Photographer
I have been working closely with Electrosales Hardware this year and was recently tasked with photographing their branch in Chiredzi for their website and marketing activities. The brief was to capture general shots of the store as well as staff doing their thing, and I think the pictures speak for themselves!
I have mentioned this before in some of my food photography blogs, and I am not ashamed to repeat it, my stomach does love a good food photography session! The appreciative grumbles and rumbles certainly did not stay away when I photographed some of the mouth watering dishes at Cardamom Restaurant in Harare recently!
I have been lucky enough to have photographed all the stores for Nandos Zimbabwe in the past, so when they opened a new branch in Gweru, Zimbabwe I was asked to pack my bags and head out to do my thing. The brief was to capture all the different design elements in the brand new store at night as well as during the day. The images had to showcase the every angle of the store, without any people in the images so I had to work around the stores trading hours. This meant late nights and early mornings, but as I am sure you will agree the effort certainly yielded the results!
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.
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!
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!
As a professional photographer I am at the beck and call of my clients to create visuals based around their concepts, brand identity and company ethos. This is a wonderful thing as I get to work with some creative and innovative people and am always involved in the creative process. This also means that on a day to day basis I am also juggling many different brand identities and their specific requirements when it comes to photography.
As wonderfully exhilarating and energising as this may all be, after long periods of constant shooting the creative edge can be dulled a bit and weariness may set in. So what would any normal person do, go on holiday or take a hiatus? Not me, I like to squeeze my creative juices by taking my own pictures, of a variety of subjects.
Ideally I like to disappear into the bush for lengthly periods, however this may not be practical all the time especially when the calendar is full. So it was at one of these junctures that I found myself quite happily sitting in a filed of wheat on a friends farm, quietly on my own.
All I had was one camera with a 105mm macro lens, no pre-conceived ideas and no brief to fill, wonderful. This allowed me to take pictures of whatever I saw that interested me, and in a field of wheat this can really help get the creativity flowing, how else do you make wheat look cool? For a few hours late one afternoon I was lost in this happy bliss of selfish composition, and I think the results speak for themselves?
The above pictures are the result of that happy abandon and energised me even further to try and get more creative, different angles of the wheat. So over the next few days, during the golden hours when my family where happily distracted elsewhere I would disappear into the fields with no preconceptions and just a few different lenses to see how creative I could be.
Confident that I had done the macro lens proud I moved over to creating shots with a wide angle lens as well as my panoramic setup.
Creating a 180 degree panoramic image of this field of wheat at sunset allowed me to showcase the sheer size of the field.
I love using my wide angle lenses, they have an ability of really opening up a perspective in a unique way and this worked to my advantage as the fields of wheat I was photographing were huge.
So by doing what I love for myself for a few days I managed to fully charged my Chi, got my creative juices back to bubbling and came away with some wonderful stock images. Not bad for a few days 'holiday'.
Being in the wrong place at the right time produced a stunning image...
Where: In a microlight at dawn, near Christon Bank, Harare. How: Nikon D3 with 28-300mm lens @90mm, ISO 1600, f8 @ 3200/second
As professional photographers we are constantly reminding ourselves that luck plays a big part in getting 'the right shot'. Whether you are shooting wildlife, travel, landscape or corporate pictures being at the right place at the right time can often make or break the shoot.
However, some photographers are consistently better at capitilising on this luck by ensuring that they are well organised, have knowledge of their area/subject and are in the field a lot. The rest is out of your hand, this doesn't stop us fretting about it though.
However, sometimes just bungling along or being in the right place at the wrong time can also result in some amazing results. Example; I was commissioned to do a professional aerial photography shoot for a client in Christon bank, just outside Harare, Zimbabwe where I live. Being the height of the rainy season the weather hadn't been ideal for a flight for a few weeks and I was growing more and more anxious to get this done before the client starting getting restless.
Many early mornings of weather checking where unfruitful until one day it seemed we may have a break in the weather. On the day in question some scattered clouds lay low in the sky and all looked like it would be possible, if not ideal, to fly. However, meeting the pilot at the airstrip just as the sun was rising heralded the arrival of a low, thick bank of clouds, and the wind.
Now having done quite a lot of aerial photography from a microlight even I knew that the conditions weren't ideal, but we were there and ready to roll and a small gap in the clouds inspired us to hasten our decision and get on with it.
