An Afternoon with Feven

My creativity in post titles has gone to the dogs these days. Sigh. What’s good people? First off, due to many many many instances of theft, I’m trying out a new watermark on my images. Do tell me what you think about it on the comments section.

Now, I had the absolute honor of shooting with Feven yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, I was in shock and awe the whole time because she was so easy to work with and the images were so great one after the other. Below is a montage of my favorite 2 images of them all.

But enough talk now. Enjoy gallery 😀

An Afternoon with Asha

First, before y’all kill me, I just had the absolute pleasure of taking shots of miss Asha of Turande. And they were so good that I got convinced to blog again. It’s not very often that a photographer gets a chance to photograph a photographer 😀

This is undoubtedly my favorite image from the whole shoot.

 

Si you know I likes my monochromatic images? 😀

 

She looks FIERCE in this one. And finally,

 

So pretty! Asha showed up with her cousin Wambui who was a great help with holding my equip and what not.

Before I leave y’all to stare open mouthed at the gallery below, my most sincere apologies for not blogging since the end of last year. I am to blame. But imma try now. Promise.

Reumac out.

 

My blog’s year in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 35,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 8 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Some new stuff for you to look at

Hello! SO, before you kill me, I’ve got some of the work I’ve been doing with Ma3 that’s up on their page. You can see those here and here. Have a look see and leave them a comment or 2 appreciating the awesome photos 😀

Now you can feel free to stone me or whatever 🙂

The Pink Move

Salutations friends 🙂

So this October, Reumac Shot This supported a couple of breast cancer awareness initiatives. I usually don’t pick favorites, but my favorite hands down was The Pink Move that was organized by a couple of friends of mine. Our first shoot was spectacular. My best 2 images from that were:

and

and because I’m allowed to cheat (since the blog is mine anyway)

Then we did another shoot so we could get diversity in our images. Which yielded these gems:

and

and

To crown off the month and promote a yearlong awareness activity calendar they have, The Pink Move hosted a Pink Party at Skyluxx last Saturday. I dropped by for a while to show my support. And got this amazing photo while I was there. It’s probably gonna get me killed, but heck. I have a secret bunker somewhere 😀

So before I make my quick getaway, do follow The Pink Move on Twitter and keep abreast (see what I did there? 🙂 with all their activities. They are definitely gonna make a difference. Oh, and enjoy the gallery of images below 😀

Framed

Salutations my good people 😀 First off, my most sincere apologies for being MIA for a bit. I had to travel out of the city without warning and the quality of the internet connection in the areas I travelled to was a tad appalling. However, I’m back now and I trust that my Instagram feed kept you entertained as I traversed the country.

So I had the absolute pleasure of shooting with Tatty and Angie just before I left the city. The location was an old abandoned house in Kilimani. I had a different title in mind for this post then as I was looking through the images I realized that most, if not all, of them has some frame of some sort surrounding the subject. Don’t know what was going through my mind that day. So here are my fav images.

Something about the light in this shot. Don’t ask me what it is.

It’s all about the framing in this one.

I’m beyond words for this one. Beyond words.

This photo just makes me happy 😀

For other images from this shoot, do have a look through the image gallery below. Enjoy!!

Swahili Fashion Week – Nairobi Showcase.

Salutations my good people 😀 I trust y’all had a most awesome week. I had the privilege of being AnnSophie Achera’s personal photographer at the Swahili Fashion week this past weekend. When I was not furiously snapping away as her collection was showcasing on the runway, I was taking other images as I saw them. Here are a few notable ones.

First off, I noticed this pretty girl seated across from me and every time she turned to look at the screens, the light caught her face in a most lovely way. Took me a while but I finally got this shot of her. 

Then, I caught up with the beautiful Sarah Hassan before the show started. That’s someone I need to work with REAL soon. This is a shot I luckily got after the show was done and she was recording a PTC for her show on Africa Magic.

And finally, this is my shot of the night. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t have an answer for that question. It’s just one of those things.

More images in the gallery below. Please show some love to my friend by liking her page. That’s where the images of her collection on the runway will probably premiere 😀 And check out my page on Facebook for more images from the event 🙂

P.S
What do y’all think of the latest design of the blog? Good? Bad? Ugly? Don’t really care as long as the posts keep coming? Please leave me a comment and lemme know. Dhangk 🙂

So I Shot a Girl…

And she was pretty! Her name is Wofa and she was introduced to me by Le Photo Ninja. SO, allow me to prove that she’s quite the beauty.

Since our favorite thing to do as we shoot is to take photos of each other, I’ve thrown in some photos of Le Photo Ninja herself and her cohorts 😀

P.S

If you think these are anything, you should see what she got on her camera. It’s for blowing minds and things 🙂

Beauty on top of KICC

I really need to write better headlines 😀 Here’s hoping all of you had a most fantastic time since I last came by here to share with you my work. Some time last week I had the pleasure of spending some time on the roof of KICC with my friend Ciru. Here’s what transpired:

And finally, my favorite one of them all (I’m sure some of you have already seen this)

Pretty one isn’t she? 🙂 The light play in that last shot is just THE ONE! You should have seen her protesting that I was taking pics of her with the specs on 😀

More images come your way later this week. Till then, ciao!

Person(s) of the Day – Twaila and Sara

Allow me to introduce you to Twaila .

She works in the Insurance industry.

She was the 200th like(r) on my Facebook page  and for that she won a shoot with me 😀

As usual. I asked her what 3 things the world doesn’t know about her. The answers were:

1. She is totally shy around people she doesn’t know.
2. She didn’t have hair when I was a child, it was not funny.
3. She is terrible at answering questions. Like now (Reumac claps in glee as he types the sentence).

Her aspirations for the next 10 years are to be married with little ones running around the house. And having fun with life.

And as a treat, allow me to introduce you to Sara a.k.a Murugi Kagotho.

She is a student by proffession..and a future scientist/teacher

Her 3 things are:

1. (In her words)  I am very very animals-ey. I love creepy
crawlies and mean looking dogs/snakes..but arachnophobia is REAL..if
you have 8 legs,we can never be friends
2. She can’t scream
3. She is secretly an alien informant sent to Earth to spy for a sentient race of extra-terrestrials poised to arrive and take over shortly (she was kidding with that one 🙂

In the next decade she wants to be at the Trinidad & Tobago carnival!!!! If not,on a
farm she owns, uprooting her supper…or potty training (not her,but the
kids)

So I was curious to find out how these two met. These are the verbatim reports

Twaila: Met Sara in high school, almost 10 years ago. Gosh, makes me feel so old. She’s my constant favorite now.

Sara: Twaila was a really jumpy girl I met on the first day of high school. I found her quite annoying that first day but she ended up growing on me..almost a decade later,she’s my wingman:-)

So before I bid y’all adieu, I must say a couple of things. First, it’s my birthday this week 😀 Second, I had in my company during this shoot the wonderful Barbara who was such a fantastic assistant/shoot director/deejay. Since she’s like one of my favorite people to shoot I just had to do a couple shots of her as we waited for Twaila and Sara to change

And that dear friend is all I had for you today. Look out for many more photos later in the week. This isn’t the only shoot I did that day. Some really cool shots will be coming up, so watch this space carefully 🙂

Random Photos of a Beautiful Lady

So this post is everything the title promises it is 😀 Featured is my friend Maxine who is a *Rock Legend* (it says so on her Tshirt 🙂 Shot as we cracked jokes on my rooftop terrace at sunset the other day.

 

P.S

I have a plan. That will blow your minds. Just wait 😀

#Kenya365

Hello my good people!!!

I trust everyone is fabulous, yes? So my content strategy has suffered a few setbacks of recent so today I’m going to point you in the direction of where you should look for more photos by Reumac. I saw a post by my good friend Mutua a couple of days before the beginning of the month about this exciting Instagram project entitled #Kenya365 that he was going to undertake in conjunction with a couple of other photographers. Read more about it here. I decided to take the challenge as well and you can see my photos so far on my Instagram or my Tumblr. If you want a treat, check out that hashtag on Instagram. The images there are quite something 😀

Keep it fresh people 🙂 Lemme look for photos to put up later in the week….

Tasty Treats – My Vegetable Salad

So the other day I decided to take a swing at this food styling thing. Thought up a salad I would wanna eat then went to the supermarket and got myself a few things to make it. This is what I came home with.

 

After a bit of slicing and dicing and test shooting, I took the salad into the late evening sun that was streaming through my balcony door and had some fun with it. First, the birds eye view shot.

I decided at that point that I didn’t like the results enough to continue shooting so I stuck a fork in it, threw a couple of slices of avocado on top and took 2 last shots before I dived in.

