Week 46 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 315

Going to get this week's photo blog done early. And interject a bit of a change up from my usual count down. Several of this week's images have another version and, as in the case of the photograph below, have appeared in a weekly blog in that other treatment.

Day 316

Week 44 - Black and White

I think in the case of the old Questa church there is merit in either version.

Day 317

Day 318

The color original

And while I am a lover of color I find the black and white version of this cottonwood grove better artistically. Maybe I will have to try the same thing with dawns. Though that seems unthinkable. 

Day 319

Day 320

The original photograph

In this day of photoshopping everyone asks, "But what did the original photograph look like. And above you have the answer. I also did this one in black and white.  Which brings us to the question of why? Sometimes a photograph has good bones. There is something in the photograph you liked when you took it, and even when it was uploaded to the computer but it just does not shine through. In day 320 it was the lines of the trees and their reflections in the water. The version I finally posted shows that off best.

In black and white

Below is the caretaker's old red pickup. If you are a follower of my photographic blogs or Facebook page you will recognize this truck. But I am still looking for the ultimate picture of it. I love the red on freshly fallen snow but mostly the red gets in the way. There is another picture of this truck coming this week in my daily posts.

Day 321

The old red pickup

Week 44 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 301
St. Anthony Catholic Church

In one of the many digital photography books I have read the writer maintained you should know if you were going to process in black and white or in color. That was certainly true in the days of film. But that decision was largely made for not just one photo but a whole roll of film because it was what you had loaded in the camera.

I will be honest and if it was not a requirement for a photography assignment I seldom used black and white film. Every once in a while I would feel guilty about not being a true photographer like Ansel Adams and shoot a row of black and white.

Digital photography and control of the "post processing" means you can do whatever you want with your images. You can make the decision on photograph at a time. The same rules of composition apply. Images with strong elements are generally my choice for black and white. But I have often taken an image or a subject and processed it in both color and without color.

Color is still my favorite. Black and white is still an exercise I give myself.

Day 302

Day 303

Day 304

Day 305

Day 306

Day 307

Week 43 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 294

 It is all about the light. Cameras, whether they are film or digital, capture the light. 

One morning, while delaying arriving at my dentist appointment, I stopped at Eagle Rock Lake to capture the colors of the cotton woods. Yellow is one of those colors which captures light very well. And with sunlight streaming through the leaves they seem to glow.

Day 295

 What amazed me once back home and remembering I had taken all those photographs before have the truck not start, five teeth pulled, and lower face totally numbed is that fall photographs look awesome in black and white.

Day 296

 And the light streaming through the leaves and the trees and across the pond's surface is even more striking without the color.

Day 297

 As a landscape photographer who always eagerly awaits the fall colors I surprised myself during the post processing. It seemed like a sacrilege to remove the color. But photography is about the light. And that is so evident, as Ansel Adams proved, in the black and white versions.

Day 298

Day 299

Day 300

Week 22 - 2017 in Photographs

Day 148

I was going to open this photo blog with a sentence about this being a week of black and white photography. But that is not entirely true. Day 149, the photograph directly below, is in fact a color photograph. And Day 151 is a sepia treatment. Sepia is a color. As a painter I can say that black and white are also colors. 

This week I decided to focus on the bones of the composition. The tones. The lights and dark. And that is easiest if the brilliant colors, my usual favorites, are stripped or minimized. I used to hate it in college when my instructors forced me to work with black and white film. But that is the bare bones of photography. And a cheaper dark room. And Ansel Adams was the master to follow.

And color film was not that dependable then. And when I got out of college and had to take my black and white film to developers I had no control of the product. I dropped black and white and switched to color slides.

Digital DSLR's have given me the freedom to return to the lessons I learned in college and add a few more. Winter has helped too. I am back in control of the post processing of the image. And my camera is not loaded with a whole roll of color film I have to complete before loading black and white.

Day 149

When I decided to begin again to practice black and white I read lots of articles on it. One tip was to consider black and white from the moment you take the picture as if your camera has only black and white film. Well, that didn't work for me. Except in winter where snow storms erase color.

Another tip was a noisy sky. Not in the photo above, and no sky in the one below.

Day 150

The two photos below have noisy skies. But the last photograph, my favorite in this series, does not. After a winter of playing around with this discipline I have decided it is all about the light. But then photography, color or black and white, is all about the light. And the bones of the composition.  

Day 151

Day 152

Day 153

When I am reviewing my captures on the computer the questions I ask myself are whether color is necessary, and is it a better photograph without that distraction.

Day 154

Black and Whites of 2016

Shadows on the snow

For me photography is a journey. It began with a Kodak Brownie camera my father gave me. And except for college classes I have been largely self taught. I constantly give myself challenges designed to improve my images. And in the last couple of years I have worked at doing better black and white photographs.

It is a two fold process. First there is the taking of the photograph. And second the post processing of it. I thought that would be easier than loading in black and white film and ruining it. Those college classes were centered on black and white but we didn't turn it over to Walmart. We developed it in a dark room. When I no longer had a dark room I loathed my results with black and white. Digital cameras and dry darkrooms seemed a good opportunity to be able to do both as in college.

