In planning our South x Southeast/Aret Enkera Safaris, we wanted to offer our participants an unusual adventure where they would not only have a magnificent experience on Safari and see an abundance of fabulous large game, but we wanted them to experience Kenya and its real people.
I was not expecting to have such a mixed group on our workshop but it turned out so well, We had writers, as well as seasoned and beginning photographers. In our well designed Land Cruisers, each person has full access to both side of the vehicle. Using top guides and drivers, who regularly work with photographers, everyone had a chance to ride where they wanted and work one-on-one with the driver to get what they wanted out of the game drives. Our time in the Maasai Mara and Mara North Conservancy was wild, mind blowing and so much fun.
We arrived at Lentorre Lodge by charter flight and no one was disappointed in the beautiful and unique lodge and the best in country, and probably Africa, enclosed night hide where we saw nonstop visitors to the pond throughout the night in need of a drink, as it had not rained in the area in months. Literally, herds of zebra came to drink, and up to 6 giraffes at a time, leopards, so many kinds of cats, antelope, birds and porcupines. One of our most unusual sightings was a huge porcupine and Leopard drinking water at the hide at the same time. Everyone learned quickly how to take great photographs in the hide and all were thrilled with these photographs.
Hanging out during the day at the Lodge after a night in the hide, or venturing in to the near by village, or on a Maasai boma (homestead) to photographs cows and people, each day was unique and filled with unique photo ops. The food was great too.
Back in Nairobi, it was thrilling for me to get to take the team to my project, The Orbit Village, and let them meet the fabulous kids at the school, and children’s home. The kids sang and preformed, and our workshop teams loved hanging with the with kids, playing basketball, taking photos, or just letting them ask questions about their lives.
Knowing that the team had contributed to purchasing 28 mattresses, 40 school desks and chairs, and many textbooks, meant a great deal to the team and was so appreciated by the project.
I loved leading the workshop and sharing my slice of Kenya with the participants. I’m looking forward to the next one in September.
-Cyndy Waters
Cyndy grew up in Sevierville, TN, and was completely into photography at a very early age. She was the yearbook and newspaper photographer in high school and had a weekly column, “I’ll Just Tell You” and sports page for the Sevier County News Record and Mountain Press.
A 1977 graduate of the Art Institute Of Atlanta, Cyndy’s early work included being a photographer for the state of Tennessee official photographer for the 1982 World’s Fair. With a great list of references from the Fair in 1983, Cyndy moved to Washington, DC. She operated Paine & Waters Photography specializing in political PR on Capitol Hill. She has photographed 5 U.S. presidents. While photographing the opening of Dolly Parton’s Dollywood’s in 1986, Cyndy met a Los Angeles film crew, Johnson/Klein Productions. They invited her to join their production company. She made the move and enjoyed 6 years of working in LA. She photographed many of the people from the “Woodstock Generation” such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Whoopie Goldberg, and many other celebs. She also shot stills and video for the cable show Biography.
Photographing children was always her passion and she often photographed children in challenging situations, using her images to expose their needs. Cyndy traveled to Nairobi, Kenya on a spiritual journey in 1995. She was overwhelmed by the lack of education, food, spiritual guidance and physical care many women and children faced. This caused her to step out from behind her camera and develop the Orbit Village Project, Inc. Today, the project is quite large and feeds, cares for, and educates approximately five hundred children and youth, and focuses on helping hundreds of families survive and rebuild from a broken generation. For the past 28 years, she has grown and run this project which includes a school and children’s home, a bag and basket making project for women, a drug and alcohol rehab group and 3 churches.
In 2018, Cyndy started taking time to travel and camp again throughout the USA and various other countries focusing on landscape photography. Her award-winning work has been published and shown in galleries.
She developed Aret Enkera Safaris, Helping Children Safaris, to take photographers and small groups on safari in Kenya exposing them to both the incredible wildlife and amazing people of East Africa.
She has 3 grown children Muteyi, Nangesian, and Judy, and recently became a grandmother to Emmanuel. She is also “Mother” to many in Kenya.
Cyndy’s work from Africa has recently been published in FAWCO’s Inspiring Women Online Magazine fall of 2020. She was featured as one of 16 American women photographers working around the world.
Along with regularly having images hung on the walls of the SxSE Gallery, in Molena, GA, SxSE published Cyndy’s work in an Article The Land Of The Maasai, in the Dec-Jan 2022 Issue of SxSE Photomagazine.
She was featured in Volumes 1, 2 & 4 of the book series How I Created This, A Celebration of Images From The Road in 2021. One of her images was used as a cover shot.
Email: cyndybwaters@mac.com
Webpage: cyndybwaters.smugmug.com & OrbitVillage.org
Facebook: Cyndy B Waters & The Orbit Village Project
Instagram: CyndyBWatersPhotographer, AretEnkeraSafaris & Orbit Village Project
