Going for Green Fuel...

I was contracted by Green Fuel Zimbabwe last year to visit their sugar cane plantations on their Chisumbanje estate in Zimbabwe's South Eastern region to create a photo library of their Agricultural, Plant and Community developments. Green Fuel currently harvest about 9000 hectares of sugarcane on both their Middle Sabi and Chisumbanje estates which is then processed at the plant to produce ethanol that is blended with Zimbabwe's imported fuel. 

My brief included showcasing the various agricultural developments and activities around the estate, their processing plant as well as their various community development projects. As usual I used a good mix of on the ground pictures as well and aerial shots to showcase the size and scale of the agricultural operation which you can see below.

Green Fuel have invested a lot of time and money developing the community surrounding their estates with investments in small scale agricultural projects as well as the rehabilitation of the local library and learning centre. Green Fuel also created a sewing project were men and woman from the community have been trained to make the necessary safety garments required by the companies' agrictural and plant workers.

Lastly to the plant; its architecture is visually appealing and well light at night which lent itself to well to being photographed in the 'blue light' after sunset. A good amount of time spent observing the operations in the plant resulted in some great detail images as well as of staff working. I always make mention of the invaluable use of my drone in conveying the size and relative perspective of such a large structure and it was no less applicable here, with some great aerial images being captured.

All in all Iw as very happy with the results of my visit to Green Fuel and look forward to my next assignment for Green Fuel, I would like to thank the management and particularly the marketinfg department at Green Fuel for their continued support.

Sweet experiences in Zimbabwe's lowveld...

I have been very fortunate to shoot for Tongaat Hulett in Zimbabwe's low veld sugar hub for the past several years and have enjoyed working with the sugar giant immensely. The scale of the agriculture and the overwhelming size of the production process offers almost unending photographic opportunities.

I was contracted by Tongaat to photograph their Zimbabwean operations for the 2017 annual report. The brief was to get as many dynamic shots of their operations, production and people as possible, with a key focus being on capturing unique and captivating images of their staff at work in all environments.

This really pleased the portrait photographer in me and I think i can say that i managed to get some honest and engaging shots of the Tongaat staff...

Tongaat have a massive agricultural footprint in Zimbabwe's low-veld, focused around the Triangle and Hippo Valley Estates with total land under sugar cane of roughly 40 000 hectares. When the operations are in full swing there are so many photographic opportunities avaiable that I was spoiled for choice. Cleary a major part of the brief was to capture the agricultural and harvesting side of the operations, which you can see below.

Each estate has its own sugar mill and combined can crush over 4.5 million tonnes of sugar cane annually, which produces roughly 600 000 tonnes of sugar! Massive is the only word that really describes this undertaking! I was lucky enough to spend a few days in the mills documenting the process form start to finish and learning all about the fascinating process that eventually results in processed sugar. 

The best way to appreciate the size of the agricultural footprint as well as the mills in my opinion is with aerial pictures. This is were my drone always shines, allowing me to capture unique angles and wide, stretching vistas.

All in all I always enjoy my assignments down to Tongaat Hulett and am already looking forward to my next assignment! If you have an agricultural project that you would like photographed, please don't hesiatte to contact me.

Travelling with Africa's biggest seed producers...

I have been fortunate enough to have worked with the amazing team at SeedCo for the past 8 years now and within that time I have travelled to Malawi, Zambia and all over Zimbabwe with the marketing and production team covering everything from plant openings, field days and farm visits. Thanks to SeedCo I have seen areas of Zimbabwe that I would never have visited on my own and met people from all walks of life that have broadened my horizons, and for that I would really like to praise the whole team at SeedCo!

Towards the end of last year I was commissioned by SeedCo to capture engaging images of their farmers for an Africa-wide marketing campaign. It was very visual throughout Zimbabwe in the form of press ads and large billboards and many of the images where used on their group webiste. You can see some of the final visuals below...

I have spent a lot of time with SeedCo visiting their large and small scale farmers all over Zimbabwe who grow both maize (SeedCo's main crop) as well as wheat and soya. The portraits of the farmers are used across most of SeedCo's advertising platforms..

An advertising campaign would amount to nothing without pictures of the product and I have spent a lot of time photographing SeedCo's products, from maize to wheat, soya and millet. The close up shots have helped to convey the essence of quality that is essential to getting good harvests. Wide shots as well as close up and macro images help get as much information about the product out to the customer.

Some of the large scale farmers I have visited grow large tracks of crops and so the best way to convey the size of these operations is with aerial shots.

SeedCo host a lot of farmer field days that focus on educating both small scale and large scale farmers on new product developments as well as how to get the best yield from their products. Often hundreds of farmers are present on the day and it always makes for some great visuals.

