Kimona’s Black & White Challenge

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Guest Blog by Kimona Wickham

I’m not sure who started the black and white photo challenge but, like anything on the internet, it is how you contribute that makes the game bigger than before. A friend of mine received the challenge, who in turn also gave me the challenge, where I as well gave it to others and, as you guessed it, it expanded soon after that. The challenge is simple enough, you get five days to show black and white photographs. Whether original or appreciative pieces, you are restricted to one photo per day.

Day 1 Subject

Day 1 Subject

For each photo you show, you must tag a new friend to continue the challenge. Since the rules are that simple, interpretation can be more than complex. I can’t tell you if you’re allowed photos only taken on the day, month or year or you’re allowed time to conceptualize your idea and simply share these photos base on the timeline. My rule of thumb, at the end of the day, is be original and use the best method that shows that.

The beginning
So I chose the latter of the two. I’m definitely a person that needs to plan ideas ahead. Though to be perfectly honest, it’s always in good practice to strategize your idea before time, even if the idea seems minuscule at first. This practice saves you time from resolving issues on your shoot day and allowing you more opportune time to experiment with the elements around you.
I knew the challenge could be anything I put my mind to and I wanted it to be meaningful, especially for the person that gave me the challenge. Most of my ideas came to fruit because someone was by me as a driving force. That too is an element that can drive my shoots, the motivation to do more than just for myself.

The concept

The main focus for my photos had been to show plants in the closest and most intimate light. To see if the curves of a plant could recreate the swells of a human body. I may have the artist’s curse and view a few my photos as not quite reaching the same concept I had in mind, but by doing all my photos in black and white I was able to show detail in all the subjects themselves. Colour photographs are immediately pleasing to the eyes, but black and whites can bring the most honest of stories.

Day 2

Day 2

Day 3

Day 3

As I snapped each photograph, I saw the importance of getting physically closer to show detail. I found that the closer I got, the more implied the curves of a leaf could be; that features such as details and angles are just as important as focus and framing. At the end of everything, I had batches of photographs of plants in my garden, with one more idea to bridge the gap between plants and body.

 

Conclusion

I hope at the end the concept takes shape in the eyes of the viewer, but if not this challenge sparks interest in others to go and shoot. Just get out and bring your vision to life.

 

Day 4

Day 4

Day 5

Day 5

Kimona Wickham is a visual communicator with a BA. in Communication Arts and Technology from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). A creative with a passion for changing the way people “see”, Kimona applies the skills she earned at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) and sharpened during her time at UTech with voracity.

Follow her: @WickKim

Jamaica Tallawahs Shine at Sabina

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The Jamaica Tallawahs cricket team won all their home games in the Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 (CPLT20) cricket competition at Sabina Park in Kingston on the weekend.

Thursday’s match against the Antigua Hawksbills proved to be an easy romp to victory with captain Chris Gayle scoring a blistering 59 off 36 balls to lead the Tallawahs to 91-3 to overhaul the Hawksbills’  89-9 to win by six wickets. Jerome Taylor was the man of the match for his figures of 4/18. On Saturday the opposition was the Guyana Amazon Warriors and they fought to the last ball of Jamaica’s innings when man of the match Andre Russell scored a six to take the Tallawahs to victory. Scores were the Amazon Warriors 137/9 and Tallawahs to 138/4, with Russell scoring an undefeated 58 not out. Sunday’s match saw the Tallawahs batting first and made 147/8 with top scores from Owais Shah (42) and Chris Gayle (39). In spite of Shoaib Malik’s top score for the Barbados Tridents of 81 off 43 balls, Jerome Taylor’s second man of the match performance of 2/11 from four overs restricted the Barbados Tridents to 128/6.

Fires in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains

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All of Jamaica is now affected by a severe drought – both on the coastal plains and in the mountainous interior. The Minister of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, Robert Pickersgill recently stated, “the amount of rainfall received island-wide, fell below the 30 year average for what is normal at this time of year”. With this lack of rainfall and the resulting water shortages, you would think that Jamaicans would be careful about doing things such as setting fires. However, in my neck of the woods in the Blue Mountains, this is not the case.

Firemen extinguish a bush fire ignited by garbage fire in Cascade, Portland in the Blue Mountains on July 5 2014.

Firemen extinguish a bush fire ignited by garbage fire in Cascade, Portland in the Blue Mountains on July 5.

Two weeks ago I was alerted by the sounds of exploding bamboo and panicked shouting. When I went to the back of the house, thick smoke billowed from the bamboo groves that separated my house from the church above. Apparently, after a function in the morning, garbage was set on fire in a rusted,  half-burned out metal drum and left to burn itself out with no-one monitoring it.

Residents of Cascade view firemen extinguishing a bush fire on July 5 2014

Residents of Cascade view firemen extinguishing a bush fire on July 5.

A burnt hillside in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica on July 18 2104.

A burnt hillside in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica on July 18.

Very soon afterwards, the day’s high winds carried burning embers from the drum and spread them through the arid grass to the nearby bamboo patch. For the next three hours a handful of us fought the conflagration with garden hoses, machetes and water buckets. This was not helped when the waterpipes went dry.  Fortunately, our phone calls to the one fire station in the parish of Portland that had a firetruck were successful when the team from Port Antonio arrived and put out most of the fire – until their water ran out. Although the remaining fire smoldered throughout the night, it was properly extinguished the next morning. The fireman who responded beseeched the residents not to light any fires due to the hazards created.

You would think that a fire that burnt overnight and nearly destroyed a church and nearby property would be the last of it. Unfortunately , this is not the case. On passing by two weeks later, I saw a massive scar on the hillside above the valley, which I was told burned all day on the previous Monday. This however, was small compared to a fire set on the ridge above this scar which burned for over two days that same week. During my conversations, it was clear that people knew WHO was setting the fires, but the WHY appeared to be pure maliciousness.

While I was being updated of of this events, I heard a familiar sound behind me. Lo and behold, the crackling and the thick white smoke indicated another fire a stone’s throw from me. This was lit by a farmer clearing land and fortunately it burned itself out after half an hour.

God save us from our own stupidity.

A fire set to clear land in Cascade, Portand in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica on July 18

A fire set to clear land in Cascade, Portland in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica on July 18