera flash! That day I understood why. None of my on-camera flash shots have ever come close to what I achieved that day with the studio lights illuminating my subject. I had seen examples of both before, but until I did it myself, I didn't fully appreciate the difference in quality of light. There are indeed certain situations where I will have no choice but to use the on-camera flash, but given the choice, I am now sold on off-camera.

My next investment might just end up being a set of studio lights. Which I hope to put up in my tiny sitting room. And do lots and lots of shots. Good thing I have friends who have said I can call upon them any time I need models. So long as they get a copy of good shots from the sessions. The people at Saturday's shoot will all get copies of good pictures of them on disc. Which they are free to use in their portfolios should they wish to make one. Likewise, those that I work with will have the same deal.

But beyond practicing on models, I shall also work on doing lots of still life photography. My understanding is, product photography is a big thing here. If you have even a modest portfolio, you can get lots of work. There is one guy already who says he has almost 10,000 items he needs photographed that he intends to put up in an auction site. Methinks that number is exaggerated, but that's neither here nor there. He wanted to know if I would be up to doing photography for those items for him. This makes my getting lights even more important.

Time to go make that shilling so I can get me some lights!

Cash, Credit cards, Cheques... Cake?

2008-06-24T04:21:00.004-04:00

Last Friday a friend called me, asking me for a favour. He wanted me to go take some photos of his mother's business and have prints made. These were needed urgently. I wasn't particularly feeling this since it was far, and I didn't want to drive there, what with the current fuel prices. One of my lenses is also in the shop being repaired, and it was the lens I would have preferred to use for this job. And the person I called that I know has a lens I could use didn't have it handy. Which meant I would have to do this job using the trusty Sony Cybershot point and shoot. Well, since this guy is a good friend of mine, I decided I would go ahead and do the job, despite these misgivings.

When I got there, his mother was surprised I'd done so as fast as I did. While taking the pictures, she asked if I did this on the regular, and I told her that yup, this was my job. She asked if I did events. Since I carry my portfolio with me everywhere I go, I was able to show her some of the weddings I have done. She loved the pictures, and said that I would be the one to photo her son's wedding when the time came.

I then headed off to get the prints made of the photos I had taken. When I got back, she was rather surprised that I had managed to get them out so fast (she was expecting that it would take at least two hours), and at such great quality. As I was leaving, she said that the box on the counter was for me. Interesting. When I openned it, guess what was in there.

This job sure has its perks! Lesson learned: Don't turn down what could very well be the job that brings good stuff! Not only did I get the cake, but she told me that I will be her first choice of photographer should any need for one come up. Good stuff that.

And plugging for my friend, if you want this and other great offerings the bakery produces, they are Korn Bakers in Amani Plaza in Highridge, Parklands.

Shameless Plug

2008-06-22T15:56:00.002-04:00

In my meanderings around the web, I came across Imagekind, which is a site that will sell prints of my pictures and ship them to any place in the world. And so I share with you a link to my gallery, so that if you are so inclined, you can purchase prints. I had been looking for something like this for sometime, and it was a pleasant surprise to find this. Feel free to head on over and check it out.

Month of Photography II

2008-06-20T11:50:00.008-04:00

Thursday saw us going out in groups around the city to make photographs. My group decided to do a study in contrasts between "Uptown" and "Downtown", with Tom Mboya being the divide. It was an interesting experience, photographing Nairobi. This was my first time doing something like this. The fact that we were a group of us gave me more confidence to take out the camera and snap away. Unfortunately, even with the group, I was unable to completely relax and photo away as much as I would have liked. I guess that is something I have to get used to. However, by the end of the session, I felt like I was freeing up. so the solution seems to have more of these group outings.

After we got done, we had to select 20 images out of the hundreds we took to get printed. Since we spent most of Thursday out and about, the printing was done at the end of that day, and the prints collected Friday morning. We were then supposed to set up our storyline, with nothing but the sequence of photos to tell the story. Captions were not allowed. Out of the 20 prints, we had to eliminate 8, and leave behind just 12. We had to justify why we eliminated those 8, and why we kept just the 12. Each photo had to stand on its own, as well as part of the group. For our project, however, we had to have the photos in pairs, since our whole project was based on a study in contrasts.

It was interesting getting feedback from other groups who would let us know what message they got from the photos. At times it wasn't obvious to them what we were trying to show in a pair of photos, but after explanation, they got it. The instructor stated that that slight confusion on the part of the observer meant that we could probably have done a better job. Maybe take the picture at a different angle or eliminate some elements that might not have been necessary which would instead be distractions.

<Digression>

During our project, we got very many enquiries as to who we were. I mean, here we are, a group of 7, 5 of us with big cameras. We were from the press? A number refused to be photographed. There were some who were only too glad to get their photos taken. The most interesting was something we came across on Keekorok Road. There is an alley there that is stinking with garbage. When the people around there saw us photographing around, they approached us and wanted to know if we were with the press. When we said no, they asked if we could still highlight their plight. An exercise in learning had just turned into a social project. Apparently, NCC workers routinely dump all the garbage around in the alley. However, as the people there pointed out, if they decided to so much as just toss something to the ground, they would instantly be arrested and charged. What irony! To make matters worse, there is a hotel that sits adjacent to the alley. Across the road there is a butchery shop. The name of that shop? Concerned Meat Suppliers. The owner of that butchery was particularly insistent on us doing something about that, so we figured, hey, why not make some photos that would highlight this issue. I have posted some of what we took below. It did involve going into the alley, right there in the trash, and even squatting low to the ground to get some of what you see here. That's when I appreciated the levels some can go to in order to bring you that one picture that will communicate to you something that needs to be told.

