The Melanesian Cultural Festival – this year held in the Solomon Islands – has wrapped up for another four years, with Vanuatu hosting the event next time.
Here’s a short preview of some of the photographs captured in Honiara.
A Road Less Travelled
Monthly Archives: July 2018
I’m just back from photographing the Melanesia Cultural Festival in the Solomon Islands and my two week experiment with Instagram (davidkirklandphotography), to find one of my images has been banned from their social media kingdom because it breached “acceptable community standards.” This was the photograph (above).
A week ago, I threw myself to trialling Instagram to see if I could divine a measurable benefit to my business which might warrant the attention and effort and – I’m happy to report having climbed to a modest 133 followers in 13 posts – it does (though I concede I could still be in the infatuation stage and I’ve got a long way to go).
This is what I have concluded:
New Caledonia had its gymnasts, Solomon Islands had its pan-pipe players, Vanuatu had its sorcerers and PNG had its colourful bilas but Fiji ….well, Fiji just sat down and sang – and the crowd fell silent and in awe.
….While I’m still shooting a wide range of tourism shots of the event, the extreme lighting and contrast is presenting a challenge so I’m having a bit of a play with different techniques and approaches.
I had a fleeting pang of concern when I captured this photograph of a bare-breasted, 14 year old Guadalcanal girl who was performing at the Melanesian Cultural Festival in the Solomon Islands (try taking this photograph back home and see where it gets you).
David’s personal blog
Photography Tips, Travel Recommendations, Photos, Interviews, and the occasional words of wisdom you stumble across on a road less travelled
Follow me on Instagram
Categories
Most Recent Work
From the Archive
subscribe to the blog
EXPLORE WITH ME
A successful promotional photograph starts with knowing what you want it to say and who you want it to appeal to - before you even bring the camera to your eye.