And that dear friends is the story of my first (failed) attempt at food styling. Gonna be doing a lot more of such in the future so you can only look forward to more failures and lots more successes 🙂

In other news, I’m taking part in the #Kenya365 project on Instagram so you should definitely check out that hashtag as well as my Instagram account (reumac) to keep abreast with my progress. I’ll try to do a weekly round up at the end of every week for all of you (blackberry users especially *flashes loser sign at them*) who can’t get on Instagram 🙂

1st Annual Kenya Kite Fest…Impressions of a day well spent

I don’t know how I ended up not putting these photos up. You must forgive me. I beg and plead for your mercy. A couple of weeks back I woke up early in the morning to go and shoot at the 1st Annual Kenya Kite fest. I was doing it for my good friends Urban Live, who were part of the team organizing the event. Without beating many stories, here’s my favorite image from the hundreds I shot that day. 

By the way, I took this AFTER I got a chance to fly that kite. Best. Feeling. EVER! More images of the fun times in the gallery below 😀

PS.

I’m back to regular blogging. You can look forward to at least 2 posts a week from now on 🙂 And that’s a promise.

Tasty Treats – Steve’s Chicken Bacon Wrap

Before I say anything further, imagine my surprise when I found out these big guys were being sold at 79 bob per kilo in Kiambu. I have been in OD mode since this shoot. So sad their season is almost over.

All matters tangerine aside, the one thing I like to do as a small business owner is supporting fellow small business owners. I had the chance to do that the other day when my friend Steve asked me to photograph his wraps. So I decided to document the whole  process of making the wrap as a bonus to test myself and my skills. So ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing leisure and pleasure I present to you, Steve’s chicken/bacon wrap:

First step is to make the wrap itself. A bit of rolling is required.

When that is nice and flat, he pops it under a grill for a couple of minutes so it can rise and cook.

As all this is happening, the chicken and bacon are frying on the cooker. That kitchen smelled GOOD that morning.

When the wrap is ready and is cooling, the vegetables are chopped up nicely in preperation for the wrap building process.

The chicken and bacon once ready are put aside to cool and the man gets ready to make his wraps.

They look delish eh? Next step is the beginning of the wrap building process. The wrap is put on a piece of aluminium foil and a number of condiments put on it to form the base. This was the mayo.

Next comes a layer of veges. The cabbage and lettuce are ALWAYS fresh. Since he was building this particular wrap for me, I insisted on more mayo. He doesn’t use that much mayo usually 🙂

Next bit is my favorite. The chicken and bacon bits are generously sprinkled onto the wrap. Must I say quite a number of those bits never made it onto the wrap? 😉

And since Reumac has a death wish, MORE MAYO!!!

That’s the point Steve hid the mayo bottle away from me. Next up was more veges to enhance the flavor of the wrap. I loved how they added colour to the dish. (As Steve looked away momentarily, I stole the mayo bottle and gave it a generous squeeze on top of the wrap 🙂

Time now to wrap it up…literally! The wrap is carefully rolled and ends folded in to keep it fresh and make it a little easier to eat. And then it’s delivered to you in a lil brown paper bag. Time to eat 😀 Here’s my wrap after the second bite (or third…fourth…I can’t remember exactly. It was THAT good)

So if you want a taste of Steve’s chicken bacon wrap, drop him a line on his twitter and he can have one delivered to you. They’re filling, tasty like nothing else and quite affordable. As well as being quite healthy. He uses only the freshest vegetables and meat. And not that much mayo 🙂 I would rather buy two of these than go to some hot, cramped restaurant in town for lunch. And that’s that.

I’m in the market for other small business people in the food industry who would wanna partner with me for the Tasty Treats section of this blog. So if you know a person, holla at a brother in the comments section. Dhengks 😀

Y’akoto’s Good, Better, Best

The star herself getting ready for her close up..

So some time last year I had the absolute priviledge of being invited to a set by DMYK Films to do the behind the scenes photos for an international musician’s music video shoot. I had SO much fun as I worked and observed how the pros shoot. And I got some pretty kick ass photos while I was at it, which you can see here.

The video itself has just recently been uploaded and you can enjoy it here. It’s such a happy video and the song definitely has a message. Africa is the future.

Chizi: One and Only…A recollection

I should confess now that I am a HUGE fan of Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda. I play his music on loop most times. So you can imagine how happy I was to see him in concert the other day. My camera was happier 🙂 The highlights are below:

The drums

and Chizi dancing his way into the crowd’s heart 😀

More images in the gallery below. I know this post is a couple of days late but si at least I have put the photos up, right? 😀

Portraits of a Photographer: Le Photo Ninja

I think it’s high time I outed a friend of mine. Her art goes by the title Just Nailantei photography but to some of us she’s known as Le Photo Ninja. I’ve been shooting with her a lot over the past couple of weeks and along the way, I collected quite a few images of her that I now feel I must share.

Lemme pick out my few favorites then I’ll let you go through the rest and leave your thoughts about them in the comment section below 😀  

This one will probably get me killed. But that’s what we’re usually doing when someone points a camera at us.

If photos could have a soul, this one would definitely have one. Taken as we were waiting for a client to make a quick wardrobe change while on set the other day.

And finally,

We call her Talanda 🙂 She’s known as Cathy by the rest of the world. She’s pretty great with grips and lighting.

More images, below. And in other news, I’m back to shooting in black and white more often than not *crowd goes wild*

 

A Taste of Things to come

Hey everybody *waves* I know I’ve been MIA for a while and I’M SORRY. *dodges missiles* I shall soon be making my come back. And it’ll be in a BIG way. So don’t give up reading just yet 😀

To whet your collective appetites, here are images from a shoot I directed over the weekend for my good friends Nailantei and designer Maria. Enjoy!!

A pretty smile

I couldn’t and still can’t get over how photogenic this young lady was. She joined us as we were on location for the shoot with Jackie’s Jewels. Couldn’t resist the temptation to catch a few frames of her during the breaks…

Deep in my thoughts

Shot on location for Jackie’s Jewels.

Tasty Treats – Grilled Pepper Steak

Today, we shall look at a firm favorite  for meat eaters all over . Allow me to present to you Grilled Pepper Steak as presented to me at The Mvuli House.

The meat has been lovingly marinated and grilled for that extra special tenderness and lots of flavour in every bite. It’s one of those meals you can’t go wrong with 🙂  The Mvuli House is the place to be if you wanna have a taste of this for yourself. They’re located opposite Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi’s South C area.

More Tasty Treats shall come your way next week. For now, please like my Facebook page 🙂

Tasty Treats – Vegetable Salad

This week, we’re going all healthy and things on the tasty treats segement 😀 I present to you vegetable salad as presented to me at The Mvuli House.

Fresher than tomorrow’s lettuce and so good for you 🙂 You have to try out  The Mvuli House soon. I couldn’t believe such a gem has remained so close to the CBD and the airport. And it’s affordable too 😀

More Tasty Treats for you next week. For now, did you know that I have exclusive offers running on my Facebook page? Check it out and like to keep updated. While you’re at it, check out my Tumblelog and follow 😀

Appreciation

It’s so underrated. Believe me. This was an image I captured of the back of one of the wedding programs at my friend Amanda’s wedding. The colour fringing on the shadow is because the sun was filtering through the stained glass windows of the church 😀

P.S

Keep an eye on my Facebook page. Got lots of crazy offers lined up for ye who love having your photos taken and I’ll only post them there. Now you know the secret 😀

Amanda weds Arnold: The Outtakes

So I shot at a friend’s wedding the other day. It wasn’t anything too serious. I was just feeling creative. Here are some of the shots I got.

Just to highlight my favorite shot

2 things make this my favorite shot. First, the attention to detail at that wedding was insane. Second, the light play with the candles 😀

Slowly getting back into the blogging. Forgive me my peoples. I’ve been terribly busy. But if you keep an eye on my Tumblelog you’ll get real time updates 😀

The Attack of the Living Dead

Give the title a minute then it’ll feel right 🙂 The other day I took a walk through my garden right before the rain hit. I came across a fair maiden staring up at the clouds wondering what time the deluge would begin.

I stood at a distance, transfixed as she wandered about the garden 

Unbeknownst to either of us, on the other side of the yard a rather alluring zombie had been hung out to dry and she wasn’t too happy that the rain was at hand yet she hadn’t been released from her bondage.

