Lagos is a very interesting city. It is fast, hot and a blend of the very good and very bad. The good sides are the lovely aquatic scenes, the beautiful skylines that dotted the islands and other man-made and natural features found in all parts of the city.
As a photographer, sighting these beautiful phenomena like the early morning sun casting on the lagoon or late evening sun with its orange colors shining on the skyline of Marina pushes one to grab his camera to capture those God-given moments. You may want to take the shots from different angles to ensure that best shots are recorded. But hey, here are folks looking like they forgot their brains at home approaching you and what do they want? Well, they just want you to pay for the shots you are making. Simple.
My first experience was in 2014 in Marina after I barely started street and landscape photography in 2013. It was one beautiful afternoon when I was going to handle a brief I had with one of the Old generational banks. As I was climbing the Marina Bridge to discharge my duty, I started noticing some folks following from afar but pretending to be on their own. One was making calls probably calling his colleagues to join him on top of the bridge and within splits of seconds, here are criminals (Area boys as they are called in Lagos) alighting from different passing commercial buses surrounding me. They told me in plain words that I should pay them N20,000 before I embark on my photo shoot. Since I had not taking one shot at that point, I decided I was not going to make the shot again. I was totally ignorant of what was happening so I never made any preparation whatsoever to protect myself and my equipments. I told them I was quitting that job since I didn't even have up to N1, 000 with me there but when they threatened me and insisted I must make the shots I realized I was not going to gamble with my equipments so I started negotiating with what I had.
For details go to http://philipsakwari.com.ng/2016/02/15/diary-of-a-street-photographer/

That's the life in lagos. I go through it alot as a cinematographer too. Do you do video camera job too, can i reach you?

It's quite pathetic. I realized lagos is a very beautiful city,despite these challenges. Working successfully on site requires a lot of pre-shoot survey and very importantly being street wise as the same approach doesn't always work in all cases/areas.

emsco:
That's the life in lagos. I go through it alot as a cinematographer too. Do you do video camera job too, can i reach you?

Yes, I have a crew that handles the video jobs. We are about to start a series of documentary works. Call Philips on 08094311223 www.philipsakwari.com.ng