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 47 - 2016 in Photographs

Day 323

All my photographs this week are horizontal. I personally find that interesting as I am more of a vertical photographer maybe due to the forests I live in and the canyons I visit. And when I turn my camera for a vertical framing of a scene I turn it to the right. I worked with a photographer on a small local paper who always turned her camera to the left. You?

Day 324

Of course sunsets, above, and sunrises, below, are almost always horizontal but I have taken some vertical ones. 

Day 325

The moon shot below is horizontal because it is at sunset. Generally my snaps of the moon are vertical. It took me a few years to discover I do my best moon shot when they are approaching full. That is partly due to the fact that they rise earlier and there is more available light. Since all photo editing software now come with a moon which can be layered into any photograph I do not go out of my way to take pictures of the moon. But I will stop whatever I am doing to take a picture of dawn or sunset.

Day 326

Day 327

The first photograph and Day 327 are of the same little pond. Because of its small size and high banks I don't take a lot of photographs I like here, but I keep trying. This fall a couple worked.

Day 328

Next week all the photographs will be black and white. Like horizontal it just may be a mood I am in. Photo Day 328 is black and white but Day 329 isn't. It is merely reduced saturation. See the hint of gold in the grass?

I am very fond of this last photograph. And response from those who viewed it on my Binford-Bell Studio page were positive. I am considering four photographs to enlarge and print to hang at Enchanted Circle Brewing in Angel Fire. My photography decorates their walls.

Day 329

Week 12 - 2015 in Photographs

Day 78

Another week dominated by buildings. And there are three black and whites. Once both were a rarity in my photography but they have become far more frequent. Buildings were harder to find than mountains in my day to day photographic jaunts. And black and white I really had to work at. My sister is the mistress of that and I stuck with color. Often outlandish color. I have had to work at the black and white.

What I would call noisy or busy subjects work very well with black and white. The church above was perfect for it. The absence of color allows the viewer to focus on the shapes and the shadows and textures. I also tried out black and white on the church below. I liked it better, however, with just a reduction of the saturation. There is too much flat, empty sky for black and white in my opinion. By reducing the saturation I essentially ended up with a sepia building against a pale blue sky.

When I was learning to do black and white I used to sneak up on it by playing with saturation in photo editing. I would try every photo I took to see if I liked it in black and white better than color.

Day 79

A book I read said noisy skies were best in black and white so the storm moving in photograph below was a natural. And I tried it out. However, I like the hint of blue in the opposing corners of this stormy sky. Trying photographs out in black and white made me appreciate color.

Day 80

Color is no long the default option. Also how to treat a photo in B&W has helped in enhancement of photographic subjects which are almost monochromatic like ranges of mountains.

Day 81

And some subjects just cry to be colorless if you will. Another article I read on black and white photography said the photographer needed to go out to specifically photograph black and white. And in film days you had to. I can remember loading up two camera - one with black and white film and one with color.

Aspens in winter and snow scenes are two subjects I have found where I set out to "see" them in black and white. Course with digital cameras and post processing on our computers the options are open forever.

Day 82

I took the photograph of the old barn thinking it would be a great black and white because of the tones on the rusting metal of the building. But color won out. The purple on the mountain picked up the purple in the shadows to well to delete it. A cloud filled sky with cloud shadows on the mountain might have totally changed the equation.

Day 83

This last photograph shows the "tin" roof and the texture the black and white treat brings out in it and the crumbling adobe. This old territorial building works very well in B&W even without a cloud in the sky. In fact in my humble opinion the clear sky enhances the foreground textures. And in color the sky's intense blue is echoed no where else in the photograph.

Day 84