{"id":6319,"date":"2019-08-27T19:56:16","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T16:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/?p=6319"},"modified":"2022-07-21T17:22:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T17:22:02","slug":"jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara","status":"publish","type":"avada_portfolio","link":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/","title":{"rendered":"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your name and what do you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My name is Rahim M Kara. I am a content creator with a focus on Photo and Video as a medium of my content creation under my company Megapixels production<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography\nis a form of expression for me. A way in which I tell stories that I feel are\nimportant. I began my life in photography as a child when I used to play with\nmy father\u2019s camera and even since then, I can recall a fondness for working\nwith the medium. It wasn\u2019t too difficult turning my passion in to a career when\nI had the opportunity to begin working full time as a photographer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other skills do you have?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from\nPhotography, my career path led me to Counselling Psychology which I practice\nvoluntarily however apart from Photography, I have a skill set in Computer\nNetworking, Hardware, Web Development, Web Design, Graphic Design and I am an\nAdobe, Apple and Phase One Certified Professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have been in the industry for\nso long, what are the changes you have seen in the photography industry in\nMombasa?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the\nadvent of digital photography, I\u2019ve seen a shift in the industry in our region\nof the country. There have been more and more photographers shifting to digital\nas a medium and there are still photographers shooting on film. So it\u2019s a two\nsided edge at the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mombasa as\nan industry for Photography is interesting compared to a lot of other places.\nUnfortunately, for the moment the ethos in Mombasa is an individual centric\nmentality which has stopped the growth of the community in the area. Instead,\nthere are individuals who are mushrooming in various areas and are growing but\nonly to a certain limit before they themselves are forced to either concede and\nget a 9-5 job to supplement their income or become \u201cglorified paparazzi\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a mindset\nthat we have as creatives in Mombasa unfortunately that is causing us to remain\nsmall as an industry as it causes more harm in the long run to the younger\nphotographers \/ newer photographers who instead of seeing what should be a\nthriving industry, end up finding more failures and are immediately discouraged\nfrom taking it on as a career path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the challenges you have\nfaced? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the\npast 18 years, a lot has happened with respect to building and sustaining my\ncareer in photography \/ cinematography. We began in the time of film\nphotography and 8mm DV Cam tapes so the first challenge at that time was\ninvestments. We had to work consistently and continuously for at least 2 years\nwith our old equipment before we were able to invest in what we thought at the\ntime was good and newer equipment. Without the internet though, we didn’t\nreally have a gauge to meter what we were buying compared to what was available\nin the market at the time. It was more reliance on local vendors. So for at\nleast 5 years, we worked on upgrading our equipment and had to keep up with the\ntrends when the internet came to it’s near fruition with 2G data on our phones.\nBy 2004, we felt we were in a good place to start with our first digital camera\nto test what the systems have and can bring to the table, it was a Fuji Finepix\n2MP camera and we loved it. After that, we purchased our first DSLR which we\nstill own. It was a Canon EOS 400D an 8mp camera. Weddings were suddenly more\nthan just 4 rolls of film, a 4GB card could let us make mistakes and get some\namazing photographs while at it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think\nthere were only 4 photographers at the time shooting weddings on digital and\nthat made the world of difference to some clients. Receiving a DVD instead of a\nprinted set of photos from which to choose and make your own printouts was just\na wonder for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We grew as\nexpected and by 2009, we had 2x5D Mark ii cameras, a 1D Mark ii N, 50D, 350D,\n400D, a hasselblad, 2 large broncolor lights and a plethora of other items in\nour kit that made us “Invincible” or so we thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pride\ncomes before a fall. A saying I now hold very dear to me. In 2010, we were\nrobbed and lost almost 3 Million worth of equipment by my estimate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then\nthough, we’ve bought only what’s necessary and only when we need to. Till then,\nwe’ll work with what we have and it’s been nice working on what we’ve got\nbecause that taught us our equipment’s worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot has\nhappened within these 18 years that can be spoken about but one of the most\nchallenging times was building up from losing all the primary equipment we\nowned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays almost everyone has access\nto devices with which it is possible to take pictures. What do you think is the\ndifference between a professional photographer and any other hobby\nphotographer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d like\nto believe that the term \u201cProfessional photographer\u201d initially sets apart the\nhobbyists by the first point of note being their getting paid to do a job.\nWhile that isn\u2019t the most defining trait, it is an important one. Hobbyists too\nget paid for what they do sometimes, and I don\u2019t want to dismiss them because I\nknow a good number of photographers who enjoy the craft as a part time \/\nretreat from their 9-5 day jobs and are honestly very good at photography but\nchoose to leave it as a side hustle. That I believe would probably be a good\ndefinition for the difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nprofessional to me is someone that takes the craft very seriously and invests\nhis \/ her time, energy and day to day to just that craft. They eat, sleep and\nbreathe just that one craft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they\nare the embodiment of the craft.