The fair maiden continued traipsing around the garden and I followed, camera in hand. Then word came to us that there was a foxy zombie lurking about. She had just been let loose and she was last seen headed to the abandoned sheds at the far end of the property. Gathering up the courage of a few good men, she ventured towards the sheds to try and catch a glimpse of this ravishing being. She crept up to the first shed and peeked in…

*Announcer’s voice* Does the rain fall? What does the fair maiden find inside the abandoned shed? Find out more next week on THE ATTACK OF THE LIVING DEAD!

Big up to Neema

and Kinya

for the great ideas and the awesome poses that made up this blog post 😀

Tasty Treats – Spaghetti Bolognese

Exhaustion, thy name is Reumac. The after effects of an active weekend aren’t the prettiest, that’s for sure. My sole aim still remains to keep y’all entertaines so, I present to you spaghetti bolognese as presented to me at The Mvuli House.

Looks. So. Tasty. The Mvuli House is really the place to be if you, like me, want to have some of this.

More Tasty Treats shall come your way next week. This week feels like it’s gonna be interesting, so better keep an eye out for what I have in store for you. Or you could just hit subscribe 😀

Slum Living

So I took a walk in the slum behind my hood today with my friend Caroline. The idea was for me to see her shooting style and give her tips and tricks to get good photos.  We were both a bit apprehensive about walking into the slum with our expensive equip but it ended up being such a pleasant experience. Here are a few of the better images I got;

His eyes. Haunting.

I haven’t the slightest clue as to what this money is for, but it was there literally in the middle of the road. So I entitled this shot, The Money Changer’s Box.

There were cows grazing in the field next to the slum. Effluent from sewerage does make grass grown strong and green.

A river runs through the slum and it seems that the people use it as their waste disposal.

The river water is so full of chemicals, it froths on it’s own. The wetland that would absorb this pollution is currently under development despite protest to NEMA by the Kenya Alliance of Residents’ Associations and the neighborhood residents’ associations.

But in the middle of all this, some hope. Young men do soccer training on the field right next to the slum. The local soccer clubs are gaining prominence in the lower leagues and the youth of the slum are making something of themselves through sports.

I learnt a lot today. I hope to do something positive, however small, for that slum really soon. Can’t keep waiting for someone else to do it. For the final image, this is what seemed to be the best food joint in the whole area 🙂

#UPLive

What’s cracking fam? So, this past weekend I attended the 1st anniversary gig for UP Nairobi which was dubbed UP Live. I won’t say much about it here though because I think my friend Shaz did a pretty awesome job with that. You can read her blog post here. Lemme instead show you, through my lens, what transpired. First up, a couple of images of note.

A friend of mine called Audrey took this while I was off doing the boogie. I think she’ll be a totally awesome photographer really soon.

Heineken chicks > Burn chicks. Just saying. And if anyone knows one of these two, please tell them I have more their photos.

The rest of the images are available in the gallery below. Also, you can visit the story I did for Urban Live about the same event here.

Person of the Day – Fauziya Hussein

Allow me to introduce you to Fauziya.

She is in her second year studying Psychology in the Kenyatta University.

On one of my regular trawling sessions through the ‘find friends’ section on my Facebook profile, I happened across her profile and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a shoot with her 😀

As usual. I asked her what 3 things the world doesn’t know about her. The answers were:

1. She can’t wink (proved by trial. Hilarious stuff I tell you)
2. She can sing but is really shy about it (I can’t vouch for this though)
3. She loves guys who smell good (and that’s not just soap but actual cologne)

Her aspirations for the next 10 years are to be happy and successful. Because that combination is rare.

The photo above felt so fashion forward. I don’t know why 🙂

This shoot was full of it’s moments. Moments of discovery especially. Everyone learned something new that day. Some more than others 😉 I must say Fauziya did so well in this shoot. That’s why there are so many more photos below 😀

Fauziya’s friend Wariara was kind enough to act as shoot assistant during the shoot and at the end I just HAD to take a couple of shots of her. First, she showed Fauziya how to sit and look like a lady

Then she smiled for the camera
And finally I took a shot of the both of them

That marks the end of today’s post. Next week, we do it all over again 🙂

Tasty Treats – Flank Steak

Time again for me to torture you with photographs of some tasty meals. I present to you a grilled flank steak as presented to me at The Mvuli House.

Guaranteed to get your tastebuds going, I tell you. The Mvuli House is most definitely a must-visit for anyone looking to experience Nairobi from all facets. Try them out today.

More Tasty Treats shall come your way next week. We have one more Person of the Day post coming up this week, so do check back for that.

Tasty Treats – Grilled Lamb Chops

THE FOOD IS BACK!!! I know a couple of you had really been campaigning for this segment to make a come back. Well, your wishes have been granted. I present to you grilled lamb chops as presented to me at The Mvuli House.

Need I say more? Well, lemme just say that The Mvuli House is a very serene place that’s not only affordable but also your comfort is guaranteed. Try them out today 🙂

More Tasty Treats shall come your way next week. For now, have you liked my Facebook page? Have you also followed my Tumblelog? You better do so NOW if you haven’t.

World’s Loudest Library – 4

So this past Sato, I joined a couple of my friends and made some new friends at this month’s World Loudest Library held by the PMBC Library (Who you can find out about here)
Kenya Power sabotaged us like halfway through the gig but that didn’t stop the fun. The candles were unleashed and the people quieted down (except for me and @mkaigwa on the drums for….dramatic effect) to listen to excerpts from last month’s challenge “Made in China” As that was going on, I got these two images of the event organizers @tender_thang and @Raph_out_loud.

That last image was at the insistence of @mkaigwa. Awesome chap that one. The rest of the images are below. A couple of them WILL get me shot at (I’m looking at you Kato). But I don’t care.

This week will be an interesting one so make sure you’ve subscribed to the blog and kept a bookmark on your browser. Big tings a gwan 😉

Blankets and Wine in Mombasa a.k.a Blankets at the Beach.

So I was in Nyali for Blankets and Wine this past Sunday. The lighting was pretty crap but my lovely camera took it in a stride and pushed out some pretty awesome images.

This was my favourite image. I think the kid was looking for her parents. The stare down she gave @annemitaru and @raaheli was EPIC. 

For more images, hit up the slideshow below or check them out on my Facebook page. Like the page if you enjoy the pictures 😀

 

Look out for images from my travails in Malindi some time next week.

My travels at the Coast: A teaser

So I’m sitting at a Dormans in Nyali having a smoothie and I thought I should tease y’all for a min 🙂

More to come when I get to Nairobi…

Time for a break – Happy Easter!

Jumbo Stare down

So I was going through my hard drive today and I stumbled upon this photo. I was staring down an elephant at the Ark in the Aberdares Nat. Park back in 2010.

Such fun times 🙂

White Flower

So it rained today. Then it stopped. Then it hailed. Then it stopped for real 🙂 The sun came out and I thought it would be cool to see what the hailstones had brought down from the trees. I was lucky to find this in the garden.

I saw it as a sign that now the rain is here, there is hope that we will go back to lush green gardens and pretty flowers all over the place. Can’t wait 😀

In other non-related news, the Tasty Treats segment will be making a come back on the blog in a couple of days, so do look out for that. Here’s a ‘taste’ of what’s to come 😀

#NdaniYaMa3 – A Pictorial Exposition.

So this is me lazily chilling on the couch and timeline watching when the urge to listen to Ma3‘s Boda washes over me. So I do what I do best and visit KevDaNative’s site to indulge my urges. There, I notice his post on #NdaniYaMa3 and I realize that I haven’t done mine. So, here are my photos from that gig. Please forgive if they’re a lil wonky. Still trying to learn the ropes of the new camera 😀

That’s all. Have a fun weekend, friends 😀

Ndani ya Ma3 – A teaser

I do this too often. But it’s not my fault. Blame it on getting home late after a gig. There’s more where this one came from 😀

Testing…Testing…

How’s it hanging my good people? SO, I got a new camera and a couple of other things yesterday and I got the opportunity to play around with them all today in my backyard. I called a couple of friends (and sent out word far and wide) for test subjects and these are the results of those tests.

First up was my friend Jacky. She popped in for a quick shoot and I did it sans reflector.

Next up was Ndila and her friend Claire. This shoot took a while as I was basically trying everything out. But the images I got are currently blowing my mind away :-). Lemme start with Ndila.

Assisting me with the lighting was Claire. She also had a go in front of the camera (albeit after a lot of coaxing).

This one’s a bonus image I’m adding at Ndila’s behest.

 

That last image was one of the best if not the best photo I took today. I’m really impressed with the tonal gradations this camera gives. As well as excited that I have autofocus again. No more unintenionally soft focused images 🙂 It’s a lot more difficult to use than the trusty Sony A200 that I’ve been using. Lots more buttons to fiddle with and settings to remember to set properly. But I guess with time and practise I’ll be at ease with it.
Next week, I’ll try out the video and I’ll definitely post the results here. Till then, keep it loose and have fun 😀

P.S.

