Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Fade to black (and white)


Back in the Dark ages, B.D. (Before Digital) I used to do a lot of black and white photography. For years I had my own darkroom. I even got into large format with one of those "cumbersome" 4"x5" view cameras. ("Cumbersome" seems to be a descriptor that always accompanies "view camera.") But S.D. (Since Digital) I've done very little with b&w. Yes, I've played with it in Photoshop but I've never been very happy with the results and so just let it go.

The other night Elaine had a dream that I was photographing surfers in black and white. When she told me about it, it triggered a new thought. Whenever it's cloudy, I avoid shooting surfers because because the light is flat and relatively colorless. But what about black and white? Maybe b&w could be a way to "save" those cloudy day shots. This was an especially interesting thought since we just went through two days of good waves but crappy light.

So I started doing some studying and more, serious experimenting. I'm certainly not an expert. but I've come a long way from where I was. 

Yesterday I went out to Surfers Beach on a beautiful sunny morning. Right at the end of my photo session it clouded over.  This gave me new material to work with.

What do you think of the results?






You can see more of the color surf photos on our website, PuertoRicoSurfPhoto.com
and on Flickr.   

No comments: