The world-renowned Accra International Marathon happened the end of last month (Saturday September 29th, to be precise) and my co-host Double A and I got to interview the founder and organizer Ekua Bannerman-Richter of the annual Accra International Marathon on our MPwr radio show.

I participated in ETV/Japan Motors corporate run days earlier, so I opted to  support friends and loved-ones who participated in this marathon, and yes, get a few pictures of what ensued. Everyone who participated, from corporate teams, individual runners in the women & youth sections, was a winner. Shout out to Ekua Bannerman-Richter & her team for a superb job well done, with participants coming from across the world to participate. More pictures here: AIM pictures

Apparently there's never a shortage of naming ceremonies in our community and I'm always ecstatic to photograph happy families with happy babies.

This time though, I was wondering what the new baby's peers thought of the whole ceremony and his/her arrival. Go ahead, you may leave alternate captions for each picture in the comment box, trust me its fun!


First gift.


'The Star' baby Eldrick



Caption #1 Miss I-Got-My-Own-Bread


Caption #2 Lady 'Say What?'


Caption #3 Miss Too-Cute-For-TV


The proud parents and friends.

Earlier on in the month, my frat brother who works for the Tulsa Shock reserved tickets for the Shock/Mystics game at the Convention Center in DC. Jumping on the opportunity to fellowship with Gator alumn, I was more excited about the stories to share post-undergrad than the WNBA basketball game....and then it happened. Outside the Convention Center word spread that President Obama and his youngest daughter, Malia would be in attendance!

My priorities changed as I wanted to get my first one-on-one opportunity shoot (ahem a picture of) the president of Kenyan (and Hawaiian) origin. Realizing how far away from the court side my seat was and how ill-equipped I was to get decent pictures, I grudgingly took out my camera in hopes of getting any pictures of him to share with you all.



The Mystic mascot mistakenly shook hands with almost everyone on the first row except Malia, and was quickly reminded by the audience to go back and greet the Commander and Chief and his daughter.



Possibly one of the more famous back-of-the-heads ever photographed. I was envious of how close buddy had gotten to the prez.



The decent 'money shot' of the day and I'll explain why in a bit.



Just before this picture, I froze...sigh. I was close enough to President Obama and he seemed to stretch out his hand toward me! So instead of taking possibly my rendition of the HOPE poster picture of my own. I ended up with another pass-me-by picture.

Now if that isn't the presidential effect, I don't know what is. I couldn't beat myself down for too long though, at least I got a handshake from the most powerful man in the world. What did you do that was awesome this month?

The Ghanaian equivalent to Teddy P or Luther Vandross, Kojo Antwi is our multi-award winning romantic songs crooner who I grew up listening to.



One of the opening acts, Koby Maxwell...a local artist in the DMV.



Papa Shee was another opening act, and surprisingly introduced Mzbel who was in attendance.



Though the venue was trash & the sounds men were disappointing, Kojo Antwi did his thing. For an extensive review of the concert, you should read my man MIghTy African's blog post.

Prior to the world cup in South Africa, there were a few events that took over my life and this is one of them. Kojo, my home boy from my old church, had a fashion show at Tabaq Bistro in DC. I was on the p's and q's (always wanted to use that term), ahem on the photography.



This picture actually captures the night: volunteers for models donning Kojo's Citizins label and DJ's that coupled as dancers whenever they had the chance. To check out more of Kojo's stuff click here.


My favorite shirt of the night (left) and fans of Citizins clothing were in attendance.


Of course, nothing will truly be Ghanaian if there isn't an ingenious way of getting stuff done. Case in point: observe her excellent proficiency in using headphones - not a microphone - in announcing the beginning of the fashion show segment of the evening. Adds a whole new meaning to improv....

So I had a chance to take pictures at my first baby naming ceremony. Not to be outdone by any subsequent ones, I gladly jumped on the opportunity to photograph my favorite triplets! I took a family picture of the kids a few weeks back and even discovered my little muse. [insert chuckle here]

To my amusement the siblings, names listed in the top picture, have quite the personality of their own. Though generally well-behaved, I can't wait to see what they would be like over the coming years as teenagers and young adults - very alike and yet incredibly different.



Janelle is the first of the three: Athos, if you will



John Jr. bka Porthos



Josh, ahem Aramis

And lastly their older sister, who for comparison sake may play the role of D'Artagnan.



