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I remember the first time Kemi called me to cover her engagement and wedding ceremony in Kaduna, Nigeria. She said something about the fact that she wondered if I’d be interested in covering an event outside Lagos. Of course, I was excited and answered a straight yes. I really enjoy covering events outside the town I have come to know very well. She told me that it would be in Kaduna. I initially thought it would be a Northern affair, i.e. Hausa and probably Islamic, so I was somewhat excited about that as well — it would be a change from what I was used to. She then proceeded to tell me that it was a Christian ceremony and her groom was of Yoruba descent! Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t disappointed about this; in fact I wondered to myself what that would look like. Also, I’ve never actually been this far north. The furthest I’ve been is Jos which was over 20 years ago. But I have to say, I really enjoyed my time up in Kaduna.

Yewande and Olaniyi are a couple who live in the USA but had a traditional wedding ceremony in their hometown in Okeagbe. They invited me to come spend a couple of days with them and document their ceremony. The drive from Lagos took about 6hrs, but it was very scenic and the time flew by quickly. It’s always very refreshing visiting another part of the country as you are constantly reminded that Nigeria is not just one city. People from the other parts of the country are very different in many aspects. For one I find them a lot more friendly. I guess that’s true with most parts of the world.

This was my final event covered in the USA last year and what an event it was. I had only just purchased the Canon EF 24mm 1.4 II L so this was the wedding where I would try out some new compositions.

At first I was quite concerned that the lighting in the banquet hall would not be sufficient to work in, not to mention my Speedlite tripod was resting back in my small office in London. Basically I had a tough lighting situation and nothing to compensate for it. I originally asked the hall manager if he wouldn’t mind adding some more lights to the current setup or at least increasing the brightness of the light, but just as soon as I asked, Bukky, the bride said she loved the mood of the room.

I shot this with Collins Metu who drove all the way from Houston to hang out. It was such a kind gesture for him to assist me. He did such an amazing job. I hadn’t realised how similar our styles of work were until I reviewed the images. You can tell when someone shoots like you when you can’t even tell which images are yours from the entire batch.

Anyway back to the story, I asked Collins what he thought of the lighting and from his response I could sense that he was a lot more prepared for this than I was. So I had to rise to the challenge. I remember something my friend Skee would tell me which was not to complain and work out a way to create your images no matter what the situation was. Usually in such situations, it’s always a good idea to survey your environment to get an idea of where the best places will be to take your images.

In the end, the 24mm worked some wonders in ways I’d never imagined. I don’t think I shot anything over ISO 3200 when I stuck it on and the colours that came through were absolutely awesome. Sharpness was another feature I couldn’t fault the lens on. It’s become my best and most used lens so far.

Enjoy!

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The true story about a photo comes to life when it is put in context. I have been working on putting together a portfolio of images for my website and iPad. I started by just putting up the best images that I thought would represent my work but I found myself struggling a bit. I was caught between posting the most beautiful photos I could find and those that told the complete story of what I was capturing. In the end I came to the conclusion that if you want to put together a portfolio of work as a storyteller, you need to put up a summary of the stories you’ve been working on.  It won’t capture the entire story by picking just a one-liner or catch phrase from the whole piece.

Below is a quick post from David and Esana’s Civil ceremony and blessing. Both events were done on the same day and in the same venue. I covered this whole event on my own.

Enjoy!

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