Our trip wasn’t ALL business though. We took a few days and headed down the extremely long and bumpy road to Massai Mara for a safari. Here’s a few photos from the wild…

Around 6 years ago my good friend Adam (this is Tony talking) was interning at a church in Nairobi, Kenya. Despite all the excitement and lead up to a trip where he was moving halfway across the world, the email I got went in a totally different direction. Adam quickly knew that the internship wasn’t what he was looking for and had crafted a plan which would later become EduKenya. I thought he was crazy. It was extremely ambitious, very costly and seemed like a lot for one person to take on. Luckily Adam never tried to take it on himself.

From the start, EduKenya was built to empower people who would otherwise not get a chance. Starting in a very small village in one of the biggest and poorest slums in the world, EduKenya partnered with a very small, very humble church located within the community. The goal was to build a school. But not a school that would be funded by rich donors. A school that would be run by local Kenyans, serving local Kenyans and, eventually, would be self-sustainable from any outside aid. It was a big goal.

We’ve been hearing about EduKenya for years and this year we finally got a chance to visit. It was amazing. As you will see and hear below, children at the Kwa Watoto school are thriving and show a rare glimmer of hope in a place where hope is hard to come by. The teachers in the school (many of whom grew up and still live in the same slum) have risen from incredible circumstances and are now leading a school with students who are thriving academically.

The school (and the Mathare slum) doesn’t come without challenges though. Big challenges. We saw things that seem unimaginable. The village where most of the students come from has streets (if you call them that) literally lined with trash and human sewage. Entirely families homes are constructed from tin and are smaller than many American bathrooms. Many children are orphans. Many don’t attend school. Many wander the streets barefoot everyday with no supervision. Many have HIV contracted from their parents. As awful as the conditions are, that’s not even the most heartbreaking part.

We met a boy who was around 9 years old and was completely emotionally distant. His teacher (the person who sees him the most) said that he never smiles. Never. Spending a few minutes with him seemed to make it clear that something has happened to him. Probably something terrible. It was easier to not even think about it.

Amy met a young girl who walked 20 minutes to get to school every day. Her walk should be less than 10 minutes, but it’s dark in the morning and she has to avoid certain streets. That night as we discussed this, I asked why she has to avoid those streets. After all, they’re her people and she’s so young. I won’t repeat the answers I got, but just hearing what could happen to such a small girl brought tears to many of our eyes. But the truth is that even on the ‘good’ streets, we needed two local escorts to be there.

These are just a few of many things you find out by spending a few days in the slum. But luckily there’s hope. Programs like EduKenya and schools like Kwa Watoto give these children hope. They also give them food, shelter, clothing and education. They might not prevent every young boy from joining the gangs, but when you see the hope that exists inside the school walls, you realize that big things are happening.

As I mentioned before, EduKenya is in the process of making investments in the community. The return on these properties will help to eventually make the school self-sustainable. They’re teaching skills to adults so they can earn income. But right now the organization and the school badly need support to get to that point. In any given month a shortage of just a few thousand dollars could prevent them from being in school. If you’re interested in the story, I would urge you to check out and share the story of EduKenya. They need your support.

To move on to the photos, here is our documentation of our time at the school and observing the programs. Beneath each image you’ll see a story or some facts about what you’re seeing. Soon we’ll be sharing some other photos from our time in Africa as well. Thanks again for taking the time…

A village called Jangwani resides as a section of the Mathare slum. It is roughly the size of 5 football fields but is home to around 20,000 people.

From this vantage point, three Jangwani homes are easily seen. These shacks make up the entire home for a family to live in. Often times when a tenant hasn't paid rent, their door is removed, which opens the opportunity for theft and rape.

Like many in Jangwani, this boy rarely sees a mzungu (white person) and can't help but stare. Many children have never left the slum, even for a day.

Dozens of homes are crammed into a small street. In Jangwani, privacy is virtually non-existant, while crime runs rampant.

A young boy stands in Jangwani, one of the poorest areas within an extremely poor slum. He is related to a student at the school.

At the Believer's Centre church in Jangwani, the bathrooms are marked with chalk. However, most people use the government built community restrooms, which are extremely unsafe at night.

The Jangwani landscape often includes drying clothes, a running trench filled with human sewage and homes that are less than 100 square feet for an entire family. On the left side of the photo alone are around 10 homes.

