Business & Tech
Rye Camera Plans Birthday Trip To Ethiopia
The store is teaming up with a photo tour company to plan a trip to Africa in September.
To celebrate its 65th anniversary, the is heading to Ethiopia, and they want you to join them.
The camera shop, which turns 65 this year, and Epic Photo Tours have organized an 11-day trip in September to the Omo Valley, Ethiopia. The trip will be led by Herb Leventon, chief explorer for Epic, and Newsweek photographer John Rizzo. Anja Porto, who owns the store along with her husband, said she thinks about 10-12 people would make for a good-sized group.
“It’s going to be really one-on-one instructional,” she said. “Everyday John is hopefully going to go over someone’s photos with them. It’ll be a great way to take pictures out in the world. John is a great photographer who can make any picture he takes look like it was somehow shot in a studio.”
The group will go to a different tribe each day to take pictures, Porto said, the tour company sets up the travel plans with tribes who are aware they’re coming and are welcoming.
“A lot of people in tribes love to have their pictures taken,” Porto said. “But not only that, they like to see and learn about us as well. They don’t get many westerners over there.”
In March the store held an open house to talk about the trip, which goes from Sept. 10-21st, and they plan on holding another sometime in May or early June.
The shop has a video up on Youtube where Leventon and Rizzo talk about the trip in more detail. In the video Leventon says the trip is $4,900 and all-inclusive, except for airfare.
The store is hoping to further its relationship with Rizzo in the coming months by offering workshops where he will lead a group out on 2-3 hour trips to take photos. Porto said she’s not sure when the workshops would being or how much they would cost just yet, but it’s something she hopes will happen sometime in June.
“They’ll go take photos places like the Marshlands or Playland,” she said. “John will then go over the photos and show people how to crop and really edit their photos properly.”
Porto said anyone interested in the trip can contact the store by calling 914-967-2164 or emailing anja@ryecamera.com.