Do you guys think I should keep image size down like I have done for this post or stick to my full size images as before? Your thoughts would be HIGHLY appreciated 🙂

Coming soon…

SO, 

I got a new camera 😀 Trying it out later today (this was written at 2.24AM after a long night unboxing and reading manuals and what not) so I’ll post sample images when I’m done with the shoot. ION, what a week eh? It rained here tonight. Haven’t been happier in a long long while. Hope the grass gets rejuvenated enough for my test shoots in the afternoon to look a bit green. 

Now I’m rambling. Off to do dishes 🙂 

Steps…

So last Sunday I was helping out at a shoot for a couple of friends (they go by the name Fashion Nouveau). The location was Arboretum and I had my camera out to capture those special side moments. This photo was one of those. It looked good in my mind.

AAAND that’s all folks 😀

So Reumac does much more than photography

What’s happening my good people??!!! Who’s missed me? I’m sure there must be at least one of you who has missed me. Somebody? Anybody? Body?
Anyhu, as this post’s title suggests, I do a lot more than JUST take photos. For example, for the past 3 editions of the Kinanda Arts Festival, I’ve been doing the official ‘aftermovie’ as we like to call it. The video I did for Kinanda 9 is below

The ones I did for Kinanda 10 are below

Now for the piece de resistance. Or at least that’s how it’s spelt in my brain. I had the priviledge of working with the Ma3 band and a brilliant videographer from BBC called Owain on a live and unplugged version of their song ‘Haki Yetu’. You can watch this below

I must say shooting and editing that video was the most fun I have had in a long long while 😀 Please feel free to watch and share these videos. I would not mind if you dropped a comment on them professing your absolute love for my work 🙂

If all goes well, this week will be full of content. Let’s see what happens. Happy Monday y’all!!

Ethereal Light

So, I was up entirely too early yesterday morning. As I struggled to de-mist my foggy, sleep filled mind, I took a short walk around the house and slowly realized that the sun’s light was looking pretty as it filtered through the leaves. It looked something like this

I don’t think the photo does full justice to what I was seeing, but I think you get the basic idea. It looked so cool 😀

Random Sunset in Nairobi

So today, I was that guy rolling in my 504 with my accomplice Tony (a.k.a. @weka_tyre) braving looks of death from fellow Kenyans as we were taking pics for an essay I’m doing for some guys. We traversed the whole of the city in search of the perfect image and hopefully, we did get a couple of perfect images. After the work was done, we retreated to Tony’s place to escape the heat and dust and unwind after the craziness we’d been through. An idea struck me to do photos of sunset and since I’d left the camera in the car (and I wasn’t going down 5 flights of stairs to get it) I pulled out my trusty Galaxy Mini and shot the sun as it set. This is what I got.

Does it look good?

Also, what do y’all think about the new design of the blog?

Behind The Scenes of A Music Video

So, I woke up to this video on my Facebook timeline on Saturday evening and it reminded me that I hadn’t yet put up any of the behind the scenes shots I’d taken at the same shoot. This video is going to be KILLER so you best watch out for it.

 

That was the director Andrew getting interviewed by Enzi Media for the BTS video.

A scene being shot

The same scene. That’s how it looked. Awesome, eh?

The fun bit was scooting around on the tracks for the jib and activating the smoke machine 🙂

I directed this scene. That was a very fun job, why lie.

The hours were long, but the dedication was strong. This was the last scene being set up.

And finally, we got a chance to play around a bit with the blacklights. Awesome stuff I tell you.

With that said, I promise I’ll try to shoot some wherever I’ll be this week. So do look out for some interesting posts 😀

An Apology Post

In my defense, I’ve not been shooting as much as I’m supposed to. Which is not entirely my fault. Part of the blame resides with the people I was supposed to shoot who have in the past couple of weeks failed to turn up for shoots. But now that we’re here, I’m really going to try to pick up my photo taking/blogging efforts. Promise.

That aside, I had a shoot with my friend Nyambura (@gwomsjnr) today. It was a quick affair with only 2 outfit changes. I was going for headshots mostly. I liked how she smiled. That really worked to her advantage. 

That photo of her looking down. Hands down favorite 😀

P.S

Did you know I do event coverage for UrbanLive.co.ke? Check out my work and feel free to leave me a comment. Also, they sell original Kenyan music at pretty low rates. Support our art, buy some music.

Person(s) of the Day – Tatenda Wangui and Sally Shadeya

Allow me to introduce you to Tatenda and Sally.

Let’s start with Tatenda because she’s the genesis of how this shoot was done. She finished her IB late last year and is currently awaiting admission to university. She’s in the cooking business and marketing for a company called Kura Yetu.

She posted on my new look Facebook page early last month (have you visited it recently?) and we got to talking and planning and just like that the shoot happened.

As usual. I asked her what 3 things the world doesn’t know about her. The answers were:

1. She is absolutely growing (that last word was redacted and replaced by her :-))
2. She’s addicted to yoghurt, gummy bears and purple.
3. She can do ANYTHING for the people she loves. 

In the next 10 years she wants to have at least 1 child, at least half of the collection of Audis, and a stable life.

Now let’s shift focus to Sally. She’s currently just chilling awaiting university admission.

Sally is Tatenda’s best friend (I could tell from the pet names they used on each other the whole time we were shooting)

So, when I asked about her 3 things this is what she told me:

1. She loves loves loves fashion
2. She loves anything with Ed Westwick in it.
3. She loves Placebo (the rock band) 

In 10 years, she sees herself working (like everybody else – her words, not mine), having kids and just living out the rest of her life in the happiest way possible.

This was a particularly challenging shoot because half the time the skies were threatening to send down torrential rains (however much I was assuring everyone that it wasn’t gonna rain), but thanks to the valiant efforts of the ladies’ friends at holding the reflectors as instructed, the shots worked out. Here’s one bonus image of the two lovely ladies.

And with that, I wish everyone a most fantastic weekend. I’ll have a fresh post for you on Monday. In the meanwhile, feel free to drop by my Facebook page,  and my Tumble-log.

Kinanda Festival 11

So, thanks to that stupid sea captain who dropped anchor in just the wrong place, NOW is when I’m posting these. I can’t say much about this Kinanda. I had such a fun time I fell sick afterwards 🙂 Feel free to share this at will

I won’t put a slideshow so that I can save y’all the stress of loading the page. It’s gallery only.

Kinanda Festival 11 – A Taste of what’s to come

You know you wanna look out for the post when this internet sorts itself out. Which hopefully will be soon.

Person of the Day – Diane Ombasyi

Allow me to introduce you to Diane.

She is a freelance mentor, team builder, among many other things.

As usual. I asked her what 3 things the world doesn’t know about her. The answers were:

1. She is a hopeless romantic (ha!)
2. She likes big egos
3. She is at her best when she’s in the wild.

10 years from now, she wants to have set up her own facility to help people. She would also like to be married with 2 kids (though she wants 6 kids)

I have to admit that this was a particularly difficult shoot for me, partly owing to the fact that I hadn’t slept well for a couple of days before thanks to one of my side gigs. I still insist that Diane would absolutely rock a more traditional African kind of look. But hey, that’s just me. I have to say a big up to my good friend Rowena for putting together the shoot and helping with posing and such. Check out her blog here (She’s a talented photographer as well :-)) This is a photo I took of her as we waited for Diane to change

That’s that. For now. I’ll see what else I can put up to keep y’all coming back to the blog. So it’ll be a surprise 😀 Don’t forget to like my page on Facebook. The link is to the right of this post 🙂

This is a post about Maria and her creations

I really didn’t have a title for today’s post 😀

So anyhu, Maria of Zambarau is pretty awesome. She’s pretty AND she’s awesome 🙂 Ok, enough doting. She was our accessories provider for a shoot I had a couple of weeks back with Sara Karay for her latest collection from her clothing line. This is Maria posing as we did test shots.

I really liked her February collection, which is what she came with for the shoot. It had such pretty pieces. It’s a shame I don’t have anyone to buy some of them for. They all really look good. My favorite piece had to be this one

It’s the colours. I’m sure. You can get more images from Zambarau’s latest collection in the gallery/slideshow below. Don’t forget to check her out on Facebook here and grab something for yourself or someone special. She also does jewellery for men (win!!!)

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Person of the Day – Michelle Kamene

Allow me to introduce you to Michelle.

She is in her second year studying Law in the University of Nairobi.

