The day was December 11, 2019. I was about to embark on one of my last daring adventures of an already adventurous year. It had been a while I had driven my Acura MDX to the office and apparently the lack of driving had taken a toll on the battery. The battery was flat and the car would not start. I already knew that a day before and brainstormed on my options knowing that a battery-charger was not feasible considering my location in the outskirts of Lagos. Who would I get to help me out with a car battery as early as 5am in Magboro? The person better be an angel or a friend indeed.

Alas, a friendly neighbor I eventually got. I contacted LB whose residence was just about 600 metres from mine. I can’t remember ever asking him for a favor as seemingly-big as the one I was about to ask. I asked if he would borrow me his car battery to help start my car so I could get to work. He initially was hesitant stating the fact that he would need his car to do his usual morning runs. I assured him that my favor would not interfere with his runs as I would return the battery once my car had started. He agreed.

After fixing his car battery to help jumpstart mine, he removed it to place back in his car. He was a little skeptical regarding the trick I was about to pull off. My car was batteryless because I had given the battery to a charger in my office to help recharge. And the battery slot was empty. Although empty, the car would not give me any issues as long as I did not switch off the engine while enroute to my destination. At least that’s what I thought.

Despite the expression of LB’s reservations, I began my 18km journey from my Magboro residence to my Agidingbi office. I had never driven a car without a battery in it before and this would be akin to the many first-time adventurous risks I had taken in the last decade of my life. The traffic was interestingly disturbing that morning as it took me about 50 minutes to get to my destination. I celebrated myself with N200 sugarcane for achieving what I considered a record.

But the incident got me thinking for weeks. I thought about how difficult it would have been if I had not invested in a friend like LB enough for him to leave his house that early to help me. I thought about how staying within comfortable limits has made some of us not get to our destinations as early as we would want. I thought about how I could have avoided that risky adventure in the first place if only I had paid attention to my car. I thought about how things should be different for my life and business this year.

And so it is with that context that I decided to slash our training fees for our Basic Course in Photography by about 48%. I figured that more people will be able to partake of the knowledge based I’ve acquired for over 15 years in photography and that would be a great way to influence potential angelic friends in tomorrow’s photography industry who will perhaps help me or others one day in their times of need. What best way to use my photography battery to jumpstart other people’s photography careers.

Our 10-days intensive training that goes for N130k now goes for N67,890 for this January set only (don’t ask me how I randomly came up with that discounted fee) . And yes, we’ve re-introduced the weekend program (Saturdays only) for those who don’t want to quit their day jobs yet but want to start their side hustle in the world of photography.

I assure you that at eloPhotos Academy, we’ll help give you the right foundation to help kickstart your journey into the world of photography. A new session starts January 27 for weekday session and January 25 for Saturday sessions and we’ll be admitting only 15 students (between ages 12 and 99) to a class. Send us an email at academy@elophotos.com or give us a call at 08120129149 or 08101590358 for more details.