Black and white rules

I have been trying to shoot more photos just for me lately and it has been fun. Learning to see shapes and colors just for arts sake again is quite the change of pace from the regular journalistic assignments.
Friend and fellow photographer Alice O’Neil has joined me on some photo shoots and her eye for detail and form has impressed me. What I find very interesting is the fact she likes to shoot in black and white for some of her pictures.

I started out learning how to shoot in high school with black and white film. I went through rolls and rolls of Kodak’s Tri-X Pan film. When I started in newspaper photography it was with black and white pages and I was awed when we made the switch to daily color. But juts because a picture is in color does it make it better?

I think black and white pictures can show the tonal detail and subtle detail better than color. Who has not been awed by an Ansel Adams picture of Yosemite in glorious black and white? Will I give up my colors and hues for arts sake? Probably not but I may have to explore the simpler side of photography again in black and white.