She happened to post on the wall of my Facebook page that I should do a shoot with her, so I did a shoot with her 😀 (Sounds simple, doesn’t it?)

As usual. I asked her what 3 things the world doesn’t know about her. The answers were:

1. She has a boyfriend.
2. She has multi ethnic lineage (though she can’t speak any of the languages of said ethnic groups).
3. She has been wearing glasses since she was 7 years old (told y’all the geeks shall rule the world).

Her aspirations for the next 5 years are to be an associate at some law firm, to be engaged, rolling large in a Maybach and finally, she’ll be done with her rugby player fetish.

This was a particularly interesting shoot. Michelle checked in with her two very noisy but fun friends and half the shoot was spent telling them to shut it and focus on positioning the reflectors properly. All in all it was a crazy fun time.

I really don’t know what to post this week. I have quite a number of images lying unedited thanks to the valiant efforts of Kenya Power and taking our electricity every morning (Wakwende!!) We’ll see what’ll happen as the week progresses 😀

As always, I have a couple of bonus images. These two pics will probably get me killed, but I sure do think they are worth it. First, a shot of all the ladies that we took when the shoot was over

And lastly, one of those shots that get photographers killed for posting them. Taken as we were figuring out a pose 🙂

Look out for more interesting pics coming up later in the week. And since tomorrow, apparently, is valentine’s day, here’s a word of wisdom to all those lovers reading this. If he/she only does something special for you one day a year, what the heck are you still doing with that person? *side eye*

Beads in the Grass

What’s happening my good people? So, I had a shoot yesterday for my fashion designer friend Sara’s line (look out for sneak previews of that throughout the week) and while we were waiting for the models to get ready, I happened to capture some pics of the jewellery that Maria of Zambarau had provided for the shoot. I haven’t seen such beautiful jewellery in ages. You need to check her out on Facebook as well as look out for more photos of her creations here on the blog. I’ll put them up as soon as I get done with editing them 😀

Here’s wishing everybody a fantastic start to the week!!

Taking a boat ride in the garden

Just came back from a relaxing sunset cruise in my garden. Thought I’d share this pic from the back of my boat 😀 

Beautiful Lady behind a tree

I know that was a really random post title, but I promise that’s what the pic’s gonna be 😀

The lovely lady is Melissa. She’s the boss over at Urban Live, a very hip site all o’ y’all should check out (because I also do event coverage for them 🙂

Ok. I’m done. Happy monday fam 😀

Kinanda Arts Festival Edition 9 recap

What’s a happening good people?! So, I moonlight as the photographer at Kinanda Arts Festival sometimes and the last time I was actually moonlighting as a videographer. One of the videos I shot and compiled is out and here it is 😀

The next Kinanda Festival is coming up this Sunday. Check out the details here and make sure you show up because you just might appear in the next set of videos 😀

Juxtaposition?

I may be ending my life as I know it by posting this pic but I think since it was taken in good humor, that might extend till now 🙂

I had the opportunity of shooting with a bunch of very gorgeous women some time in December and though I have no idea what I was reading about then, it did impact my ideas for the shoot. I don’t remember what this was called but I guess it could be called ‘Juxtaposition’

Kendy’s so good at acting like she’s just been shot 😀 Anyhu, if anyone can figure out what that’s called please hit me up.

Bringing the Urban to the Jungle

Last year, I had the priviledge of organizing and doing a shoot at a lovely location deep in the heart of Tigoni. In front of the lens were Tony, Imani and Joanne while behind the lens I had the lovely Barbara assisting me and doing behind the scenes while Naomi most graciously arranged for the location. I must say this was my first (and very feeble) try at a location shoot with a theme. We sure had a whole lot of fun while we were at it 😀

I’ve been lazy with getting the photos out but since 2012 is the year of the Kenyan photographer (and so agrees Mutua), allow me quit the laziness and now give you a glimpse of what transpired that day.

For more images, hit up the gallery and slideshow below 😀

Before that though, I have to show you some of the behind the scenes pics I managed to capture.

My lovely assistant Barbara 🙂

Joanne during one of our rest breaks

The team 😀 (This photo will most definitely get me killed. But it was worth it :-))

P.S

Please take a moment to like my Facebook page. You can use the like box on the right of this post.

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Lunch and Fun in Tigoni

A couple of days before Christmas, I had the privilege of joining some interesting people for a lunch in Tigoni. This is what transpired…

There were some beautiful pillow cases

@IAMCouscous looking resplendent

The pastor,

and his guitar.

Mark, and my sunglasses.

and Nanjira and her sunglasses.

Of course these weren’t the only people who were there. A lot else happened and was photographed too. But these are the photos that really stood out to me. For more, do head over to Elsie’s blog and keep an eye on Kev’s site because they were probably a bit more serious about taking photos there than I was 😀 Plus, I ADORE Elsie’s camera.

End of the story. Now go contemplate what you’ve learnt as you suck an ice lolly to ward off the HEAT of Nairobi.

And We’re Back!!

Wazzaaaa!!!! 😀

Happy new year good people. Here’s hoping everyone had a fun holiday. So, I decided to come back with a flash. A flashback that is 🙂

About 2 years ago, I took a stroll in a park right next to a castle

with a pretty lady and her dog

Her name is Sabina and the ball of fur is 4 year old Piazza. She was one of the coolest people I came to know during my whole stay in Sweden. Exactly how I came to know her, I don’t remember. Anyhu, it was a bright day late spring and my days in Kalmar were full of light, colour and warmth.

Sabina and Piazza were perfect company for that afternoon. We spent the time chatting, cracking jokes and taking photos as Piazza ran around the park enjoying the fresh air and warm sunshine. Catching her on the move proved a bit difficult for me, so instead I got a couple of pictures when she finally chilled out and Sabina could wrap her arms around her.

and of course a couple of pictures of Sabina by herself 😀

Because I couldn’t spend the whole afternoon outside thanks to some work I had to get done, we had to head back to town while the sun was still high up in the sky. On our way, I saw what I still think is darn near my definition of a perfect photograph.

Please feel free to ask me why 🙂 All in all, that shoot still counts as one of the most fun times I have ever had on the job. I don’t think I’ll be forgetting it in a hurry.

 

All that said, look out for fresh posts coming your way really soon. My new year’s resolution is to shoot a whole lot more so I should be keeping y’all entertained quite a bit 😀

My 2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Happy Holidays!!

2011 surely has been a good year. This blog was born, history was made and repeated and made again many times over. A time has come for all of us to reflect on the year as well as plan for 2012. So I bid y’all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2012 😀

 

P.S

My friend Barbara took that photo. She’s talented isn’t she?

Highlights from Elani Urban Expression

So, while I was still well the other day I was taking photos at the Urban Expression concert. When the lights were working right, we did make some magic.

 

Ok. Back to being sick now.

The Missing Lady?

I had the priviledge of shooting in a beautiful location in the middle of a tea farm in Tigoni last weekend. As I hustled the models to get their last outfit changes done quickly, I came across the situation above. One of the models had left her shoes at the verge where the verandah met the grass. I thought it would do for a creepy photo. It felt as if a ghost was walking up the steps of the verandah 😀

That aside, you should definitely look forward to the photos from that shoot. I will have them up soon as I can bring myself to sorting through the 13 or so GB worth of RAW files I created there.

The Face of Determination

For the past two weeks I had the pleasure of driving around in The Monster. Somewhere in that time I succeeded in making it quite dirty. Thought that was a such a good look on it 😀

If it only had eyes

I am wont to randomness. Saw these perched on a log in my backyard in the middle of a shoot with a couple of clients and I started wondering what it’d be like if the log actually had eyes and it was just staring up at the sun on a lazy afternoon 😀

The Flowers of Tigoni

What’s good people? Reumac is back 🙂 So, the other day I went to Tigoni to do some location scouting for a shoot and I happened to spot a couple of pretty flowers. Thought I should share them with you. 

 

As an added bonus, this is a shot of one of the roads we used walking around the location. I think I will use it for the shoot 😀

So make sure you keep an eye out for the images from the shoot. Soon as I do the shoot 😀

Person of the Day – Damaris Waiyaki

Allow me to introduce you to Damaris.

She is in her final year studying Psychology at USIU.

I met her through @stiviz who tweeted a twitpic one day of himself and her. I immediately demanded that she put a better avi up and this shoot was as a result of those deliberations 😀

When I asked her what 3 things she would not mind the world knowing about her, this is what she had to say. First, she is an adrenaline junkie (Hasn’t bungee’d yet so I do not believe her). Secondly, she is very shy (apparently. Another point  I do not believe). Finally, she  sleeps a lot. I reserve my comments on this.

