Last week over on Facebook I was challenged by my friend and legendary photographer (and I do not use that term lightly) John Rowlands to a 5 day challenge – post one B&W photo every day for five days, and nominate 5 other photographers to do the same… I enjoyed the challenge and decided to share what I posted here as well, I hope you enjoy what I came up with.
My first photo was one I shot back in 2004 of an Arbutus Tree on South Pender Island in the Southern Gulf Islands out in B.C. The cool thing about this tree is it is so colourful and it leans out over the road from it’s lone spot with such strength that even through this B&W shot at sunrise on a foggy morning it holds it’s ground and demands your attention… if you look carefully through the fog you’ll see three lines of trees in the distance, but I won’t be surprised if you can’t see the forest for the tree!
My second photo, shot while on assignment in India in 2009, is of Nani or Ba, as they say in Gujarati, taking care of her grandson as his mother attends a class at the SEWA Academy in Ahmedabad, India. I love this photo, there was so much love and pride between these two!
My third photo was of the great B.B. King, shot at a moment where he was having a bit of fun with the audience, what a talent and he strikes me as a very beautiful person! I tried to cover all bases by posting something from the different subjects I enjoy shooting, but music is by far the one I enjoy shooting more than any other! This was shot at Bluesfest in 2013.
My fourth photo was of my beautiful daughter Caitlin, this photo was shot at Petrie Island on May 15th, 2014 while Caitlin and I were out on a photo walk together. Another one of my favourite things to shoot is anything when my daughter and I go out shooting together, no matter where we go, what we are shooting and how much fun it is she always makes it even more fun! We are working on a photography book together called Father Daughter Perspective, that we hope to have finished early next year.
And for my 5th and final photo I came full circle, this one was also taken on South Pender Island in the Southern Gulf Islands out in B.C. in 2004, as was my first photo. This, one of my favourite photos, was taken during a very difficult time in my life when I was away from most of my friends and family, but I was with my Dad and my youngest brother. I recall a bunch of us going down to this rock one summer day to skip stones, the object being to skip one over or onto the big rock… you laugh, but it was achieved! On this foggy day in late November, I went down to the rock by myself… I look at this now and see it as a self portrait, alone yet not alone! I want to write something more about this, but it needs to be something separate from this challenge, something you can choose to read or not to read, for now I’ll just leave you with the song that always goes through my mind when I look at this photo…“I am a rock,
I am an island
And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries”.
And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries”.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these photos for what they are – photos, and for what they are to me – snippets of stories from my life! Thank you to John for the challenge and thank you to those who took up my challenge. If you like the idea of this challenge, enjoy photography and B&W photography in particular, then to keep this challenge alive consider yourself challenged and post 5 black and white shots and challenge 5 others as I did with John’s challenge. I look forward to seeing what you post!
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