CARIBBEAN SKIES AND LIGHT

Something more about the Caribbean and how it is wonderful for photography.

Another peculiar aspect of this region is sky, or better, skies. I prefer to use the plural because, as you can see in the images that I have chosen for this post, the Caribbean sky shows so many different patterns and combinations that it appears to be from different sources, precisely from different skies.

Sky is naturally associated with light. And light is something magic in the Caribbean. It changes constantly, and it may change very suddenly, often in a few minutes or even seconds.

And then, the clouds. With the light, they are the other magical element in the sky.

Throughout the Caribbean Sea, warm, moist trade winds blow consistently from the east, and clouds are moving fast, creating artistic shapes and beautiful colored reflections.

You can stand on a beach or on a pier, in front of the sea, and you can witness several masterpieces painted with clouds and light by mother nature, one after another, without having to change location.

 Even in a stormy day, like the one in this picture, the Caribbean sky does not lose its fascination and artistic ability.

In these images you can see what I mean. I composed them on the Rodney Bay, in front of Gros Islet village, at St Lucia Island.

 

 Thank you for visiting! I'll wait for you in my next post. 

BRIGHT COLORS FROM DOMINICA

What I particularly like about Dominica are colors. This land is part of the Windward islands in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea (see map).
 

Its capital, Roseau, is a beautiful concentration of colored houses. Even foreign consulates, like the Belgian one showed in this picture, are part of this colorful architecture.  

 
The urban structure of the central Roseau is based on an irregular grid system of small proportions, making it almost illegible. 

As I was wandering throughout its streets, I was surprised how easy it was getting lost or, at least, how difficult was to find a building or a store that I had just seen a few minutes before, even though the grid area is not extensive (Dominica’s population is less than 72.500, and Roseau has a population of 16.600). I often found myself asking people for a specific restaurant or store, only to discover next that I had been directed to a similar but different place. This is not so bad. It makes exploring Roseau a permanent exciting discovery.
 
Back to the topic of colors, there are several fine examples of West Indian architecture in Roseau, the most outstanding being the French colonial style and the vernacular form. Look at these pictures. I composed them to stress the beautiful contrast of bright colors, between walls and windows and among different houses.

But there is more. People too, often dressed in colored clothes, and melt finely with the historic stone-and-wood buildings, creating a peculiar atmosphere that it’s not simply tropical, but really Caribbean. You can see it by yourselves in the next three images.

 

One more thing. My last picture is about a decayed, but still photogenic, wood house. Even if colors in this case are almost disappeared, a close look can see that, in their heyday, the color was present in this construction too.

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and my short description of Roseau, Dominica island’s capital. See you at the next post.

© riccardo forte / All my pictures are digitally watermarked by Digimarc® Guardian

A SPECIAL SHOT FROM THE FRENCH ANTILLES

Hello everybody! I’m back from my trip to the Caribbean, yes, the trip I had talked about in my last post. 

I’d like to start with a picture I composed during my first night at Guadeloupe Island, in the charming town of Deshaies. The town is located in Basse-Terre, the west section of the island, which is part of the Lesser Antilles, an insular oversea region of France. Desahaies is the right mix of traditional fishing village and good services for visitors. Nice little restaurants, great beaches, good hotels, a tiny little harbor. But let’s talk about the picture.

I made this image from the terrace of a restaurant downtown, at dusk, just before dinner. I believe a photographer rarely plan his pictures. I mean, you may know what you want to shoot, where do you want to go and, if you know something about the subject and have read about it, you probably have an idea about different possible perspectives. However, when you start working on the field, something always happens that change your original plan and, likely, helps you increase your creativity.

This is particularly true in travel photography, because although if you read and plan carefully before leaving, you know little of nothing from the photographic point of view about the places you are going to visit. And this is exactly the magic of travelling and of taking picture during your travel. Everything is discovery, nothing is really predictable, and the photographer has to rely even more on his ability to capture a particular and unexpected moment.

Making pictures travelling, no matter how successful your work will be, it is always a great exercise in creativity and in increasing your skills and expertise. This picture is a good simple example of that. Deshaies’ small harbor at dusk was wonderful in itself. I can say that I shot at least ten photos, while light and colors changed rapidly. All decent pictures, but a bit too much postcard-like images. Then something unplanned happened. My wife sat on a small wall separating the restaurant from the harbor, reviewing her recent shots, just in front of me. I was almost starting complaining, when I realized the beauty of the silhouette in front of the sunset. And I composed the image.

Let’s compare the photo with the silhouette with the next one. The second picture is nice too and I like it. But the first one has something unique that makes it special. If I didn’t realize this opportunity in time I will have lost it forever.

Again any idea and/or suggestion is welcome. See you next…