Latest Model Photo Shoot in Ghetto Setting

I have just done a cool shoot with an upcoming model / actress in a Ghetto setting in London. The location I had in mind would give good contrast between the well dressed model and the urban / graffiti backgrounds.

However just after we started shooting, a guy came up and warned me not to have this kind of camera equipment here as the place is pretty dangerous. He went on to say that his friend was beaten up in daylight a few days before and robbed of his phone and cash...... There were also stories of someone getting stabbed in the area recently.... a great location for the setting, but I doubt I will be using it again....

You can view the photos from the shoot here :-

http://www.samdcruzphotography.com/Fashion/Model-Linda-Akpobasah/

Our Chimps Website - is LIVE (ourchimps.com)

The www.ourchimps.com website is up and running. The website is to show project info about the chimpanzee project running in Western Uganda where I have been working and is to help gain volunteers and possible funding.

They are always looking for volunteers and even small donations will help conserve the chimpanzees, their habitat and also benefit the local communities.

The website is also fully built in drupal with a full content management system!

Check it our for photos of the real Ugandan lifestyle, Chimpanzee tracking and other cool bits and pieces...

 

Up Close and Personal with the Chimps

Chimpanzee Photos have been added to my website from recent work in Uganda, Africa

http://samdcruz.smugmug.com/Wildlife/Chimpanzee/12514293_Bc4uc

UNITE Report - Spring 2010

My name is mentioned in the UNITE Report - Spring 2010 

"an extra special thank you is given to the following for all of their help and support:

Sam D’Cruz for helping set up the event and for taking phenomenal photos for KAFRED" 

 

See the full article here :

http://www.fieldtripearth.org/article.xml?id=1566

Encyclopedia Britannica Uses My Photography

One of the top Encyclopedia's in the world has used my image of Botany Bay - the site in 1770 of Captain James Cook’s first landing in Australia. 

View the full article with the image here :- 

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/75059/Botany-Bay

TravelMag Has Published My Article...

My untouched Uganda article has been published by www.travelmag.co.uk

The direct link to the article is here :-

http://www.travelmag.co.uk/article_1750.shtml

Article Published - Untouched Uganda + Photography

An article I have written (UntouchedUganda) with accompanying photography has been published here :-

http://intravelmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=528&Itemid=10077&ed=25

Monkeys, Swamps, Jungle... Photography, Writing and Marketing for a Community Based Organization :

I have been living and working for the last 10 days or so at Bigodi Wetlands, a sanctuary on the edge of Kibale Forest National Park. The wetlands contain 8 primate species and numerous bird species. It is run by KAFRED an organization who help the community benefit through conservation and ecotourism (aswell as other Income Generating Projects).

http://www.bigodi-tourism.org/

I am staying in simple accomodation at John Tinka's right on the edge of the swamp / jungle. Almost every day I have been exploring the area, tracking the monkeys, birds and other wildife. Just 2 days ago myslef and a local guide spotted some L'Hoest's monkeys (which are notoriously shy and difficult to photograph), we dived into the dense jungle, tracking them for at least half an hour, crossing rivers, trees with spikes, swamp pits and I managed to just about get some good shots of them (aswell as getting stung on the neck by a large jungle wasp - no allergic reaction thankfully).

I have manged to track and photograph most of the species of primates and have also designed postcards using the photos which will be for sale at the KAFRED info center. Proceeds go to further devloping the community.

I have also printed a load of my wildlife photographs which I am laminating for display at the event "Earth Day". I will then donated them for use at the local science center (which is just a small brick shack - but has knowledgable staff and good resources).

I am also writing on behalf of KAFRED an article regarding the work I am doing here and the focus on marketing. It will be published overseas.

There is also an American woman (Michelle) living here. She is working on educating local teachers on conservation. I have edited her videos of a local primary school traditional song and dances in return for a pizza and half a box of wine in the main town 40kms from here :) They should apear loaded on youtube at sometime.

Local life around the swamps goes at a slow pace. My days are divided up between photographing animals in the jungle, designing marketing material and eating large amounts of matoke. There is no power line, occasionaly a generator is running and phone / internet signal is very low and intermittent. The surrounding sounds nature make up for it.

After dinner one night, we were sitting as usual on the floor in the dusty yard, one solar powered lamp lighting the scene. Colin (one of Tinka's children) told me a moral story regarding monkeys, people, murder and honesty.... Bridgette told me a story of love, marriage and bananas! The children then proceeded to beat a drum and dance energeticly, encouraged by Tinka, his wife Betty and myself. The whole scene was entertaining and sureal, a far cry from the average developed country apres dinner activities of watching TV.

