Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Colorful assignment


There has been a lot of talk at online photography sites about black and white photography and how it is making a comeback. The subtle tones and shadow graduations are enticing more photographers to shoot in this elegant and artistic form.

Not me though. I learned my photography skills shooting black and white film. Tri-X pan film, Microdol X developers and hundreds of 8 X 10 black and white enlargements were all part of my schooling. Now I can’t seem to ever want to go back to my old school ways, even digitally.

I like to think I have a pretty good grasp of light and color. Composition and cropping is important too but you have to be able to see the color. My hiking partner and fellow photographer Alice DeLaurier-O’Neil is a confirmed black and white artist. She has a talent to see shape and form and how it translates to the silvery tones of a grayscale image. I still favor the contrast of colors as they play against each other within the pictures composition.

One of these days I will really have to test myself and shoot an assignment or a hiking adventure in black and white. I don’t know if I have the eye for it but it would be quite the camera adventure.

1 comment:

Care said...

Don't try your black and white experiment during the colorful autumn months, Glenn.

My favorite glass artist, Dale Chihuly, majors in color! Absolutely gorgeous! I'm with you on the color.

One day my youngest during her photo class in high school shot a couple of rolls at our lakeside golf course in the middle of fall. I was so excited to develop the prints (back in the pre-digital days) & every bloomin' one of them was colorless. I was crushed.