Going for Green Fuel...

I was contracted by Green Fuel Zimbabwe last year to visit their sugar cane plantations on their Chisumbanje estate in Zimbabwe's South Eastern region to create a photo library of their Agricultural, Plant and Community developments. Green Fuel currently harvest about 9000 hectares of sugarcane on both their Middle Sabi and Chisumbanje estates which is then processed at the plant to produce ethanol that is blended with Zimbabwe's imported fuel. 

My brief included showcasing the various agricultural developments and activities around the estate, their processing plant as well as their various community development projects. As usual I used a good mix of on the ground pictures as well and aerial shots to showcase the size and scale of the agricultural operation which you can see below.

Green Fuel have invested a lot of time and money developing the community surrounding their estates with investments in small scale agricultural projects as well as the rehabilitation of the local library and learning centre. Green Fuel also created a sewing project were men and woman from the community have been trained to make the necessary safety garments required by the companies' agrictural and plant workers.

Lastly to the plant; its architecture is visually appealing and well light at night which lent itself to well to being photographed in the 'blue light' after sunset. A good amount of time spent observing the operations in the plant resulted in some great detail images as well as of staff working. I always make mention of the invaluable use of my drone in conveying the size and relative perspective of such a large structure and it was no less applicable here, with some great aerial images being captured.

All in all Iw as very happy with the results of my visit to Green Fuel and look forward to my next assignment for Green Fuel, I would like to thank the management and particularly the marketinfg department at Green Fuel for their continued support.

Capturing Prime Seeds...

I have been lucky enough to work with some of Zimbabwe's biggest agro-businesses and for the last three years have been having a lot of fun shooting a wide variety of images for Prime SeedCo. Initially Prime Seeds and now part of the SeedCo group Prime SeedCo provides high quality vegetable seed for sale in the Zimbabwean and African markets. I was engaged several years ago to help build up Prime Seeds' image database for use across all of their marketing databases and have photographed their products in the field and studio and from the air. You can see a selection of the images I have created for them in some of Prime SeedCo's marketing materials below.

Being a sales based company its essential to have a good selection of well shot product images and we have photographed all of Prime SeedCo's brands in our studio over the years, some of which you can see in the above posters.

Prime SeedCo also operates a substantial demo plot that farmers who are interested in their products can visit to see the veggies in the field as well as ask any of the knowledgeable staff any technical questions. Due to the seasonality of the different veggies I spend a few days in the field throughout the seasons in order to capture all the varieties on offer.

Prime SeedCo also hosts farmer field days throughout the year where both large scale and small scale farmers from around the country are invited to the demo plot to learn all about the varieties of veggies on offer and to learn best farming practices and the development in current agricultural trends. These field days are a great way of educating the local farming industry as well as showcase all the seasonal veggies at the demo plot.

Prime SeedCo also have a variety of commercial outlets around Zimbabwe and before the rebrand from Prime Seeds to SeedCo was completed I photographed one of their larger stores in Harare.

I thoroughly enjoy all the shoots I have done for Prime SeedCo over the years and look forward to the assignments I will be commissioned to carry out in 2018!

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.

Zimbabwe's Verdant Tea Eastate

Zimbabwe is blessed with a wide range of stunning landscapes, from the majestic World Wonder of Victoria Falls to the stone wall brilliance of Great Zimbabwe to the game rich floodplains of Mana Pools. However an oft overlooked but no less stunning part of our beautiful country is its Eastern Highlands. Forming a rugged boundary with neighboring Mozambique the eastern Highlands are comprised of 3 main mountain ranges; Nyanga in the North, Bvumba in the middle and Chimanimani in the South. All 3 mountain ranges are part of the East African Rift system that runs down the continent from East Africa.

Nestled under the Nyanga plateau, which peaks to form Zimbabwe's highest point Mt Nyangani, is Eastern Highlands Plantations Limited, (also commonly referred to as Aberfoyle Tea Estates). Spread over the lower slopes of the Nyanga plateau are vividly verdant fields of tea.

A view in any direction from one of the many high points on the estate reveal rolling, lush and methodically trimmed fields, a testament to mans' innovative and persistent tenacity. Carved out of the wilderness in the 1950's there is no doubt that a lot of indigenous flora would have been mowed down to make way for the plantations, and as a lover of all things natural and indigenous this will always be in the back of my mind. However, the inherent man made beauty has the effect of subduing those negative thoughts.

The estate also ceeded a large portion of its land on the lower slopes of the Inyangani plateau to nature and subsequently to National Parks. The Gleneagles Reserve is a haven of indigenous forest best explored on foot and with a sense of awe. At 2000 hectares the reserve is the largest and best preserved block of Afro-Montain forest in the country.

Babbling streams hemmed in by tall Forest Newtonians create a backdrop that wouldn't go amiss in a Lord of the Rings movie also create a habitat for a plethora of rare birds and so are a mecca for avid birders from all over the world.

The area also offers a variety of adrenaline inducing activities such as gravity defying zip lines through the forest canopy and white water rafting down the Pungwe River, these can be organised through Far and Wide Zimbabwe with Aberfoyle Lodge providing the perfect base to explore the area's many exciting offerings.