There is a small village a short walk away. One guy has a sattelitte TV connection and plays big football games on a small TV in a wooden shelter covered by corrugated iron. Many locals pac in to watch for the bargain price of 15p (25cents) each!

The postcards containing my photography work are below...

I will be heading off from here by the end of the month to start work with Josef Serungo at a chimpanzee habituation project - it will be including research, photography, development etc

Hotel Webdesign While Waiting For Fuel Money

I have been stuck in the town of Soroti for the last 2 weeks, waiting on money from either my organization or one of the organizations we are partnered with to send money for fuel, it has been very un-organized and frustrating, especially since the accommodation I was provided with is still under construction and has no shower or proper toilet...

So I decided that was enough and I made a deal with one of the luxury hotels in the area to give me accommodation for 10 days in return for building them a website - thus putting them a step ahead of their competitors as the first hotel in Soroti with a website!

I had been meaning to learn drupal - the php based / mysql based content managment system way of building websites. Now was as good a time as any - it made the job very long as it was a huge learning process, however it is finished off and the website is here http://www.marcllayhotel.com

They wanted a white guy in some of the photos so since no-one was around I had to set up the tripod and shoot myself getting served dinner...

I did all of the photography on the website and alot of it is using a technique called HDR (which I had to read up and learn also) and enables pulling all of the dynamic range from the subject matter

 in the light and shadow areas by combining multiple exposures.

I will be off to explore some waterfalls near a mountain for the next few days (while still waiting for the fuel money which is stuck now because of the easter holidays) - I just cannot spend anymore time in Soroti! Then on Tuesday the Landrover with Robert the trusty driver will catch me up and we will be heading west to start work on a  project conserving various primate species

Orphanage + Widows + Aids Awareness...

I have spent the last few days staying in Asayo's Wish Orphanage in Kabermaido.

I had met the project co-ordinator (Megan McMillan) from an organization called Trivani Foundation http://www.trivanifoundation.org/ in Soroti .We decided to link up with the possibilities of adding activities in Kabermaido to the ecotourism programme I am coming up with in the Teso region.

Trivani Foundation http://www.trivanifoundation.org/ are doing alot of good in the Kabermaido area working on various projects including :-

Asayo's Wish orphanage https://www.asayoswish.com - Founded by Sarah Asayo It contains has over 150 children and also a good medical clinic which is funded by other American sponsors.

It is very comfortable and well run, the children seem to be very happy. While there I set up a football tournament for the kids which was alot of fun. There is also a resident Crested Crane bird that lives on site (it is the national bird of Uganda)

Widows Necklace Programme - Widows are thought of as inferior by other community members. Trivani has come in to give them a chance to create a new sense of hope for themselves. 

They are trained how to make paper bead necklaces. These

are then sold either locally or in USA with alot of the profits being put back into developing the business further. There

are almost 1000 widows. While in Kabermaido, I took part in and photographed their celebrations and workshops.

Stay Alive - This is an AID's / HIV awareness programme run in several schools.

The children learn info and put it together into song, dance and drama. It is a great was to educate the children of risks, how to behave and what can be done to prevent the disease from spreading.

We visited a school for a very entertaining performance.

- On a side note, the best pork I have ever had and probably the best food in Uganda is from the small Pork hut in one of the back streets of Kabermaido village. It is a simple hut with grass roof - the guy kills a fresh pig most days, cooks it up with potatoes, tomatoes and onions and serves with fresh chillis from his chilli tree for the price of $2 per kg - a bargain and absolutley delicious!

If you are interested in helping, donating or even visiting and becoming a part of these projects follow the following website links and contact the organizations directly (mention that you were passed on by Sam D'Cruz - so that your inquiry is directed to the correct person)

http://www.trivanifoundation.org/

https://www.asayoswish.com

Ancient African Cave Paintings

Have been exploring the cave paintings at Nyero Cves the last couple of days.

The Nyero Cave’s are thought to have been inhabited centuries ago by a minority race of yellow skinned humans, very different from surrounding people. This rare race painted the walls of the caves with series of circles, boats and wildlife etc.




It is thought to be strange that that there are images of boats – the background of these people was thought to be cultivating land and cattle herding, due to the cave location not being near the water – however the paintings must have been done by people who fished the rivers or lakes.




Local belief has it that the tribe of yellow people visited the lake where the Basoga tribe lived and intermarried, this possibly resulted in the Bakenye tribe which still exists today in small numbers living along the water’s edge.



Eventually, it is believed that the Iteso people met the minority group at Nyero Caves and either drove them away or wiped them out.

Red Cross Uganda

Whilst in Katakwi doing research on the Lake Opeta Conservation site I got to know the Red Cross team for the region. They are doing a great job working on disaster reduction / prevention.

I went with them on one of the trips and can officially say I am now a Red Cross Volunteer (I staples the surveys together at the office).

