Burnt Earth Designs...

I had such a fun time with Burnt Earth Designs recently! They manufacture bespoke clay mosaics in Harare. The sheer creativity and devotion that goes into each ceramic piece is amazing, and the results are breathtaking! I was lucky enough to get to photograph a variety of Burnt Earth installations recently, and you can see for yourself how stunning they are below.

Now these amazing installations would not be possible without being able to implement that creative vision in the workshop. Each piece is hand made from scratch by a small, talented team in their Harare worksop.

Possibly even more impressive than the team at the workshop is the team at the studio who make the ceramic pots, cups and cutlery using a potters wheel. The skill, practice and patience required to create the beautiful results is a pleasure to watch!

A tasty calendar...

I am lucky enough to do a lot of food photography, so I was more than pleased when I was approached by Freddy Hirsch Zimbabwe to help them create images for their 2019 calendar. The meals where prepared by the awesome chefs at The Bistro Restaurant and my good friend Giani DiTano was in charge of the art direction. The brief was to photograph scrumptious dishes of food that showcased the range of Freddy Hirsch spices. I also photographed each spice pack in the studio along with a heaped pile of the spices to showcase the vibrant colours of each spice. I am sure you will agree that the combination of delicious food and vibrant colours complement each other well in the calendar.

Sitting under the stars...

I’m not sure if there is anything more peaceful to do as a photographer than to sit under a million African stars in complete silence, with only the occasional clatter of your camera’s shutter disturbing the peace. Whenever I get the opportunity to do it I always wonder why it has been so long silence I last did it, and resolve to do it again soon!

Thankfully that is often easier than it sounds, especially in Africa where, even near a large city like Harare, the light pollution is not too bad. These photographs where taken at a popular tourism destination, Domboshawa, just a 15 minute drive from the edge of Harare. In a matter of a few hours and with 2 camera’s set up I manage to capture a variety of different angles of the iconic boulders, in amongst my musings at the stars!

If you would like to learn how to photograph the stars I will be leading workshops out to Domboshawa soon, please feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more, or check out our available courses here.

Bustling around Banff Lodge...

Earlier this year I was asked by the team at Banff Lodge to create some new marketing images of their BnB. Situated in the Bulawayo suburbs this family owned BnB was a real pleasure to shoot!

I was asked to cover all the public areas of the BnB in different lighting conditions and including some of the staff at work in the restaurant and their popular pool deck, I particularly like the images of the pool and external images of the BnB in the blue evening light, check them out below and see for yourself.

In addition to the general public areas some of the rooms had been newly refurbished and so some great images of these were also needed, what would a hospitality shoot be without pictures of the sumptuous rooms on offer?

Another highlight of the day for me was shooting their new food menu, the main challenge here was keeping my grumbling tummy at bay during the duration of the food shoot! Check out some of the delicious results below!

Its always a pleasure for me to do hotel photography and on this occasion with Banff lodge it was no different, I would like to say a huge thanks to the team on the ground who made everything happen to effortlessly!

Batonka and the beautiful Blue...

Batonka Guest Lodge must be one of the most well appointed small boutique lodges in Victoria Falls so when they asked me to help them update their marketing gallery I was thrilled! Although the focus was to create some fresh material to be used as signature images for the lodge's new marketing strategies some more general shots of the public areas and rooms where required to replace older images. You can see some of the great results below.

The owners of the lodge really love the look and vibe of the property in the 'blue light' just after sunset so as the sun started to dip over the horizon there was some frantic activity to ensure that all the areas we wanted to cover were well prepped and looking fantastic. I'm sure you will agree that the character of the lodge is really accentuated by the soft tones and poppy colours of that magical blue hour. 

In addition to the beautiful blue images above we took to the air to look for some unique angles of the lodge that really showcase the green haven that it is. As usual my drone did not disappoint and I was able to capture a stunning sunset above the lodge. 

All in all I am sure you will agree with me that the shoot was a great success, thankfully so did the owners of Batonka Guest Lodge who where thrilled with some of the fresh angles that we managed to capture! I had great fun shooting Batonka and would like to thank the owners for the opportunity to shoot and showcase the lodge.

Sweet experiences in Zimbabwe's lowveld...

I have been very fortunate to shoot for Tongaat Hulett in Zimbabwe's low veld sugar hub for the past several years and have enjoyed working with the sugar giant immensely. The scale of the agriculture and the overwhelming size of the production process offers almost unending photographic opportunities.

I was contracted by Tongaat to photograph their Zimbabwean operations for the 2017 annual report. The brief was to get as many dynamic shots of their operations, production and people as possible, with a key focus being on capturing unique and captivating images of their staff at work in all environments.

This really pleased the portrait photographer in me and I think i can say that i managed to get some honest and engaging shots of the Tongaat staff...

Tongaat have a massive agricultural footprint in Zimbabwe's low-veld, focused around the Triangle and Hippo Valley Estates with total land under sugar cane of roughly 40 000 hectares. When the operations are in full swing there are so many photographic opportunities avaiable that I was spoiled for choice. Cleary a major part of the brief was to capture the agricultural and harvesting side of the operations, which you can see below.

Each estate has its own sugar mill and combined can crush over 4.5 million tonnes of sugar cane annually, which produces roughly 600 000 tonnes of sugar! Massive is the only word that really describes this undertaking! I was lucky enough to spend a few days in the mills documenting the process form start to finish and learning all about the fascinating process that eventually results in processed sugar. 

The best way to appreciate the size of the agricultural footprint as well as the mills in my opinion is with aerial pictures. This is were my drone always shines, allowing me to capture unique angles and wide, stretching vistas.

