Seeing in Black & White

I've only dabbled in black and white photography over the years, mostly from way back when I was taking darkroom classes and only printed in black and white.  This photo was from my snowy walk last month up in Maryland and it is the first time I've ever won anything for a B&W -- a third place in a photo club competition!  

Earlier this week I sat in on a talk about black and white photography earlier sponsored by a different photo club, the first in a series of five.  There is something very satisfying about stripping out distractions and focusing on the simplicity of a B&W image.  Light, shape, texture, form, composition.  

It's silly but I keep thinking about the less literal meaning of seeing things in black and white.  No nuances; things are either good or evil, right or wrong.  Life, though, is messy and complicated and usually not able to be stripped down and simplified.  But a photo can be and I'm looking forward to playing with this some more.

Icy Triad

Honoring MLK

Since the entire mall is on lock-down -- with a separate text this morning announcing that the Martin Luther King memorial is closed today -- thought I'd revisit the vault to find one of the memorial.  This one is from a sunrise shoot in March 2012 when the cherry blossoms were peaking (but the sun was nowhere to be found).  Feeling angry but hoping there is still hope for his legacy.

 

Otter escape!

Oh my, I couldn't have asked for a better escape from the madness in DC surrounding the recent insurrection (gheez, never thought I'd be writing that in my photo blog), upcoming inauguration and what not.  Greeted by a river otter!  It was so gracious to pose for the passerbys in nearby Huntley Meadows park in Northern Virginia.  I'm still smiling.  

Profile shot

"Hey, look at me!"

Yum, fish!

 

Walking around town: Back to black (circles)

As we begin the new year, I'll post from one of my walks this past July around town, theme: back-to-black--circles.