Traveling Eastern Africa

Over the past 5 years, traveling to remote location across the world seems to have been the theme of my life. Whether that has been to small fishing villages in Nicaragua while backpacking through Central America, driving through the middle east to Mongolia in a small van, or traveling through deserts in India on a motorbike, I have seen and experienced some pretty wild and unique places on our globe. Last November I was asked to come on board with Focal Change who had partnered with World Relief Canada to create video content in order to better tell the stories of women in Ethiopia and Kenya using programs like the VSLA Program (Village Savings and Loans) to make their way out of poverty. Being brought on to the project I was specifically responsible for video content, but coming from a photography background it was only natural to make some local portraits when I saw the opportunity.

Photographing local portraits in remote places has to be one of my favourite things to shoot, and also one of the most challenging. Getting a reaction or smile from someone who has never really seen a camera before or doesn't know that smiling is something that looks nice in pictures is hard. But it's always a fun challenge to come up with creative ways of making your subject laugh or smile despite the language or cultural barriers. And when you do get that shot of a genuine smile it makes it all worth it.