Anyone that knows anyone that can do something about this mess, feel free to bring this to their notice.

</Digression>

After every group went through the critiquing exercise, the instructor gave his opinion of how it was, and what we could take away from it. We then sat down and gave feedback on the whole workshop. Many were happy with how it was conducted, stating that the instructor's easy going nature was key in making it good. One of the photographers present said that he had attended a workshop before where the instructor was aloof, thus making for a bad experience. He had to leave the workshop early when he couldn't take it any more. Prior to last week's workshop, he was worried that he might go through the same thing. Especially considering the stature of the instructor, Gerard Planchenault. Gerard works for Nikon France (no wonder he had with him all that expensive Nikon gear! That D3 and two prime lenses would set him back close to a good 10,000 USD!), and has a vast experience in photography, having travelled in quite a number of countries. His work is currently on display at Alliance Francaise, alongside that of another French photographer. You can view some of Gerard's work here. Some of the pictures on that site have been printed and displayed at AF. You need to go see them in person, as they are spectacular works! And so this other photographer was worried he might come with airs that would render the whole workshop very difficult to sit through.

To his surprise, the very first meeting with Gerard made all his fears go away. Apparently, the first time Gerard met with the photographers involved in organizing the event, he insisted they meet as friends, his intention being getting to know them as people first. It was only at the second meeting that he asked them to bring samples of their work so they could critique them, thus getting to know each other on the professional level. Only after he was comfortable with them in those two ways did he then feel ready to conduct a workshop.

A criticism of the workshop was centered around the publicity given to it. I wasn't the only one that found out about it purely by accident. One of the other participants said that had he not been attending an art exhibit at the AF, he would never have seen the poster that advertised the workshop. And he said had he found out about it after the fact, he would have been very disappointed. The suggestion was given that next time there should be wide-spread publicity for it. The fears the organizers had that the attendance would be poor were dispelled by the numbers that ended up there. Close to 30 of us, with that little publicity. So you can imagine how many more would show up with good publicity. And considering we had a participant from Dar and another from Ethiopia, this goes to show that a good product will attract interest, no matter how far away it is located. If this is to be repeated next time, I'm sure they will be turning people away due to the large numbers that will show interest.

This led to the question of why we can't have more of these workshops organized, given the very obvious interest shown for it. Someone asked the AF why they don't do more of this. The response given by the director was very encouraging. He mentioned that the AF doesn't in and of itself organize events such as this. They will only work with interested parties who then take it upon themselves to do the logistics and actual implementation, while AF provides the space. They said that anyone interested in this should just contact them with a proposal, and if they see it fit, they will work with that party in bringing about the event. So the onus is on us as photographers to get together and come up with events which the AF will then host for us.

On my part, I commented on how I have always wanted to attend a photography workshop, and that I was glad I was able to get to be a part of this one. I also pointed out how, despite our obvious gratitude to Gerard for coming over, it didn't mean that we only had to wait for the likes of him to be flown all the way from wherever so that we could have such events. I am sure we have more than capable photographers locally who can very well conduct these workshops. Gerard was especially happy to hear this pointed out, and said he hoped the next time there was a workshop a Kenyan would be at the helm.

I also pointed out the need to have an organization like the Kenya Photographers Association be more visible. A photographer who was part of the steering committe that organized the workshop said he had no clue of KEPA up until he got involved with this workshop. My understanding is, those that approached AF to get the workshop going are also not with KEPA. They are just individuals who love photography. They were challenged by the AF to come up with something that photographers could do during this month of photography. The workshop idea was thus born. KEPA got into the project later. That shouldn't have been the case. KEPA should have been the one that initiated everything, with photographers involved been recruited to join it, thus providing one body for a united front. I told the KEPA officials present that they need to work on marketing themselves to photographers, and to come up with programs and events that will be of interest to these photographers. Regular meetings for one, the occassional photo trips, workshops to train all levels of photographers from the beginners to the advanced, etc. On workshops, it would be good to have both generic ones which cover photography in general, as well as specific ones that cover particular aspects of photography such as sports, wedding, fashion, travel, etc. Having a library of sorts where people can borrow books or magazines is also something that would help a great deal. There was enthusiasm to all these suggestions. I just hope that this enthusiasm translates into action.

It did feel good knowing there are others like me with a passion for photography. I made sure to get their numbers, and we will be meeting regularly to talk photography. Unless you get challenged like this, you run the risk of stagnating, which is not good at all. Something akin to Skunkworks for photographers. Several sites I've gone to of prominent photographers agree with this sentiment. Here's to hoping that this workshop was just the start of bigger things to come.

GO CELTICS!!!

2008-06-18T00:33:00.004-04:00

The buttery-fingers-demon that enabled Eli to escape from the grasp of a hapless Pats defense and cost us a championship has finally been exorcised! The moment I saw the slip during the SB happen, I got up and left in disgust, vile I knew 19-0 was just but wishful thinking.

The priest that was responsible for this: The Boston Celtics! Beating a Lakers team that I'm sure was the favourite to win it all. I haven't followed b-ball really since MJ left the building, so you have all the permission to call me a fair weather fan. But heck, that's home team we are talking about! And so I have every right to be proud of em!

The one thing I'm not happy about is, why all this sports domination when I'm not there? Was I the bad luck they were all facing by my presence there? I mean, Red Sox is champions. Pats are runners up. Celtics are champions. And I heard something about the Bruins giving others a run for their money.

What lends credence to my bad luck factor is the fact that I watched the Super Bowl. And see what happened. I did not even as much as glance at any Red Sox game and see how they did. I only got to know of the Celtics after a friend in Boston told me they were in the finals. Their great 24-from-behind comeback? I read about it in the paper. I then saw a comment 3N made about it on his blog and refrained from saying anything, lest I jinx them. When it was pushed to game 5, I said hata gazetti sitasoma. So it was with immense glee that the first sms I got this morning was from a Boston friend who said they were champs. Ah, a really really nice feeling to wake up to that!

Too bad I won't be there for the celebration that is sure to be had. What a year for Boston sports. I'm sure everyone there is in a high of immense proportions right now.

Time for me to now switch my focus to the local and feel great about our good guys Harambee Stars! Quick recovery to the injured among them, and great success to those flying to meet Zimbabwe on Saturday. Oh, and also great success to the Safar 7s team that same Saturday!

Off to celebrate!

Edit
Okay, I had no clue of the score when I put this up. I just saw it. 131-92? That's not winning! That's THRASHING! The Lakers were tolewad their jerseys by the Celtics who promptly went ahead and mopped the floor of the Garden with them. I mean, how now? Auuuwiiii!!!! Okay, time to really go and CELEBRATE!

Month of Photography

2008-06-11T14:14:00.002-04:00

Today I not only saw the Nikon D3 up close, but I also got a chance to shoot with it. That's a fine piece of machinery! And now that I've felt its raw power in my hands, I can say it is worth every single cent of the $5,000 RRP it commands. I can't blame Nikon for placing such a price tag on this behemoth. And I know the moment I get my hands on a loose $5,000, I am getting me one of those. No ifs or buts about that. Simple.

I got the chance to do this at a photography workshop being held at Alliance Francaise in conjunction with the Kenya Photography Association. This is being done as part of the Month of Photography that the two organizations are sponsoring. There will also be an exhibit by some photographers. I submitted my pictures for this exhibit, and I am hoping at least one of them will be selected.

Today was the first day of the 3-day workshops, with the lecturer going over the basics of photography. To me, it was all redundant stuff, having already learned that myself. However, there were a few things that he mentioned concerning some more advanced stuff that I was clueless about, so it wasn't all waste. And the fact that we not only didn't have to pay to attend, but actually got some money for lunch, made this a very worthwhile thing to do. You get knowledge, and get paid for acquiring it.

There were a few students there, mainly from Daystar University who appreciated the info provided. To a good number of them, it was the first time they were hearing about the basics of photography technique, as well as the elements of design. I could sympathize with them, since I was in their situation about a year ago. I could tell that they were a bit frustrated by the pace, since the concepts were not that easy for them to grasp. And the fact that this was mainly theory with little practical demonstrations meant a number of issues were still unclear to them.

They say that when you can teach someone else something is when you can claim to have achieved mastery of the subject matter. I don't know about that for me, but I must say I found it easy to explain to them the finer details of the various topics under discussion. Unfortunately I didn't have Raul with me, since, as was the case, I expected much theory and little practicals. However, tomorrow we have an exercise where we go around the city and do a photographic story. So this time Raul will be with me. Which will also make it possible for me to practically demonstrate some of the concepts talked about to the students.

Today's experience, as well as requests I have gotten from various people, with the most recent being an email sent to me just yesterday, goes to show that there is a huge untapped market for photography training in the country. Some of those that have asked about this include people taking communications in places such as Daystar. Which goes to show that there is something that could probably be done better in those institutions.

I still consider myself a learner. Well, as the lecturer in today's workshop pointed out, we were all there to learn, including himself who has been doing photography for longer than I've been alive. However, for me to get to the level he is at today, there is still a ways to go. And so it's humbling when someone else comes to me and asks for me to impart knowledge. I will have to be honest with them and let them know of the short time I have been doing this, and also point out the fact that in the course of me teaching them, we shall be discovering some things together as we go along.

After today's session, I believe in the big importance of workshops like these. Unfortunately, this is the only time I have heard of such a session anywhere in the country. If there are others, I have yet to learn of them. I wish it was like the States or in the UK where you have tons of workshops all over the place conducted by veterans in the industry. Even at a fee, I would be very willing to pay to attend something like that. Apart from getting the knowledge in and of itself, interaction with other photographers is also paramount, as I discovered today.

I got to talk to the photographer delegated as mentor to the group I am in for quite a bit. He gave me the business side of things, including things like contracts when accepting jobs. He also gave me his opinion of the state of photography in Kenya and how he feels it is failing the local photographer. This is a man I intend to keep in constant touch with, for he has plenty to share. The funny thing is, just yesterday I was introduced to someone else who mentioned to me of the person he uses for all his photography work. He also gave me the man's contact info, and I made a mental note to call him. It turns out today's mentor is that man I was to contact. A small world we live in!

