As always, an absolute pleasure to hang out with Riccardo and the Kanyemba team, shooting by day, eating pasta and drinking scotch by night.

I love the Lower Zambezi at this time of year; the light is always incredible and we were treated to some of the most insane sunsets I have ever had the pleasure to watch. Here’s one of them, taken while floating down the river, lodge pictures to follow!

The achingly boring picture above is of my backup “station”. That motley crew of hard drives (and my old battered 17″ MBP acting as ringmaster) contains triple backups of the almost 180,000 images I have delivered to clients since I began shooting professionally almost 6 years ago.

So much has happened (and changed) since I blabbed my way into that first shoot; I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store.

And finally, as I must be off to clean and charge kit for a shoot tomorrow; a big big thank you to all my clients, agents, assistants and friends for your support, and indeed a very special thank you to all who have had the grave misfortune to find themselves in front of my lens this past year!

Happy New Year and all the very best for 2012!

Now, an SLR replacement it ain’t, but for a camera phone, I thought it was pretty fantastic, especially tied with one of the many free editing apps you can get (I currently use Instagram). I love having a usable camera with me all the time and I especially love that it doesn’t weigh upwards of 4kg

I’ve been snapping away at lots of random things on my travels… here are a few of the less wierd ones… (Click an image to read the back-story!) More to come.

All the very best for 2012 and God Bless.

Gareth

P.S. Shot this through my windscreen on my iPhone as we left Kitwe at sunrise. Togs out there will see an ND Grad in use. Any takers as to what I used?

The fundraiser was called “Glam for Gold” and invited people to dress up and party the night away at the News Cafe with all proceeds going to the charity. I spent the morning shooting Former President Bush’s visit to Chikumbuso and then headed over to the party with my camera in tow.

The turnout was fantastic and much fun was had by all with loads of money raised during the evening. Some of my less-out-of-focus pictures below. Me old mate Andreas dressed as a pre-Borat Ali-G had to be the star of the show See if you can spot him (along with some other dodgy characters)…

Visit their site here and then go to Ngombe and visit the project yourself – you will come away a different person, I guarantee it.

A couple of weeks ago, Former U.S. President George Bush was in Zambia with his family and they chose to visit Chikumbuso, so after a phone call from Linda, I packed light and headed out there!

Fortunately the rain held off and it was an enormously festive occasion, with all the widows dressed in their finest and singing traditional songs of welcome. The Bush family were very relaxed and took their time touring the whole place, asked lots of questions and read a story book (written by Mrs. Bush and her daughter Jenna) to the kids. They then spent a very emotional time with the widows of Chikumbuso, listening to their life stories; the struggles and hardship of living with HIV/AIDS in Zambia but also how the availability of ARVs have given them new hope and the chance to fulfill their dreams for themselves and their families.

It is an honour to be a small part of Chikumbuso, and to be there on this special day. Whatever your personal and/or political feelings, the fact remains that every one of the widows in the room that day would likely not be alive, had it not been for the PEPFAR initiative.

Some pictures from the shoot below; see the Chikumbuso website for more:

The organization provides custom designed & manufactured, “Africa” Spec bicycles to people in desperate need. The particular project I was shooting revolved around the provision of bicycles to children in remote rural areas who live too far away from their nearest school to walk to lessons. The bicycles enable them to ride to school and therefore receive the education that they so urgently need.

I met with and interviewed 16 year old Beene, who lives 8km from her school. She would usually only make it to school twice a week as her legs and feet hurt so much after walking the 16km round trip through the bush. She would also have to leave home at 4.am to make it to school by 7.am. Apart from the obvious dangers of a 16 year old girl having to walk this distance in the dark, she would arrive at school exhausted and unable to participate fully in her studies.

Beene had received her new bicycle a couple months before I met her and her life was completely changed. She now rode to school in 40 minutes or less, 5 days a week and loved it! Her grades had improved and she represented the school in their athletics team. She smiled constantly. Not only does the bicycle help Beene, but her family are able to use it to get to the nearest health centre 13km away, and for transporting produce to market. The simple gift of a bicycle has changed the lives of Beene and her whole family as well as thousands of others around the country.

Check out her story on the World Bicycle Relief website here; have a look around and see how you can get involved in this fantastic cause.

Below are a few images from the shoot:

And here is one behind-the-scenes shot of Lameck & I interviewing the village headman on film.

As usual, I took every opportunity to make her suffer in the name of ‘art’, including dunking her in a freezing stream but we got some great images in a few short hours! Check out her website to see more pictures, watch videos of her performing and get info on upcoming gigs.