Her aspirations for the next 10 years are to run her own PR business. No children, but maybe a husband and beach house.

Now let’s talk a little about the shoot. I have to give a large up to @stiviz for putting the whole thing together and actually transporting Damaris and her lovely sister to and from my place for the shoot. He even brought AND cooked burgers for everyone 😀 Awesome guy that one. I did get a few pics of him as we were shooting 🙂

Finally, do look out for Delectable Delights later this week and a surprise post…can’t tell you what it’s about now can I? 😀 Here’s a bonus image to bring this party to a nice end. A wonderfully backlit shot of Damaris and her sister. Enjoy!!

Delectable Delights: Vegetable Rice

In this edition of the Delectable Delights segment, I present yet another tasty dish that’s on the menu at Hashmi’s Barbeque Centre in Westlands.

 

Allow me to present to you today’s dish, Vegetable Rice. This is rice mixed with capsicum, tomatoes, onions and corn.

 

This is a perfect dish if you’re in a rush and you want a filling meal. It also works well as a desk lunch item. Since the good people at Hashmi’s do deliveries, you can definitely get it at desk if you can’t leave for lunch today 😀 You simply need to call 0733721789, 0722487000 or 0722555505.

As always, if you wanna partake in this dish, drop by Hashmi’s BBQ centre at Ukay centre in Westlands. Be sure to say I sent you there because you might just get yourself juice on the house 😀 It is very spacious and suitable for anything from a family dinner to a romantic surprise.

More delectable delights shall be coming to a computer screen near you really soon…

Person(s) of the Day – Cecilia and Sarah

The best way to make a comeback is with a bang. That’s basically the purpose of this post 😀 Allow me to introduce you to:

Cecilia Sagini who is in her 2nd Year at USIU studying IBA, Marketing option.

Sarah Mugambi who is also in her 2nd Year at USIU studying IBA, Marketing option.

The story of how I met these two isn’t REALLY glamorous. I met Cecilia at Kinanda 8, we clicked then I met her again at the Ma3 launch on Saturday, decided she should feature on the blog and she brought her friend Sarah along for the shoot. We then proceeded to have a kick ass time and the results speak for themselves.

Their story is however a lot more interesting. Apparently they knew each other in primary and they stalked each other till campus. One of them (won’t say who) applied to join USIU and the other one upon hearing that applied as well. They both applied for the same course. And the rest is history.

Time for us to go into my usual 21 questions to them. I should say that getting the answers to these questions did take them both quite a while. Quite an interesting couple of minutes I must say 🙂

First off is Cecilia. When I asked what three things she’d not mind the world knowing about her, the first thing she said was that

she is a good swimmer. She then confessed to having a vocally oriented relationship with her shower. That is, she sings in the shower. I did hear her sing along to some songs as they were getting glam’d up for the shoot and she sure can sing. Her third and final thing was that she wants to be in the Olympics some day. Her choice of discipline was the shocker. She wants to go to the Olympics and compete in the shot put competition. I reserve my comments on this.

Next up is Sarah. Her first things was that she is good in the Arts. Second thing was a bit more interesting. She has a tattoo somewhere though she didn’t wanna mention where exactly. I’m still quite curious about the placement of that tattoo. Her third thing was that she is crazily weird sometimes. This was proudly pointed out by Cecilia. Who then went on to say that it’s kinda cool 🙂

I could easily tell that these two were long time friends just from the way they joked around and had fun the whole time we shot. We even got a few action shots like this one 😀

Ok, back to more serious matters. Time for future aspirations. In the next 10 years, Sarah wants to have the biggest fashion line in East Africa. She would also like to have 2 kids and a husband (of course) and hold the title of Marketing director for FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) manufacturing company. Especially the beverage oriented industries.

Cecilia would like to be a big shot with e’erything. Her words, not mine. Seriously though, she would like to have her own company and run it well. Probably an events management firm or something of the sort. Possibly, she would wanna have the right guy already and one kid at least.

Time for me to bring this lil’ shindig to an end. A few words about the shoot, my home-made reflector really came in handy to make the photos really pop. The sun was playing tricks with me the whole time so I wasn’t really able to get any of my famous backlit shots done. However, if all goes according to plan, I should be doing another shoot with these two some time soon. I hope the sun will be cooperative second time around.

This is just the beginning of the great things I have lined up for you this week so make sure you follow the blog and sign up to be emailed when new posts come out. To keep y’all busy till tomorrow, do take some time to enjoy the slideshow below of all the notable images from the shoot 😀

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Instrument of Musical Perfection

Happy Monday everybody 😀 I trust everyone had a lovely weekend. This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the launch for Ma3’s new album Beba Beba at the Goethe Institut and as I was clicking away as usual, I did get quite a few interesting shots. This one was my favorite of the bunch.
I hope to be back to blogging fully this week so I hope you’re looking forward to seeing a whole lot more on this blog 🙂

Emy and Rose – A Teaser

What’s up good people? I am unfortunately not feeling very well so I couldn’t prepare a full person of the day post for today. I am however going to give you a teaser. I had a shoot with two beautiful ladies the other day and when I am feeling better I will do a proper post about them. Introducing;

Emy

and Rose.

So look out for a Person(s) of the Day post about them some time this week. For now, allow me to go be sick.

Two beautiful women in B/W

As the title says, today I will feature one of the shots that never made it to the original blog post about a shoot I did with 3 beautiful women, Julia, Cynthia and Annette. I love black and white shots 😀

This week we will have another special Flashback Friday post so do look out for that. Till then, domo arigato gozaimasu 😀

Random Close Ups of Food

What’s good people?! Thank you for the massive blog loving the whole of yesterday. I promise I will blog more if I can be getting such love every day 😀

Now to other pressing issues. Time for some honest truth. If you take a minute to ask any blogger out there, be it @bikozulu, @mutuamatheka, @wamathai or even @akellove they will tell you that at some point in time as a blogger you do run into a wall called a lack of content. For some it’s a matter of hours or days or even months before they can get back into the rhythm. I kinda ran into that wall a couple of weeks ago. In the spirit of getting my mojo back, I have to keep up with my usual schedule. So this post will be true to it’s title. Presenting, random close ups of food 😀

This is vegetable rice.

As you can guess, this is vegetable salad.

This dish is called Paneer Tikka. I did a post on it a while back if you wanna find out more about it.

Now for all the carnivores out there, this is Mushikaki.

This is Fish Tikka.

And finally, Chicken Poussin.

These photos were all taken at Hashmi’s BBQ centre in Westlands and all these dishes are on the menu there so if you wanna experience them yourself, do pop on over there and enjoy 😀

Randomness over and out. Feel free to share the word.

More of Kinanda Arts Festival Edition 9

A good friend of mine called Albert recently got into the photo taking business and we have been shooting side by side at Kinanda festivals since edition 6. If you remember well, I switched cameras with him for a while and got some really kick ass pics while I was at it. In the spirit of camaraderie, he asked that I put up a few pics from yesterday for him. Here they are 😀

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Kinanda Arts Festival Edition 9

Today marked the return of the Kinanda Arts Festival to the monthly events calendar. Dubbed the “Tumehama Edition”, it marked a new beginning for Kinanda Fest because the venue had changed from Kifaru Gardens to the KARI grounds. Also, because Kinanda Fest took a break in September this month’s edition was extra special as the organizers pulled out all the stops to ensure it would be a world class event. I can assure you that it surely was fantastic.

By the time I arrived at KARI, I was feeling quite harassed. Let’s just say my morning didn’t start out as well as I hoped. I blame Murphy for that 😀 My MO (Modus Operandi) for the afternoon was a tad different because I was tasked with shooting video so that we can create an after movie for Kinanda (You GOTTA look out for that real soon). I still got to take a few pics here and there. The ones that stood out among the hundreds were:

This one of  two beautiful ladies, both called Njeri.

This star studded pic featuring (from left) Polycarp, Chimano, Juliani and Bien.

There were 3 Honda superbikes… I need not say more…

Finally, this was THE CRAZIEST picture I took the whole of today. Presenting, the evolution of man.

Please take some time to enjoy the gallery and slideshow below. Feel free to right click/save as any photo you appear in. Do spread the word as well 😀

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Flashback Friday 06 – Flight of the Corridor to Oland

What happens to me every Friday is that I take  a MASSIVE trip through memory lane. Today’s trip is a special one. When the sun came out and the days started getting longer in Kalmar, my friends from the 3rd floor of our hostel announced a planned camping trip to a little (not so small though) island off the coast of Kalmar called Oland. The idea was to hop onto our bikes, grab a free bus ride across the bridge to Oland, ride halfway up the island along the coast then all the way across at it’s narrowest point. Total distance one way was about 45 kilometres. I rode there and back. In a single day.

