I was visiting some new friends on their farm in Nakuru being a photographer and generally ignoring interacting with people in favor of plants and bunnies when it was brought to my attention that I was in the presence of beauty royalty. Natasha Wangare is the current reigning crowned Miss Corporate World Nakuru. Naturally, being the photographer I am, I forced the poor girl to wake up at 5AM the next day to loiter around the area taking pictures.

I was not fully prepared to take on the duties of a fashion photographer. But armed with Rosalinda (my D3200) and the basic 18-55mm kit lens, I managed to capture some great shots of this Nakuru beauty queen.

Early morning, I find is the best time for fashion photography because the sun hasn’t woken up with a bad attitude yet. So it has that beautiful golden morning glow. It really brings out the yellow in the model’s skin. Unless the model is me with my dark skin tone. In that case it just adds yellow to black.

Having a model willing to do everything from stand on tree stumps to letting a cow lick her hand for 10 minutes just so that I can get a shot does not hurt a photo shoot either. No, seriously, a cow stood up somewhere in the middle of this shoot, walked up to the model, and while she struggled her hardest to maintain her pose, it started licking her hand.

Like I said, we found time to go and sit by the roadside and get some shots as the passer by locals and boda boda riders looked on in surprise. Natasha is a model who is not phased by lookie loos. She maintained composure. Me on the other hand… I was all nervous.

She is definitely a young up and comer with a bright future. I will be proud to say I photographed her way back when.

And of course cows had to feature… It’s Nakuru.

One even wanted in on a main shoot… It was very awkward. Funny… And awkward.