Panic!

Camera at the ready. I press the button and I wait to hear the sweet crisp noise of the shutter. Instead, I get nothing, but the camera telling me it's finding it hard to focus. Suddenly a feeling of disappointment, anger and nerves hit  me. For a brief second, I have no idea what to do, and think of calling it a night, packing my things and going home.

It's my first time photographing an event like this, and my worst fears has come true at the very beginning. I take a deep breath, and try again, and press the shutter button as hard as I can. Yet again, my camera does nothing. I check my settings, and I've made my aperture as low as it can go, and my shutter speed slow enough to let the ambient light in, but quick enough to prevent motion blur.  My ISO is at 800. I crank it up to 1600 the highest my ISO can go on my camera, then I press the shutter button again.

It clicks. I check the back of my camera to see the picture, not great, but not too bad either. I refocus, and lock my focus using manual focus and change position slightly, taking as many photos as I can before the subjects moves and I'm out of focus again. I check my images and I'm happy with them. Immediately after DJ drops a heavy beat, the crowd goes wild and hands are in the air, I quickly get my camera to capture the moment. I look at the crowd and their excited energy has me shuffling my feet to the beat. The brief panic at the beginning has all gone away.

(All photos can be viewed on Ohana Magazine's Facebook Page)

Angela xx

I quit the gym

If you know me very well, you know I love exercising. I get excited when I go the gym, there's no feeling that can beat a good  high from a tough workout after a stressful day. However after reading True Riches by Jeff Lestz I got re-thinking about how much it costs me and where else that money could go. True Riches is about godly finances and how we can manage our finances in a better way to serve others. Lestz mentions that we should be better stewards of our money, and use it in a way that enriches lives around us. The thing is before reading this, I got a call from a charity which I donated to a while ago, asking if I wanted to donate money on a monthly basis. I politely declined because I felt I had enough expenditures going out each month,. After reading True Riches I analysed my finances to see what good I do with my money. I realised I do very little.

I already had an excuse lined up for this though. If I had more money I would give. Ha! Oh how we are easily tricked by the devil. Thank God for His revelation. What a person does with little money, he will also do with a lot. If I am not charitable with my money now, why would I be in the future? I will find another excuse to not give as much as I can give such as "I have a lot more expenses now", "the timing not right"...

So upon this new revelation I realised I can exercise for free, a jog in a park costs nothing. (Maybe I might start training for that 10K I've been telling myself to do) The money I save at the gym can be used to help a child get access to education or give a family a home. How much more good is that!

It took me a while to realise this simple revelation. For those who are thinking about giving, think about what you can do to save money and for those who do give, keep on giving!

Angela xx

Hazel Mak

It's been a while! Well I had the great opportunity to photograph Hazel Mak, an award winning Malawian afrobeat artist. Hazel based in the UK she has been able to take the Malawian music industry by storm and has produced great music which has left other Malawian artists catching up with her success.

Hazel is also an inspiring woman who believes very much in womans rights in her country, in a recent interview she said "The way I see it, as a female musician you are simply underrated just because you are a woman and you’re judged based on narrow-minded caveman-like stereotypes, which I honestly find ridiculous! I think girls need to be raised to be go getters and women should believe that they can achieve anything; that marriage isn’t the only thing they should aim for and that’s what I want to promote, that’s who I am!"