3 minute read
FROM HOBBY TO FULL-TIME PROFESSION
PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE: PEKELATATE HAINDONGO
Pekelatate Haindongo is a self-taught photographer. He has turned his hobby into a full-time profession that he has been practising for the past three years. While he has no preference in the type of photography he does, Pekelatate feels most comfortable with portrait photography. “I thoroughly enjoy shooting closeups and detailed shots of people’s faces, this is my favourite genre,” he says.
Pekelatate explains that he has always been drawn to the visual arts. Photography is just another medium, apart from doing sketches and comics, in which he can express himself. After dabbling in the art of photography, he quickly realised he could become better at it as well as make a living out of it. As a result, his passion for the medium kept growing the more he worked on it.
“I'd go as far as saying photography is the first thing that I have truly been passionate about, bordering on obsessed. And it has so far been the area of my life where I constantly strive for self-improvement. It drives me and gives me purpose.”
Pekelatate mainly works around Windhoek and at the coast, but he regularly also travels to new destinations for shoots.
He has no preference when it comes to camera bodies and has shot with Canon, Sony and Nikon. He is, however, picky about the type of lens he uses. For his work he prefers a 35mm, f2 lens. “It's versatile, I can get wide shots and also really great close-ups. On most occasions, it's the only lens I carry and use.”
