May | 2012 | LGold Belle Photographie

It happened that I went to Oniru beach for a get-together with friends exactly a day before St Valentine’s day (13th Feb. 2011)last year. It was a beautiful sunny sunday afternoon.

We got to the beach some hours before sunset & for the first time I was privileged to see the beauty of the sun while going to bed.

Guess what! I swung into action as I tried to take a picture with my Camera (my ever faithful & loyal companion) 🙂

After several trials in a bid to focus properly, I took this awesome picture below (pictures include before & after editing). How I love photography!!! 😉

Isn’t it a beauty? What do you think? 😉

sunset oniru

sunset oniru 2

Ping! Ping!! Thats my blackberry vibrating. “Biola! We need to see o, let me know when you are home”. this message was from my beautiful friend, Yemisi Sanya, MD/CEO Misorge Kiddies. She had a party planning job for a lebanese client & would like me to meet her for discussion on Photography. Immediately I got home I started dialing Yemisi’s number whilst climbing the stairs, I couldn’t wait to see her. LƠ̴̴͡.̮Ơ̴̴͡L This was my introduction into the world of my wonderful & interestings peeps from Lebanon residing in our obodo Nigeria. 🙂

My first meeting didn’t go well as planned. I had to strain my ears to listen, understand & respond to my would-be Client. Yemisi had to do a lot of interpretation as I struggled to communicate in broken or semi-pidgin english. Our conversation included statements like “E goodt like that”,”E go come tomorrow evening” “what you bring for me” etc. 🙂

It didnt take me long to find out that my Lebanese friends have also been infected with the spirit of bargaining, its just that they are not as experienced as Nigerians, theirs is not in-born. I learnt this lesson after my first encounter now I am smarter. 🙂
With bargaining concluded, I get a percentage of my fee upfront without even asking. You can imagine my excitement LƠ̴̴͡.̮Ơ̴̴͡L, I was super motivated. 🙂

Yipeeee!!! The big day is here! The day scheduled for the event usually begins with severals calls from these hyper active clients of mine, not because am running late for the event but its usually because they are so super excited that the day is finally here & can’t wait to get their groove on.

My job as the photographer for the event starts once I step into the venue (this is usually about an hour before the event is scheduled to start). I am taken on a tour by my client afterwhich they take their time to pose for lovely family photos.

The party is in full swing, with other Lebanese families in attendance. One thing I found amazing is that every single invitee came in with a gift & they were right on time. Well, I guess since they are from Lebanon, “african time” is non-existent in their dictionary. This is quite impressive. 😉

On the day of delivery, I get at least three calls at different times from my Lebanese client, this is because they are excited & can’t wait to see the pictures. On seeing them, they start to dance & sing(in their language) with smiles on their faces. It gives me great joy to see them express utmost satisfaction with statements like “Me I love am” “I will call you for all my parties”. I leave their homes with a big smile on my face not only because they satisfied with the job but because I will be smiling to my bank as well. 😉

I have really learnt a lot working with these wonderful people from Lebanon. They are family oriented, fun loving, caring, friendly/accomodating & also people of integrity. Another Language I will like to learn is Lebanese, this will aid effective communication between us especially now that they have fallen in love with me & my Nikon D5000 camera. And seriously I wouldn’t mind getting married to a Lebanese…LƠ̴̴͡.̮Ơ̴̴͡L Can you picture me as a wife of a Lebanese?