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June 08, 2005

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Here's another angle from Jessica's picture. This was from an original shot taken of Jessica's reflection in a pool of water. The pool was found on the top of a rock during a group hike up the Old Rag trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. 

For this image I just cropped out a close up of Jessica's face and turned it to black and white. 

(Black and White?) 
Strange, but this is a feature that many people have found to be very artistic in photos. But why?
For many years I, myself thought that this was a stupid format to use. I mean, after all, how many years did it take us to invent color photography and film? And how real does something look in color as opposed to black and white? Hello? most of us see in color! Why even go back to the dark ages, (literally), and go backwards in technology? I often found myself shrugging my shoulders in disappointment while looking at an Ansel Adams shot, thinking, "Can't this guy afford color film? Come on man, get with the program!" 

But after playing around with photography and so many images myself, and changing numerous pictures to black and white, and examining the results, I have finally found a new appreciation for these images. For some strange it seems to be able to throw a variance of moods or emotion into an image that puts it into a totally different perspective. I now feel that sometimes that vibrancy of color can, in fact, distract us from the actual subject. By taking out all of the variables involved with color we can now see the expression and emotion of the person themselves. But then that only applies to people. Right?

As far as landscapes, I think there may be another factor there. When we think of history and the "old days", we often think of them as colorless. Especially due to years and years of black and white films and photography from that era. So by throwing a black and white image of a beautiful landscape in front of our eyes, maybe we get the illusion that we are looking at an older time, a time long ago, untouched by the encroachment of development and progress. And we get the feeling of stepping back in time. And we can then appreciate the purity of the moment.

Well, that's just my input anyway.

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