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I'm going to South Africa...how do I prepare?

Jerome Love

New member
I couldn't exactly find a category to fit this post in and that's why it's here.

The background:
I'm currently 18 years old and an avid semi-pro photographer who hopes to make this a career. I'm currently a student planning to major in Commercial Photography as well as Marketing ( I'm still working on my GE). I do portraits, weddings and promotional photography for bands here in Sacramento as well as work for Lifetouch ( I know, it's just experience). I've recently received the opportunity to travel to South Africa (Johannesburg, Mozambique and Swaziland specifically) to work with the NPO
VOXunited. While most of my reason for going is the internship as basically a photojournalist, I also have a heart for helping people and I especially like the way VOX is going about it. I'm looking to stay 6 months and some of my duties are as follows : Photographing the various projects VOXunited is involved in. - Writing about the projects that VOXunited and I am involved in. - Photographing local issues. - Updating our website with content and photographs. - Working on various projects VOXunited is involved in with. While I've have been preparing personally, I'm looking for advice on how to prepare as a photographer.

Gear:
I currently use a Canon 30D gripped and am and avid strobist to meet my lighting needs. I have a 50mm 1.8 , 15mm 2.8 Fisheye, 70-200 f/4 L to use. I'm looking to seriously invest ($3000) in some additions to my list to be prepared for this trip. I have also had to opportunity to borrow a friend's Mamiya 645AFD and I'm deeply interested in medium format.

What would you suggest that I add? ( I'm thinking of two more bodies and a few lenses)
I've done some research and I'm obviously going to want a longer telephoto for the wildlife. I'm considering selling my 30D and moving up to a 1D mk II as well as getting a 5D mk I for the full frame. I'd also like to get a medium format setup as well.

What would you suggest in terms of modesty?
I won't be walking around everyday with $10k of equipment with me. Setups for walkabout and sketchy areas.

Technique:
I've begun to do a lot more street and documentary photography to prepare myself as a photojournalistic-like shooter. I'm also taking a journalism class as well.

Are there any techniques that you suggest when approaching people?

Are there any books are photographers that would suggest I study?

I know this is a lot but I'd like to be prepared for this opportunity and I appreciate all of the time you take out to respond.

Thank You in Advance!

Jerome Love
www.onelovephotography.net
onelovephoto.blogspot.com
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I've gotten my hands on a Mamiya C330 TLR that I've begun to enjoy with a basic 80mm 2.8 and a nice wide 55mm 4.5.

Jerome,

The C0330 is one of the most formidable cameras ever made. The twin lens reflex gives a very bright view for composition in the waist level viewfinder. The 80mm lens is the perfect lens for social setting, akin to the 50mm on a 35mm camera. That is one very sharp piece of glass.

The 30 D and this camera are plenty for your needs.

Mozambique is a wonderful place where you will find the most developed interracial society with it's peak in the port city of Maputo, formerly, Lorenzo Marques. Swaziland is an exotic place with its own king who really has amazing right over women! Look up the "Orange Blanket People". South Africa is beset with a lot of challenges. It has not met is expectations for much of the population and so crime and urban squalor has eroded a number of fine large cities. At the same time, "townships, like Sharpeville, the site of the infamous massacre in Apartheid times, have evolved with much more hope and dignity.

Dawid Loubser in South Africa and he might be able to give you up to date advice. I'd be careful wandering around with any camera except perhaps a point and shoot.


Do you plan to go to Kruger National Parkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruger_National_Park? You'll need at least a 400 mm lens with a x1.4!

Asher
 
Hello Asher, Jerome,

Sorry I have been so absent of late, the primary reason is that my Fiancée and myself were attacked in our house about a month ago. We live in a small townhouse in a supposedly very secure complex, which also has a full-time guard on duty who patrols.

At around 03:00 in the morning, we awoke as the glass sliding door in the living room (which is right next to the main bedroom) was broken, and I had a couple of seconds to run to close the bedroom door as the attackers came closer. The bedroom door cannot lock, so we had to by force of strength hold the door amidst threats, and fear of bullets flying through the door at any moment.

Our persistence paid off, and they "only" took both my Apple 17" notebook computers, and fled - but we are still in shock, and I have not cared much for online photography forums since.

As you may recall, this is the second solid attempt on our lives after; in late 2005 we had guns against our heads during a hijacking. I don't think anybody should have to go through that. Twice.

Attempt has been made to steal my car *four* times this year, each time in a different location, usually a secure parking lot of a shopping centre with guards / video cameras etc.