Congrats again to the family...they sure make an awesome team.

I had the opportunity to take pictures at a spot in Old Town, VA, known as Carafe, two weeks ago, And I look forward to frequenting in the future. The atmosphere is fantastic and the opportunity to 'create your own wine' is a convincing sell for a chill, what I usually call 'civilized', occasion or an all out date. Nana Phubu, a dude I met at a Christmas eve party last year, was hosting his birthday party at the venue and though a handful of people showed up at the very last hour, finding this gem in Virginia, made the trip more than worthwhile.

With help from awesome people in Australia, I have a website that allows me to edit and upload pictures as well as tweak the structure and background with relative ease. By creating these large jpeg images in Photoshop CS3 I figured I would exercise my creative juices by creating a new image every month to reflect the majority of shoots for the month. And May's theme is 'Graduating Season'. You can find Jan-May backgrounds here.

Towards the end of the year, I'll create a backgrounds album, if you will, hopefully that will give you a snapshot of what my past year in terms of photography was like.

I got a chance to take pictures of Kofi & Crown Glory, an award winning gospel group a few weeks back. It was a challenging shoot that started off at a church in Maryland



The video production team, Motion Media, was completely in control of the lighting and I had to improvise as much as possible to compensate. I'm grateful the D80 is pretty decent with low light, wont complain when I can upgrade to a full body D3 series...sigh



We left the church and changed venues to the National Harbor....that's when Kofi and the crew had the most fun. I was cracking up when I found out from Kofi himself, that his style(crown belt, shades, swagger and dances) was apparently borrowed from his 4 year old son.

Last Friday night, I got hopelessly lost on foot by 8th N.E. and Connecticut in DC. I was on my way to an Africare colleague's birthday party.

Fuming and cursing myself for having the knack for wandering around in unfamiliar neighborhoods, even with Google maps on my phone...I suddenly realized I was walking side by side with a TV personality. Stuttering and gladly holding myself in check... I quickly introduce myself ...star-struck while instinctively reaching my back-pack for the D80.

Here I am with Donna Brazile, a friend and her dog Chip - who happens to love posing for my camera- and I start my schpeel about working with Africare ('cos of my t-shirt), being from Ghana and to my amazement Donna shares how 'Ghanaian' she is and how she loves my country! She recounts here visits to Aburi and is gracious enough in allowing me to photograph her and Chip for a blog post.

Now, I look forward to hearing her counter-argue conservative points on CNN, all the while remembering her parting words "...I'm from Ghana too."

I did my first 'family call' in-house photo session last weekend. An old friend had triplets and I was asked to come by for a photo session.



Besides finding my little model muse, I got a chance to capture my first set of triplets ever! The boys all looked in their dad's direction as if to ask: "Louis, what you talmbout?"

This picture was taken at a wedding a while back, found it in my stash and it reflects my mood today.
I'm excited and passionate about a lot of things, most I do out of my free will and I offer my time and services...well, for free. It's frustrating when it is not appreciated, or worse yet, even acknowledged. Makes every statement afterward seem like it is, to borrow a South Florida term, "coming from the side of yo' neck." Leads to that: Yea...whateva look.

This is my second attempt at a flyer. This concept was based more on model (in studio expressions) than my previous one. I hope I'm getting better at this.

So my homeboy Eddie Ekuban signed up for an Art Expo at the Gaylord, National Harbor and encouraged me to showcase some of my photography with his. Instead of using traditional shots I normally take, I explored something completely different.

I made sand creations from Adinkra Symbols and photographed them especially for the expo. It was therapeutic and invigorating to actually create something and have people appreciate my novelty work.

So I got to take pictures of Fashion X in Gainesville when I was last there to judge the step show, late February. Shout out to the FX crew, as I was a model myself my junior year. A lot of tedious work and commitment goes into putting on the annual show-from the coordinators, models, to the DJ and hosts. Props to BSU and this year's director, Liana, for a good job well done.

Emmanuel and Jackie are one of my favorite couples in the Washington Metro area. Before their wedding shoot they wanted to get a couples photo shoot and as it was still cold outside, I invited them to the studio.



Their chemistry in front of the camera was an obvious testament to the strong emotions they share. I've been invited to photograph their wedding as well...It is safe to say that Emmanuel was successful in sweeping Jackie completely off her feet!