I would like to sincerely thank SeedCo for their support over the past eight years and I look forward to working closely with them again in 2018 to help portray their brand in the best light possible.

Dramatic Drone Sunset...

Anyone in and around Harare on the 7th of August was treated to an unusual, and spectacular sunset. It was unusual because at this time of year we don't often get many dramatically cloudy skies and generally speaking dramatic clouds make or break a good sunset! The sunset seemed to go on forever, changing in hue and intensity until it finally left us, dazzled and enamoured, well into the evening.

By pure luck and chance I happened to be showing some visiting friends around our spectacular Domboshawa National Monument, illustrating nicely how photography can often be about being in the right place at the right time. I was taking advantage of the trip to "Dombos" to get some aerial images for a long term project using my trusty drone and thankfully I had some battery power left to capture this amazing sunset!

However for me the real highlight of the trip was seeing and photographing the sculptured surface of Domboshawa itself. The granite has been carved by aeons of flowing water into what can only be described as a martian landscape. Now this is what I love about aerial photography, I have been to Domboshawa many many times and have never been able to fully appreciate its quirky geological surface as I have never seen it from above, and this new angle tells a powerful story of time, geology and weathering.

So let me not rabbit on for too long and allow you feast your eyes on the magic that is Domboshawa from above...

Shooting Sports....

In my line of work I am lucky enough to shoot a huge variety of content, and that is not limited to quite a few sporting occasions. Being a great lover of wildlife photography I have all the necessary fast camera's and long lenses to effectively shoot a large sports occasion. I love the challenge of a fast rugby game or the patience and observation required to shoot golf.

I have been lucky in my career to shoot a large number of golf days for corporates, as well as the internationally renowned Zimbabwe Open Golf tournament, check out a small selection of my golf images below. If you have a golf day coming up and would like it covered please don't hesitate to contact me.

I was very lucky to be commissioned by Old Mutual earlier this year to shoot the 2 super 15 games that were played here in Harare by 4 South African teams. Namely the Lions vs The Bulls and the Stormers vs The Cheetahs.

A few weeks ago I was commissioned by VHM Events Management  to shoot the Zimbabwe Polo Open, a sport that I had little experience with but loved every minute of!

Every year I am lucky enough to be asked by Old Mutual Zimbabwe to cover all their major sporting events, which includes a lot of Marathons, they are early starts and involve a lot of bumping around in the back of open vehicles but are incredibly fun to shoot!

If you have enjoyed these pictures and have a sporting event coming up that you would like covered, don't hesitate to contact me for a quote or more information.

Droning on about how wonderful it is...

For those of you who follow us regularly on our various social media platforms the fact that I now have a drone is not new, and if you are reading this for the first time, whoop whoop Scottyphotography now has a drone!

I have had the opportunity to use it a fair bit in the past month or so in various different situations shooting both corporate and personal work and have been loving every minute of it! I have always been a fan of aerial photography and have always tried to do as much as possible when time and budget allowed. Now this is where the drone comes into its own, aside from the cost of purchasing it it doesn't cost me anything extra to fly it, with the added advantage of being able to do so whenever I want and where ever I happen to be.

Yes it may be a bit bulky to have with me all the time but who cares when you can zip it up and grab a few shots from a completely different perspective? As a professional photographer being able to offer my clients a huge variety of images from different perspectives, including some aerial ones, is a big deal that will outweigh any minor inconveniences.

I was in the vicinity of the spectacular Great Zimbabwe National Monument a few weeks ago and couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend a few days there. I have been lucky enough to photograph the monument many times in the past but have never seen or photographed it from the air. Needless to say I had a fantastic time and managed to get some stunning results!

So what have I learnt about the drone and its capabilities over the past month or so? Firstly that planning is key, the battery life on my particular drone only gives me around 15 minutes of flight time, which doesn't give me a lot of time to faf around once its up. This makes me think critically about what I want to achieve before I send it up and this can only be a good thing.

Secondly, the mobility is fantastic! I can hover directly over a subject and shoot straight down in order to get detail or abstract shots and the next minute I can zip off up to 500 metres away to get that distant, all encompassing shot.

This mobility allows me to capture a variety of pics of the same scene, essential for building up a good story board around a particular subject. I can showcase the fine detail and shape of the Great Enclosure above as well as place it in its context in relation to its environment and the valley (below).

Lastly I have to talk about the performance of the camera's sensor, yes its quite small and so suffers from a bit of noise at high ISO but the drone is such a stable platform that I can shoot at 100 or 200 ISO quite happily down to 1/15th of a second and get sharp images. The sharpness of the resulting images is fantastic and the resolution has withstood the stringent attention of the quality control departments at the various stock libraries I supply with flying colours.

