A good man once wrote that “Twitter is a place where you talk to yourself with the hope that someone else will eventually talk to you“. I think the same is true for writing a blog post. That said, welcome to today’s incoherent rambling of a future Pulitzer prize winner.

I, like many of you, convinced myself for sometime that my phone can capture amazing pictures and there was no need to invest in an expensive camera. The Yorubas will say only a man who’s yet to visit other people’s farm will say his father’s is the biggest.

The very first joy in PhotoHood is GETTING YOUR OWN CAMERA.
I got my first camera this year (a used Sony Alpha 55v) through the help of Alfred, against Omolola’s advice. That was my second sensible 2018 decision, the first being investing in Mutual Funds.

You want to know everything there is to the camera. You want to know the strength and limitation of it. You want to go out and conquer the world with your new weapon of storytelling. Thanks to YouTube videos, manuals and messing around, it didn’t take much time to understand it my camera. Thanks to my apartment, did plenty trials.

The second joy is GOING FOR YOUR FIRST OUTDOOR SHOOT.
Now that you know your camera, you have to decide where to take your first “real” pictures as a photographer. You’ve always loved seeing fine model photos, so you beg a friend to be your subject. Maybe it’s buildings you’ve always been fascinated with, you decide to go to Lagos Island where the fine buildings are.

Most amateur photographers don’t usually know what kind of photography they really find to be their thing. I have never really been a fan of perfections in looks, so I knew from the beginning that I won’t be taking portraits. Landscape, street, architecture and in the future, wildlife are my interests. So it’s only proper that my first outdoor photo practice is Lekki Conservation Centre (maybe i’ll write about that trip one of these days).

The third joy is PUSHING THE SHUTTER BUTTON.
You arrived at your location, you’ve done a survey of the area and found the subjects that interest you. Now you lift the camera and look through the viewfinder. You focus on your subject and adjust the necessary parameters of your camera. Then you hold your breath for that fraction of a second as you push the trigger and shoot your subject…sorry, shutter button. Then you breathe out with satisfaction. You playback what you just shot and you’re either satisfied or feel you need to try again. You repeat this many times, different angles, different settings, zoom in or out, landscape or portrait, till you get the camera to produce the ideas you have in your head.

Next is VIEWING YOUR PICTURE ON LARGER SCREEN.
Most cameras I’ve seen have small LCD displays usually about 3 inches. That means you don’t really have a good idea how good or bad the images you’ve shot are. You go home and copy these images to your computer or you connect your camera to the TV and then you rate your performance for each shot. You praise yourself for the images which turned out good and note down what is wrong with the bad ones. You then decide to edit the good ones so you can show off to your friends how much of a good photographer you are.

You import the images into your Lightroom or CaptureOne library and begin to WORK MAGIC ON YOUR IMAGES.
You’ve used so much data watching training videos and downloaded many of them. Airtel and Etisalat now have you as their favourite customer due to the amount you spend on data subscriptions. Now you start to make adjustments. Increasing or decreasing exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows, clarity and vibrance and saturation, you decide if you want your image in black and white or colored. You make your own adjustments and while it is good, you feel it could be better. So you apply filters and make further adjustments. You feel you’ve done enough, then you view in full screen mode. YOU ARE THE FUCKING BEST (you tell yourself). Then you EXPORT the image.

Because you’re not a selfish human being, you have to show the world…or your few friends… what you’ve done with your camera and computer. YOU SHARE THE IMAGE(S) WITH EVERYONE.
You post it as your status on Whatsapp and send as message to some, you upload to Instagram and Facebook. You tweet it, you mail it. The comments and likes come in and you can’t help but smile. You are a celebrity now.

You feel encouraged to do more. So you go out, find new locations, find new subjects, read more about photography, watch more tutorials on YouTube and attend photography events. Attending the Business of Photography (BoP) Conference changed my perspective on photography. Before this event, I didn’t know any other popular Nigerian photographer besides T.Y. Bello. Then you get to see and listen to likes of Kelechi Amadi-Obi, Yetunde Ayeni-Babaeko, Shola Animashaun, Henry Nwaeze, Wani Olatunde e.t.c and realize how big a career photography is.

It was then I decided photography wouldn’t be just a hobby. Something to do just so I can post on Instagram. I was going to invest and get better at it and maybe someday, I’ll make money from it (start saving money to buy my images). So I went out more and travelled to new places. Badagry, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ife, Osogbo, Erin-Ijesha. Tried out new ideas in taking pictures and editing pictures.

Then I had to get back to my 9-5…
A sailor that loves photography means I get to travel and see new places and let others see these new places through my images. It’s a very powerful form of story telling.

The semi-final joy is GETTING YOUR IMAGES PRINTED.
You’ve seen what your images look like on screens of different sizes, you’ve seen it liked and shared. There is this good feeling you get when you finally hold a copy of an image you shot. It’s no longer just pixels on a screen. Now it is ink on paper, real and more alive. This is the next level in my photography journey.

Oh, the best feeling so far is seeing your images used by others for campaigns. I uploaded this picture to Unsplash and there is how well it has done so far.

Oh… And the Sony had to be replaced. Now using a Nikon D3400….