Snaps to You

I attended my first photography course here, so I can take suitable photos at work, not my usual cut-off-the-head-but-it-will-do-blurry style. Stepping me up in the photography world, now I can talk aperture, shutter speed, lense and ISO. Yup.

Dday 1 we took some pics of our colleagues, good and bad and critiqued them. Deanna (or Diana, or Dayna or whatever they want to call me), why does this appear to look like a portrait of someone but you can’t see their face? Well, this, it seems is no longer a problem. Thanks to the sun. And there is plenty of that around here. So we did some front, back and side lighting and played around in the grounds of the hotel snapping away. Clever and forward thinking as I ever am, I forgot to charge my camera and the battery died. Rookie Error. Although a step ahead of Mads who forgot her camera all together.

Day 2 we went to a Shea Butter Factory. Sound familiar? Check your moisturisers and beauty products. It’s in there. If you shop at the Body Shop you might be rubbing the stuff all over your body right now. I was there. En masse we converged on the ladies working in the factory and got up close and personal, snapping every move. Told not to use our zooms we were literally in their face all day. They were lovely about it though, and there were plenty of great photos taken throughout the day. I purchased about 500g of the butter for GHc3 – about $1.50. I put it next to my Body Shop body butter that cost over $20 and it was triple the size! But I understand why you mix it with smelly stuff, not an enticing smell. Shea nuts are grown all over Ghana, they use it for everything here – hair, mosquito bites, nappy rash, deep frying, you name it. It was a great insight into the process.

When you are done photographing... play. Pic by the talented Dayna.

Here are my top photos, and here is the website of our fantastic and inspiring teacher. Please check out his pictures, plenty in Ghana as he is based here now, so could give you a good insight into what it looks like – professionally, although my pics will soon catch up throughout the year I’m sure (!).

http://www.nqphotography.com/