a funny thing happened when I was in Kenya

As some of you know might know, I don’t photograph people. Every aspect of shooting people I find scary or overwhelming or both. I always feel that the expectations people have of what they want to look like in a photograph can never be met. We all know where that comes from, right? Yes I’m projecting. I think how I feel about having my own photograph taken is what paralyzes me when it comes to taking photographs of others. Lucky for me on my trip I had my very own personal photography coach, my room-mate Krista Fox, who is a very talented wedding and event photographer. Not only did she loan me her 17-35mm lens which I used to take one of my favourite images seen here in my post on Kibera but late at night and in the early morning we would discuss photography. I learnt so much from Krista; most of all, I gained the confidence to venture out and try my hand at photographing people.

On our safari we stopped at several schools that had benefited from the work sponsored by Give International. Ryan, our guide, is the founder of Give International and  his work there was integrated with the socially responsible aspect of our safari. While the fact that many of the people we photographed had never seen a picture of themselves before made things easier, it also made it challenging. Going into a school we would be mobbed by children and each time we tried to get individual portraits, someone would jump into the frame.  Then they’d all crowd around to see themselves in the screen at the back of the camera. Compounded by the constraint we faced at having to make it to our next destination by a certain time, we had less than ideal conditions for shooting people. Above is one of my best attempts taken at the Jacaranda Primary School on the way to Elsemere. This week I’ll be sharing more of my people images from Kenya so please come back again!