As the thick bank of clouds continued their march towards the sun we hastily flew to our destination, which thankfully wasn't far away. The encroaching clouds softened the already warm blush of dawn considerably and the accompanying band of clouds provided a wonderfully moody and contrasty blue to the mist-strewn scene. Needless to say I was ecstatic with the conditions, up until we finally reached our destination just in time for the cloud bank to envelop the sun and kill the light, just when I needed it. Despite this setback I managed to get some decent shots of our target and we hastened back to the airstrip as the wind started to howl.
On the way back I carried on snapping away, the rolling valleys to our east were swathed in mist and the partially masked sun allowed me to capitalise on the lack of contrast between the sun and the foreground and snap a few hurried pictures. They didnt look like anything noteable on the back screen until I got back to the office and could have a better look.
So what have I been banging on about here, essentially ignoring our best intuition we did a flight in less than ideal condition so where in the wrong place but at the right time. The low, patchy bank of clouds effectively filtered and softened the rising sun even more, allowing me to capture a fantastic image that would have been tricky to do in clearer conditions. So essentially, at 300 feet and 90 miles an hour I made lemon juice out of lemons...
Harare is renowned for many things but luckily for us photographers one of them is the annual flowering of the hundreds of Jacaranda trees that line our Capitals avenues. Standing in the middle of the street under an over-arching umbrella of bright blue and purple must be one of the most visually stimulating urban experiences available to us Zimbabweans. It was while I was standing there, in the middle of the street with my head craned back and my camera poised that I realised that I haven't really properly photographed, or fully appreciated, Harare's Jacaranda's until now.
And then it dawned on me why; us photographers are always chasing the gold at the end of the rainbow, travelling frantically to get to places that may provide us with the photographic subjects we long for, or that we hope will reward us with some stunning images. And I suppose there is nothing wrong with that, partly because I do it a lot myself and mostly because if it works then whats the problem?
My point here is this, generally speaking photographers tend to overlook or ignore the opportunities in their back yard, often missing out on not just amazing picture opportunities but also getting to know their neighbourhoods and communities. I have had many an engaging conversation with people on the streets of Harare who have approached me with friendly intentions and questions. Often these have led to interesting debates and the offer to photograph their neighbourhoods or families and friends. You can't buy these kind of invitations and opportunities as a photographer!
At the end of the day wondering around your neighbourhood may well produce the kind of stunning images that you could travel thousands of miles for, and you may well walk away with some new friends!
Where: Leopold Takawira Street, Harare.
How: Stand in the middle of the traffic and make yourself skinny!
Tech specs: Nikon D800 with Nikkor 28-300mm VR lens shot @ 135mm on ISO 640 Aperture F8 Shutter speed 1/80th second.
Most, if not all, wildlife photographers have gorilla sized forearms from wielding some of the longest lenses money can buy. They are also not shy to wield the beastly lenses in the direction of any animal, bird or insect that has the misfortune to wander into view. Its no surprise that I fit into that bracket and unashamedly utilize the large magnification you get from long lenses.
Other then the associated cardio workout that you get from wielding such lenses, you are also able to get really close to your subject matter without having to sit on top of them. This is an advantage that we should not scoff at as most wildlife photographers are keen conservationists and have the comfort of and respect for their subjects in the fore of their consciousness. The only drawback from wielding such magnification is that it can become quite addictive and when the action heats up there is little regard for thinking or doing anything else.
Again, I am one of those that gets distracted by the 'pink mist; when the action starts and have only recently been able to consciously drag myself away from the long glass and approach animal, action and behavior using shorter lenses that afford a wider view of my subjects. Again, most pro wildlife photographers will have a shorter zoom or prime, such as the excellent 70-210 range, for exactly that reason, the wider you shoot the more you see and seeing the whole picture is as important as seeing the tick that hangs off your subjects eyelash.
So next time you are bashing away with your long glass, stop, think and pick up a shorter telephoto and try and capture the animal, or animals, in their environment.
Why: Despite the temptation to use his longest lens Chris used a shorter focal length to enable him to capture the whole herd of Buffalo as well as the huge cloud of dust that picked up the subtle pink hues of dawn. Using a longer lens would have drastically reduced the angle of vision and thus how much of the scene Chris could have captured.
How: Nikon D610 and Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8 @ 200mm ISO 800 1/500th second @f6.3
Where: Hwange National Park
Would you like to learn more about photographic techniques and how to take great pictures? Join Chris on a Photographic Safari Workshop in some on Southern Africa's most stunning wild areas.
