5 tips for capturing a purple paradise..

Its that time of the year again when Zimbabwe, and a lot of southern Africa, is drenched in the colour purple as the ubiquitous Jacaranda trees flower in all their glory. Harare and Bulawayo are renowned for this purple spectacle and thankfully I have been able to spend a bit of time wandering the streets with camera in hand. See below a rough guide to getting the most out of your jacaranda trees...

1. Keep your eyes open and scout your scenes...

A lot of the images I have successfully created were from just being observant when I travelled around Harare and taking mental and physical notes of areas and scenes that I thought had potential. I then revisit those places in my own time and really work the scene from all angles. Don't be afraid to move around looking for different angles and perspectives. I also scouted my own neighbourhood a lot, there is often a tendency to think that good images must be far away from home. This often isnt the case at all and I managed to get some great images 5 minutes from my front door.

This image of a typical neighbourhood scene was taken just around the corner from my house.

2. Shoot during the golden hours...

Typically speaking most of the photography magic happens in the "golden hours" which are at sunrise and sunset so either get up very early and be on site before the sun or plan your day so you can be on site before the sun sets. Having said that the light is still good for about 2 hours after and before the sunrise and sunset so make sure you make good use of these times. The mix of soft, warm golden light and the magenta heavy hue of the jacarandas makes for some potential eyeball popping pictures!

Golden hour light will add that extra vibrancy to your jacaranda pictures.

3. Shoot with different lenses...

Due to their age most of the Jacaranda trees in Zimbabwe are huge and so the temptation is to try and get the whole tree in every picture. While there is nothing wrong with this I would also suggest making use of any other lenses you have in your kit bag. Wide angle lenses will give you a wider angle of vision that will allow you to 'see' the whole scene in front of you. However, longer telephoto lenses like the standard 75-300 kit lenses, 70-200mm f2.8 lenses or even 50mm and 100mm lenses will narrow that angle of vision dramatically and give you a more compact view through your viewfinder. The longer lenses will also compress the foreground and background together creating the illusion that elements are closer together than they are. You can take advantage of this compression to make your compositions more powerful as the background (hopefully your colourful jacaranda's) will become more obvious in your shots.

I used a longer lens (this was shot at 170mm) which compressed the background and made it more prominent in this candid street scene.

A wide angle lens was used here to give me as wide an angle of vision as possible so I cold capture this long row of trees.

Photograph life around the Jacarandas...

Its far too tempting to concentrate on the trees themselves and forget about all the vibrant things that happen in and around the trees on a daily basis. Try and think like a street photographer and focus on what is happening on a daily basis, with the jacarandas as a colourful backdrop. Try and incorporate candid pictures of people going about their daily business (always try to ask permission if you want to shoot close portraits) or contrast man made structures that will juxtapose well with the colours of the jacarandas.

Shoot stable...

Although a lot of your pictures can and will be taken hand held try and make use of a tripod whenever you can. This will allow you to shoot with a combination of a very low ISO (good for colours and no grain) as well as a small aperture of f11-f16 (good for increasing depth of field in your shots) without suffering from camera shake as a result of the slow shutter speeds. Tripods can be cumbersome to carry around with you, especially if you are trying to capture authentic street scenes by being unobtrusive and invisible, but they can often be worth their weight in gold! Tripods will also allow you to shoot at times when hand holding wont get you the shot, like before and after sunrise and during the evening.

Having my tripod on me allowed me to stay on and shoot this scene well into the evening and capturing the light trails of the evening traffic.

I hope you enjoyed my few pointers and that they give you some inspiration to get out and shoot some stunning jacaranda images! If you would like to learn more about the ins and outs of photography why not join us on one of our Photography Workshops.

Dramatic Drone Sunset...

Anyone in and around Harare on the 7th of August was treated to an unusual, and spectacular sunset. It was unusual because at this time of year we don't often get many dramatically cloudy skies and generally speaking dramatic clouds make or break a good sunset! The sunset seemed to go on forever, changing in hue and intensity until it finally left us, dazzled and enamoured, well into the evening.

By pure luck and chance I happened to be showing some visiting friends around our spectacular Domboshawa National Monument, illustrating nicely how photography can often be about being in the right place at the right time. I was taking advantage of the trip to "Dombos" to get some aerial images for a long term project using my trusty drone and thankfully I had some battery power left to capture this amazing sunset!

However for me the real highlight of the trip was seeing and photographing the sculptured surface of Domboshawa itself. The granite has been carved by aeons of flowing water into what can only be described as a martian landscape. Now this is what I love about aerial photography, I have been to Domboshawa many many times and have never been able to fully appreciate its quirky geological surface as I have never seen it from above, and this new angle tells a powerful story of time, geology and weathering.

