- PHOTOS BY HOWARD MOO YOUNG
From left, 'Caribbean Door' and 'Spider on Day Liliy'
Howard Moo Young, Contributor
COLOUR FILLS our world with beauty. We wonder in amazement at a magnificent sunset and are charmed by the brilliantly coloured petals of beautiful flowering plants and trees. We admire the arch of a rainbow and are attracted to the splendid hues of butterflies and insects. We add interest and pleasure to our lives with the use of colour. For example, many people carefully choose the colours of their clothes and decorate their homes with colours that create beautiful, restful or exciting effects. Artists paint expressive or more realistic pictures by their selection and arrangement of colours. Isn't it amazing that the Creator chose the perfect colour for every living thing that exists upon this earth?
Colours can communicate, especially in sports, as different coloured uniforms show which team the players are on. How proud we were to see the golden colour of our outstanding Jamaican athletes as they came into focus of the TV cameras at the Olympics and the recently-concluded World Track and Field Games! We also experienced a feeling of pride when the Reggae Boyz took to the World Cup football field for the very first time in their outstanding yellow jerseys.
As we take to the busy roads doing our daily routine, both drivers and pedestrians keep their eyes on traffic lights to look out for the amber light as we approach each signal. The yellow cautions us to prepare for the red light. If a driver is caught dead in the middle of the intersection at Waterloo and Hope roads within the area marked by yellow lines when the lights change, he is likely to be handed a traffic ticket.
So many of our traffic signs are painted in yellow, and I remember being asked by the National Works Agency to
maintain the colour yellow in designing their logo, as it was the dominant colour used by their predecessor - Public Works Department (PWD). Just take a look as you drive on our roads, and you'll notice how many traffic signs are printed in yellow. The Yellow Cabs of New York are world famous, and so are the red double-decker buses of London.
Have you ever noticed how the yellow poui trees decide to bloom in all their glory on a given morning when you least expect it? One cannot help but be drawn to each tree, no matter their location, or how large or how small they are. The blazing colour of the flowers get the attention of all passers-by. The ground below is transformed into a carpet of yellow in a matter of days. Butterflies and bees are attracted to certain colours, as nature becomes a magnet in the insect world, where yellow seems to be dominant.
The play of light from the late evening sun can send a golden glow across the landscape, touching faces of people, buildings and anything it touches, even blackbirds perched on power lines. At the very top of the colour wheel, yellow enjoys that position and is one of the primary colours that can change red to orange or blue to green as we were all taught in art classes at school. I'm glad that the Creator blessed me with a strong sense of colour and I wasn't born colour blind.
MISMATCHED
I remember working for an advertising agency whose CEO would come to work with socks that were mismatched in colour, and neckties that didn't complement his attire - not his fault, he just couldn't perceive certain colours. In putting this article together, I didn't realise that I had taken so many photographs with yellow as the dominant colour. Somehow, I guess, the mellow tones seem to create an impact as I'm attracted naturally to the many shades of this primary colour, the world even refer to my forefathers as being of the yellow race.
As photographers, we learn to look at the world in colours, how they create contrasts, how they complement each other, and how they affect our moods. For example, we describe a sad person as feeling blue and a jealous one who is green with envy. We say an angry person sees red. And sometimes we describe a coward as being yellow. The great thing about photography is that these emotions can be captured just as effectively in black and white.
Set yourself an assignment, choose a colour and go shoot it! It will change the way you see life, it could even change your photography.
Howard Moo Young is an advertising/graphic design/ photography consultant with over 40 years of experience. Email: mooimages@yahoo.com