A disinegrating pile of trash is located between several homes in Jangwani. A school-aged boy walks the village barefoot during the day.

The roofs of two Jangwani homes converge. Most homes are only 6 or 7 feet tall. In the street, a boy without a school spends his day by himself.

Beans dry outside a home in Jangwani. In a residential area, it is rare to see business initiative. These beans are drying less than 15 feet from the sewage stream.

In Jangwani, two twin boys smile in the street. Like most streets, they are filled with trash and sewage. The tin buildings are several different homes.

A woman plays and poses for a photo with her young boy inside Jangwani. One of the rare times a child is seen with a parent.

A faded bumper sticker on an abandoned car reflects the very religious nature of the Kenyan people.

Two boys in the street of Jangwani. These boys may never go to school and may never learn English or Math. Without school, their prospects for employment become dramatically lower.

Bishop Isaiah sits in the church that he is the pastor of. It is the only church and safe haven in Jangwani and was the founding place of the Kwa Watoto school.

The street and building where Kwa Watoto school is located. The 4 story building (on left) includes apartments (owned by EduKenya) and parts of the school.

A view of the apartments above Kwa Watoto school. EduKenya owns (and is in process of buying) apartments whose rent will help to make the school self-sustainable.

A classroom in Kwa Watoto is roughly 10"x12", which, although small, is larger than some of the student's entire homes.

Outside the school hangs a P.E. jacket from one of the above apartments. Some of the student's families live directly above the school.

Two children run in the courtyard, as seen from inside a staff room in Kwa Watoto school.

Students in Class 4 search for an answer in their workbook. The natural light is sometimes the only light in the room, as electricity often fails.

Dominic, a teacher at Kwa Watoto, started volunteering at the church in Jangwani. With the support of EduKenya, he now has his teaching certificate and is pursuing his degree.

Two students raise their hands to answer a question. In most cases, when the teacher asks a question, nearly all the students will try to give the answer saying "Cha" (short for teacher) in hopes to get called on.

With the teacher's watchful eye, a student draws out circles to complete his math problem.

The youngest students are often well-aware when cameras are present and, unlike many Amercian children, rarely miss the opportunity to have their photo taken.

Mr. Mule, the teacher of Class 5 and the school's disciplinarian, is one of the school's newest teachers and is very proud of his relationship with his students.

A student turns in her test and awaits her scores. Despite the schools limited resources and incredibly difficult circumstances, the students have very high test scores in comparison to many other city schools.

Students await an answer from their teacher. Class 4 is one of 8 classrooms in the school.

A teacher takes pause during a test. The test questions are written on the board and the students each have a notebook to record answers.

Students play and laugh in the courtyard.

Students in the youngest class take their daily afternoon nap. Remarkably all the students sleep despite the surrounding noise and the teacher's adjustments to their body positions.

Students pose for the camera in the way most young Kenyans prefer… the thumbs up.

A Kenyan recording artists named Insect is surrounded by many of the younger children. His visit was to check out the school. Afterwards, he offered to volunteer to start a weekly music program with the students.

Two students play hide and seek in the school courtyard. In the background is the main entrance for the school, a small, open door within the gate.

Students in Class 4 (ages 9-10) stand to recite the entire chapters of Psalm 139 and Psalm 125.

Students at Kwa Watoto stand and smile as they greet a visitor.

Michael, the Head Teacher at Kwa Watoto school stands in front of a list of his teacher's assignments. Michael is only 25 and is already the equivalent of a Principle despite growing up in a slum where many of his schoolmates are now infamous terrorists.

Students wait nervously in line to enter their health screening on the day that the clinic visits the school.

A student gets his medical screening during one of the schools regular clinics. Every student gets a checkup that they likely wouldn't have otherwise.

A doctor gives medicine and instructions to a student after their health screening.

A worker builds a necklace in the home-based care program run by EduKenya. This program is set up so that women of the community can learn skills that they can use for income.

The items made by home based care are laid out on a table and ready to be sold. They surround a Bible which is being read by a participant.

The teacher demonstrates hair techniques to the student who watches in a mirror.

This faucet serves as the sole water supply for the students to wash their hands and the kitchen staff to wash dishes.

A member of the kitchen staff prepares shallots for the student's lunch. Behind, a child washes his hands.