Jerome, South Africa is a country of contrasts of such an intensity that you cannot begin to contemplate. As a South African who has lived here my whole life, I have seen the country being turned upon it's head, with a complete and total disregard for life, natural resources, and drown in incompetence, since it became "democratic" and "free" in the early 1990s.

I truly believe us to have one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The sunsets in Johannesburg do things to the sky which you have never seen - I was almost hypnotised by the clouds yesterday. I don't think anybody could exhaust the photographic possibilities here.

Just don't come here thinking that there is a populace of poor black people in need of help, or reportage, like the stereotypical African country. What we have here is a very, very divided black populace, some of them super-poor (but not sitting around in the dust and tents and starving like in Somalia / Rwanda / YourFavouriteOtherAfricanCountryHere) and, on the other hand, many of them super-super rich due to the legalised economic discrimination against white people. This huge divide causes a lot of tension.

What a large percentage of them do have in common, is disregard or even hate against white people. Even at organised political gatherings, some would still sing old hate songs, like "Kill the farmer, Kill the Boer" and "Bring me my Machine gun" etc. Never have you seen a minority's past destroyed and discriminated against as you have here - the only thing that we all have to, and had to do, is to completely let go of our past, our culture, our identity as an ethnic group - otherwise, you just can't take it anymore, which is why so many of the white population has left South Africa. Everything from my past is broken, removed, renamed, and disregarded. This the Boer nation that once brought England to their knees during the Anglo Boer War (~1900).

Yet, amidst al of this, there is never any sign of true tension which could lead to civil war. Everything just goes on, as normal. Yes, there is so much contrast here. And so much apathy. That is perhaps the undoing of the South African, is the apathy.

Just be aware that, the crime here is of a very violent nature. This is not like going to France and getting your luggage stolen. Here they will also rape your woman, and then torture you just for fun. It happens every day (without exaggerating, literally *every day*).

I can unfortunately not give you any real guidelines as to how to avoid this, since there are no clear "good" and "bad" areas, it's very random. I don't think it's any more dangerous to walk around and photograph downtown Johannesburg than what it is taking a walk in a secure park in a Northern suburb. Both are simultaneously pretty dangerous and pretty safe.

One tip: Self-defense Capsicum pepper spray is legal over the counter here, and there are some pretty big/impressive models sold over here. Do not get a gun, get some of those, and keep it with you. Most would-be attackers will not expect that.

Regarding camera gear, I personally don't think you run a bigger risk here than anywhere else - I used to walk around with my entire EOS 1D MkIIN kit - including the huge/conspicuous white EF 28-300L - and have never been mugged (unless they thought I was a pro journalist, and also: I am not a small guy). Although the Mamiya TLR will be a very safe bet, the idiots around here will not have a clue what it is. I use an RB67 myself; I don't think they'd steal it, although they probably think it's a movie camera.

The *big* crime here - hijacking, rape, murder, car theft - is apparently much more of a problem than camera mugging as far as my experience tells, so I think you should bring whatever you like. I have since given up on digital completely (I sold my entire Canon kit) and am using cheaper and more-fun film equipment at this stage, doing own B&W development. Now they can steal it, and it's cheap to replace (except some of the more exotic Zuiko glass, like the 90mm/2.0 Macro, or my Linhof 617 of course).

They'd rather steal your cellphone. Anyway, I don't want to scare you by telling what a crap place this really is. Just be aware of the contrast. My and my beloved's lives have almost been taken, twice, by hateful black people who would feel nothing about murdering another person, especially if he is white. But on the other hand, it is so beautiful here, and outside of the city - pure bliss.

Let me know if I can help you with any specific information or tips - I will try my best.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jerome, South Africa is a country of contrasts of such an intensity that you cannot begin to contemplate. As a South African who has lived here my whole life, I have seen the country being turned upon it's head, with a complete and total disregard for life, natural resources, and drown in incompetence, since it became "democratic" and "free" in the early 1990s.
The story of the Dutch Africaaner's settlement, growth and destruction of history is epic and tragic.
Subject: BBC Condones Cultural Genocide
Vryheid 3/9/2005 4:51:54 PM

link

Instead of reporting the renaming of Pretoria for what it is, cultural genocide, the BBC instead chooses to condone such behaviour.

The BBC has also revealed an ugly racist side of their reporting with the following,

"Pretoria was named after Andries Pretorius, a folk hero of the Afrikaner group, which set up apartheid."

Andries Pretorius was a Boer and the Boer capital of Pretoria was named after him. The BBC should well know who the Boer people are since it was their country that committed invasion and criminal acts of aggression against them including the internment and killing of Boer women and children in the world´s first concentration camps.