In closing, I will have to say something more about the D3. I have read reviews where it says this camera simply gets out of the way of the photographer and lets him do his thing. That it achieves what a truly well designed tool should: Transparency to the user. You don't have to worry about the mechanics of operating it. You just do your thing. And truly, the few shots I took with it lent credence to that view point. Something that would have really taxed the D200 to the max, and even then not guarantee you a useable picture was done completely effortlessly by the D3. Simply no comparison. If I get a chance during the work shop tomorrow I will take some comparison test shots that I will hopefully be able to share with you.

HDR Images

2008-06-08T11:56:00.041-04:00

High Dynamic Range (HDR) images is my latest thing. It enables me to come up with pictures I would otherwise have been unable to produce. I'd heard of it sometime back, but didn't seriously explore it. And then I was made aware of this person's photos. I loved how they looked so much that I decided to get into it with all the seriousness it deserves.

While going through the photos in the above Flickr page, I got to learn of the Photomatix software. While you can manually manipulate images using Photoshop to generate the HDR images, I much prefer having Photomatix do it for me. That way, I can focus on doing the actual photography instead of spending all my time infront of a computer editing photos.

The first few photos I worked on didn't look right. I realised that I needed to touch up the photos in Photoshop some after taking them through Photomatix. This is fine with me, since that is just minimal extra steps. And once I know what look I want for a particular set of pictures, I can automate things and batch process the whole set.

So far I have taken pictures in Nakuru, Baringo, Naivasha and Isiolo that I have generated HDR images from. Here is a small sampling of these pictures. Enjoy!

Rhino Charge 2008

2008-06-03T02:33:00.006-04:00

Rhino Charge was what I expected and a whole lot more! I had a blast. I am signed up for next year's event long before they even know any of the logistics for it. For the outdoors type of person, this was just pure bliss.

Something that enhanced this outdoor experience was Zero Network Coverage. For both Celtel and Safaricom. And when I say Zero, I mean Zero. The only place where there seemed to be some hint of coverage was at the RC command center where they had all these communication equipment. But even then it was spotty. Everywhere else, it was zero bar.

I was jazzed big time by the stunts these vehicles pulled. I get there, and the first thing I see is a Range driving down what is humanly impossible to do. A place where no road exists, except for just huge rocks. At a very steep angle. yet this thing drove down. I expected it to topple any second, yet it stayed on course. Have you ever stared at something open mouthed with obvious disbelief? That's how I was. The pictures shown below don't come close to showing just how impossibly rugged that terrain was. You just have to take my word for it that it was a crazy thing to behold.

And just to illustrate further the feat these vehicles were achieving, the hillside they were driving down was such that hiking up it requires that you be very fit. It's not just a stroll in the park. You are climbing over rocks, at times on hands and knees, just to go up. If you plan on doing RC next year, you had better start working up stamina now. You'll need it, if they happen to take it to a venue with a terrain like this one in Samburu.

K24 were on hand to cover the entire trip from a Bunduz stand point. So within the next day or so you'll see highlights from the trip on that channel. You might even catch a glimpse of Raul in action!

The highlight of my trip, however, was seeing with my own two eyes the Nikon D3 camera. That's the Buggatti Veyron of cameras, as far as I am concerned. Can you say bliss? I just had to go up to the guy that had it and talk to him about it. And he was kind enough to let me take a photo of it.

Raul was so honoured to have come so close to a piece of photographic genius as the D3! Borrowing from BMW, it is the Ultimate Shooting Machine! Someday I shall call one of those mine!

Time now to work on the rest of the images from the weekend to share with you.

Birds of Baringo

2008-05-26T03:18:00.021-04:00

Today's post is nothing but birds seen in Baringo, a bird watcher's paradise! My next investment is a Birds of East Africa book. Checked at NuMetro, all they had was Birds of Southern Africa. I'll try TBC and Bookpoint next.

The tour guide we had on the boat trip across Lake Baringo is a walking encyclopaedia of birds. I'm not surprised though, given that his job entails telling folk about the local wildlife. Here are some of the birds we saw at the place. Enjoy!

'

Back to No Panic

2008-05-23T04:26:00.001-04:00

First we agreed not to panic. Then we saw that there was still no panic. But some panicked, and some clarification had to be put in place. Well, hopefully that cleared things, and we are back to the no panic state. Only difference is, base of operations has changed. Hang onto your towel. Don't lose the guide. Belt up for another 31,536,000 seconds of adventure!

Fish Eagle on Lake Baringo

2008-05-20T11:41:00.007-04:00

This is just a shameless copying of this post. I love that blog as it has some super pictures of Malawi. That particular post reminds me of the last Bunduz trip I took, which was to Baringo. Pictures from that will be shared shortly.

For now I just have a few I took of a fish eagle in action on Lake Baringo. I hope to capture it even better next time round.

Enjoy!

Great Photography Books

2008-04-24T04:23:00.002-04:00

In my photography pursuits, I have come across very many books dealing with the topic. Of the ones I have bothered to read through, so far only two have managed to join my Photography Books Hall of Fame. Both are by Bryan Peterson; Understanding Exposure and Learning to See Creatively.

Yesterday a third book joined their rank. Digital Wedding Photography by Glen Johnson. I knew right away it was a contender right from the preface (yes, I do read those... they can be very informative). I am right now in the process of reading through it novel-like before I can then get back to it at a slower pace, digesting the wisdom therein. I wish people would write more books like these! It makes the work of learning about something so much easier!

