Black and White

I've never taken a photo with the intention of it being black and white. It's never something I've given a great deal of thought to until recently. I've played around with a couple of photos from my collection in the past, and they look reasonable in black and white, such as the photo below:

I took this in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was around 100˚ when I took the photo, and I don't think that the colour version of the photo really shows that, wheres the black and white version does. I also prefer the black and white one because it adds a sense of loneliness; something I think that Black and White is very effective in expressing.


A more recent attempt demonstrates this to a greater extent. This is the view from my university room, during the irritatingly-named "Big Freeze" of early 2010.

I like the colour version a lot; I think the mix of the brutalist architecture and the solitary character make it feel quite lonely already, but I put a black and white effect on it, played around with the blue colour levels, the exposure, and the contrast, and I ended up with this:

I effectively just made the photo darker, but I'm really pleased with how it came out. The buildings and the trees contrast with the sky more effectively than in the colour version, and the character in the picture draws the eye in now that he's much darker than before.

Aloha!

Welcome to my photography blog. I'm going to use it primarily for sharing my photos, and different things I've tried regarding photography.

I've been into photography for as long as I can remember. I don't know anything about photography itself i.e. what different lenses do, what ISO means etc. but I've been told I have a pretty good eye for it, and it's a lot of fun. I'm not planning on learning about photography any time soon; I think it'd spoil my enjoyment of it.

I like photographing cityscapes, landscapes, and wide open spaces. Most of the photos I've taken have been from when I've travelled to the US; I've been there seven or eight times now and there are always plenty of good shots.

Here's a couple of photos whilst I think of a theme for a post. Enjoy!