Moodier in Black and White
Here are some photos taken on the same outing as my hike last Sunday in Edmonton’s Mill Creek Ravine – but taking out the color the images have a much moodier feel.
Spring Slope
Stairs and a Patch of Snow
Trunk on a Diagonal
All Quiet Under the Bridge
Tangled Slope
and as a bonus, a black and white image from beside the river in Edmonton’s Louise McKinney Park:
Promenade Beside the Ice
Late Winter – Black and White
Here is a little collection of black and white photos themed around the patterns and textures of late winter (late February at my home here in Edmonton).
“Last Year’s Plume”
“Irregular Patchwork”
“Up”
“Ice and the Far Edge”
“Temporary Condition”
A few more photos from this photo shoot may be seen on another of my blogs: YEGmonton.
Lines in Black and White
Take away the color and you are left with line and value.
Up Stairs 1
Art of the Curve
Hangin’ From the Moon
EPCOR Waterfall in Edmonton’s Churchill Square
Up Stairs 2
Simplified Geometry
Three recent (2015 October) photos – abstracts, in that what makes them interesting is the simplification of, the focus on, certain geometric forms.
Window on Blue
“Where Leaves Go”
On the Step
Mystery in the Darkness – 5 Abstract Autumn Photos
As the days of autumn get shorter and more of my waking time is spent in dim light my photography has changed. Perhaps not surprisingly but it s also getting darker – not just physically but also subject wise. I’m finding my favorite images have a mysterious, dreamlike to them quality. One is not sure what one is looking at and that can lead to a feeling of cautiousness, apprehension.
Abstract 218-423
Abstract Landscape 319-519
Abstract 321-787
Stairs to Where?
Tunnel Entrance
So how have I created the dark, ominous feeling in these photos? By keeping the edges soft the viewer is not able to focus in what is seeing and that gets the mind racing, bringing the viewers imagination into play. I frequently achieve those soft edges by using a long exposure (like 2 seconds) and I deliberately move the camera around. I will walk into the scene during the exposure and frequently also be shaking the camera as I do so. I also let the darks dominate in the image, sometimes with strategic highlights and increased contrasts and sometimes with an overall low contrast. Finally I find that black and white can really add to the mystery but as you can see I have also let a dark but saturated blue dominate in this last image, but still managed to convey that mystery that I was looking for.
What to you think makes these images work (in mysterious ways). Do you have any techniques or approaches for achieving similar moods?
Architectural Black and White
Here are five black and white renditions of photos I took yesterday of and around the Edmonton Convention Centre (Shaw Conference Centre). These images focus on form:
Stairs
Edges
Concrete Cuboid
Hall D
Reflection in a Curved Wall
Photos in the Rain
You might think that rain and photography don’t mix – I did. First there is just the hassle of trying to keep your camera dry or your lens unspectled. Today I decided I was going out with my camera (Nikon D80) and just tucked it under my rain jacket, pulling it out only for a quick shot. I also mad a point of keeping the lens pointed down when not in use to minimize the possibility of raindrops striking it.
Perhaps a bigger deterrent to taking the camera out is the fear that there will not be anything to take a picture of. The environment looks very devoid of color – just grey and green everywhere. Also it is relatively dark so one is forced to resort to higher ISO and/or lower f-stops for handheld shots. Or….one couldchange their approach.
Today, that is what I did. I decided I would deliberately go with slow shutter speeds – like around 1/4 second! I wasn’t going to worry about holding the camera steady. In fact I was planning to deliberately move it during the exposure ( a technique I have been playing with recently). I thought this approach was quite successful. I captured a number of images that I was quite happy with. In fact, I think the camera motion added signifcantly to reinforcing the feeling of rain – the directionality and blurring.
Rainy Street
Stairs in the Rain
Forest in the Rain
Fence Posts in the Rain
Dawson Park in the Rain
Seen this Winter Week
Here are a few of my photographs from this week in the middle of December. As has been the case with my recent photography, most of these photos were taken in the dim morning light or darkness of early evening. There was not a lot of color to be seen so I have rendered these images in black and white. A fair bit (15-20 cm) of snow fell this week in Edmonton so snow figures in most of these images.
This batch were all taken with my Nikon at 1600 ASA and were handheld
Between Road and Sidewalk
96th Street Building
On the Fence
Industrial Steam
Parabola (Black and White)
Snowed-in Morning Stairs
Rabbit on the Road
Randall Talbot - Artist 