To market their firm, Ben Kiruthi and Gathoni Mwathi paid a high price; taking photographs for
Ben Kiruthi has earned the right to take home Sh450,000 or more every month from photography.
Mr Kiruthi is a wedding photographer. Under his company, Faithful Frames, he owns cameras worth over Sh1 million because, above all else, the quality of his work and customer satisfaction are his key selling points.
The soft-spoken photographer describes his entrepreneurial journey as “extremely laughable”.
He narrates: “In 2010, I had a Nokia 5230 phone that I would use to take photos of my girlfriend and our church members and post them on Facebook. Then one day a woman sent me a message on Facebook asking how much I charged for a photo-shoot”.
This enquiry made him realise that his art was bigger than the job he had at Telkom, earning Sh50,000 a month.
“I resigned from my work and focused my all on photography,” he says.
Enthusiastic and without a clue how a photography business is run, he registered his firm, Faithful Frames, which he co-owns with Ms Gathoni Mwathi, his girlfriend.
Then he bought his first photography equipment. But like any other venture, the early stages were characterised by financial problems.
“We were not known, there was no business coming in,” he says.
To get more visible, the duo took a bold step: “We decided to take photos at weddings, engagement parties, and studio portraits pro bono for six months”.
BOOKED IN ADVANCE
After six months of free labour, business picked up. And today, they are booked for weddings even a year in advance.
He charges Sh150,000 for a full wedding shoot. On the material day, he and Ms Mwathi split work. “Ms Mwathi normally goes to the groom’s crib and I follow the bride to capture the preparation.”
In the wedding, he says, he captures the activities that are in the programme while his colleague picks the involuntary emotional reactions of the guests as the function goes on.
Mr Kiruthi is aware that photographers are still not regarded as professionals in Kenya and cushions himself against being short-changed.
The fee is paid in three instalments; half during booking, the other half divided in two, one paid during the wedding and the final one when the customer picks up the album.
He has learnt the hard way about his work being disrespected: “One day, we travelled to Rwanda at our own expense after the customer promised to pay when we got there… we have never got a cent to date,” says Mr Kiruthi, who holds a Master’s degree in entrepreneurship.
Other hiccups include losing his equipment on the day of shoot and getting an accident just a few days to the wedding.
His work, he has come to learn, is also emotionally draining. “I shot the wedding of a lovely couple who went on honeymoon and when they came back, they had broken up and did not want the photos anymore because it was over between them,” he recalls.
His blog was ranked top 100 by Google as one of the most visited sites in East Africa last year, while his Facebook page has over 20,000 followers.
Ms Mwathi, who is yet to sit her final exams for her undergraduate degree, was nominated under the category of young photographer in the Kenya photography awards 2013.
FREE MENTORING
The two go round the country offering free photography workshops.
“We have conducted these workshops for a year now and we are glad, there are youngsters who are now a competition to us because they learnt something from us,” he says.
Source: nation.co.ke
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