If you ever caught me sharing about my photography journey, one thing/place that's sure to be a part of my story is Uyo, Nigeria. Uyo was the bedrock upon which my photography career started and blossomed. So it's a place that I hold dearly to my heart. I left Uyo in 2019 after I completed my national youth service program. However, every year after that I've had reasons to visit there. Either by virtue of work, or holiday.
This year, I have traveled to Uyo on three different occasions(for work). One thing that's certain when I visit Uyo is that I must create photos. There's an abundance of greenery and nature in Uyo that I can't help not to create. And I did a photoshoot with Vera during one of my trips to Uyo this year. I did it in one of my favorite locations in the state; the Unity Park often called "Love Garden".
Vera(now my friend) is one of the models I'm able to create photos with whenever I'm in Uyo. She always seems ready to work or engage when I ask to do a shoot with her. And she can be spontaneous too. For this last shoot with her, I had not planned anything. And I didn't plan anything because my stay was to be very short and limited. But on the day, I arrived in Uyo, I felt the need to create and reached out to her for a shoot and she obliged.
Since the shoot was spontaneous, it didn't have to be anything serious. After a few hours of deliberations on the choice of outfit, we arrived at the location for the shoot. It was starting to get late when we arrived so we didn't have the leisure of scouting for great areas to shoot(The park is really big). As we pondered on what to do, I looked and saw that the sky had started to glow and golden rays had started to form. It was golden hour and that gave me a fresh set of ideas and we created golden hour photos.
I totally enjoyed creating this. I had nostalgia and reminisced on old times as a beginner photographer chasing sunsets and golden hour. Very "killed" the photoshoot with her charm and charisma too. Switching between moods and characters. We had such an amazing time and I'm looking forward to my next Uyo trip.