Black & White

I like black and white photography. Monochromatic photography teaches the eye to see. Shooting film in black and white teaches the photographer to see contrasts, and and manipulate the camera settings to make the most of them. The end result is more graphic impact when the camera man does switch to color.

There is something about black and white that provides an immediacy and a truthfulness to a photograph that color can't seem to match. It is odd that a monochromatic image can achieve a greater sense of reality than color can provide. Perhaps it is because black and white has been a staple of photojournalism for so long. Whatever the reason, B&W is appealing to me.

Another advantage that I have found with digital photography is the ability to shoot in color and later convert to black and white. That was impossible with film. Through the magic of a good digital processing program, anything that can be adjusted in the darkroom can be adjusted on a monitor. I'm finding the ability to switch my images from color to monochrome to be particularly gratifying.

Today I went to visit a couple of old friends and had a portrait session with each. It was good to see them doing well. As for the gun section, Duff and I shot a bit of lead as well. Duff still out shoots me, but then, he grew up buying 22 bullets and using them to supplement a diet of greens and peas with small game.

Perhaps tomorrow I will write about shooting lead. The plan is to take Little Darling to the range. Today, I shot an old Colt Woodsman as an afterthought, to enjoy some time with a friend. Sometimes I wonder how long that will remain a possibility. Today, my focus was on shooting a Nikon, and getting back to black and white.