So let me not rabbit on for too long and allow you feast your eyes on the magic that is Domboshawa from above...

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! 

Capturing Coffee...

We all love it, it picks us up when we are tired and smells heavenly when its being brewed but must be one of the most under appreciated staples in the kitchen. I was mulling this over early one damp morning when I decided to try and showcase some of Zimbabwe's finest coffee products. So off I shot to the shops and spent an aromatic half hour wandering around the coffee section of our local supermarket. I ended up selecting Vumba Coffee, a brand made in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands because I liked the vibrancy of the brands' logos and wanted a challenge photographing the shiny silver packaging.

Check out the time-lapse video below of me seting up the studio and shooting thje product.

I tried a few different setups initially and wasn't overly happy with the results as I wanted to hero both the packaging as well as the coffee beans themselves. I eventually settled on a setup where the light from a large 30x120cm softbox 'grazed' the product at a very low angle. I liked the striking, contrasty atmosphere that this lighting setup produced as well as the muted effect on the silver packaging.

However there where several shots that I also feel did the product justice, I did battle to contain the reflective nature of the silver packaging as well as manage the various bumps and dips created by the coffee in the package, a little bit of photoshopping was required to try and smooth out these inconsistencies.

For the above image I used a black background and a beauty dish with a tight grid to create a very focused pool of light on the product, with a very shallow depth of field this keeps the focus on the product and the mug. In this shot I particularly like how the vibrancy of the red in the label stands out against the subtle green wood and particularly the stark black background. The use of a lot of 'dead space' above the product would allow for the addition of any artwork to be added without impinging on the product shot.

I went with a similar setup in the above scene but added a few more lights so that the product was less dramatically lit as well as a background. I didn't light the background so that it wouldn't be distracting but visible enough to add an extra layer of meaning to the picture. In keeping with the more neutral look of this picture I also changed the colour of the mug to suit the overall mood of the shot.

Finally for the above shot I tried to add a sense of fun and excitement by dropping some coffee beans into the mug. I feel that the sense of movement and shadows created by the falling coffee beans adds an extra layer of excitement and vibrancy to the shot.

Overall I am happy with the results from the shoot as a whole but would lean towards the first picture being my favourite! Do email us and let us know your thoughts if you feel differently or have any feedback. Going forward I would really like to shoot and do a behind the scenes blog every month specifically on some of the wonderful products being made in Zimbabwe. So if you feel you have a uniquely Zimbabwean product that you would like showcased please be in touch!

Go behind the scenes and watch me as I setup my studio and shoot the above scenes in the below time-lapse video.

Droning on about how wonderful it is...

For those of you who follow us regularly on our various social media platforms the fact that I now have a drone is not new, and if you are reading this for the first time, whoop whoop Scottyphotography now has a drone!

I have had the opportunity to use it a fair bit in the past month or so in various different situations shooting both corporate and personal work and have been loving every minute of it! I have always been a fan of aerial photography and have always tried to do as much as possible when time and budget allowed. Now this is where the drone comes into its own, aside from the cost of purchasing it it doesn't cost me anything extra to fly it, with the added advantage of being able to do so whenever I want and where ever I happen to be.

Yes it may be a bit bulky to have with me all the time but who cares when you can zip it up and grab a few shots from a completely different perspective? As a professional photographer being able to offer my clients a huge variety of images from different perspectives, including some aerial ones, is a big deal that will outweigh any minor inconveniences.

I was in the vicinity of the spectacular Great Zimbabwe National Monument a few weeks ago and couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend a few days there. I have been lucky enough to photograph the monument many times in the past but have never seen or photographed it from the air. Needless to say I had a fantastic time and managed to get some stunning results!

So what have I learnt about the drone and its capabilities over the past month or so? Firstly that planning is key, the battery life on my particular drone only gives me around 15 minutes of flight time, which doesn't give me a lot of time to faf around once its up. This makes me think critically about what I want to achieve before I send it up and this can only be a good thing.

Secondly, the mobility is fantastic! I can hover directly over a subject and shoot straight down in order to get detail or abstract shots and the next minute I can zip off up to 500 metres away to get that distant, all encompassing shot.

This mobility allows me to capture a variety of pics of the same scene, essential for building up a good story board around a particular subject. I can showcase the fine detail and shape of the Great Enclosure above as well as place it in its context in relation to its environment and the valley (below).

