Congratulations on surviving 2020, now lets thrive.

If you are still in business and managing to pay the bills, well done, that took guts and determination and a whole lot of luck. When I started “Lockdown 21” as it was called in the beginning, I wanted to provide a space that would provide motivation and inspiration to the photographers like myself that had lost all the work for the foreseeable future.
How could we know that those initial 21 days would extend for the rest of the year and beyond…

3181 members, 13 525 posts, 39 485 comments & 284 309 reactions

I am humbled and incredibly grateful to the photographers that joined the Facebook group and participated in this great adventure. As this moment, we have 3181 members who have contributed 13 525 posts, commented 39 485 times and provided 284 309 reactions to those posts. This is an amazing group, a huge congratulations to you all.
On the Youtube channel where we have about 80 hours of photographer presentations with 17 777 views and 483 subscribers. For a niche group like this, I am really proud of what we have achieved.

The website

The most recent addition has been the formalisation of the Hunters of Light platform. We have created a website that provides an online store for merchandise, as well as training from other photographers, articles, product reviews, tutorials, forums, photo of the week, the list, goes on. We even have some great contributors to help your photography from a business point of view.

There is an option to join using the free option or a paid membership of R60 a month. At this stage, there is a lot of free content and the paid members get access to additional discussion forums, all the tutorials as well as Q&A’s. This will all be added to going forward.

Educate, motivate and inspire

This initiative has always been to help educate, motivate and inspire YOU, this is your platform so please consider joining AND let me know what you would like added.
Take part in the discussion forums, request tutorials, request a masterclass – I am here to help you get the most out of the initiative and improve your photography skills as well as your photography business.

What this year has taught me is that there are a lot of incredibly talented people out there and as talented as they are, they were willing to share their knowledge and skills with the rest of the photography community.

Thank you Canon SA

I would also like to thank Canon South Africa for all the support and content they have provided. It is not an easy decision to put resources towards a project like this and thank goodness Canon SA has been there for the Hunters of Light. Canon SA and Roger Machin have been there from day 1 (ok, probably day 3…) and their support for the photographers in the group has been epic. This is not a Canon group, all brands are welcome and my hope is that in 2021 we are able to add more brands to bring more amazing content to the members of the group. Nikon, Sony Africa, Sony Alpha SA, Fuji Film SA, Godox SA, Godox Global, Sigma SA, Elinchrom SA to name but a few.

I would love to see how we can collaborate to benefit the photography industry in South Africa and improve all our skills so that we can run successful photography businesses, charge more professionally and earn a decent living doing what we love.

I would like to thank each and every contributor from the bottom of my heart for your efforts. From liking posts to providing content and for those who presented their work on the live streams – amazing.
Words cannot express how much you motivated and inspired me and I know that this initiative has helped many of the members through this terrible year.

I wish you all the best for 2021, may you have incredible resilience (I think we will need it) and fantastic success (I know we all deserve it).

My wish list for 2021:

• Every photographer is working again as soon as possible (Me included).
• Your businesses not only survive but thrive.
• More photography related brands come on board to benefit the photography community.
• We can add more contributors to the Hunters of Light team.
• We can start adding more photographer presentations, Q&A’s, etc.
• We can add value to every single photographer and photography business in the industry. (Yes, it is a huge wish, but why not. IF you have suggestions, send them my way).

Thank you for being a part of this journey, I hope to spend another amazing year with all of you talking about photography, finding talented people and showcasing their work, creating content and just being motivated and inspired to create art.

Much love and stay safe in 2021.

Q

These are just a few of my favourite images you posted during 2020.