Instead of reporting on the legitimate claims for compensation for which the Boer people are entitled, instead the BBC chooses to label the Boer people ¨colonist¨s.¨ The BBC should be challenged on these issues and an apology should be demanded of them.

I encourange you all to join me in expressing my discust at such biased reporting. source
The British have a strange attitude towards the facts of their colonial past. The Dutch trading companies were there first, unloading ships with young Dutch men and women who married at an early age and with some live stock went on a trek to start Dutch settlements, often in areas with no people at all. Either they succumbed to the hardships or if they arrived safely, they could raise a community as there were no other people to give them any diseases. So they either dies or flourished.

When the British settlers came they looked down on the Boers, or Afrikaans as primitive uneducated rabble. The Boer wars were tragic and the concentration camps were a stain on the record of the society.

Asher
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hello Asher, Jerome,

Sorry I have been so absent of late, the primary reason is that my Fiancée and myself were attacked in our house about a month ago. We live in a small townhouse in a supposedly very secure complex, which also has a full-time guard on duty who patrols.

At around 03:00 in the morning, we awoke as the glass sliding door in the living room (which is right next to the main bedroom) was broken, and I had a couple of seconds to run to close the bedroom door as the attackers came closer. The bedroom door cannot lock, so we had to by force of strength hold the door amidst threats, and fear of bullets flying through the door at any moment.

Our persistence paid off, and they "only" took both my Apple 17" notebook computers, and fled - but we are still in shock, and I have not cared much for online photography forums since.
This is shocking and horrible. I'm so sorry you had to go through this. The last time I was in South Africa some ten years back, Black professionals were wringing their hands in dismay at the downward spiral of respect for life. Typical was hijacking of Mercedes or other expensive car at any traffic stoplight. Being black or a black woman didn't evoke mercy!

My brother, who I swear was nuts, insisted on walking miles through the most blighted areas to where my late mother was ill in hospital. He felt that if we walked with "purpose", we'd be O.K. Well he was right, it so happened, but that was one of the most terrifying walks done time and again! I can't believe I did something that my common sense begged me to avoid.

What you have demonstrated is that there is a tragic chance effect in a country with too many throws of the dice at every moment and so one has to be extra vigilant. I feel for you both in the trauma you have gone through with this real set of assaults against your sense of being free from threat.

Still, there are many more Blacks, the vast majority who have nothing in common with these thugs.

Just don't come here thinking that there is a populace of poor black people in need of help, or reportage, like the stereotypical African country. What we have here is a very, very divided black populace, some of them super-poor (but not sitting around in the dust and tents and starving like in Somalia / Rwanda / YourFavouriteOtherAfricanCountryHere) and, on the other hand, many of them super-super rich due to the legalized economic discrimination against white people. This huge divide causes a lot of tension.
Dawid,

This I'm afraid is likely more true. The society is in decay. Another example was the destructive refusal to allow anti retrovirus drugs for control of HIV-AIDS. This has caused a genocide of ~ millions of infected people! Now, however, the government has changed and a full-scale treatment program has been launched. That sort of turn-around shows what's possible. Here, the majority of the victims were black and the blacks in power simply dismissed the science. This is one of the largest genocidal tragedies of modern times.

The extinctions of Afrikaner history are a similar albeit less bloody pogrom. Both cases represent the same lack of caring for humanity where ignorance, pomposity and hatred erodes civilization and drains the spirit.

One tip: Self-defense Capsicum pepper spray is legal over the counter here, and there are some pretty big/impressive models sold over here. Do not get a gun, get some of those, and keep it with you. Most would-be attackers will not expect that.
That's sounds like good advice.

Regarding camera gear, I personally don't think you run a bigger risk here than anywhere else -
Jerome,

Best limit the weight and visibility of what you carry. Always be aware of your surroundings and don't lug around gear that might be mistaken for valuables they could steal.

They'd rather steal your cellphone. Anyway, I don't want to scare you by telling what a crap place this really is. Just be aware of the contrast. My and my beloved's lives have almost been taken, twice, by hateful black people who would feel nothing about murdering another person, especially if he is white. But on the other hand, it is so beautiful here, and outside of the city - pure bliss.
Please don't anyone claim this is racist. It so happens that South African society has suffered and is in a state of severe dysfunction. The Blacks are the vast majority and poverty as well as failed expectations and rabid political talk has favored criminality. The blacks with any sign of success are also attacked! Still, just being white and an Afrikaner is the worst possible lot one could have drawn if you happen to pause at an intersection at the wrong moment in the life of that location.

