Life in the wild
We catch up with Wild Shots Outreach, a charity helping young South Africans access their wildlife heritage and learn new skills
Ilive in South Africa where young black people are excluded from Kruger National Park and other local reserves for several reasons, the expensive
costs of access being the
main one. This means that local communities generally aren’t aware of career opportunities in conservation and wildlife tourism. Wildlife makes up around 10 per cent of South Africa’s GDP.
Our main goal at Wild Shots Outreach is to introduce local young black people to the wildlife right on their doorstep. By providing access, training and photography equipment, we want to help the participants appreciate the beauty and value of their natural heritage. Canon’s support in incorporating the project into its Young People Programme and providing equipment was vital in helping to scale up the initiative and reach more people.
Joia Mcunu from Acorns to Oaks Secondary School had this to say, “It taught me a lot about the wild. Africa’s wild places are beautiful and I hope we can keep them that way.”
The sessions help them to learn more about the wildlife, and the photography skills to capture the animals and articulate their own stories around what it means to them. Wild Shots Outreach couldn’t operate without support from funders, donors, and game reserves like Thornybush, plus help with transport from Buya Buya Travel.
We start each day by highlighting the student’s best images from the day before, which is effective in building the students’ confidence. For the exhibitions of student
shots, we use Lightroom and Photoshop to create quality prints. We’ve now done 72 courses and seen over 600 students take up the chance to learn more about photography and conservation. Five of my top students are now using Lightroom and Photoshop to a good level, giving them the chance to use these skills for employment. Three of them are now employed as Conservation South Africa’s media team. We also have graduates of the programme working at lodges and a young lady working as a safari guide.
At the end of one workshop a student approached me and took my sunburnt arm and said, “See your skin, Mr Mike? English skin ISO1600 – very sensitive to light. See my skin, Mr Mike? Beautiful black skin ISO100 – not so sensitive to light!” I’ve been using that to explain ISO ever since!
We’ve now done 72 courses and seen over 600 students take up the chance to learn more about photography