675 - Dexter Rides Again



Black & white, the last refuge of the color blind, as Ted likes to say. I don’t do it very often, but sometimes it is a no-brainer, for instance when there is not much color to begin with.

I shot these two images yesterday morning on my way to work, and the interesting thing is, that I had something totally different in mind. I wanted to use the long lens to capture the hundreds of cables above our streets, long rows of light fixtures dancing in between. In fact I did and the images were not even bad, at least workable in any case, but then this image of a bicycle rider came in between, and somehow everything else paled.

Does this happen to you as well? That you go out with a certain goal, determined to concentrate on a certain kind of subject, and then the unexpected happens? What do you do? Do you give in as I did?

For all who don’t like B&W, here is something in color. Although, it’s graffiti on a garage door, and some people don’t like graffiti either πŸ™‚

The Song of the Day is “Dexter Rides Again” by Dexter Gordon. I have it on disc 84 of “The Ultimate Jazz Archive”. I even found a sound sample. It’s the background music to a video about “HAM RadioπŸ˜›L-259 Installation Made Easy and FUNny”. Oh well.


There are 5 comments

J. L. T.   (2008-08-20)

Yes of course. There always has to be time and perception for the unexpected. What are the squares on the street, shadows?

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Andreas   (2008-08-20)

Yes, shadows of light fixtures.

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Paul   (2008-08-24)

Well, that is perfect for B&W! A very interesting shot.

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Ted   (2008-08-24)

I kid about B&W, but of course I'm not absolutist on any technique. It's just that (1) after four decades of overwhelmingly doing B&W n my wet darkrooms, it seemed difficult for me to find much new in the genre, and (2) Given that digital makes color exploration free to everyone, we have a new frontier to explore and B&W represents the past, or a place for young photographers to merely recreate much that has been done. Still, there are dramatic and important things still found in new B&W images.

Given your eye, I expect that you will find many of them... even if it is the last refuge for the color blind πŸ™‚

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Andreas   (2008-08-24)

Hmm ... actually I'd really like to see you do some. You know, I always like to learn, and I guess there is something to be learned from you, even in B&W πŸ™‚

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