LIMITED ACCESS

I hold Peté Souza’s work in high regard; he is the man responsible for most of White House brilliant shots and is the current Chief Official White House Photographer for President Obama. I especially admire his coverage of The Rise of Barack Obama, in which Souza; a photojournalist follows the then senator all over the globe including his [Obama’s] trip to Kenya. I believe someone has to be in a certain state of mind in order to capture images the way Souza does. He always manages and rather effortlessly, to photograph rarely seen moments of the President. Apart from a mindset, in order to get the kind of images that Souza captures, one needs to also have access, and lots of it. According to Daily Kos, Souza has what amounts to an all access pass, “He is permitted to go anywhere and shoot anything.” 
Without the access as I found out, life can be tough trying to photograph the most protected person in the land. I will not even get into the endless security checks that one has to endure. A person of the President’s status tends to attract a lot of camera attention wherever he goes. Consequently, a photographer will usually have to deal with large presence of other photographers and videographers alike, each jostling for space and trying to get the best photo ops. This is further complicated by the President's ‘men’ who most often than not will huddle photographers together to watch their [photographers’] every move with keen interest. In a group however, one risks getting similar photos with other photographers in terms of composition and angles. The only way to capture the most infrequent moments in such situations is to separate from the ‘pack.’ Stepping aside, and shooting from low or high angles will make a big difference. The idea is to try and think through your shots and to make complete use of the limited access.

Public address

     Camera - NIKON D80
     Focal Length - 125mm

     Shutter Speed - 1/60 sec
     Aperture - f/6.3
     ISO/Film - 2000

     Category - Portrait
     Uploaded - October 30th 2013
     Taken - October 16th 2013

     Location - KICC, Nairobi
     Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

Lest I forget

Camera - NIKON D80 
Focal Length - 135mm

Shutter Speed - 1/60 sec
Aperture - f/7.1
ISO/Film - 3200

Category - Portrait
Uploaded - October 30th 2013
Taken - October 16th 2013

Location - KICC, Nairobi
Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

   
      

Blue Presidential standard

    

                        

                               Camera - NIKON D80                                   
                               Focal Length - 135mm

                               Shutter Speed - 1/250 sec
                               Aperture - f/5.6
                               ISO/Film - 1600

                               Category - Portrait
                               Uploaded - October 30th 2013
                               Taken - October 27th 2013

                               Location - Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi
                               Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

Grand entrance

The homily

On bended knees

                                          

                                       Camera - NIKON D80
                                       Focal Length - 24mm

                                       Shutter Speed - 1/80 sec
                                       Aperture - f/8
                                       ISO/Film - 1600

                                       Category - Portrait
                                       Uploaded - October 30th 2013
                                       Taken - October 27th 2013

                                       Location - Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi
                                       Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA




 

  Camera - NIKON D80
  Focal Length - 135mm

  Shutter Speed - 1/60 sec
  Aperture - f/5.6
  ISO/Film - 1600

  Category - Portrait
  Uploaded - October 30th 2013
  Taken - October 27th 2013

  Location - Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi
  Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

‘National’ cake

  

                                      

                                   Camera - NIKON D80

                                   Focal Length - 135mm

                                   Shutter Speed - 1/500 sec
                                   Aperture - f/5.6
                                   ISO/Film - 1600

                                   Category - Portrait
                                   Uploaded - October 30th 2013
                                   Taken - October 27th 2013

                                   Location - Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi
                                   Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

   

Hidden camera

  


Camera - NIKON D80
 Focal Length - 35mm             
 Shutter Speed - 1/20 sec
  Aperture - f/6.3
  ISO/Film - 2000

  Category - Portrait
  Uploaded - October 30th 2013
  Taken - October 16th 2013

  Location - KICC, Nairobi
  Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

In conclusion

                                        
                                Camera - NIKON D80
                                Focal Length - 135mm  
                                Shutter Speed - 1/100 sec
                                Aperture - f/5.6
                                ISO/Film - 1600

                                Category - Portrait
                                Uploaded - October 30th 2013
                                Taken - October 27th 2013

                                Location - Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi
                                Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi/CISA

POINT & SHOOT

In photography there are no second chances to capture a photo opportunity(photo-op) since most often than not we are faced with subjects that cannot easily be manipulated to our own liking, save for architecture, or prepped up fashion and commercial shoots. Events, nature and wildlife photographers as well as photojournalists know this firsthand. With often limited time to one's disposal, it is either you make the shot or you don’t. There are no two ways about it, you snooze... you lose. Failing to capture certain moments however is not an option and can prove costly in some situations. In print media for instance, the unwritten rule says "whatever you do... don't go back to the newsroom without the photo." There is a lot that goes behind creating a simple image, especially so when this is done manually and which can result to numerous misses. Right from composition, to focusing and most importantly getting the right light exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO combination). With the notoriously limited time available while making most images, a photographer needs to perfect and be able to timely execute the photography basics, without which most of us would be having more of missed out photo-ops than captured memories. In recent times things have drastically changed for the better and capturing memories has become more efficient and less of a hustle due to availability of full automatic cameras, for both professional and home use. Nowadays anyone can be a photographer, and precious time otherwise lost with technicalities is saved. With a fully digitized camera, all that one needs to do in order not to miss a photo-op is just to point and shoot. However, personally I prefer working with manual settings since am able to achieve my desired images without being overly dependent on the automatic settings.     

A bird on a branch. Armed with a telephoto lens the challenge was to make the right settings and stabilize the camera before my subject flew away. 

Camera - CANON EOS 7D

Focal Length - 300mm  
Shutter Speed - 1/125 sec
Aperture - f/5.7
ISO/Film - 500

Category - Nature
Uploaded - September 11th 2013 
Taken - August 25th 2013

Location - Lavington, Nairobi  
Copyright - Stephen Mukhongi