A kitchen worker prepares a large pot of rice that will feed all 171 students at the school. The small kitchen employs three kitchen staff members.

The kitchen staff looks on as a teacher serves meals to his students.

Without the school-provided meals, many of the children would go without lunch or would have to find it for themselves while wandering the slum.

A student displays his lunch, which today consists of rice, lentils and an orange slice (oranges look much less orange in Kenya).

Children from the community are often bystanders to shool activities. With the school students at lunch, these children were happy to receive some attention.

Two students have some fun at the expense of their orange slices.

Once they receive their lunch, students return to their seats in class to eat. When finished, they'll return their plates to the kitchen. Students spend almost the entire 8 hour day in their classroom.

Students line up on the way to Physical Education. Kenya requires schools to have about 1 acre for P.E. classes, so the students need to walk to the Salvation Army lot (one of the few with enough space).

Students stretch in unison during P.E. class.

A boy performs a back bend and finds a camera on his way back.

A teacher demonstrates a jump to the students. Since the staff is limited, teachers are also in charge of P.E. as well as the clubs.

As the classes break up, they have their own activities. Here a girl jumps rope with her class.

The students dance by mimicing and listening to their teacher, who dances in the middle of the group.

Students do crunches during P.E. class. The whole school participates in the activities at the same time.

Students run through a series of streches, jumps and exercises.

A student runs from the outhouse to the Salvation Army building where the school talent show is being held.

Students cheer on their fellow students during the school's talent show in the Salvation Army building. Like most buildings in the slum, the roof is made of tin.

A class recites a poem to the onlooking students. The Salvation Army building, despite being largely unused, is by far one of the largest open spaces in the entire slum and is constructed of concrete.

Students leap up to answer a question during the talent show.

A student shows her face paint and P.E. shirt during a break in the talent show.

Class 4 performs a memorized reading of Psalm 139 at the talent show.

Njenga dances with a class during their performance. It's very common to see teachers and staff dancing with their students.

Among the most common talents is drumming. Uncommonly good drumming. Most classes have a designated drummer for when they sing.

A blindfolded girl attempts to find a piece of candy with the help of the other student's voices.

Two teachers have fun while participating in a balloon blowing contest in front of the students. The Kwa Watoto teachers form a special relationship with the students and often sing and dance with them.

Students of the Pre-Unit class display their painted faces and perform a song during the school's talent show.

A girl wanders in to the talent show off the streets of Jangwani. Like many children, her parents are nowhere in sight as she wanders the slum.

A girl plays drums while the dance club dances in the background with their teacher. Their costumes are made from recyclables.

The drama club performs an emotional poem about the problematic parenting that many of the children face.

The dance club performs. The school has many after-school clubs to learn skills but to also keep the kids in the school environment longer, which most students welcome.

The Head Teacher Michael holds up a Bible as he speaks to his students during their talent show. Kwa Watoto is a Christian school that started in a church in Jangwani.

One of the staff addresses the students. In Kenyan culture, it's common for the authority figures to give a formal greeting or talk.

Before we (their visitors) left, the students each said an individual prayer for the departing friends. During the assembly, the students sang for us, danced with us and recited their school song. Then they prayed for us. It sounded like a swarm of bees. A very, wonderful and emotional swarm.

Thanks again for taking the time to read. You can find out more about EduKenya here.

About 6 months ago I (Tony) posted a photo of Amy on Facebook that I took while we were working. Someone mentioned that we should post more of those. Then I had a brilliant idea to wait until the end of the year and post a bunch of them. Clearly I didn’t realize a few things:

1. We have way too many photos of ourselves making ridiculous faces.
2. There’s no chance that anyone will actually be entertained by all of these.
3. Amy’s hair color changed about 5 times throughout the year.

So, without further ado, here’s a bunch of photos we took of ourselves (and interns and assistants) during 2011. Don’t judge us for it… It’s your decision to be here :)

I told you it was long.

Amy and I owe you guys a huge debt of gratitude and thanks. This year, we hit the 5-year mark with our business. Back when I started the business, my father-in-law shared a book with me that had two stats I’ve always remembered since: 80% of businesses fail within the first year. 80% of those that survive fail before the 5th year. For those scoring at home, that means that we’re officially part of the other 4% now… and it feels great. But it really has very little to do with us.

