P#4 Bringing A Laptop To Africa To Get Unusual Stock Photos

Planning ahead to get great photos

Scott Stulberg: Then of course I throw in laptop shots, the last image. These were Samburu, not Masai, and I took them out into the woods and I put my laptop there. I positioned them all.

I had a friend come and hold a gold reflector to shine some light up into their faces. I had them all, "Okay, smile, smile," even though they didn't speak English, and I put a laptop on one of them.

I shot them individually. I shot one guy, then I shot two, then I shot three, then I shot four. These kinds of shots sell. (click the image for a larger version)

Anything unusual with a laptop will sell.

Of course you could see I took out the Apple logo because you can't sell anything in with a logo. I know this shot is probably going to make me some money.

Being creative, unusual, doing whatever you can, bringing a laptop with you to Africa because you know you're going to get a warrior, a tribe person, to use it in a shot is what's called thinking ahead.

Before I went go to Africa, I wrote down my shot list, what I want to get. This is one of the things on my shot list. "I'm going to get something very unusual with these tribes," and that's what I got with this picture of a group of Samburu warriors around a laptop.

In summary

Taking a laptop on the road with you for reasons not connected to computing, might seem counterintuitive. But this, and other practices like keeping a list of what you want to photograph, always carrying your business cards, and using your imagination and intuition are vital parts of being a successful stock photographer.