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mombasa, we still have an issue\nof unemployed youth, what are the steps a youth can do to identify and develop\na skill that they can generate income from themselves? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a\nloaded question and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a straight answer to it. In my\nopinion though, I think there\u2019s room for us as photographers to build our own\nindustry because of this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the\nMombasa Photographers\u2019 association is now a formalized entity, perhaps the\nfirst point of action is an awareness campaign with the county so as to build\nawareness within the local populous that this can be a way of generating\nrevenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they do\nwant to take this up as a career, it would be amazing. And then we can work on\nan education path for the members of the community. This builds personal growth\nas there\u2019s more weddings in Mombasa alone than we as a unit can wave a stick\nat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well\ntrained, well-educated photographers in the craft means that we\u2019ll have more\ndiversity and more work open up for everyone as well as a unified way forward\nfor the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What major campaigns have you\nworked with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One that was very close to me was a campaign against gender based violence which was a group project that was absorbed by the United Nations as well as the MSF that was one of the largest campaigns.\n\nApart from that, over the past two years I\u2019ve been working quite a bit on campaigns with the Aga Khan Development Network ( AKDN ) who are one of the largest NGO’s in the world and have been extremely active in East Africa for over 4 decades. They are easily identified by the Aga Khan Insignia and incorporate the Aga Khan Hospital, the Academies and one that I personally find most intersting, is the Early Childhood Development Madrasa Program, a project that began almost 37 years ago with the Muslim Ummah in Mombasa. The project was initiated to incorporate a balance between the secular and religious sides of education for Muslim youth in Mombasa initiated in as at the time, Muslim children were being marginalised due to the fact that they had almost no primary schooling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is such ideas and projects that increasingly bring me more joy when working with the AKDN 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you see yourself ten years\nfrom now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully\nteaching. I\u2019d like to be able to share as much information as I can as I\nbelieve that is all I can do to help with the industry \/ youth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parting shot.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photography\nas a career is tough. Especially in East Africa where the market has not yet\nmatured. It is unfortunate but it is true. I want to get to a point where we as\nan industry are recognized and are able to bring actual change and development\nto our region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your name and what do you do? My name is Rahim M Kara. I am a content […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6320,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"portfolio_category":[156],"portfolio_skills":[],"portfolio_tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJina langu ni Rahim Kara - Life in Mombasa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara - Life in Mombasa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your name and what do you do? My name is Rahim M Kara. I am a content […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Life in Mombasa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-21T17:22:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_20190207_164911-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/\",\"name\":\"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara - Life in Mombasa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-27T16:56:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-21T17:22:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Portfolio\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/\",\"name\":\"Life in Mombasa\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara - Life in Mombasa","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara - Life in Mombasa","og_description":"Your name and what do you do? My name is Rahim M Kara. I am a content […]","og_url":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/","og_site_name":"Life in Mombasa","article_modified_time":"2022-07-21T17:22:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/IMG_20190207_164911-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/","url":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/","name":"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara - Life in Mombasa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-08-27T16:56:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-21T17:22:02+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/jina-langu-ni-rahim-kara\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Portfolio","item":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/videos\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Jina langu ni Rahim Kara"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/","name":"Life in Mombasa","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/avada_portfolio\/6319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/avada_portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/avada_portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/avada_portfolio\/6319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7065,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/avada_portfolio\/6319\/revisions\/7065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_category?post=6319"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_skills","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_skills?post=6319"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeinmombasa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_tags?post=6319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}