All in all I always enjoy my assignments down to Tongaat Hulett and am already looking forward to my next assignment! If you have an agricultural project that you would like photographed, please don't hesiatte to contact me.

Shooting Sports....

In my line of work I am lucky enough to shoot a huge variety of content, and that is not limited to quite a few sporting occasions. Being a great lover of wildlife photography I have all the necessary fast camera's and long lenses to effectively shoot a large sports occasion. I love the challenge of a fast rugby game or the patience and observation required to shoot golf.

I have been lucky in my career to shoot a large number of golf days for corporates, as well as the internationally renowned Zimbabwe Open Golf tournament, check out a small selection of my golf images below. If you have a golf day coming up and would like it covered please don't hesitate to contact me.

I was very lucky to be commissioned by Old Mutual earlier this year to shoot the 2 super 15 games that were played here in Harare by 4 South African teams. Namely the Lions vs The Bulls and the Stormers vs The Cheetahs.

A few weeks ago I was commissioned by VHM Events Management  to shoot the Zimbabwe Polo Open, a sport that I had little experience with but loved every minute of!

Every year I am lucky enough to be asked by Old Mutual Zimbabwe to cover all their major sporting events, which includes a lot of Marathons, they are early starts and involve a lot of bumping around in the back of open vehicles but are incredibly fun to shoot!

If you have enjoyed these pictures and have a sporting event coming up that you would like covered, don't hesitate to contact me for a quote or more information.

Lomagundi College...

Earlier this year I was commissioned by my colleagues at The Marketing Chefs to create engaging content for one of Zimbabwe's boarding schools; Lomagundi. The school is split into a junior school as well as a college and the brief entailed getting as many appealing shots of the school, staff, grounds and activities as possible which would be used on the schools' new website being developed by the Marketing Chefs, which you can see here.

As usual the shots had to be of the highest quality and had to showcase as many different aspects of the school as possible. Needless to say it was a frantic 24 hours of shooting on site! The biggest challenge on a shoot like this is always time, its never on your side! We were shooting on the last day of the school term and so even though we had been given complete carte blanche and several awesome helpers we still had to work round class times and teachers' schedules.

Despite this the shoot went without a hitch and myself and the team from The Marketing Chefs managed to get all the content we needed. As we arrived in the afternoon of day 1 we got straight into shooting some sports practices. Like all good boarding schools in Zimbabwe sports is at the heart of the school and its students, so we were able to get a good variety of shots on the basketball court, the rugby pitch and even some equestrian images.

Early the following morning we set about shooting some sunrise and early morning shots of the school grounds. The school isn't very large which made it easier for me to find the best angles in the beautifully soft early morning light.

Boarding school starts early so there wasn't even time for a coffee break before I was shooting some setup shots of the students around the school grounds. Lomagundi College is co-ed so part of the brief was to showcase the integration on the school premises from the Junior School through to the college. The boarding houses however are same sex so I also did some shots showcasing a small portion of life for the students in the boarding houses.

A school shoot wouldn't be complete without having a good selection of classroom pictures, the trick here was to get the students looking happy and engaged, and if you remember school like I do not everyone loves the classroom! The Lomagundi children must be commended on loving their school and classroom time and so this did not prove to be an issue at all! I also shot some setup pics in the library as well as the computer lab to showcase the digital innovation that is essential the modern day school environment.

I was thrilled with the pics that we managed to get at Lomagundi, and most importantly so was the school! I would like to say a big thank you to Lomagundi for having us and to the team at The Marketing Chefs for their continuing support and creative direction! See some screen grabs from the website below or check out it out here. Please don't hesitate to be in touch if you would like any marketing shots done of your won school, business or product! 

Good staff pics are key

In the modern digital world it has become more essential than ever for corporates to have engaging, professional portraits of their staff. Clients want to see who they are dealing with over the phone, email or through the multitude of communication channels available to corporates, to put a face to name as it were.

Not only does it portray a strong sense of corporate professionalism it also creates strong bonds and re-humanises what the efficiency of modern communication has swiftly de-humanised over the past 10 years. Nothing says 'how can I help you' more than a warm smile in an engaging portrait picture.

Thankfully with the modern technology available today creating engaging, professional staff portraits is a relatively quick and painless exercise. I have been shooting staff portraits for over 10 years both on site and in our studio, so if you are interested in updating your staff profile, have a look at the few examples below and don't hesitater to contact us for more info or to make a booking.

The Dissection of a Dhow...

I am blessed to have had excellent training in my field of profession and we strive to pass on some of that knowledge as often as possible through our Introduction to Photography Courses. However, despite the power of knowledge it can be almost useless if it is not applied in the right manner. There is no exception to this in the field of photography and thats why getting out and using your camera so you gain as much field experience as possible is invaluable.

As a working professional I have the opportunity to do this every day, and with a wide scope of clients, locations and personal interests the experience that I gain everyday is invaluable. You can also never stop learning, something I am always happy to admit to.

Despite all this wonderful experience and the often complex way in which we have to shoot some of our corporate work, its always fantastic to be able to get back to the real basics, and often the results are stunning.

This happened recently while I was on a short holiday in Mozambique, we had rented a dhow for the day and were heading off to the tropical beauty that is Paradise Island in the Bazaruto Archipelago. I was on holiday and thus very chilled, had no brief from a client and just one lens on my camera, almost bliss! So back to basics it was, to photograph the boat from as many angles as possible to showcase the Dhows' different functions and character.

When I talk about composition in our Intro courses I always try to emphasis that you need to move around your subject as much as possible to get as many different angles of your subject as you can, this is very basic stuff but I am left wondering if a little bit of experience doesn't help you decide that basics are often better!