Lastly I have to talk about the performance of the camera's sensor, yes its quite small and so suffers from a bit of noise at high ISO but the drone is such a stable platform that I can shoot at 100 or 200 ISO quite happily down to 1/15th of a second and get sharp images. The sharpness of the resulting images is fantastic and the resolution has withstood the stringent attention of the quality control departments at the various stock libraries I supply with flying colours.

Another huge advantage is to be able to shoot in manual mode as well as create 5 stop bracket sets. This allows me to shoot into the sun and use clever HDR post processing techniques to create images full of detail and colour, like the ones below.

So in summary; the drone is an awesome tool that allows me to capture that unique aerial angle without too much fuss, but often with spectacular results!

Do you need some aerial images done? Don't hesitate to contact us with your ideas!

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 Elephant Camp...

I am lucky enough to travel around Zimbabwe and the region doing photographic work for some amazing lodges and hotels and rightly so, people who talk to me about the work are almost always jealous of my travels, laughing accosting me to get a proper job and that swanning around 5 star establishments can't seriously pass as hard work!

Well let me attempt to dispel that myth and start by saying that contrary to mass opinion it is actually very hard work, enjoyable yes as I get to travel and see some fantastic camps and places, but no less hard work that any other projects we take on. So whats the challenge you may ask? Well I am often travelling to places I have never been to and am asked to essentially capture the life and soul of a place that I am unfamiliar with, this requires keeping my eyes open and my creative juices flowing 24/7.

It also requires a lot of planning by the lodge management and executing vastly complicated setups shots with a very small time window. Often there is no second chance so the pressure is always on. I take the work seriously, work hard and produce the goods, and I am confident that this is reflected in our portfolio.

So I was very excited when Wild Horizons asked me to come to Victoria Falls and photograph their luxury safari lodge; The Elephant Camp. This would be my first time working with Wild Horizons and so naturally I was keen to impress as usual! Needless to say there was a lot to do and I take my hat off to the management of the camp for their endless support in the face of my never ending requests! 

The smallest things can cause consternation on a shoot like this, for example we where shooting a romantic dinner setup on the pool deck of the camp and the firewood was quite wet and stubborn which caused some heart failure in no small amounts when the evening light was perfect and the fire refused to take! You can see some of the frantic energy required to make this all happen in the short time lapse video below.

Despite the stubborn fire the fantastic team from the camp and myself managed to make it work, as you can see from the resultant pics below.

In addition to the frantic planning, the right equipment also goes a long way in ensuring that the shots I take are of the utmost quality, watch below as I explain why a perspective control or tilt shift lens is an essential part of my equipment for a lodge or architectural shoot.

A big part of any lodges' marketing drive is visuals of the rooms as visitors often judge the luxuriousness of their destination by the opulence of the rooms. Without understating it too much the rooms at The Elephant Camp are amazingly appointed and fantastically comfortable! So in order to showcase this quite a lot of effort went into showcasing the rooms from as many different angles as possible and at different times of the day. 

Speaking as one who loves their food as much as anything else in life I can confidently say that the food at The Elephant Camp was delicious! This made photographing the food even easier!

The main boma is exquisitely appointed with lots of wide windows that gave you the impression of actually sitting IN the view. The ever spectacular dance of the iconic 'Moisi O Tunya' or spray from the mighty Victoria Falls was a welcome accompaniment to any meal or chill time on the deck of the main area, and is one of the lodges' draw card selling points.

From all of the above I hope I have established at least 2 things, firstly that I am not 'on holiday' when I head off to photograph a lodge and that all the time and effort put into the shoot has resulted in some fantastic images that The Elephant Camp can use of their various marketing for years to come. And secondly that the Elephant Camp is a fantastic destination...

Scottyphotography has a drone...

I am very excited to announce that Scottyphotography now has a drone! It has been registered with the Civil Aviation Authority as well as the Ministry of Defence and so is fully legal to fly in Zimbabwe. Chris has a lot of experience with aerial photography and this drone will now allow us to offer it as part of our day to day service at a greatly reduced cost. 

The camera is able to produce 12 megapixel picture files which will be acceptable for most marketing requirements but we will be looking at upgrading the camera to a 20 megapixel model as soon as possible. The camera is also able to do 4k video recording and so we will able to offer aerial video as where necessary.

So if you are looking for a new angle of your lodge, hotel, factory, business premises, construction and agricultural projects or anything else then please don't hesitate to contact us! The sky isn't even the limit anymore in terms of the photographic services we can offer!

I have only been able to fly the drone on a few occasions in the past few weeks but have been very happy with the end results, you can see some of the edited pictures below.

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!