Today we’d like to introduce you to Taha Raja.
Taha, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I started photography in the mid 80’s during my high school. I was fascinated with photography and back then photography was film based and it was an expensive hobby. The equipment, the film and the developing fee was a lot of money. Not to mention when you took a photo you had to rely on your eyes, composition and skill to determine if the photo came out well. No instantaneous feedback.
I used Minolta equipment back then and being that I am a travel buff, the camera came with me and I managed to take a lot of photos then with film. In fact, to this day I still have my slides and negatives (which have now been scanned). Photography has not been my primary livelihood. I paid my bills working as an engineer and a technology expert. I own my own business and the success of that business as allowed me to expand my photography to be also a part time professional travel photo tour leader. I started traveling extensively taking photo tour team to various destinations around the world. But recently I have focused on Africa, specifically East Africa (The Serengeti, Masai Mara, NgoroNgoro). For most photographers, an African Photo Safari is a bucket list trip, it is expensive.
Considering I am from East Africa and was born and raised in Tanzania, and with my photography background, I started Brambleberry Tours which runs photo tours. The company focuses on photo tours at a price that is much more affordable. My goal is to expose and provide photography opportunities to artists to visit these bucket list areas at a price point that is far more affordable and attainable. I make this happen by providing the tours without any significant margin to my customers. My goal is to provide exposure to the area, African wildlife photography and a chance for me to interact and learn from and teach other photographers. And I get to visit Africa every year twice a year! I love to take photos of landscapes, architecture and wildlife. I feel I have a lot more to learn grow and I am hoping to share more of my experience and stories through Brambleberry Tours.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
My artwork focuses on Landscapes, Architecture and Wildlife.
Landscapes – Mostly exotic travel destinations to give a glimpse to those who are not fortunate to visit these areas. In many cases I visit areas that most Americans would probably never travel. It provides a different perspective of those areas.
Architecture – I love architecture, especially old-world middle east and Asian architecture, with focus on religious buildings. Through seeing the architecture, we get a glimpse of the culture and area and a time in the past. It also provides an enlightened view into people not like us. Gives us a positive view of what can be rather than the negative news cycles. I have visited the Middle East and some hot spots where most Americans would shy away from and provided a glimpse of cultures and areas that are rarely seen by the mass public. Examples are Yemen, Ahmadabad, Iraq, Lebanon, etc.
Wildlife – A view into the crown jewel of the greatest animals on earth, the plains of the Serengeti and NgoroNgoro in East Africa. I love this area it is homeland for me. I want as many people to appreciate and experience this. It is the last bastion of a large animal sanctuary. I want people to appreciate and understand this and the urgency to appreciate and preserve it. I have recently also traveled to Alaska and the US National Parks. I have started to take wildlife photos in these special areas like Katmai (Brown Bears and Grizzlies, Yellowstone in Winter, etc.)
Do you think conditions are generally improving for artists? What more can cities and communities do to improve conditions for artists?
Photography has truly transformed itself since going digital. The platform is far more accessible to the mass public. The higher cost film and developing has changed to digital which does not have much of a recurring cost like film. Also, the field has many tools via software that allows the artist to express their vision in many diverse ways which were not possible just a couple of decades ago. The equipment has become better and the range of good equipment including simply phones are producing photos that are superior than the film days.
For some nostalgic artists they are lamenting the death of film and the “good ole days”. For me I see this as an awesome thing. The fact that photography has changed for the better with more tools, the whole market has grown exponentially! Plus, the art form has some technical aspects to it, via the software and electronics involved. This allows those that are left brain inclined to use those tools to express their right brain desires! It’s truly a blend of two worlds.
I personally think photography has evolved to a huge new field and it is continuing to grow and explode inviting new artists with different expression styles to join the field and contribute to the diversity. Finally, the explosion of the internet being ubiquitous in our lives allows artist to reach a wide audience of customers and aficionados. The reach is incredible allowing all of us to discover each other’s talents in this art form easily, globally.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My artwork is available at www.taharaja.com
Contact Info:
- Address: 21427 Sand Bunker Cir Katy TX 77450
- Website: www.taharaja.com, www.brambleberrytours.com
- Phone: 281-606-5252
- Email: taha@taharaja.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theraja/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taha.raja.90
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/taharaja
Image Credit:
All images taken by Taha Raja
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