Let me know if I can help you with any specific information or tips - I will try my best.
Your offer of help at this time is very generous. I'm more worried about you're healing. I don't want to see your experience negatively affect your relationship with Blacks in general. I do hope you have better experience than with the thugs who attacked you. I am a pragmatic optimist.

Jerome,

And yes, South Africa is one of the most beautiful places on the planet! Just don't make yourself a target. I'd go with a group who has to provide security. One of the ugly secrets of the Photographic Tour Business led been famous guys on the net, is the not infrequent occurrence of muggings! You'll see there is innuendo of this risk in the small print. Just go to your most respected sites and read the fine print. If’s there because the risk is real. If they get a great picture of a herd of elephants, this goes on the website. When people in their care are attacked, no one reports it.

Asher
 
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Yes, I do apologise, I don't want to come across as being racist, but if anybody of you were in my shoes, where you simultaneously experience the destruction of your culture and history, as well as direct threats on your life, every time effected by lividly anti-white black people, you would feel as I do.

As Asher said, our society is very broken. My being turned into somebody who has, at this stage, a very strong anti-black sentiment, is part of that brokenness.

I too am very dismayed at the the world's apathy for what is happening to the Boer people - especially the BBC and the UK in general, who were the "real" colonists.
 

Jerome Love

New member
Asher, Dawid:

First, THANK YOU for the generous advice. It has cleared up a lot of questions for me and really brought some new things to light for me.

Dawid my prayers go out to you and your fiancee, I'm sorry to hear such a horrible thing happened to you twice. I definitely value your will to come out of the "woodworks" should we say and help guide me. It's truly a blessing.

I will definitely be reading up on customs and history so that I can try and best understand what I am walking into day in and day out. I feel like this is an important piece to really tearing down the walls between me and the people I'll be connecting with.

I'm comforted by the gear advice, I thought South Africa would require a much more rugged setup but the more and more I read the more I realize it is much more civilized and "normal" that I presumed. I was advised to possibly trade in my 30D for a FF setup with a good standard or zoom, as it would better suite my PJ needs. Any comments on this advice?

Have you done any street or PJ work on the streets Dawid? How would you recommend I approach people? How do I ask to photograph or any flags I should look for to start running?

Asher,

I'm not sure that I will be taking any photographic tours, but I will definitely research it if it comes to my attention. I appreciate that heads up.
Any other suggestions for wildlife?

Any other suggestions in general? I leave January 14th.
Thanks in advance.
 
Jerome,

South Africans are very easy-going in that regard, and most people on the street do not mind being photographed - I think it's much easier to do street photography here than in the paranoid UK or US.

Depending on whom you photograph, they will either ignore you (if it's either an educated, upmarket person, or on the other end of the scale a destitute beggar), pose / be a clown for you (if it's say an unskilled worker) or, in the worst case, ask you not to photograph them (paranoid person), but I've not really seen that - although I don't photograph people much.

But if you can pull off street photography in the UK or US, it is bound to only be easier here. Just practice your stealth technique, and just be safe - i.e. no dark alleys alone at night, but where there are people around, you should have no problems.

And of course, if you want to do the whole clichéd wildlife thing, you will need a long, long lens. You don't have to go to the Kruger national park, there are many many others, and many other unexpected places where you may see some wildlife.

Just don't have the illusion that we are in the "wilderness" here - Johannesburg is bigger, with more cars, people and buildings than any european city. So too Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein. Very similar to Australia, our cities and suburbs.
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Jerome

I hope you will have a good trip. I will second David and Asher's comments. South Africa is a most beautiful and amazing country - the world in a country - but it is a deeply troubled place.

If you are fortunate you may be priviledged to meet some of the most resilient and resourceful people you could find anywhere in the world. However, you should be aware of the dangers and take good care.

Mike
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
David, so sorry to hear your story - all too common I know. I, too, have friends in South Africa even though I have not visited since 1995.

Mike
 

Jerome Love

New member
Dawid,

Thank you for the insight to the "ease" (lack of a better word" of street photography.
As far as wildlife goes, what do you mean by unexpected places? Also, internet access to VOX has proven to be expensive in JoBurg? Any advice on a wireless plan or broadband access? Also, I definitely realize that South Africa in general is modernized, I was just not so sure about the elements, forgive my ignorance.

Mike,

I appreciate your encouragement and reassurance of what Asher and Dawid have been so helpful with.
 
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