Nigeria | Top Fashion and Wedding Photographer in Nigeria

Tag: ‘nigeria’

The Celebrity Wedding of Obiwon and Nkechi in Nigeria

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

On Saturday 22nd October 2011, Nigerian inspirational gospel musician, Obiora “Obiwon” Agu married his sweetheart, Nkechi Obioma Ezeife. The couple wed at the All Souls Church in Lekki followed by a thrilling and romantic reception at the Incubator in Victoria Island.

I was contacted by Namywedding.com to shoot this celebrity wedding and when I heard it was for Obiwon, I quickly accepted. Obiwon is a musician that I totally love listening to and the opportunity to meet with him and indeed shoot his wedding was one I just couldn’t resist. His anthem, “Obimo” still gives my goose bumps.

I fell in love with the whole wedding for a number of reasons.

One, I was shooting the wedding of an awesome talent that I truly admired, a true celebrity who could hold his own very well anywhere.

Two, I was the only official photographer on ground so I really didn’t need to “struggle” to get my shots, this is always very important for me and I actually don’t accept assignments when I am not the main shooter.

Thirdly, It was a night wedding, from church to the reception, it was wholly a night affair. Night weddings are not too common in Nigeria and the opportunity to shoot my first was to tempting to ignore. Shooting night weddings does post a lot of challenges to the photographer but if you are able to step over those challenges you should get pictures that truly stand out. I struggled a in the night but my Nikon D3s shone like a million stars when everything go very very dark.

I have worked with quite a number of Nigerian celebrities in the past and permit me to say Obiwon and his wife, Nkechi’s “head dey for house “. Both were quite down to earth and showed no signs of “forming” or being larger than life. On first meeting me, both were extremely friendly and even wanted to be sure I had something to eat and drink.

I got to sing back my favorite Obiwon song “Obimo” to the crooner while Nkechi and her chief bridesmaid were kind enough to breakdown the whole Igbo lyrics of the song to me, line after line.

Obiwon and Nkechi’s wedding was an amazing celebration of love! Nkechi was a beautiful glowing bride in her corseted lace dress accessorized with a stunning hair piece. Their wedding had a lovely springtime feel with lots of yellow flowers, lights and swaths. Obiwon and Nkechi’s love and joy was obvious to everyone in attendance all through the ceremony and reception including the special moment when the groom got on stage and sang a special song just for his bride!

This pictures have already been featured on Nigerian wedding website, Namywedding and also BellaNaija.

Specially thanks to Tito Abumere, my very talent second shooter who assisted in making this terrific images.

Here are a few pictures from the official wedding photographer of the wedding of Obiwon and Nkechi, hope you guys like it.

The Nigerian Wedding of Obiwon and Nkechi

Nigeria Wedding Photography

View photos at SmugMug

Tags: best, celebrity, kayode, nigeria, nigeria weddings, nkechi, obiora and nkechi, Obiwon, Wedding, wedding website, xsightn
Posted in Weddings | 1 Comment »

Bridal Photo Shoot in Lagos, Nigeria – Preview

Monday, July 4th, 2011

It’s no secret I have a sort of obsession with shooting weddings in Nigeria, from the brides, to the grooms, to the decor, to the decorations, there’s just something about Nigerian weddings that fuels me. I felt this same way years ago when I started my journey in photography and its pretty exhilarating that several years after, the zeal, the love, the passion remains 100% intact.Recently I have been doing quite a number of portfolio shoots for aspiring Nigerian models and I have found that to be fun as well, different models bring different “things” to the table and its alway fun trying to make the best of every models “gifts” during one of my sessions.

This particular post is a preview into a bridal photo shoot I did just recently that fused the best of both worlds together. Brides and Models.

While am still busy culling my images, am quite happy with what I think I was able to capture, am sharing 3 images right away, I went a bit artistic just because I think it works, what do you think?

Bridal photo shoot was done in collaboration with the wonderful people of Rose Blossom Bridals and The Best Western Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Rose Blossom is one of the leading names in the bridal industry when it comes to authentic and fresh bridal wears in the whole of Nigeria (Both my wife and sister had their dresses made by them, I never knew that until recently).Mrs. Elizabeth Oyeronke Sho-Silva started Rose Blossom Bridal about 10years ago at home in Nigeria. Through the years Blossom has grown from strength to strength. Much of her business was based on referrals by happy customers in Nigeria and abroad. You can find them online at www.roseblossombridal.com displaying several items. Did I happen to mention that all their dresses are 100% hand crafted ?

The Best Western Hotel, Victoria Island just opposite the bar beach is located on Ahmadu Bello Way, is part of the largest hotel chain in the world. The hotel is a beauty to behold and the view is nothing short of astonishing, with both a roof top tennis court and a swimming pool, the hotel is easily one of the most equipped in the country.

Kayode is a leading photographer based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Are you new to modeling and interested in building a quality portfolio on your first attempt ?

Tired of the the same images that look like they were all taken by the very same photographer ?

Do you think you lost a job because your portfolio just wasn’t up to par ?

