My focal perspectives – Places of Colour

“Trifocal Perspectives” is an exhibition of my photographs, along with those of Greg Reely and Peter Hovestad, at The Art Gallery Osoyoos that closes on Saturday, April 27.

I’ve divided my photographs by four themes. “Places of Colour” features images of colourful cultures from around the world. Not all the photos shown here are on display at “Trifocal Perspectives.”

Places of Colour:

I have always been fascinated by travel and other cultures. I’m drawn by a curiosity about how other people live, but especially by the way so many cultures, especially tropical, celebrate colour.

Our own culture is more reserved and our colour palette reflects that fear of being “too loud.” But nature is full of colour, and other cultures – whether Latin American, African or Asian – see that colour and embrace it.

Richard McGuire

Click on thumbnails to view as gallery with larger images:

Sadhus are Hindu holy men or ascetics who renounce their worldly possessions and wander in search of moksa, or spiritual liberation. There are many of them in the Indian holy city of Varanasi on the Ganges River. (Richard McGuire Photo)

When you climb (or take the funicular) to the top of the hill where El Pipila statue stands, you’re met with a spectacular view over Guanajuato, Mexico. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Brightly painted buildings and colourful banners make for a feast of colour in Guanajuato, Mexico. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Customers enjoy a conversation over coffee at one of the coffee shops located on Plaza del Libertador in Jardin, Colombia. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Many old timers socialize outdoors on the streets near Plaza del Libertador in Jardin, Colombia. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A woman reads a paper while tending a snack stand in the old city of Cartagena, Colombia. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A man wearing an Aguadeño hat takes a smoke break outside a colourfully painted house in Guatapé, Colombia. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Guatapé is a colourfully painted town east of Medellin, Colombia. It is known for its cobbled streets and “zocalos,” icons on walls of buildings just above the sidewalks. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A family gets into the spirit of Carnaval in Mompox, Colombia. In preparation for Ash Wednesday, some people put ash on their faces. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A musician beats out a rhythm for some lively rumba music on a Sunday on Havana’s Callejon de Hamel. This alley is a colourful celebration of Afro-Cuban culture and Santeria religion. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Market day in the Cakchiquel Mayan town of Sololá, Guatemala is a colourful hive of activity. Although men are more likely than women to wear western dress, you do see a number of men in traditional clothing, like the man in the centre. Note his wonderful multi-coloured pants. (Richard McGuire Photo)

 

My focal perspectives – The Magic of Night

“Trifocal Perspectives” is an exhibition of my photographs, along with those of Greg Reely and Peter Hovestad, at The Art Gallery Osoyoos throughout April 2019.

I’ve divided my photographs by four themes. “The Magic of Night” features images of dusk, night and dawn from around the world. Not all the photos shown here are on display at “Trifocal Perspectives.”

The Magic of Night:

As night falls, cities and landscapes transform into magic places. Sometimes spiritual, sometimes menacing, sometimes mysterious.

Humans have long sought to light the night, whether with fire, incandescent lamps, sodium vapour, fluorescence or neon. In doing so, we transform a time of slumber into a time of vibrance.

Some photographers look to the stars and celestial phenomena. I look at how humans change the night.

Richard McGuire

Click on thumbnails to view as gallery with larger images:

A Hindu priest performs the evening aarti ceremony with fire beside the Shipra river in the holy city of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, India. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Every evening there is an aarti ceremony with fire at Har-ki-Pauri ghats on the Ganges River at Haridwar, India. (Richard McGuire Photo)

The City Palace of Udaipur, Rajasthan, India is lit with lights at night that reflect in Pichola Lake. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A camel driver leads two camels across the sand dunes at sunset near Kanoi, an hour from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, India. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Men enjoy lassi and other milk drinks at a stand at night time on Main Bazar in the Paharganj neighbourhood of New Delhi. (Richard McGuire Photo)

As the sun goes down, lights come out along the Malecon, Havana’s sea wall drive that runs from Old Havana to Vedado and Miramar. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A man bicycles home as the setting sun casts its glow on a ruined church in the Cuban colonial city of Trinidad. The city was built with fortunes from the sugar industry, and is now a tourist centre. (Richard McGuire Photo)

After sunset, you can look down from El Pipila statue over the lights of Guanajuato, Mexico. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Lake Atitlán in central Guatemala is ringed in volcanoes. I got up early one morning to take a bus to a lookout point above the lake to watch the sunrise. (Richard McGuire Photo)

I went out with several guys from the Osoyoos Photography Club to photograph the Perseid Meteor Shower. I was too early for the best meteor show, but as a photographer, I found the combination of moonlight and expressive clouds to be more interesting. (Richard McGuire Photo)