From the beginning of the business until now, there are a few things that have stayed the same. While we’ve grown, expanded and improved, we still have never had to pay a dime to advertise anywhere. And we owe all of that to YOU. If we’re being honest, we owe this whole business to YOU. From the get go, we learned just how amazing our clients are. The fact that you guys take your time to look at our work, share it with other people and recommend us to friends still blows our minds. We have some people (other than our parents) who have been looking at our blog for almost 5 years now… and that was an UGLY iWeb site back then. We honestly cannot thank you enough times for what you mean to our lives. YOU have given us a career that we love, and made us so happy to do it for you. From the bottom of our hearts, we say thank you.

2011 really was a remarkable year for us. We had 148 shoots (that’s one more than last year if you’re scoring at home), delivered around 50,000 finished images and met hundreds (maybe thousands?) of new people. We shot everywhere from our own living room to Munich, Germany, for newborns and in hospice facilities. made our way across the country a few times and even out of it… and next year promises to take us even further away!

So without further ado, here’s some of our favorite shots from the year. We’re sorry in advance if we didn’t include some people/favorites. We had to at least attempt to keep this to a reasonable length… I recommend you watch on full screen in HD mode :)

If you’re curious, the music was (in order): Mat Kearny, Count on Me • Breanne Duren, Gold Mine • Brooke Fraser, Something in the Water • Josh Garrels, A Far-Off Hope

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank each one of you for the very important role you play in our lives. God has blessed us tremendously by having you support our work and we can’t thank you enough for that. We hope everyone had a great 2011, and we can’t wait to see you all in 2012!

Well, I’m happy to announce that this year will raise the stakes in a HUGE way. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that this spring we’re holding The Genesis Workshop (our annual photography workshop) in Las Vegas. That’s where YOU and the Shoot Me for FREE contest come into play…

The winner of this year’s Shoot Me for FREE contest will win an absolutely free trip to Las Vegas. That’s right. We will be choosing one couple to come to Vegas during our workshop, all expenses paid! This includes flights for 2 to Las Vegas, 5 night’s stay in one of the workshop mansions, food with the workshop crew from our own private chef and a whole bunch of amenities (pool, pool tables, ect..).

Here’s your part: We need a couple that will model for us during some of our workshop sessions on March 20-22. We will fly you out at least a day early to do whatever you’d like with your spouse/significant other. Then you can model for us for certain sessions throughout the week. The rest of the time is yours! And of course you’ll be able to keep digital versions of any photos we take while we’re there. So in exchange for us using your pretty faces you get a 5-night all-expense paid trip to Vegas with someone you love as well as all the photos we shoot of you throughout the week… all for FREE!!!

To recap, here’s what you get:
2 round trip tickets to Vegas
5 nights stay in one of the workshop mansions
All meals
Photos from the shoots during the whole week

Here’s what we get:
2ish hours of your modeling talents for shooting in the morning and 2ish hours in the afternoon on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The rest of the time is yours!

Here’s the Rules:
- Contest entries start today (12/27) and end on Friday (12/30).
- You must be a couple to enter.
- You need to be available to travel 3/18-3/23
- You should be outgoing and very much in love.
- We’d love to choose a couple we’ve already shot for, but are absolutely open to anyone!
- No purchase necessary… duh.
- Bribes accepted

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED! THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

Facebook and Twitter

At the bottom of this page are links to our Facebook business page and Tony’s twitter. The Facebook business page is a great place to keep up on things that we don’t blog, such as when we need models or volunteers, when we have contests or when we ask for questions (like we did yesterday). The Twitter feed is mostly Tony talking about sports, music and photography and we (this is Tony talking) apologize in advance to anyone that follows it. :)

Booking Schedule

We get a lot of questions from soon-to-be brides asking about our booking schedule. For weddings, we typically fill up 12-18 months in advance. For the busiest months (May-June and Sept.-Oct.) its usually closer to the 18 month mark. For engagements, portraits and commercial work, we typically fill up at least 2-3 months ahead of time. For this reason, we do scale back our commercial and non-wedding-client work during the busy months. Fall is by far our busiest time for engagements and families, so if you want to shoot in the fall, it’s good to get in touch way ahead of time (like now).

Shooting Days

For engagements, families and commercial work we shoot exclusively during the week. The evenings are typically the best time and we try to shoot on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sundays are our day off.

