Someone asked me this weekend if I was a “professional” photographer. It’d be easy to say yes – I mean why not when you’re sporting a fair few $K of gear hanging from your shoulders. I prefer however to decline the ‘professional’ moniker, for a number of reasons.
1) I don’t get paid to create photographs that fit a brief according to the needs of a client. 2) I’m not sure I’m able to deliver with all guns blazing when there’s an ‘assignment’ I have to shoot to.
I can however manage to occasionally get myself into the right place at the right time with the right lens and camera settings to pull off a decent shot. I guess the more you practice the more likely all these factors come together with greater frequency.
It also helps hanging around with people who spur you on to create better shots. In fact my photographer mate Jon basically art directed the shot above for me. He did the hard bit discussing with this Maasai Elder that he’d like to make his photo, suggested the background and moved him into near-perfect natural lighting. Jon even suggested the black and white post precessing after we shared pics a few minutes later. My part was mostly just watch and learn.
I invite you to spend half a minute looking into this Elder statesman’s eyes, and consider for a moment the completely different way he would define success.
As far as being a professional… I’m happy to assume the position of ‘student’ for a fair while longer.
Here’s my gallery of ‘best of’ for the trip. Enjoy.
This is fabulous,just imagine seeing photos of my homeland on the web.Ladies and gentlemen i personally appreciate your efforts.keep up never get faint hearted,God will reward your efforts.