Black and White

It’s been raining all night and now that I’m up & about, it looks like it will rain continuously all day today.  It’s dark, gloomy and overcast as well, so no point going out for a photography walk.  I have got a waterproof sleeve for my camera but have never actually used it.

Yesterday it was blowing a gale most of the day and very cold so I didn’t go out yesterday either.

Tuesday night at 8.55pm Melbourne was hit by an earthquake – only 5.2 magnitude but my whole flat shook and the windows rattled – I knew straight away what it was, as it felt like a rattling, rollicking old train going by my windows.  The epicentre was in the south-east of the state so I wonder how it felt to those residents living in the area.

Interesting how my life has changed since having to quit my job due to chronic health problems.  My life is now run by the weather and seasons.  My day is determined by the internet weather forecast I look at each morning.  I also have the local tidal info bookmarked which I read if the day looks like a beach day and I want to shoot seagulls at low tide.  It’s a simple life, but one that is very enjoyable & satisfying.  The Chronic pain and fatigue of Fibromyalgia and CFS is no longer the focus of my life.  I think that’s part of the reason I am much better.  Photography is an interest that I’m passionate about and distracts me from the exhausting routine of the past when I was working and for years lay awake in pain most of the night.  Now I go to bed at midnight and get up when I feel fully rested and able to function – usually around 9.00am. 

Winter has well and truly arrived in Melbourne.

Last night I was playing around with editing some of my images into Black and White to see how effective the light and dark areas would look.  Some worked out quite well, some not so well.  I don’t think I have ever had my DSLR on B & W or actually taken photos with the express desire to turn them direct to B & W.

Many of the images below you will have seen before with the first Meerkat image being in its original colour in yesterday’s post – I thought this image worked equally well in either colour or B & W. 

Let me know what you think of the B & W versions.  Actually they’re not Black and White per se.  I don’t like the pure white.  I prefer the colour de-saturated to the extent that the white becomes a warm version of white (not the blue white of true white).

The bolts and locks on the barn doors at the National Trust estate Ripponlea Historia Mansion………………..

Shep the Wonder Dog, who I kind of fell in love with when her owners Rayya and her husband bought their two dogs down to my local beach for my first (and only), professional photo shoot……….

One of my favourite mandrill photos which you’ve seen in Black & White before – in fact, I think these primate images look better in B & W………….most of the time, the Mandrills stand or groom each other in the deep shade of overhanging rocks.  You need to take photos at the right time of day when the sunlight hits their bodies and the rock face.

A private moment with a Buddhist Monk on the stage at the opening ceremony of Melbourne’s Thai food & culture festival.  This image looks better in colour.  The colour gives a softness and serenity to the Monk’s facial expression which I think the B & W version is missing slightly.  While it doesn’t have really sharp focus, I think I still captured the essence of his character.

I think the next shot works better in B & W (than colour).  The B & W gives the viewer a better sense of the solitary nature of this young man’s fishing activity on this particular day……

The detail of this iguana’s scales shows up well in Black and White,  but I seem to remember someone commenting that they would have preferred it in colour when I posted it on my blog in B & W originally………

The pelican pond at Melbourne Zoo is always pretty dark in the background so the white feathers show up well in B & W…………….

This photo of a tiny Toad Lily in the dark shade near Fern Gully in the Botanic Gardens looked horrible in colour.  Not sure about this shot in B & W.  It looks better than the colour version anyway……..

And of course the zebra stripes have to show up well in a B & W image.  I thought the colour version of this photo looked very ‘ordinary’.

This image of some tree bark didn’t work well in B & W – not enough light & shade (I thought)………..

The dying sunlight shining through these grass leaves looks equally good in colour or B & W………

This pond of water and grass reeds image turned out 97% black & white in the colour version.  There was only a tiny bit of pale blue in the bottom right foreground, so there was no issue as to what it would be like in B & W.    The colours (or lack of colours, I should say) only adds to the eery atmosphere.

The last and final image is of a car’s headlight taken on the way home from a walk in the Botanic Gardens last week.  It was getting fairly dark and the colour image is actually a very dark navy blue with a few pinpricks of light from the dying sun reflecting on the metal around the glass.  I think this image looks equally good in colour or B & W.

So which do you like and why?  Which don’t you like and why?  Are there any images you haven’t seen before and would like to see the colour version to compare?

Tags: black & white, black and white

• June 21, 2012
• Miscellaneous
• 16 comments