Photography has always been a huge part of our lives as Kenyans.
From the days when our moms assembled us and dressed us up in uniform clothes during occasions and called the camera-man; who was always a man, to funerals, when we are always aligned in front of the coffin depending on how we know the dead person to currently on all our social media platforms.
We have to always look good.
This is the minor reason why I chose photography as my profession and as my medium to tell stories. The main reason was the fact that I have very few photos from my childhood because they were rained on when we lost our home fifteen years ago. I have little and blurry memories of my childhood as a result of this. Recovering from this, I promised myself that as soon as I could afford my own professional camera, I would make sure that no one in my family would ever have to lose their precious memories again, a dream I have seen through.
Through the camera, I have evolved from taking photographs for my family events for Facebook posts, to pursuing photojournalism and finally, shooting memorable events in the history of my country, some tragic, some fun and some humorous. These events are published in the national Star Newspaper.
Due to the nature of my job, I find myself in hotels for conferences, in different towns and I find myself using google maps and photos a lot to find my destination. I rely on this information to prepare for my coverage. I also find myself judging a place for having good service, great views and sociable people, an attribute that landed me posting reviews on local guides.
I have shared a lot of places I have visited and sometimes, I get in trouble for shooting in places that I am not allowed to shoot because I want to post photographs for more people to benefit.
I hope I will get the novice photographer badge soon because photography is my true definition. Every destination I have visited, I have checked out a post by a local guide beforehand and I try my best to post something after visiting.