I found the bus really interesting. Apart from how the bikes were actually transported across the bridge, it had a mirror inside that was cracked and I had a blast taking pics of our faces in that mirror.

Oland was quite an interesting island. Part of it was nice and modern just like Kalmar then there was a part of it that felt like you were being transported to the middle ages. There were windmills all over and the field were yellow and bright in the sun. It was wonderful. One windmill we stopped at had a plaque on it that stated that it had been built in the 1600s. It was still operational by the way.

The landscapes there were quite breath taking. My favorite one is below.

For a more expanded account of the bike tour to Oland, do read the journal entry about that trip here. I am sure you will quite enjoy it.

Till next week, have fun y’all 😀

Delectable Delights: Mutton Kebab

Time for us to savour yet another wonderful dish from Hashmi’s Barbeque Centre in Westlands.

Mutton kebab is mutton mince spiced and roasted on charcoal. As all other foods at Hashmi’s this dish is marinated overnight and the roasting brings out flavours like you’ve never experienced before. This is definitely a must whenever I am eating there.

 

If I was you, I would head over Hashmi’s BBQ centre at Ukay centre in Westlands right now 😀 Please don’t forget to mention that you heard about the place from me.

More delectable delights shall be coming your way next week. Don’t miss out 😉

We have a winner!!

So, I ran a competition yesterday for someone to guess what was in the trees in the picture. The correct answer was 2 hornbills on the right and on the left side of the picture. Because I didn’t expect most people to be able to name the species of bird on sight, our winner is Tatty Biyaki who correctly answered that there were 2 birds in the trees. She gets a shoot 😀

My congratulations to her, and the rest of you should not give up hope any time soon. There shall be yet another chance for you to win on this blog VERY SOON. Mark my words on that..

The wonders of Nature

What’s good people? Told you I was back 😀

Today, there’s something in the trees. I took this picture when we got visitors in our backyard the other day. Anyone who correctly spots what I mean gets a shoot. Quite simple eh? So get cracking at guessing and you might just win yourself a shoot 😀

 

Chizi 10year Tribute Concert

What’s good people?! I sincerely apologize for not posting here for a long long time. But I’m back and that’s what matters 😀

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda’s concert to mark 10 years of his music. It was quite well attended and from the looks of things quite well organized as well. I had only slight misgivings with the lighting from a photographer’s point of view but I suspect it’s about time for me to upgrade my kit anyway. Buddha blaze was the MC for the night and I must say he did a great job of keeping the crowd entertained between the acts. Monique was first on stage. She’s relatively new on the Kenyan music scene but boy does she have a voice! You can see more of her on Mutua Matheka’s blog (he did the photo for her album cover) and you should go buy yourself a copy of her album. I can promise you it will be one of the best purchases you make this year.

Chris Adwar took the stage next. What he did was a tad fantastic. He had a machine that recorded and played back his voice as he sang. He slowly built the song, one voice at a time till it was a full harmony. I quite enjoyed how he has fused technology into his music. In my honest opinion, he is undoubtedly one of the best musicians in the country right now.

After him, the main act for the evening came up on stage. Chizi and his band thrilled the crowd with hit after hit for the better part of 2 hours. The songs spanned Chizi’s music career and along the way, he brought the house down with hilarious anecdotes about his life and his music over the past 10 years.

All in all, the gig was one of the best I have attended this year. I haven’t yet seen anyone who performs with as much energy on stage as Chizi did last night. As a plus, I got a shot of some fans smiling after gig 😀

Do enjoy the gallery and slideshow below 😀 I will catch you cool cats later.

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At Sankara Hotel

I have this nasty habit of looking up. It lands me in hot water sometimes but other times it’s just the best darned idea in the world. Case in point: some time last year I went to Sankara to cover an office workshop for a few days. I actually spent most of my time looking up with the camera to my eye. I saw this;
And this;

I quite enjoyed the few days I spent at the hotel. The service was good, it did have the wow factor and the food was fantasic. Well, except the day that they did an African menu. Not a fan of ugali The art that was all over the place was especially intriguing. Sculptures especially. Por exemplo

I really liked this one piece that was looking into the wine bar. I wonder who did it. The attention to detail is fantastic. The rest of the hotel is really tastefully furnished. I would love to do a shoot there sometime.

I must admit, I am a sucker for places that are lit in unique ways 😀

Anyhu, that’s that for today. As always, thank you so much for reading today’s post and do keep checking back because I do have a lot in store for you this week 🙂

 

Delectable Delights: Lamb Chops

In this edition of the Delectable Delights segment, I present yet another tasty dish that’s on the menu at Hashmi’s Barbeque Centre in Westlands.

Allow me to present to you today’s dish, Lamb Chops. These are spiced lamb chops roasted on charcoal and served with a side of salad.

I think the one thing that thoroughly impressed me about this dish is that since it is well marinated like all meat dishes at Hashmi’s, the flavours are so well infused into the lamb that the effect it has on your tongue makes it feel like it has sublimated from earth to straight to heaven. The chops are very tender and and absolute joy to eat.

As always, if you wanna partake in this dish, drop by Hashmi’s BBQ centre at Ukay centre in Westlands. Be sure to say I sent you there 😀 It is very spacious and suitable for anything from a family dinner to a romantic surprise.

More delectable delights shall be coming to a computer screen near you really soon…

This is a random post

It’s on of those days I am totally lacking psyke to post. So let’s take a closer look at one of nature’s surprises that I found in my backyard last week.

 

It’s always so much fun seeing stuff close up. You see so much more that way.

Have an appreciative start to the week 😀

Flashback Friday 05 – Easter in Kalmar

It was the first time that I was doing Easter holidays outside my homeland. Predictably, I didn’t plan to go anywhere over Easter (not that I could afford to anyway) so I resigned myself to a quiet Easter spent in my hostel room watching movies and chatting with friends. Little did I know how much I would get up to that weekend.

It’s like spring heralded the beginning of barbecue season in Kalmar. I think I attended at least 5 barbecues in a period of 4 days. That’s not even counting the pre-parties I went for. This image was from the  barbecue my friends held on the top floor of our hostel. The sparks made such wonderful light trails as we set about getting the fire as hot as possible as soon as possible using someone’s hair dryer. That’s a trick I so have to use at a barbecue real soon 😀

At that same party, we were playing this game. Don’t remember what it was called. But it was a whole bucket load of fun. The idea was to get 3 pieces or more in a straight line. The French people kept winning 😀

Talking about French folk, I spent a whole lot of time that weekend with two angels – Eve-lise and Adele (pictured bottom right and top right respectively). They were part of the French contingent of the exchange student community and probably the best friends I had the whole time I was there. This photo was taken at yet another barbecue I showed up at during that weekend. This time it was the exchange student community who hadn’t gone home or abroad for Easter coming together to have some fun. Something interesting that I just noticed about this picture is that the two on the left are German and the two on the left are French 😀

The exchange student community at Kalmar kinda felt like a mini United Nations. We had students from all over the world coming together with one common goal – Education. This also meant that there were a lot of beautiful young ladies there as well 😀 but I digress. That barbecue did end up being a photo shoot because the evening sun was giving off some glorious soft light and the photographer in me just wouldn’t let that slip by.

This is arguably one of my best portraits from the whole of my 4 month stay in Kalmar. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing and Cathrin was such a joy. She translated what I had seen in my head into the pose. I ended up always taking a photo of her whenever she was around me.

Finally, as part of my cultural experience, I got to go for a pre-easter event at the Kalmar museum a.k.a ‘the witching night’. You can get the full story here. There were kids all over the place in the museum and my friends were helping out in the origami room, teaching the kids how to make various origami animals using art paper. A clear favorite was frogs. They were so cute that I just had to take a photo of one of them.

My apologies for the very random nature of today’s post. For an easier narrative, please visit the journal entry that covered that Easter period as well as the photo album with many other pictures from the same time. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you can get first 4 instalments in this series here, here, here and here.

Have fun this weekend folks. Safety starts with you, so don’t go doing anything I wouldn’t do.