Another huge advantage is to be able to shoot in manual mode as well as create 5 stop bracket sets. This allows me to shoot into the sun and use clever HDR post processing techniques to create images full of detail and colour, like the ones below.

So in summary; the drone is an awesome tool that allows me to capture that unique aerial angle without too much fuss, but often with spectacular results!

Do you need some aerial images done? Don't hesitate to contact us with your ideas!

Recharging in the wheat...

As a professional photographer I am at the beck and call of my clients to create visuals based around their concepts, brand identity and company ethos. This is a wonderful thing as I get to work with some creative and innovative people and am always involved in the creative process. This also means that on a day to day basis I am also juggling many different brand identities and their specific requirements when it comes to photography.

As wonderfully exhilarating and energising as this may all be, after long periods of constant shooting the creative edge can be dulled a bit and weariness may set in. So what would any normal person do, go on holiday or take a hiatus? Not me, I like to squeeze my creative juices by taking my own pictures, of a variety of subjects.

Ideally I like to disappear into the bush for lengthly periods, however this may not be practical all the time especially when the calendar is full. So it was at one of these junctures that I found myself quite happily sitting in a filed of wheat on a friends farm, quietly on my own. 

All I had was one camera with a 105mm macro lens, no pre-conceived ideas and no brief to fill, wonderful. This allowed me to take pictures of whatever I saw that interested me, and in a field of wheat this can really help get the creativity flowing, how else do you make wheat look cool? For a few hours late one afternoon I was lost in this happy bliss of selfish composition, and I think the results speak for themselves?

The above pictures are the result of that happy abandon and energised me even further to try and get more creative, different angles of the wheat. So over the next few days, during the golden hours when my family where happily distracted elsewhere I would disappear into the fields with no preconceptions and just a few different lenses to see how creative I could be.

Confident that I had done the macro lens proud I moved over to creating shots with a wide angle lens as well as my panoramic setup.

Creating a 180 degree panoramic image of this field of wheat at sunset allowed me to showcase the sheer size of the field.

I love using my wide angle lenses, they have an ability of really opening up a perspective in a unique way and this worked to my advantage as the fields of wheat I was photographing were huge.

So by doing what I love for myself for a few days I managed to fully charged my Chi, got my creative juices back to bubbling and came away with some wonderful stock images. Not bad for a few days 'holiday'.

Security Matters....

I was recently engaged by one of Zimbabwe's leading security firms Safeguard Security to help them update their photographic gallery. The pictures covered all aspects of the firms' business units from their guards on site at various commercial and private properties through to their manufacturing division and will be used in all their upcoming digital, social media and print campaigns.

This is the sort of work that I relish as it required me to travel. We shot all over Harare and had to think creatively in many different environments, in order to get the shots that best portray that particular service. An example being the guards; they take care of hundreds of commercial and private properties and so we needed to express that using locations that the public would also recognise to heighten the brand awareness. 

The nature of the shoot meant that we had to work continuously for several days and so could only make use of the best light in the early morning and late afternoon for a few sites. This meant that I had to work with on site lighting setups which allowed me to balance the guards in the foreground with the bright backgrounds. 

In keeping with the ethos of the shoot to showcase Safeguards' products and services, all the shots are of the guards who are actually on the ground, we didn't once need to work with models. This can often be difficult, especially if we are pressed for time on site, as you don't want to rush someone who is not a model and unfamiliar with how to stand, pose, smile etc. With all credit going to all the staff we included in the shoot, they all did a remarkable job and are a credit to themselves and Safeguard.

We also shot some of the guards in the studio so that the designer could deep etch pictures to be dropped easily onto any branded backdrop or advert.

In addition to the guards we had to showcase the Armoured team, their professionalism and how well resourced they are. For obvious reasons shooting this on site would have proven to be a bit tricky and so we set some shots up at the safeguard depot.

Keeping track of the massive logistical framework at Safeguard is a dedicated group of control room operators, the massive screens, radio conservations and real time location updates lent an air of order, safety and security to the resultant pics.

In addition to the large Security infrastructure that Safeguard operates they also manufacture Xpanda sliding security doors as well as custom gates and security features. Now I am a boy at heart and loved spending time around the noise of machines, welding and the general busyness of a manufacturing floor.

What proved to be slightly more tricky was showcasing Safeguards on site security products like the motion PIR, razor wire, gates etc. Thankfully with a few phone calls we managed to secure permission from a number of commercial and private properties to shoot their recent security measures installed by Safeguard.