In actual fact the Red Cross were working close to one of my project sites - Lake Bisina, so they dropped me off so I could do take a fishing boat into the lake to research it.

Anyway here are a few pics of them hard at work... and one of me stealing one of their bikes...

Shoebill - the search is over...

So I have been back in the small town of Katakwi to continue project development and research at Lake Opeta.

Katakwi is not on the electricity network so power is sourced by those rich enough to purchase solar panels and fuel powered generators - this is just a small part of the population here.

I have been on various sites in the field for the last few days and...

...YESTERDAY was back at Lake Opeta again in search of the shoebill - a worldwide endagered bird of which a small number reside here in Uganda with excellent possibilities of viewing.

We set off early shortly after sunrise in our beaten up but still strong landrover with Robert Emmanuel at the wheel - also joined by Sophie from Conserve Uganda, Fred, the manager of my guest house who I brought along as he continually tells me of his dream to be a wildlife park ranger and has great enthusiasm and also another future guide - Robert who is a local expert on the lake and the habitats of its wildlife.



Hitting the road in the pouring rain, hopes were high for a break in the clouds. The journey was to be around 1.5hrs covering unsealed bumpy dirt roads and offroad tracks. The tracks were slick with rain and a layer of wet mud. Whilst seemingly making good progress, we suddenly hit a bad patch and slid uncontrollably off the road, into the ditch. Trying to maneuver back and forth we became stuck in a god couple of feet of mud. Trying to direct Robert we managed to pull out of the ditch and onto the wasteland on the bank away from the road.

The ditch continues into the distance next to the road, so I jumped back in, ready for us to drive down into and out of the ditch back onto the road again. We managed it, but went out of control when back on the road and ended in the ditch on the other side! Less lethal than the first ditch we all pushed the Landrover hard as robert hit the gas and reversed back up onto the road.



Our arrival at Lake Opeta was still consumed by the steady rainfall. Hopes lower now that we would even get a chance to get onto the water let alone see the the renowned shoebill.

The rain stopped to a drizzle and we took our chances. Making a deal with local fishermen to take us out. All the while excited conversation occurring in the local Iteso language between my staff and any fishermen we met about previous sightings in the last few days.

We headed to the first sight which we were told was 'nearby' - however, 3kms with on guy with a stick pushing the boat is a fair journey!

No shoebill in the vicinity of the first few islands, so we headed to the opposite side up skirt along the shore from a distance. No such luck.

We had yet another tip off from a fisherman who said there were a collection of shoebills around some other small floating islands. This was the last chance.

The journey across was painfully slow for another 2 hours, but the rain started to clear and as we pulled in, the head of a shoebill was seen amongst the tall grasses past some grassy huts of the local fishermen. We had found it! Everyone excitedly made their comments as none of our party had seen this bird before.

A very odd looking character, the shoebill stands at above waist height and has a large un-proportionate beak. It stands silently for long periods of time and then dives forwards opening its large mouth to clamp down on the fish it has spotted. I personally think the bird looks like something from a prehistoric period, not really fitting in with the rest of the wildlife. I was lucky enough to capture some great shots with the long telephoto lens and the mission of the day was accomplished.



I felt a sense of relief, seeing as the main reason Lake Opeta had been designated a conservation site was due to this bird. It is also the main reason the majority of visitors would visit. It was of huge importance that I see and even more important that I capture professional shots of it for the promotion of ecotourism....

Lake Opeta Conservation Site

I have made my first visit to Lake Opeta, the basis of the whole project. Pictures on this post are from my first visit (click on them to enlarge)



The site was designated as a RAMSAR protected area in 2006 and I will be working at developing an infrastructure and then marketing it for ecotourism.



The program currently receives some funding from United Nations Development Program, but the idea being that I will put a proposal to develop the site along with Conserve Uganda Organization and TECT so it generates its own income and therefore conserves the area and also betters the lives of the people living in surrounding areas.



To get to the place we drove down dusty tracks , past previous camps from when there was unrest and fighting in the area and arrived at the lake shore. The water was actually then another 10 minute walk due to the fact that we were in try season and the level was very low.



We met with some fishermen on the shore, jumped into one of their boats and headed out - reassured by them that there are no crocodiles in these parts.

They took us over to one of the floating islands where they live in small grass huts. They showed me their traditional fishing technique of beating the shallow water to stun the fish and showed me how they live and grow there small crops.



Hardly anyone but local people have visited these areas and it was great to see that they have not modernized at all, completely sustainable existence. They do take fish twice a week to trade with others nearby so they can buy flour and few other items they cannot grow.



The place is also teaming with rare birds which we saw several of - though I will be going back at sunrise when they are more active.