As night falls on Osoyoos, B.C., a thick fog still blankets the town, the result of a thermal inversion. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Cow Bay in Prince Rupert, B.C. used to be a somewhat ramshackle fishing port. Now it’s a harbour for boat tours and private recreational boats as well as more upscale bars, coffee shops and boutiques. (Richard McGuire Photo)

On a warm, summer-like evening in early spring, Montreal’s Latin Quarter comes alive. This area along rue Saint-Denis is near UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal). (Richard McGuire Photo)

The Parliament Buildings are lit up at night in downtown Ottawa. Below them are the Supreme Court of Canada (in green light) and the Canadian War Museum. This shot was taken from my former apartment balcony with a long lens. (Richard McGuire Photo)

This image looking down from a pedestrian bridge onto Highway 417 in Ottawa was a 20-second exposure at f/20. The long exposure shows the trails of headlights and taillights and the small aperture causes the starburst effect on the lights and it keeps the chain link fence almost in focus as the background is sharp. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Ottawa’s Rideau Street is a bit rough around the edges. It’s a haven for panhandlers and addicts of various substances, and it’s a major truck route. Still, lights reflected on the rainy pavement give it a certain beauty on an autumn night. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Lights come on as darkness descends in Ottawa’s Chinatown. (Richard McGuire Photo)

From my apartment balcony at night I see the eerie green lights along the roadway to the Lemieux Island water treatment plants reflected like green candles in the Ottawa River. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Several members of the Ottawa Street Exploration Flickr group did a photo walk at Carleton University on a mild November evening. Years ago, I spent many, many hours at the MacOdrum Library shown here. Carleton’s architecture has a 1950s Stalinesque quality and the library’s windows remind me of cell blocks. (Richard McGuire Photo)

A couple shares a moment under the steam clock in Vancouver’s Gastown. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Vancouver’s Granville Street is lit up in lights. The city’s abundant rain intensifies the colours of the light as it is reflected on the pavement. (Richard McGuire Photo)

My focal perspectives – Orchards and Grasslands

“Trifocal Perspectives” is an exhibition of my photographs, along with those of Greg Reely and Peter Hovestad, at The Art Gallery Osoyoos throughout April 2019.

I’ve divided my photographs by four themes. “Orchards and Grasslands” features landscapes from the South Okanagan around Osoyoos, B.C.

Orchards and Grasslands:

Here in the South Okanagan and Lower Similkameen, we live in an arid grasslands environment that is unique in Canada. We’ve transformed it from parched earth to lush orchards and vineyards.

There’s always been a tension between protecting portions of this environment in its natural state and the desire to harness the climate and soils for economic purposes. But most agree that what we have is special.

As a photographer, I seek to celebrate what we have here.

Richard McGuire

Click on thumbnails to view as gallery with larger images:

The South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area and the Sage and Sparrow Conservation Area offer spectacular and ever-changing vistas of this unique grasslands landscape. (Richard McGuire Photo)

The South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area and the Sage and Sparrow Conservation Area offer spectacular and ever-changing vistas of this unique grasslands landscape. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Autumn in the orchards north of Osoyoos glows golden on a sunny day. Green glass and blue sky add to the palette. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Snow covers the slopes of Mount Kobau as the Okanagan Valley enjoys a sunny day in early December. More and more days are overcast at this time of year and it’s not long until the snow reaches into the valley too. (Richard McGuire photo)

An autumn evening in October descends on the town of Osoyoos and Osoyoos Lake. (Richard McGuire photo)

It’s called Blue Lake, but this lake next to Kruger Mountain Road is very green in colour. It is surrounded by flowering bushes. (Richard McGuire Photo)

Fluffy cumulus clouds roll over the South Okanagan Grasslands, casting moody shadows. (Richard McGuire Photo)

The sun lowers behind an orchard, casting shadows with the gnarly trees in the Similkameen Valley. (Richard McGuire photo)

The mud mineral rings of Spotted Lake west of Osoyoos become more and more dominant later in the summer and fall. The white is minerals — not snow — in this photo taken in early October. (Richard McGuire photo)

A bee feeds on nectar in an Okanagan orchard. (Richard McGuire photo)

Kilpoola Lake is a small lake surrounded by grasslands. On a May weekend, a number of people came to fish for rainbow trout, which the lake is stocked with each year. (Richard McGuire Photo)

In February in the South Okanagan, sometimes the cloudy skies break up to let in sunlight. Spotted Lake, which is sacred to Okanagan First Nations, is already a magic place. This day was especially magic. (Richard McGuire photo)

There was lots of snow at Mount Baldy in mid-October, but it was still autumn, with yellow larches in the valleys below. (Richard McGuire photo)