All in all we had a fantastic shoot with Safeguard and I feel we managed to portray all the different aspects of their business in a way that reflects the amazing professionalism at which they operate. I would like to say a huge thanks to Safeguard and their entire team for their support and all the organising that went into making the shoot possible.

How can we help you improve your business' visual branding? Have a look at our showreel, check out our website or be in touch with us to start the ball rolling!

Wrong place, right result...

Where: In a microlight at dawn, near Christon Bank, Harare. How: Nikon D3 with 28-300mm lens @90mm, ISO 1600, f8 @ 3200/second

As professional photographers we are constantly reminding ourselves that luck plays a big part in getting 'the right shot'. Whether you are shooting wildlife, travel, landscape or corporate pictures being at the right place at the right time can often make or break the shoot.

However, some photographers are consistently better at capitilising on this luck by ensuring that they are well organised, have knowledge of their area/subject and are in the field a lot. The rest is out of your hand, this doesn't stop us fretting about it though.

However, sometimes just bungling along or being in the right place at the wrong time can also result in some amazing results. Example; I was commissioned to do a professional aerial photography shoot for a client in Christon bank, just outside Harare, Zimbabwe where I live. Being the height of the rainy season the weather hadn't been ideal for a flight for a few weeks and I was growing more and more anxious to get this done before the client starting getting restless.

Many early mornings of weather checking where unfruitful until one day it seemed we may have a break in the weather. On the day in question some scattered clouds lay low in the sky and all looked like it would be possible, if not ideal, to fly. However, meeting the pilot at the airstrip just as the sun was rising heralded the arrival of a low, thick bank of clouds, and the wind.

Now having done quite a lot of aerial photography from a microlight even I knew that the conditions weren't ideal, but we were there and ready to roll and a small gap in the clouds inspired us to hasten our decision and get on with it.

As the thick bank of clouds continued their march towards the sun we hastily flew to our destination, which thankfully wasn't far away. The encroaching clouds softened the already warm blush of dawn considerably and the accompanying band of clouds provided a wonderfully moody and contrasty blue to the mist-strewn scene. Needless to say I was ecstatic with the conditions, up until we finally reached our destination just in time for the cloud bank to envelop the sun and kill the light, just when I needed it. Despite this setback I managed to get some decent shots of our target and we hastened back to the airstrip as the wind started to howl.

On the way back I carried on snapping away, the rolling valleys to our east were swathed in mist and the partially masked sun allowed me to capitalise on the lack of contrast between the sun and the foreground and snap a few hurried pictures. They didnt look like anything noteable on the back screen until I got back to the office and could have a better look.

So what have I been banging on about here, essentially ignoring our best intuition we did a flight in less than ideal condition so where in the wrong place but at the right time. The low, patchy bank of clouds effectively filtered and softened the rising sun even more, allowing me to capture a fantastic image that would have been tricky to do in clearer conditions. So essentially, at 300 feet and 90 miles an hour I made lemon juice out of lemons...

Purple Paradise - Finding Gold in your back garden...

Harare is renowned for many things but luckily for us photographers one of them is the annual flowering of the hundreds of Jacaranda trees that line our Capitals avenues. Standing in the middle of the street under an over-arching umbrella of bright blue and purple must be one of the most visually stimulating urban experiences available to us Zimbabweans. It was while I was standing there, in the middle of the street with my head craned back and my camera poised that I realised that I haven't really properly photographed, or fully appreciated, Harare's Jacaranda's until now.

And then it dawned on me why; us photographers are always chasing the gold at the end of the rainbow, travelling frantically to get to places that may provide us with the photographic subjects we long for, or that we hope will reward us with some stunning images. And I suppose there is nothing wrong with that, partly because I do it a lot myself and mostly because if it works then whats the problem?

My point here is this, generally speaking photographers tend to overlook or ignore the opportunities in their back yard, often missing out on not just amazing picture opportunities but also getting to know their neighbourhoods and communities. I have had many an engaging conversation with people on the streets of Harare who have approached me with friendly intentions and questions. Often these have led to interesting debates and the offer to photograph their neighbourhoods or families and friends. You can't buy these kind of invitations and opportunities as a photographer!

At the end of the day wondering around your neighbourhood may well produce the kind of stunning images that you could travel thousands of miles for, and you may well walk away with some new friends!

Where: Leopold Takawira Street, Harare.
How: Stand in the middle of the traffic and make yourself skinny!
Tech specs: Nikon D800 with Nikkor 28-300mm VR lens shot @ 135mm on ISO 640 Aperture F8 Shutter speed 1/80th second.