For details on any of these three books, just click on the links to the left under Great Photography Books. Looking through the Amazon sites of these books, you can tell I'm not the only one that thinks they are great. Understanding has 4.5 stars from 415 reviewers, Learning has 4.5 stars from 93, and Digital 4.5 from 68. We are legion that love these books, apparently!

Ego boost!

2008-04-23T09:42:00.000-04:00

What's the best feedback a photographer can get about his work? I suppose being asked to make a second album from the very same wedding. The couple from what I consider to be my best wedding so far to have worked on just got back from their honeymoon. While away, they got a chance to visit the father of the groom who had been unable to make it to the wedding due to health reasons. He loved the album so much that he refused to have them come back with it, insisting on keeping it. Good stuff that! So now they have to get a second album done. And not only that, but they want me to make an album from the pictures they took during their honeymoon as well. Which was in Lisbon, London and Iceland. And from the pictures of Iceland I have seen, that has just joined my places-to-see-before-I-die list.

Easter in TZ with Bunduz

2008-04-01T11:10:00.031-04:00

I was in Tanzania for Easter. I had lots of fun! These guys know their stuff, I must say!

We stayed at a campsite in Mto wa Mbu.

As always, the cuisine was great. The chefs did a nice job! I called them the presidential chefs, since one was called Mwai, and the other Kenyatta.

We got to visit Ngorongoro and Tarangire. I especially loved Ngorongoro. Breathtaking! Simply beautiful. The view of the caldera from the top was magnificent.

The pictures above don't do it justice. You have to be there to truly appreciate the beauty.

The caldera is just under half the size of Nairobi at 304 square kilometres. It is home to a big variety of wildlife, some of which I show here.

On the way back to camp, we came across some baboons. Here is one of a mother and her youngin.

While there the drivers had told us to close windows to the cars anytime we stepped out. Sure enough the one car that had its windows open made for an interesting show as a baboon climbed into the passenger side and dashed out just as fast with a brown paper bag in its hands. Good thing it was a trash bag and not someone's purse.

Tarangire was nice, but not as spectacular as Ngorongoro. We should have done Tarangire first then Ngorongoro second. So when you go visit the place intending to see both parks, make sure you do Ngorongoro last.

One place we stopped for lunch one day I got a chance to capture this little bugger. Yup, there had to be a little critter shot somewhere!

On another occasion I managed to get this one just chilling on my tent

At one point we stopped at a place that sold superb quality t-shirts. One that was a hit was this one...

And sure enough, before leaving TZ, I had a chance to capture the real deal...

We had fun at the camp as well. Unlike the Tsavo trip where we were really in the bush, here there were trappings of modernity all around. Such as the swimming pool, which was made thorough use of

Or the local across the road that must have seen revenue from the few Kenyans in that one weekend than they probably do in a week.

When the music was a factor for complaints, some went behind and changed it. Others took this opportunity to pose with the staff behind the bar

I went to sleep early. But I could still here them party folks from all the way across the road as late as 5am. At one point the broke out into "Oh When The Saints". I wonder how they managed to get up for breakfast. I could just imagine the hangovers!And also to tear down the tents, especially considering the downpour that was there!

It was a weekend well spent. I can't wait for the next trip!

Bicentenial Macros

2008-03-13T10:11:00.025-04:00

I have just been made aware of a blog with a few lovely macro photographs. I love that stuff! If I was independently wealthy, that is one of the aspects of photography that I would have exclusively dealt with. Since that is just but a dream for now, as I make money in one aspect of my photography, I could indulge every now and then in my photographic first love.

As I was setting out to write this post, I realised it is post number 200. What a better way to mark this than with some close up pictures of various things I have taken. A few of these I have shared before. But usually as part of other pictures. Today, everything is macro. The first half is of artificial stuff, the second of shots from nature.

Enjoy!

Happy Women's Day

2008-03-08T09:50:00.002-05:00

So, how did you spend March 8th? Mine was at Alfajiri during the Stanchart Pink Carpet event. Plenty of women around. All potential customers. I did get a couple of definite bookings. And about 3 other strong possibilities. Next time I'm taking with me 500 business cards. The 100 I had which I thought would not all go were gone in less than no time. I like that.

Here's to the women of the world! 3 cheers to y'all!

Photo Updates.

2008-03-04T10:12:00.012-05:00

Ramon Machado Jose Sergio Bob. I'm sure you must be wondering who the person with such a long name is. Well, it's not a human being. Those are actually names proposed for Raul's brother. I mentioned here that in due course I would need a second camera body. That need has just been made more necessary now that work has picked up rather well.

But other than a second body, I need lights. Studio lights to be precise. Some of the work I am getting requires that I have them. So those are two things I need to get before long.

I did my first major wedding as the first photographer two weeks ago. It went much better than I thought it would. You see, there had been some issues between the wedding planner and bride and groom, therefore my expectations for the wedding were rather dim. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. Infact, this was the most fun I have ever had photographing a wedding. It did not feel like work at all. I wish all weddings would be like this one.

Some things I noted from this wedding are:

1. Talk to the person to officiate the ceremony. Better know beforehand where you can and cannot stand, and when to take or not to take photos. Will save you from embarassment when the pastor turns to you and says, when we are praying I want to hear no click of the shutter. Or don't be behind me.

2. Agree with the bride and groom on how they will exchange rings. You don't want to miss that shot because of the crazy angles resulting from the bride and groom standing in a difficult to capture position.

