Making the most of the Mornings....

"Its all about the light, being at the right place at the right time, make the effort" these are all phrases that are synonymous with photography and are indeed words of advise that are well headed. However there is also a lot of planning involved in a successful shoot, scouting the location, being mindful of the weather and ensuring you have all the right equipment on hand.

Most of the above was relevant for me on a brisk early morning Landscape Photography shoot in Nyanga, Zimbabwe as I was strolling down from our lodge to the waters edge, in the dark and cold. The weather had been terrible for the past 4 days and this was my last opportunity to have a go at getting a decent sunrise shoot in as we where leaving that day. The weather reports the previous evening had been vague at best but inclined more towards the weather clearing a little and thankfully when I had a peek out of the window at 445 am the rosy stain of pre-dawn was lighting up the horizon.

A short trudge through the mist and the damp grass saw me at my pier which I had scouted the previous day and worked out that the sun should rise just to the right of the end of the pier, allowing me to use the pier as a great leading line to draw the eye to the stunning colours in the sky.

I must say that I personally prefer the above landscape photography as the silkiness of the water and the cloud detail that is being reflected adds an extra layer of dynamism to the amazing colours in the sky. The portrait version below is no less dramatic but somehow just not my favourite, which one do you prefer? Leave a comment below and let me know!

The pre-dawn magentas and blues didn't disappoint and got richer and richer as the sun rose closer to the horizon, and then started to quickly and dramatically loose their saturation as the sun started to tip over the horizon. At the same time the clouds started to close ranks and in the space of 30 minutes my sunrise has been overshadowed by the persistent clouds. 

So I can testify that the old adage's mentioned at the start of this blog are correct, and that if you want to create great sunrise shots then you have to make the effort and get up early as well as be prepared and scout your locations before you shoot!

Where: Loch Conn, Connemara Lakes, Nynaga Zimbabwe

How: Manfrotto tripod, Nikon D800 with 16-35mm shot at 16mm. ISO 50 f16 @ 5 seconds

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.

Travelling with Africa's biggest seed producers...

I have been fortunate enough to have worked with the amazing team at SeedCo for the past 8 years now and within that time I have travelled to Malawi, Zambia and all over Zimbabwe with the marketing and production team covering everything from plant openings, field days and farm visits. Thanks to SeedCo I have seen areas of Zimbabwe that I would never have visited on my own and met people from all walks of life that have broadened my horizons, and for that I would really like to praise the whole team at SeedCo!

Towards the end of last year I was commissioned by SeedCo to capture engaging images of their farmers for an Africa-wide marketing campaign. It was very visual throughout Zimbabwe in the form of press ads and large billboards and many of the images where used on their group webiste. You can see some of the final visuals below...

I have spent a lot of time with SeedCo visiting their large and small scale farmers all over Zimbabwe who grow both maize (SeedCo's main crop) as well as wheat and soya. The portraits of the farmers are used across most of SeedCo's advertising platforms..

An advertising campaign would amount to nothing without pictures of the product and I have spent a lot of time photographing SeedCo's products, from maize to wheat, soya and millet. The close up shots have helped to convey the essence of quality that is essential to getting good harvests. Wide shots as well as close up and macro images help get as much information about the product out to the customer.

Some of the large scale farmers I have visited grow large tracks of crops and so the best way to convey the size of these operations is with aerial shots.

SeedCo host a lot of farmer field days that focus on educating both small scale and large scale farmers on new product developments as well as how to get the best yield from their products. Often hundreds of farmers are present on the day and it always makes for some great visuals.

I would like to sincerely thank SeedCo for their support over the past eight years and I look forward to working closely with them again in 2018 to help portray their brand in the best light possible.

Luxury in the heart of Harare...

I am very fortunate to be able to travel all over Zimbabwe and southern Africa photographing luxury lodges, hotels and BnB's but luckily for me I only had to head around the corner to photograph the luxurious no 18 Guest Lodge in Harare.

Situated in the heart of Harare's northern suburbs is offers the perfect blend of luxurious comfort and homeliness. Its spacious interiors and open plan living areas made it a joy for me to photograph as space was never an issue and I could move around quite easily to ensure that I got the perfect angle every time.

As is the norm with any shoot of a tourism product the aim was to showcase all aspects of the lodge, from the public areas through to the rooms and the amenities on offer. As you can see from the images below the public areas are invitingly comfortable and well appointed.

The rooms where equally well appointed and offered a comfortable environment in which any traveller could unwind and relax.

The exterior of the guest lodge offers a warm, inviting facade as you drive through the gates.

The lodge also offers amazing facilities to its clients including a very healthy menu to choose from.

If you have a tourism product that you would like photographed, please don't hesitate to contact us!

Holiday happy Snaps...

I have written often in the past about the conflict that I have when I go on holiday with the family.  To recap briefly its the internal conflict I have in finding the right balance between being on holiday with my family and getting out and doing what I love, taking pictures. Given that we often visit wild and exciting destinations this is a constant issue for me!

Our recent trip to Nyanga, Zimbabwe in mid December this year was a bit different thankfully! The cottage we stayed in was situated perfectly on the middle Connemara Lake with easy walking access to the rest of the dams and surrounds. So instead of having to stalk off on my own I could join my family on the walks and sneakily fly my drone whenever the occasion presented itself.

Quite honestly this was one of the most balanced family holidays I have managed so far, and I hope this is reflected in the awesome aerial pictures of the Connemarra area!

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.