Then give me a shout and let’s see what we can do together.

info@xsightn.com

Tags: best western, bridal, bride, hotel, lagos, model, nigeria, photographer, photographers, photography, photos, Photoshoot, pictures, portfolio, rose, Weddings
Posted in Photoshoot, Weddings | 2 Comments »

DECEMBER WEDDINGS IN NIGERIA – HIGH END WEDDINGS

Monday, May 30th, 2011

***This Post is actually a “shameless” pitch on why you should book Kayode for your next wedding. *****

December remains one of the hottest and most contested wedding season for Nigerian photographers.

Despite being the festive period many Nigerian brides based outside Nigeria love to use this period to tie the knots, we virtually have about a hundred weddings within this period alone.

I personally like to refer to December brides as the Nigeria’s High-End brides because it’s this brides that seem to always be willing to pay premium for not just photography but for other wedding services as well.

Hot on their list of wedding requirement is a hunt for the very best wedding photographer they can find, while some rely on “big name” wedding photographers and don’t even request to see sample of their recent work, many prefer to hunt online for the very best.

Typically 2 options are available to the Nigerian bride looking for a quality wedding photographer

One – “Import” your photographer – Lol !! ( I like that word, import)
Two – Stick to the locals

Sticking to the locals often times is a last resort if all the top international photographers are booked but that shouldn’t always be the case. Nigeria has a lot of world class professional photographers based right here in Nigeria (I could start naming them really but then I would be marketing for them )

Kayode is one of Nigeria’s leading wedding photographers based right here in Nigeria and specializes in shooting high-end weddings for high-end brides here in Nigeria. My style is photojournalistic with a touch of the traditional. My albums are story telling books with a difference, I don’t bore you with my photoshop skills (which I happen not to have by the way)but rather concentrate on the showcasing the essence of your beautiful day, just the way it happened.

Last year I shot weddings for Nigerian couples based in South Africa, the US, UK, Canada and Cameroon. I fully understand the requirements of the International Nigerian bride because this is what my entire business model is about.

When you book Kayode, you get the international wedding photographer without the added expense of the flight ticket.

Being internationally trained, I have had the privilege of shooting alongside the very best photographers in the world so feel free to look around my blog and see things for yourself. You could also use the below links to see what I am currently working on.

Give me a call on +2348033051621 or mail kayode@xsightn.com and let’s see what we can do together.

Like me on Facebook – www.facebook.com/xsightn
Watch my videos on Youtube – www.youtube.com/xsightn
Follow me on twitter – www.twitter.com/xsightn

And because a picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a fun portrait of a couple I will be shooting their wedding in September of 2011. Below is a Nigerian love video from back in the days for those of you that know “what’s up ”

Wonder where Alex Zitto is up to these days, lovely song from back in the days

Tags: 2011, december, high-end, nigeria, nigerian, photographer, Wedding, xsightn
Posted in News, Talk, Wedding Tips, Weddings | 1 Comment »

Nigerian Photographer – Quick location photography gear review

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

This is a quick video I made without really thinking about it. In this video I talk about a location photography shoot I will be having and the sort of photography equipments I usually take on such shoots.

Most of my equipments are manufactured by a company called Paul C. Buff in the USA, I ordered most of the equipments some 9 or so months ago and only just got them delivered to Lagos Nigeria a few weeks back, been using them ever since they landed. It’s extremely difficult if not damn right impossible getting great quality equipments here in Nigeria, I usually have to order most of them from the states (and at times from Hong Kong).

My camera of choice remains my trusty Nikon D700 and new sidekick, the Nikon D7000.

My name is Kayode Martins, I am a Nigerian photographer based in Lagos, Nigeria. I am available for Nigerian, African and International Photo assignments. I have a passion for Wedding Photography.

EDIT : Audio was a bit crappy so I re-encoded and re-uploaded. on the 26th of April, 2011

Tags: 640 watts, beauty dish, cyber commander, cyber sync, d7000, einsteins, kayode, lession, location, martins, nigeria, nigerian, nikon, nikon d700, parabolic reflector, paul buff, paul c buff, photography, top, wedding photographer, wireless trigger, www.xsightn.com/.../, xsightn
Posted in Photoshoot, Podcasts, Talk, Video | No Comments »

TRADITIONAL NIGERIAN WEDDING PHOTOS OF OYINDA AND ANDREW

Saturday, March 19th, 2011

Here are some wedding pictures from my Oyinda and Andrew collection, I shot this wedding in February and I had a blast. It was a 2 day affair with the traditional wedding taking place a day before the wedding proper. Both days were awesome (fast becoming my best word). Oyinda was an amazing bride who couldn’t stop smiling, every photographer’s dream. Andrew was such a gentleman, allowing me the freedom to do as I pleased on the day, together, they both made an amazing pair and it was sure a huge honour to have been selected to shooting this beautiful Nigerian wedding. It also so happens that the band they hired for the traditional wedding was the same band that played at my wedding about 3 years ago.

I couldn’t possibly post all the wedding pictures from the event, but here’s a number of them that actually made it into the final album, hope you like them and thanks for stopping buy.

My name is Kayode, I shooting Nigerian weddings.