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 π
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 RadioπL-259 Installation Made Easy and FUNny”. Oh well.
There are 5 comments
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 π
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 π
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?
π¬ Reply π¬