Travel Policy

As we’ve been traveling a lot for weddings, many of our clients have asked about our travel policy. Our policy is basically that there is no policy! We’ll travel anywhere for anything (as evidenced by our recent engagement session in Germany). If you have an idea for us that involves travel, just let us know. We’ll work up an all-inclusive quote that includes all our costs and we’ll do all the planning. It’s super easy for you.

Comment

We just wanted to say thanks to all the people who check out our work and comment on it either on our blog or on Facebook. It means so much to us that our clients can see that other people like their photos. So, come out of stalker-ville and leave a comment!

Workshops

A few people a week ask us about workshops, so we’ve added a ‘Workshops’ link to our menu. Right now, our only planned workshop is the Genesis workshop (which has a few seats still available). If we ever do a 1-on-1, small workshop, business consultation or anything else, we’ll often post things to our Facebook page for help/models.

Reader Questions

Ok, so that’s mostly it for stuff from us. So here’s a few questions we got from people on our Facebook page. If you’re interested in having a question answered here sometime, keep an eye on that page (rather than emailing us) and if it works out, we’ll do it more often.

Quincy asks:

Do you plan on doing anything like Genesis closer to PHL?
The likelihood is extremely low. We only plan one workshop at a time. After it’s over, we reevaluate to see if we’d like to do another one. If we ever do a third, it will most likely be on the west coast.

Karlo asks:

Can you dunk? Forward? Reverse? 360?
You’re asking a very sensitive question Karlo. The answer is yes to all 3, but every year my hops are giving way more and more. Back in the day it was windmills and alley-oops. Now I’m lucky to do the things you mentioned above.

Heather asks:

Do you plan out your sessions (poses, locations, lighting tricks you want to use) in advance or do you do it on the fly…
The overwhelming answer is that we do everything on the fly. Every shoot is so different (weather, location, clients) that it’s hard to plan things in advance. Occasionally we’ll have ideas or thoughts, but we usually forget about them once we start. We always tell people that we want their sessions to be unique, so basing it on them is much easier than basing it on us.

Mike asks:

Without giving away any trade secrets… When using a flash/off camera lighting for outdoor shooting during the evening (before dark) do you have a go to lighting setup you use or change it up every time based on the conditions? i.e.- umbrellas or softboxes, typical number or lighting sources, etc. Your lighting just looks so much better than any others I’ve seen.
Well not really. For outdoor lighting, it mostly depends on how much time we have and how windy it is. We prefer softboxes whenever possible and are always looking for faster setup for softboxes. When it’s windy, we use a lot less modifiers because we’ve broken so many that way :).

Angie asks:

Any tips for those of us learning Lightroom and the processing end? I have trouble finding presets that aren’t too strong. I’m always longing for the perfect preset :)
Well you could always buy the Workflow DVD… :D. But the serious answer is that we don’t use any presets that we didn’t make ourselves. Since the processing sets our style in some ways, it’s important to me that it’s not available to everyone.

Megan asks:

If you had to shoot with 1 lens the rest of your career, what would it be?
Definitely a 35mm. I find it to be the most versatile and challenging focal length. I think it makes a person think about composition so much that I always feel challenged by it.

Adam asks:

I’ve seen some of your photos where your clients have been in the water or topless even, how do you talk your clients into doing some of those things?
Well we never talk anyone into anything really. We ask our clients to give us ideas and than run with it. Whether that’s in the water, climbing something tall or what they do/don’t wear, it’s important that our clients tell us what they’d like. Then we just make suggestions and see what they want to do. If we start trying to convince people to do something, then we’ve gotten away from the main goal, which is to give them what they want.

Jonathan asks:

Your best advice on getting resistant participants (guys) to spend the time needed for a great engagement shoot?
This is one huge advantage of shooting with your wife. I (Tony) am not really a stereotypical “wedding” person, but Amy totally is. Like many of our clients, that’s totally my wife’s department. It works great because we can just be ourselves. I think it’s easier to identify with men this way. I’m into sports, movies and other things that guys usually want to talk about. I find that working with both sexes is much easier when we can just be ourselves and connect on different things. After all, people have fun when they don’t feel forced into something.

Anyway, we did take our camera, but hardly took any photos. All but 2 of these are from our phones, but here’s a quick glimpse at our vacation last week. See if you can guess which weren’t from a phone… Back to regular programming this week :)