The Nigerian Photography Scene is Changing, HuRraY !!!!

In my humble opinion, a wind of changing is blowing across the Nigerian photography scene and I am Xsighted (All pun intended).

I hope this information will prove helpful for both Nigerian photographers based in Nigeria and abroad, hope it will provide you with some information on what is happening and what you should be doing.

I mean really, if you shoot weddings in Nigeria or are a photographer in general, you can get very depressed very fast, nothing was just happening, nobody was doing anything, at least to my knowledge but all that is changing, Nigerian photographers are “stepping up “.

Not too long ago I knew a number of  ”top” photographers who didn’t have quality gear and it showed in their work. They took brilliant pictures but you could always still see it was still missing “that” spark. I am happy to announce, I now know of at least 3 who have upgraded to full scale pro quality gear, all the works, fast lenes and quality bodies.

I actually saw some recent work of one of them and had to give him a call to inquire if he had upgraded his gear and he confirmed in the affirmative, so you see pro quality gear really does help if you are shooting as a professional, clients expect so much more. No client wants to come on location where you will be shooting one of their most expensive cars and the photographer is shooting with say a D40 and say a cheap lens .

Last year a couple of Nigerian photographers led by Leke Adenuga (who is actually family) attended Photokina in Germany, which is one of the largest gathering of professional photographers in the world.

Oriola Johnson, a good friend of mine was in Dubai last year with a few other photographers to attend the annual Gulf Photo Plus workshops, I was fortunate to attend the same event the previous year.

Mike Imomoh will be attending the same photography workshop this year.

Kelechi Amadi-Obi recently launched his own magazine in the best quality imaginable.

One of my closest friends and very talented photographer is currently in South Africa attending the annual Design Indaba  in Cape Town.

These are just the few I personally know about and it Xsights me, both old and new school guys are doing everything possible to up their game. Rubbing minds with the best in the world never hurt anybody.

Equipment has always been one of the biggest challenges we face as photographers in Nigeria, Leke Adenuga is currently representing an International firm here in Nigeria now distributing some of their photography accessories. I mean top quality gear, the likes that were never available here before now. From power packs to strobes and location kits, Leke has got you covered. I was at his Toyin street studio recently to “play” with the gear and was mightly impressed.

Yesterday, Yetunde Babaeko of Camara Studios organized a free workshop on studio lighting. Being one of the photographers I actually really follow their work here in Nigeria, I had to attend. The workshop was world class and I certainly learnt plenty. Yetunde is an amazing talent and has one of the most impressive studios I have every seen in Nigeria. She’s also opening the studio up to the public for rentals. She has a few more workshops planned for the year.

I know of guys who are also putting together partnership agreements with top albums and photobooks companies in the world to represent them here in Nigeria.

I recently spoke to students of a photography school as a guest speaker and was amazed at the “calibre” of people wanting to go into photography now.

I know of 2 different outfits putting together photography awards and a photo competition to reward deserving photographers, I have been invited by one of them to be a Judge.

So as you can see, quite alot is happening, if you know of something special happening in the photography scene please feel free to send me a shout.

To sign off, here’s one of my images from the Camara Studios workshop.

Kayode is a wedding photographer specializing in shooting weddings for high end Nigerian brides, shoot me an email and let’s talk about your wedding photography. Kayode@xsightn.com