3. For that point above, you want to make sure whatever angle you get will also let those attending the wedding view the exchanging of rings. There's nothing I hate more than a battery of photographers standing right smack infront of the couple, thereby blocking everyone else from seeing what is going on.

4. I much prefer unposed, capturing the moment type pictures over the traditional ones. The latter look too contrived. In my portfolio, I happen to find the ones that are not posed much better and more appealing to look at than the posed pictures. For this wedding I did as first photographer, the couple just acted themselves, and all I did was capture them on camera during the photo shoot. There were a few posed pictures, but even those looked more natural than usual.

A week after the wedding, I met the planner to finalise on payment issues. She mentioned to me that she was at a committee where my name came up rather favourably. This is good. It means I can stop worrying that my savings will run out before I can claim to be comfortably earning an income. Money has been going out more than it has been coming in.

Tomorrow I meet with a potential client. I'm seeing her at her office, so hopefully she has colleagues who will want to see my pictures, thus generate more business. Oh, and the bride from the wedding I shot last week, well, she says her family loved the pictures I took. She said that there are three weddings coming up, and that all of them want me to be their photographer. This feels good!

Have a great Tuesday evening!

A 6 kiloword tag

2008-02-27T17:03:00.008-05:00

HnH tagged me. True to my passion, I have decided to share 6 pictures from weddings I have covered in the past few months. They might not reveal something about me as was expected, but I figure they will show what has been keeping me busy and away from Life, The Universe And Everything!

I tag DonQ (yes, here's another!), Chatterly, Devious, Rista, Ichiena and 'Tato.

Telkom Wall

2008-02-08T09:41:00.000-05:00

The Jamuhuri Telkom Exchange on Ngong Road suffered under the ire of a mob and was almost burnt down. Two cars belonging to employees were reduced to shells. All windows in the building were broken from rocks thrown at it. Just before this whole mess we are in came about, all that existed to demarcate that property with the rest of the world was a chain link fence. When trouble broke out, razor wire was added to the top. This, alas, was not enough to keep the crowds away, as was aptly demontrated during the orgy of destruction.

With this in mind, I was very surprised when I saw they had not only put back a fence, but this time had decided stone was the way to go. Barely two weeks after that mayhem the fence is up almost 7 feet, and almost all done. I figure they decided the cost of putting one up is minimal compared to the security it will offer compared to the previous solution. The two burnt out shells of cars are still within the compound. The windows are still broken. The charred walls are still visible. I guess priority number one was to secure the place before now dealing with everything else.

Here are a few images taken today of the place with the new wall under construction.

Lamu Donkeys

2008-01-29T08:03:00.000-05:00

For the longest time it was said that the only mechanized transport present in Lamu was the DC's Landrover. I saw it while there. I also saw two tractors, meaning mechanization of transport has advanced some. Beyond that, the only other form of transport available was all biological. Anything that involved heavy stuff was done by donkeys. I saw them carry people, cement, stones, sand, generators, etc. I now leave you images taken of the various uses these donkeys were put to.

AOB

The pictures I took to get printed and mounted on foam board are now on display. They look good! Especially the one I did at 20"x30". So much so that if I had enough money I would have done several pictures that size. The response has been great, with new business generated from people who have seen them. Lined up is a photo shoot of the staff of a dance company, a family photo shoot and a greeting cards photo assignment. Now if only the situation messing up our beloved country would get resolved soonest, for that just puts a damper on things.

Stay safe people, and keep praying for Kenya.

Lamu Suns

2008-01-21T09:03:00.000-05:00

I mentioned in a comment left at Kirima's latest post on how I have found it hard to do any posts. While I would like to continue sharing pictures I have taken, I wondered how appropriate that would be given the current situation. But I figure now I need to just keep on doing so, while not forgetting what is happening around me. The beauty of Kenya needs to be shown to the world, especially at this point in time.

Just before I share some pictures with you, I want to mention that I found a great place to print images. It's all the way in Gigiri at the Warwick Center and is called Photo Mural. I had gone to the place enquiring about prices of the various printing services they have, only to end up with a close to two hour chat with the owner on various aspects of photography. A very well spent two hours as I got to learn much on what goes on to get a good print. I will definitely use these guys for all my printing jobs. I tried them out with a few images taken at some weddings, and the results are stellar. All that have seen them agree with me.

For that first printing job, the owner sat down with me and showed me the adjustments he makes to each image to bring out the best possible copy for printing. This is something I could even do by myself before sending them to him, saving on time needed to get them back once submitted. I am now investing time in mastering these techniques. I also ordered some prints mounted on black foam board appropriate for hanging on walls. The biggest image size I ordered was for a 20"x30" print of the following image:

I can't wait to see what it's like when I pick it up later this week. Depending on how the response is for these images at the place I intend to display them, I could very well start selling them to interested parties.

And with that, I leave you these images of sunrises and sunsets from Robinson and Lamu islands.

Lamu Prelude

2008-01-05T11:51:00.000-05:00

I was in Lamu to usher in 2008. The island is beautiful. The people are friendly. It is an idyllic town that feels more like a foreign country. This was emphasized the more by what has been going on in the rest of Kenya. Trouble began on the day we drove down to the coast. By the time we got to Mombasa, we heard of bad things going on in Nairobi. By the following day, this had escalated. But in Lamu, you couldn't have guessed Kenya was burning. I wish I could say I enjoyed my stay fully. Yes, I did have fun. But it was tempered by the worry I had over family and friends in other parts of Kenya that were not as fortunate to enjoy the peace present here. I didn't even enjoy taking pictures as much as I normally do. When we left the island, I made a promise to myself. I will have to visit it again someday in future when the peaceful Kenya we have known for long is back.