Delectable Delights: Faluda

Today, I decided it’s about time I did something different for this weekly segment. The good people at  Hashmi’s Barbeque Centre in Westlands do serve a lot more than just food. They also have a VERY delicious drink called Faluda (some people spell it Falooda)

I am not an expert chef so I can’t describe to quantity what exactly goes into this drink. I do know however that there’s some vermicelli that go in there (the little round things you see floating inside) as well as some rose syrup and some kulfi. Let me take a minute to talk to you about this last ingredient. The kulfi served at Hashmi’s is homemade ice cream. They have a fresh batch every day. That means that it’s tasty like nothing else as well as being fresh. You can’t get this anywhere else, I can guarantee you. That said, the Faluda at Hashmi’s is my second favorite drink after the Tangerine juice. No need to guess why I love the Tangerine juice so much ( I mean, who doesn’t :-))

 

Make a visit to Hashmi’s BBQ centre at Ukay centre in Westlands to get yourself a taste of this wonderful and refreshing drink. And you can also visit the wiki about Faluda here to find out more about the origins and ingredients in the drink.

More delectable delights shall be coming your way next week. Don’t miss out 😉

Picture of the Day – Baby Becca

SO, yesterday I had the priviledge of spending some time with my niece Rebecca. Her parents brought her over to my backyard so I could give her the celebrity treatment and that I did 😀

This was actually the first shot I took of her. It seemed to me at the time that this baby sure knew how to hold a pose. Looking through pics from the rest of the shoot, she sure does 😀

Coming up later in the week, we will have more of those Delectable Delights y’all absolutely love as well as Flashback Fridays might be making a come back this Friday. Be sure to look forward to those…

Julia et Anita et Cynthia

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of doing a shoot with three beautiful women, Cynthia, Julia and Anita. If you remember well, I had mentioned that I would be doing a second shoot with Cynthia and Julia and this was it. (see the person of the day post I did about them here)
Anita

Julia

And Cynthia.

As always, enough with words. If you want to find out more about Cynthia and Julia do check out the person of the day post. Enjoy the slideshow/gallery 😀

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#SafaricomClassicalFusion Concert in Mombasa

What’s up people? I sure hope everyone has themselves a most fantastic weekend 😀

So, this past week I did something most people would regard as crazy. On Wednesday, I hopped onto a bus  at 9 in the AM and about 10 hours later  I was at the Butterfly Pavillion inside Mombasa’s great Haller Park listening to the smooth sounds of @sautisol and the legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I have a whole lot of nothing good to say about Horizon coaches who’s bus I used to get to Mombasa, but lemme save you the trouble. Enjoy the gallery (or slideshow depending on your preference) below 😀

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This is a random post about my dinner :-D

This is for the benefit all of you who aren’t on my Twitter or on my Facebook. In true @mutuamatheka-esque fashion, I decided to take pics of my “comfort food” dinner I just finished cooking. Here you go:

Ok. Now I’m done *loud burp* My sincere apologies for being so MIA this week.  I will explain everything in a blog post next week. Till then, stay cool dudes and dudettes 😀

Delectable Delights: Chicken Poussin

Better late than never they say. Well, this post is a bit delayed but I know it’s just in time for the lunch hour at Hashmi’s Barbeque Centre in Westlands.

Chicken poussin is spring chicken deep fried and spiced with Poussin sauce. Mind you this is the ORIGINAL chicken poussin. Anyone else purporting to have the original dish is just lying.

 

If you really want to have that meal that will make your tastebuds go to heaven and back with every bite, you’d better head on over to Hashmi’s BBQ centre at Ukay centre in Westlands right now 😀

More delectable delights shall be coming your way next week. Don’t miss out 😉

Picture of The Day – Joy

What’s happening good people?! This is me hoping that everyone has had a most fantastic weekend and thanking you once again for being that person checking out my blog right now 😀

Today’s post is the last in a series of posts about a shoot I had at the Ngong Hills with @tindilicious 2 sundays ago. Now, these days I have learnt that having someone at your side at shoots is important because there are things you will not see as a photographer that someone else will see. Like a misplaced strand of hair. Or a hand that’s placed funny. So I try as much as possible to have someone acting as my second pair of eyes. For that shoot, my friend Joy was so gracious as to accompany us. While Tindi and Mulwa were figuring out their poses, I took this lovely shot of Joy.

I will try to get her in front of the camera again in the near future so that I can do a full person of the day post about her. Let’s hope she doesn’t run away from the camera 😀
Coming up this week is a whole lot of wonderful photos for you, so make sure you make this blog your first stop on the internet every day 😉 Feel free to drop me a comment below by the way…

Just To Know

I know you know my big little secret

I know you know this sweet open secret

I love yous and secret looks at you

quite the big little secret.

I know you know what I know

I know I make you smile

like you know you make me happy

ooh such a loud little secret

I know you know everything there is to know

that concerns this little thing I feel for you

and

I know that you know what I know

about that little thing too that warms you

I love you.

 

Quick note; featured in today’s post was @tindilicious and her boyfriend Mulwa. The poetry is by her as well.

Picture of The Day – Paradise Tree

So this past Sunday I did a lot. After a shoot with the  Buku sisters, I had to dash off to the Ngong hills for a shoot with @tindilicious and her boyfriend. The photos from that shoot will be up tomorrow. Anyhu, Tindi spotted a tree somewhere down the face of one hill that had such luscious green grass under it while the grass around it was dry and brown.

A slice of paradise in the middle of desperation. Me thinks 😀

Celebration Time!!

*cue Cool and the Gang’s hit*

SO today’s my birthday 😀 The blog therefore takes a one day holiday in celebration. Feel free to leave your happy birthday message in the comments section below 😀

(something I designed quickly in Illustrator to fill a bit of the space :-D)

Person(s) of the Day – Cynthia and Julie Buku

What’s good people?! I trust everyone had a weekend as eventful and fun-filled as mine 😀

This is one of those weeks that we will start with a mega post. Allow me to introduce you to Cynthia (left) and Julie (right).

Ardent readers of the blog will by now have realized that I have featured Julie in several other posts like this one, and this one. Cynthia is a new entrant and hopefully she will be featured as often as her sister.

So, let’s start with the new comer. Cynthia is a second year student at the University of Nairobi, Kabete Campus and she’s studying for a Bsc. in Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics.

When I asked her 3 things about her that the world did not know, she said:

1. Not every song is her favorite song. (ok, this is an inside joke :-))

2. She secretly misses her braces.

3. She can’t express anger.

In the next 10 years she wants to be “rich, married and probably working in a hospital as a clinical nutritionist”. She also dreams of starting a wellness centre some time in the future.

Something interesting she told me while we were talking, she tends to surprise herself a lot so she won’t be surprised if, in the future, she achieves a lot more than she said she would.

Let’s shift attention to Julie. She’s a senior, studying for a BA in Psychology at the United States International University – Africa.

When I asked what her 3 things were she said:

1. She has really bad stagefright although she loves performing.

2.She sucks at saving money (don’t we all…)

3. She cries very easily. Cynthia apparently makes fun of this a lot but Julie sees it as not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength because she’s in tune with her emotions.

In the next 10 years, she hopes to have started a school breakfast program especially for schools in the rural and slum areas in Kenya. She’s doing a very enlightening study for her senior project on the effects of a standard breakfast on how students are able to learn during the day.

Now for a bit of information about the shoot. It happened this Sunday afternoon in a span of 10 – 15 minutes. The whole idea was to quickly get a few good pics of the both of them, as well as a few good pics of them individually. My day was overbooked so I really couldn’t spare much more time. The ladies were wonderfully cooperative and intuitive with posing. I am sure that the pictures speak volumes about that. I am looking forward to doing another shoot with them really soon. A themed shoot to be precise. That’s something you should also look forward to on the blog 😀

Do look out for more beautiful moments like these throughout this week. I am going to try to post every day so I can make up for the 2 days I missed out last week. Key word here is try 😀 Big shout out to everyone who’s been visiting the blog regularly. You’re my favorite person in this world!

Picture of The Day – Windmills

What it does people?! So, today’s post is about one of those pictures that gets lost in the batch while photos are being edited after a shoot. A short while ago, I took out my brother’s car and some of my friends and went to shoot at the Ngong hills. What transpired afterwards was 2 great person of the day posts which you can view here and here. This photos is one I took as I was waiting for the shoot director to do her props thing 😀

Lovely eh? Keep it here for more wonderful images as the week progresses, coming to your computer screen thanks to tihs blog 😀

Delectable Delights: Mushikaki

This week I have something special from the good people at Hashmi’s Barbeque Centre in Westlands.

Mushikaki is beef cubes spiced andskewered then roasted on charcoal. This is served with a side of salad and french fries as shown above. The beef is marinated beforehand so it is tender, juicy and bursting with flavour. One of the tastiest dishes I have tasted at Hashmi’s.

Hungry yet? Well, hop on over to Hashmi’s BBQ centre at Ukay centre in Westlands and indulge in some mushikaki today 😀

More delectable delights shall be coming your way next week. I hope you’re looking forward to that 😉