This is something I’ve been meaning to post, but I lost the booklet I needed until now.  It’s hilarious.

On my last trip to Nigeria, I experienced quite the contrast in lodging.  On one end of the spectrum was the Protea Hotel Ikeja in Lagos.  It’s nothing short of stunning.  I stayed there on my last night there, and it was kind of a bizarre experience after living the ‘typical’ life for over three weeks.  Anyway, I picked up a Protea Hotel guide and set on my way.  They have an amazing portfolio of hotels.  So, on with some more pics of this room.

So it turns out the folks at Protea have quite the sense of humor, all the more funny if you’ve actually experienced what they are poking fun at.  Here is another hotel I stayed in on the trip.  I have no idea which hotel this is, but maybe folks familiar with Owerri will know from the window shot.

Just Precious, right?  :)

I was going through the Protea guide book and stumbled on one page they inserted about a fictitious property of theirs.  Hilarious.  Read it for yourself!

LOVE it!

Here go our boy Brian in the reflection.

Laters!

I hope you are having an awesome one!

Sometime last week I walked down the hall, past her room and stopped because she looked so much taller and older as she slept.  I couldn’t believe how big she is getting, so I had to snap a pic.  Boy does time go quickly when you have little ones growing up around you.  Photos like this remind you of the importance of, well, photos like this, time gone by.  :)

Sometimes you just gotta use the mess.

Back in February for the WPPI conference.  Some old film and a much older camera.

If your DJ even has the art on the wall movin’, your reception is rockin’.  Ha!

So back in the days of BD (before digital), I bought this little Zeiss Super Ikonta B (6×6) folder as seen below:

I bought it really to be a pocket travel camera.  This particular model was made in the late 50s to early 60s.  It’s really great to carry around with a few rolls of film.  A medium format camera that fits in your pocket: what’s not to love?  Well for one thing, it’ll only focus down to 4 feet, but who really cares.  It sometimes overlaps frames.  So what.

Anyway, digital took over, and this thing hit the drawer for a good while.  This year I’ve been taking it out more and shooting some really old film through it.  I shot Ace here with film that’s been expired for at least twice as long as she’s been alive, and I did it with a camera that is ten times her senior.  The negative came back very thin.  The film has never been refrigerated.  It’s been kept in basements, garages during several very hot summers, you name it.  But I still love it.  Another:

So enjoyable!  And the excitement of waiting again!

Isn’t it beautiful?  It’s such a fantastic venue.

Meet Efiom.  Efiom Married Nina twice!  Once in the village of Dikenafai and once in Calabar.  This portrait was made after their Igba Nkwu ceremony at Nina’s parents’ place in Dikenafai.  Most of what I’ve photographed in Nigeria has been of the Igbo tribe, which Nina is a part of.  Efiom is Efik.  His attire was a little, um, different than traditional Igbo wedding day attire.  It was explained to me that some their attire is influenced by early European colonialism.  The first outfit he wore really kind of reminded me of something you’d see at a Mardi Gras celebration.  Know what I mean?

In order to do these after-ceremony portraits without the many hired and spec shooters ruining everything, we had to sneak out the back of the house and take some back pathways to this location.  Seriously, it’s nuts with the photographers.  They are all over the place.  Getting used to them makes dealing with the occasional “Uncle Bob” a piece of cake.  Here is a shot of JUST A FEW of the photographers and videographers there who, according to one of them, was going to “show me up” in the photo department.  This doesn’t make for a great environment to do really great work.  It’s tough, but possible.

These photographers and videographers very much behave in a vulture/pack system.  They are always right on top of the action, shoulder to shoulder, and that makes it very difficult to vary position and get different shots without getting them right smack in the middle of the shot.  I can’t begrudge them their work.  They are welcome at these ceremonies, and they are just trying to survive like everyone else there.  I just have to be more vigilant, aggressive and on-point when it comes to shooting these.  I’m always amazed at how much I do come away with without having all these photographers front and center in these photos.

This was my first experience with Efik folk and their customs.  Part of what comes with this group is the very interesting Ekpe masquerade as seen in my photo below.  Seriously, it was right at 100ºF the entire time I was there, and I cannot imagine how hot it is in one of these suits!

Handsome dude, gorgeous bride.  They are going to have some seriously good looking kids.  I hope they can one day come to Atlanta so I can see them again, or one day I can go back and meet up with them.