The art of photography is a demanding one. It gives orders:
orders which are to be followed by the man behind the lens and their subject.
The photographer has learned to live with the tiny clicks and sounds produced
by the film. He has learned to focus. He has learned to view the world through
a different light; as detected by the CCD (Charge-coupled device). The way he
has to shrink his eye as he struggles to focus on his subject just so he can
produce the perfect shot. Some go to unimaginable extents, including lying prostate
on the ground, others indulge in life-threatening postures: all for the love of
the art.
Photography has really evolved with time’s passing. Legend
has it that in the early 70’s, smiling for a camera was considered almost a
taboo. If you needed a photo of you taken, you had to be on the most serious
version of yourself. More than the way you pretend to be in your National ID photo. In fact,
the Guiness Book of Records holds that of the first person to ever smile for
the camera! That is how serious things were back then. During my days, taking
pictures were saved for only glorious occasions. On such days, one was expected
to be super smart; first, you needed to shower; take all the time you could in
the bathroom and scrub yourself clean, as if trying to wash your sins away; shoes
had to be polished with nothing other than kiwi, (remember that myth people had
about shoes? That you didn’t have to polish them because the camera would
somehow cleanse them? I still find it stupid. I mean, Photoshop is way younger
than me) the body would be sufficiently
smeared with Valon, which was my mum’s favorite
for me and my siblings, one had to comb their hair, for the ladies. As for me,
I had to shave. The haircut style that tickled my fancy was known as ‘pank’ or ‘box’,
what young boys today call ‘fade’. Postures had to be carefully choreographed,
like my personal favorite was when I would smile so widely with one of my
thumbs raised high. I still have those photos. One is right in front of me at
the time of writing. The smile I had on, at this day and age, can easily searched
on Google Maps to locate where the photo was taken.
A million years later, and photography has become everyone’s
forte. Everyone can hold anything they call a camera, smile for it and… and
that’s all! You don’t need to shower or smear Valon on your skin. How would one
notice, anyway? It’s not like they can smell your image on their (very) smart
phones. All they can do is smile and scroll-on their Timeline, or TL, as some
cool kids would like to term it.
However, there is something called Professional Photography.
Just as the name suggests, Professional Photography must be covered by a
professional. One who has the skill and passion for the art. One who is ready
to go the unimaginable extents in pursuit of the perfect shot. And that, ladies
and gentlemen, is what we are all about. For the past two weeks, Pwani
Celebrity Awards has been working to deliver its first ever promise to all the nominees;
which was to have them all created for portfolios with professionally taken
photos of themselves by none other than Tony from Uptown Media. By Friday, if
all goes according to plan, we shall have covered half the categories. The
remaining half will hopefully be covered in the coming two weeks.
In the previous post, we bragged about how much fun we are
having in between sessions. From the way we are treated by our hosts to the very
many other things happening on set. We’ll be kind enough not to make you
jealous this time. We won’t talk about the fun. We won’t share any photos of
how beautiful we make everything around us look. Instead, we’ll talk about the
people behind the fun.
*****DAY 1*****
As usual, our weeks uniquely start on Wednesday and ends on
Friday because that’s how awesome we can get at times.
On that day, Heavens woke up happy and relaxed. The Angels
brought the house down up there (see what I did there? Sometimes I even
surprise myself), God was pleased. He sipped from His golden cup of freshly
squeezed natural juice, smacked his lips and said, “Let there be sunshine!” And
poof! There was sunshine at Prestige Holiday Resort. Jesus gave Him a high five
as Angel Gabriel proposed a toast for this week’s photo shoots. They had fun up
there. Anyway, let’s mind our own business. So, on Wednesday, we had saved the occasion
for Blogger of The Year Category, Male Artist of The Year Category and Female
Artist of The Year Category. We expected musical entertainment from the
artists. We hoped for the Bloggers to be busy making up creating stories
from the day’s happenings. Unfortunately, only one Blogger showed up. As for
the artists, it’s better to reserve whatever we have to say.
Since we had made the session open for any nominee willing to
attend, we had some from various categories showing up. Others coming from as
far as Mariakani because they know the impact Pwani Celebrity Awards, as a
show, has on their career. We appreciate their efforts and may they keep
excelling in their various fields.
*****Day 2*****
Thursdays have been our official day 2 since we started this
program. I think we should be arrested for being this awesome. What do you say?
So, on Day 2, we felt like giving ourselves an off day,
because we can. We did not have to ask for permission from anyone because we
are the boss of us. You see, in our line of work, we behave like politicians;
we act like we are above the law, or rather, we are the law; we can change it
at any given time, provided all goes in our favor.
Okay, scratch all that up there. This is the main reason why
we could not have the photo shoot on Thursday. You see, on that day… on that
day, our Brothers and Sisters from the Muslim Faith had a calendar holiday,
Eid-Al-Adha. (90% of you simply referred to it as Iddi, simply because you didn’t
know the right name and you wanted to look smart by not asking about it. You
are now smiling because you know it’s true). Anyway, because we are people who
respect religion, we decided to have the day off and join in the festivities.
*****Day 3*****
Friday! TGIF! (Truly God is Faithful). He had been faithful
enough to let us see the final day of our shoot that week. Most people call it ‘Members
Day’. I guess this writer will have to seek the services of the all-knowing
Google to understand the origin of this weekly ‘holiday’.
Friday was not just any other day. It was The Day. What
made it extra special was the fact that we were expecting the Spoken Word Poets
Category and Models’ Category for the shoot. As you all know, the Models’
Category happens to be one that has attracted the most interest from fans,
not just because of the Titanic Battle that there exists, apparently, among the
nominees, but because these are the people who are expected to have created
some positive impact in society.
The shoot went down well. 90% of the nominees in this category
showed up. However, due to some missing links in the communication process, we
could not have the Male Models present for the shoot on this day. Theirs had to
be rescheduled for Wednesday, September 30th, 2015. For the sake of #TeamMafisi reading this, we
fed our eyes with the oozing sexiness from the models’ well-toned bodies. As
stated earlier, we will be kind enough not to make you all jealous with photos
of what you missed.
Okay boys and girls, it’s a wrap for week 2! Tomorrow marks
the start of week 3. The nominees have been advised on their dates. Stay tuned
to our page for up to the minute updates.