Dark Woods

And something not color or black and white like the above image. Yes there is a hint of gold in the grasses at the bottom of the dark woods. And the snowy woods below. I call it sneaking up on black and white by reducing the saturation of the digital image. These two images of a dark woods I have printed and matted and framed. They are hanging at Enchanted Circle Brewing in Angel Fire. They are two of my favorites of all the photographs I took this last year.

Snowy woods

But I have also decided to not be a coward and just go totally black and white instantly. I find I do it when the color gets in the way of the image like in the original of the pots below. It is a decision not made when I load film in a camera or when I set out with my DSLR in search of the perfect black and white image. I make it in the computer contrary to what the best photography books say about that. 

Indian Pots

 But even in color photography I often look toward the monochromatic scene. I loved the Blue Ridge Mountains for that. But even though it is a very different color I love the canyon lands for that too. Not blues but oranges. And the pots above were in earth tones. Except for the wall.

And the ravens below were black against grey ice on an overcast day.

A Venue of Ravens

And the trees below were clouded in fog.

Foggy Woods

Key to black and white for me is it first has to be a good composition. The photograph must have merit as a photograph. And it must look better without color. Often the color is a distraction.

Still Life in Silver

Week One - 2016 in Photographs

Day One of 2016

Every year I wonder if I really want to do another 365 day challenge in photography or another weekly blog post about the week past. And yet for I believe the beginning of the sixth year here I am. I also went through the 2015 and selected out some of the best of the 365 photos to post in other blogs such as the best landscapes, etc.

I find these challenges beneficial to me in the growth of myself as a photographer. And they give me a command to post daily on my social media which keeps my presence active.

The reviews, like the one I did today and will post the results of later, are also good for me. Looking back on an entire year is a very interesting process as a developing artist.

Day Two

However, there can be a bit of ennui at the closing weeks of the challenge. And it lingers until the opening week. Or two. But that ennui can make me look for a different angle or a new trick to post post process. As 2016 begins the subject is again trees. But I uploaded the new version of my favorite photo processing software and played around a bit. Day one is a familiar grove of aspens which I made black and white, a common treatment for me and aspens, but then I applied extreme contrast. I like it.

Day two was just contrast. I was looking for a way to heighten the snow flakes against the background row of firs. Expect to see more of this sort of handling of a digital image.

Day Three

Day three is nothing new. I love the condensation on green house windows. Often I photograph from out to in and the image in the fog, as it were, is a flower. This one was from inside to out.

Day Four

Day four was a freezing fog event. And I wanted to make the ice and frost on the branches stand out in the photo. It is the sun which does that best. And usually when the frosted object is between you and the sun. Pointing the camera directly into the sun has dire effects on the camera I am told so you wait until the sun is behind a branch and take the shot. I used this in both Day four and Day five.

Day Five

And for Day five I used a backlight trick in the software and then made it black and white.

Day Six

Days six and seven are just photographs of trees and the shadows they cast. Some times trees with no tricks are enough. Especially if snow is involved. 

Day Seven

It is snowing as I write this blog so no doubt it will be featured in my photographs. But I am also getting in the mood to do some more still lifes. I didn't do a lot of them last year but those I did were enjoyable. And the forecast looks awful for the next week. Good time to stay inside and play.

Week 41 - 2014 in Images

Day 281
Fall Begins

It is a very colorful time of the year here in New Mexico and my bow to that time is this solitary tree. And one of aspens in reflection below. I am going to do a blog just on the aspens and soon, but this week three of my posts for the 365 day challenge were in black and white. There is a challenge going around on Facebook of posting five days of black and white photos. It got me thinking out of the box. I have even done aspens in black and white and posted on Binford-Bell Studio.

Day 285
Fall Reflections

And then there was this prescribed burn a but out of control across the Taos Volcanic plateau which I captured when I returned from Albuquerque. Burning in the Carson behind a ridge of volcanoes it looked a but like an eruption.

Day 282
Conflagration 

The fire added a layer of smoke which sunk into the gorge offering an unique perspective on this landmark. Even though I posted this later in the week I am posting it here because the pictures were taken in the same few minutes. Stopped for the dramatic smoke photo but remembered to turn a complete circle and found this beautiful photographic opportunity.

I have photographed this land mark a lot and never been totally satisfied and the haze would have been the perfect excuse to not take the time.

Day 286
The Gorge

I have taken and posted lots of hollyhock pictures this year. They and poppies are my favorite flowers and they all performed well this year. This delicate pink hollyhock with the rain drops in the early morning was a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time.

Day 283
Hollyhock after the Rain

The two remaining posts were returns to Cold Creek and a look at the two falls in black and white. In color these two features were very busy. The black and white treatment brings out the textures better on the big fall below.

Day 284
Big Falls on Clear Creek

Not as happy with the result of black and white on the little falls except that it defines the depth better, and makes you want to look further into the image.

Day 287
Little Falls on Clear Creek