That is one of the few pictures I was able to take. In due course I will post more pictures from the trip.

Have a peaceful day.

Images from Sopa

2007-12-28T11:56:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure of visiting Sopa Lodge in Naivasha about a month ago. Here are a few images I was able to capture while at the place. Enjoy!

More photography resources

2007-12-28T04:03:00.000-05:00

Apart from the Norman Koren site I posted about, I have come across two other sites that are deep mines of information as far as photography goes. These are Luminous Landscape and Cambridge in Colour. I have spent a great deal of time reading all three sites as I learn all I can about photography as expressed in the writings found therein. One thing I have come to realise in these studies is the lack of workshops in Kenya where one can go to and do a short course on various aspects of photography. That spelled opportunity. Someday when I am a master expert, I will have to start something like this so that one doesn't have to fly to Europe or the US to attend one of these.

There is one contributor on the Luminous Landscape site, Alain Briot, who has some very insightful essays on photography. I have read them very carefully, following closely what he has to say. There are a number of things he writes about that I don't necessarily agree with, but he sure does a good job of explaining himself. And he states that he doesn't expect his audience to fully agree with him on every single point. One thing he wrote really resonates well with me. Quoting him, "Since anything you choose to do to the best of your abilities will present difficulties, you might as well do exactly what you like".

Alain who has his own site also provides a DVD that pretty much covers the Print Mastery Seminar he offers. It's very expensive at 975USD. But then again he says the cost of the DVD is the same as the seminar, since one can get it and not have to attend the actual workshop. This is because everything that is offered in the seminar is present in the DVD, complete with movies of all instruction sessions, practice sessions and images used. Looked at that way, it's a steal since you don't have to pay for airfare and accommodation. Now if only Santa will do belated deliveries and get me one of these!

A first!

2007-12-28T03:25:00.000-05:00

I voted. Finally! After having to watch from the sidelines two elections go by me, this time I managed to perform my civic duty.

I had intended to describe how my day was, but then the news media has covered much of what I experienced, so I feel there's no need to do it in as much detail. My polling station was Karen C. Being my first time to vote, I got there very early hoping to cast my vote and get it done with early. 6.17am found me on the line. Officials did not arrive till close to 7.10am. Confusion reigned as they set up alphabetical signs for people to line up. Those of us that had been standing in line for close to an hour and half by the time they did that had to regroup. Then when we thought we could finally get going, it was discovered that a stamp had been left at Nyayo House. Meaning someone had to go get it before voting could begin. Which it finally did at 9am. I cast my vote at 12.30pm. That is over six hours since I got there. Next time I shall not be as eager, and wait till much later before reporting to the polling station.

I took a drive around downtown in the afternoon. All roads around KICC had been cordoned off with police road blocks. There was a huge armoured police truck at each entrance of Uhuru Park, complete with two high calibre guns mounted on the driver's cabin of each vehicle. Security around there is being taken seriously.

No, I didn't take any pictures. I have not gotten confident enough that I can do that in this scenario without consequencies of one kind or another. Next time I'll do my homework and check with the ECK as to what is and isn't allowed so I can snap away.

Now that voting is out of the way, I get back to doing what I do, which is take pictures. No, I won't sit infront of the tv eagerly waiting to see who becomes the next president. I figure that I could use my time more productively. Whoever comes in is now beyond my control. And so why worry about it?

AOB

It's sad what happened in Pakistan. When will human beings learn that violence isn't the answer? Pole to Bhutto's family and Pakistanis in general.

Recipes, Weddings and Pictures

2007-12-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

Today I got this link that has a very interesting twist on recipes. Cooking for Engineers. It is not the traditional recipe site. It gives a detailed analysis of each recipe featured, and for some of them will conduct an experiment to verify or nullify a hypothesis on any aspect of the recipe. On others it hopes to recreate a dish with cost reduction in mind, such as this one. What caught my eye when I first came to the site was this recipe for smoked beer can turkey. Reminds me of this recipe I blogged about sometime back. The funniest thing about it is, I learned of that particular recipe from a fellow engineer!

I have had the fortune to cover 4 weddings with Raul. What a learning experience! The one thing I learned quickly was how tiring it can be. You are on your feet throughout running up and down, hoping not to miss that one shot that will make the couple smile years in future. I have also learned that the demeanour of the couple and bridal party goes a long way in determining how exciting a particular assignment can be. Most recently I did two weddings back to back. The first one was a joy to shoot. The second one on the following day wasn't as exciting. I couldn't pin point why that was until a friend who was looking through the pictures of both weddings commented on how folks in the second one were morose. Unlike those of the day before who were full of life. Maybe I should go to cheering school to aid in turning such situations as I experienced around.

I am now trying to pick up editing. One of the pictures I shot looks superb. Even when printed on sub-par paper, it turns out nice. What I need to do now is calibrate my monitor (thank you Aegeus for the heads-up on that), calibrate my printer, and grok The Gimp so that I can turn what to my untrained eye are good pictures into superior prints. This is hard work! But full of fun and excitement. I was fortunate to be a secondary photographer to this generous-with-advice photographer during one wedding I did. I picked up a few pointers from doing it. One of which I took advantage of at a future assignment, much to the joy of my clients. I think I could get used to this.

I did attend the last WaPi. In it, one Alex Kamweru who is a documentary photographer gave his thoughts on the industry. From listening to him, I came to realise that that is a field I would more likely end up being in as opposed to wedding/event photography. The biggest reason for this is, with documentary work, I can take as much time as I want. Well, this is within the constraints set forth by the client. If I want to take several shots of something, I am not under the same time constraints as at a function where the timetable is more rigid. One thing I didn't particularly like about the wedding shoot was the fact that we had to do the pictures within a very limited amount of time since the guests couldn't be kept waiting at the reception. And also the fact that if you missed the groom kissing the bride shot after exchanging vows, you just couldn't ask the person presiding to have them do it again. It sure does have its set of challenges.

One big take away from Alex's talk at WaPi was the fact that you go into photography not with the aim of making money, but with the aim of fulfilling a passion. You have to love it to keep doing it. If money is your aim, he said you'd be sorely disappointed. Sure, you could get an assignment that will land you loads of cash, but then that is not something you should bank on. And I think just as with any other endeavour, someone who's passion is photography will produce work that is noticeably superior to that one whose sole motivation is money.

Enough writing for now. Time to go grok photography some more. Have a lovely day!

Cars, cars and more cars!

2007-11-27T11:13:00.001-05:00

Nairobi is choke full of cars. Traffic jams even in the unlikliest of times. Thika Road is slated for an additional lane on each side of the carriageway. Mombasa Road looks like it will get the same treatment. But even that doesn't seem like it will ease the traffic problems. On Saturday while at Safari Park Hotel I got to see the nightmarish traffic on Thika Road. Today I took the bus into town, since the car I normally use is out of comission. It was crazy! I realised, seated in that bus, that I was better off doing this than being the sole occupant of a vehicle that contributed to this traffic. If more people either shared or took public transport, it would mean less cars on the road, thus less traffic.

And talking of cars, the rate at which new ones are introduced to the roads is very high! I saw the first KBA vehicle about 3 weeks ago. This was a moment of note, since I remember the first time I saw the new KAA registration on a vehicle 17 years ago. It was on a Saturday afternoon. I was with some of my classmates in primary school in Nyahururu planting flowers near the gate to the school compound. A pick-up drove by that had the new KAA plates, and that caused us all to stop what we were doing and stare at it. I even remember the month. It was in August. One of those things you just can't forget.

From when that first KAA xxxA vehicle came through to when I saw the first KAB xxxB, almost a year and a half had gone by. At that rate, the KAx xxxx series of registration plates would be over in about 36 years. And were that rate to prevail, it would mean that about 870 years would have to pass before you could see KZZ 999Z on a car (The above figures are drawn from 24 letters of the alphabet, since the letters I and O are not used). However, somewhere along the way the rate of buying cars suddenly shot up. Instead of the expected 36 years it took for the KAA xxxA series to get done, a mere 17 years was enough to see that happen. With this new rate, it meant that it would take about 400 years for you to see KZZ 999Z on a car.

The rate of car buying, however, shows that this will happen much sooner rather than later. When I saw the first KBA vehicle, it was a KBA xxxB. I was surprised that it had gotten there so fast, seeing as I haven't even seen any KBA xxxA car yet. Shock on me when I was told that they had gotten to C. Before I had even settled from that shock, I saw a KBA xxxE on the road. And then today I saw a KBA xxxF, and then almost immediately after KBA xxxG. This means we have gone through 7 letters of the alphabet in less than a month, compared to 17 years ago when just one letter of the alphabet took about a year and a half to get exhausted.

No wonder there is a traffic problem in the city! The rate at which we are buying cars simply overwhelms the ability of the roads to contain them. So we either reduce the rate at which we are acquiring these vehicles to a level that will keep pace with infrastructure development, or we waste myriads of man hours doing nothing sitting in traffic wondering when we will manage to get to the office to see that important deal go through, and thus improve on the economy.

Semi-related AOB...

I was late for the party at Archer's where he posted on driving in Nairobi. Of the points he raised, the ones that resonated most with me were:

Matatus stopping willy nilly. When I am taking public transport, I refuse to board a matatu, unless it's the only option I have on the particular route I am on. I'd much rather wait for a bus. Not that their driving is impecabble, but their crimes of traffic are not as blatant or as common as that of their matatu brethren. I do this, since I know how much grief they cause me when I'm driving, and so I don't want to encourage that behaviour by giving them my business. Afadhali I wait for the bus!

Full beam. I hate that. One time I had to stop at the side of the road and let the oncoming car pass before I could proceed due to the blinding I got from his full beam. No amount of toggling my full beams could make him turn off his. An experience that was even worse than that was having a Range Rover overtake me that had rear facing lights attached at the roof of full beam strength. Talk of almost driving into the bush from the sudden blinding I experienced! Aren't those things illegal??

Pedestrians/cyclists who wear dark clothing at night. Almost at the same spot as where the Range passed me a day prior, I was almost knocking down a cyclist who was completely dressed in black. It was just that I noticed some movement that I was able to safely pass him. Can't they invest in even just one luminiscent top for night time cycling/walking?

These are just but a few of the very many griefs I go through driving in this city. Gives me even greater motivation to switch to public transport (and sticking to buses at that). If only they ran 24 hours and were a lot more reliable than they currently are. Ah well!