monochromatic landscapes

I am not going to lie living in Southern California there isn't much to complain about. The weather forecast usually reads something like: sunny mid to upper 70s for the next five days. We wear bathing suits under our holiday clothes and apply sunscreen on Christmas. All that sunshine can make it difficult to capture the imperceptible weather shift come January.

I can tell its winter right now, we are seeing less blue and more gray. Everything monochromatic.  Leaves drop and shadows run long. Converting shots to black and white help me squeeze every drop of winter I can out of an image.  My favorite way to enhance lacy tree branches is to convert to black and white and add contrast.

Bright days of sunshine are common in the high desert, the chaparral goes dormant while the cactus lies in wait. The sun low in the sky casts a misleading softness to the needles. I see things differently with each season. I think the ambient light of wintertime brings out great detail you otherwise miss on a sunny filled day. A winter day can provide a nice neutral canvas to highlight your subject like the corroding scrolls of this iron gate. Winter is the perfect canvas.

 

untitled by *esra*

growing up in black and white

Remember those days as a young child when everything was black and white? You know, yes or no, right or wrong, hot or cold, light or dark…you get the picture. Things were usually one thing or another without much in between. In our youthful innocence, we could find beauty and excitement in everything from banging on pots and pans to moving pebbles from one spot to another. Where getting dirty didn't count, and getting cold certainly didn't matter if you were playing outside all day long. In the winter months, my sister and I would play in the snow until darkness fell and we were soaked through! As long as there were hills to sled down, ponds to skate on, or snowmen to be built, we were content!

This youthful innocence immediately spoke to me in the stunning image below by Cherish Bryck Photography. That little girl below, all puffed up in her layers, is completely fascinated by the pigeon display before her seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world. She reminded me of last winter's visit to my sister where I watched my nephew, stuffed into his own winter layers, zip around on his push bike despite the cold. While I chased him down the sidewalk, shivering in my down coat, he didn't even notice. In fact, he smiled, pausing long enough for me to snap off this picture, before darted away again leaving me trailing behind. How about you? Do you have any special memories of winter?

Holly ~ Soupatraveler

33/365 by cherish bryck photography

nature speaks

 

These winter months leave me feeling a bit uninspired. It's cold, rainy and gray...the type of days, I wish I could just sleep away. Sure I carry my camera around just as I did during those beautiful spring, summer and autumn days, but the motivation isn't the same. I dream of those snowy picturesque moments that I find in our Flickr pool, but my reality is simply gray.

I then come across a simple, yet elegant moment such as msjunior's photograph below, and I'm reminded of winter's unspoken beauty. I love the quote she included with her photo (author unknown): "There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough to pay attention to the story." 

Nature speaks to us in a variety of ways. I suppose I'm most willing to listen to beautiful rays of sunshine, the colors of spring flowers or the change of autumn leaves. But, if I'm willing to listen to the quiet of winter...I may be pleasantly surprised by the story that's told.

Until next time,
Ashley of Ramblings and Photos

Nature Speaks by msjunior

all about eve

When she was 38, Eve Arnold borrowed her boyfriend's Rolleicord camera and after a six week photographic course and under the tutelage of Alexey Brodovitch, a legend was born. Eve Arnold has always been my hero. Even before I knew anything about photography, I knew about her. She was a formidable woman; a woman in what was largely a man's world. But she didn't go on about it. Taking her camera with her, she went on the road with Malcolm X, she visited seedy brothels, she travelled to South Africa and took portraits of civil-rights protestors. All subjects that male photographers would also cover, but her black-and-white portraits have something so personal and insightful about them. She was well known for being meticulous with her preparation and you really get a feel of that when you look at her portraits of Marilyn Monroe, for example. I like her colour pictures, but I like her black-and-white portraits most of all.

Having read numerous obituaries about her this week (she died on the 6th of January, just shy of her 100th birthday), it was the stories of how she touched others that reached out to me. And these words from filmmaker Beeban Kidron really spelt it out: "She taught me how to look at pictures – for metaphor, form and truth." Looking through a book of her photos this week, I could see these three ingredients resonating in Eve Arnold's work. I could also see I still have a lot to learn. But Eve Arnold is a particular inspiration to me, because she showed that you don't have to have been born with a camera in your hand in order to take good pictures — you can come to photography later in life, provided you have a good eye. As she once put it: "It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument." Wise words indeed from a very wise woman.  Inspired by her, I have been picking up a Rollei of my own (borrowed, in my case, from my husband), loading it with black-and-white film and trying to channel her spirit.

The Rollei is a great camera for portraits, and I have been using special "close-up" lenses that let me get really close to the subject (in the image above, my daughter Ella). I've also been using a tripod. This is very different from my usual style of photography, but that is what makes it such a challenge, and such fun — trying something new. Andrea has also been experimenting with film, with a portrait of her daughter. You can't see all of her face and yet you get a feeling of the small moments becoming something bigger.

Which legendary black and white photographer do you find most inspirational? Go and look up more about them, borrow their books from the library or look at their pictures on the internet... and be inspired to try something new.

kirstin of fleeting moments

grace {25/52} by beauty_goodness_truth

winter day~shadow play

there is a magical beast that holds the secret of light and shadow in a safe place in her heart

and when it has been too long gray, she starts to dance and laugh and cry and sing 

and the sunlight fills her up and spills in wild abandon back into the world again.

~storypeople

I don't know about you, but I admit that the winter chill sometimes hinders my outdoor photo walks--some days are too cold and other times the inspiration just isn't there. Call it the winter blues? Maybe. But as I dart from place to place trying to stay warm I can't help but notice my shadow on the ground, always by my side even on the coldest of days. The winter days may be shorter but the sun still shines brightly and the shadows are plentiful everywhere I turn.

Check it out this week and you'll see! Look around for your shadow today. Stop. Maybe hop around and enjoy its mysterious and playful sides. Take a moment to acknowledge your constant companion ~ pull out your camera or your mobile phone and take a quick snap. It is sure to brighten even the coldest of winter days.

And if you'd like, come back and show me what you captured!

~christy {urban muser}

8/366 Shadow Me or Hooray, the Sun is Out! by Mt Hood Mama (Barbara)

inspired by winter black and white.

Something I'm striving to do more is to take black and white photos. I've got some black and white film out at the developer, and I'm saving another roll of Ilford black and white for a special occasion. Or rather, one where a black and white opportunity presents itself. What is a black and white opportunity? I don't know either! But I always know when it appears. That is because black and white, to me, has a particular presence, and adds, to what would a regular shot in color, a timelessness and classic, nostalgic quality. I especially like it for portraits and for photos where the strength of the composition lies in its geometry and simplicity. I think winter is a great time to embrace black and white so I was excited about this theme. Winter can be a quiet time, and black and white can add to the peaceful quality of a moment captured. It is also a time, with the holidays, that means visiting family: an opportunity for classic, memorable portraits made all the more by black and white. When I think of winter, I see black and white images of a single bird in a tree in the snow, a warm mug of cocoa in fuzzy mittened hands, lone survivor winter grasses against a bokehed barn, bare branches against a crisp day's cold sky.  

Mamadunk enhanced the beauty of this gorgeous dog with her use of black and white. When do you like to use black and white? It's certainly helpful that we can take a digital shot and try it out in black and white in the post process, isn't it?

happy shooting!

~cara of cararosephotos.

winter izzy by mamadunk

dreaming in black and white

Alright, I confess – I’m one of those irritating people who look at a beautiful black and white photo and say ‘I wonder what that would look like in colour?’ I’m a colour addict; I love it, yearn for it, am inspired by it, delight in it. So I wasn’t too happy when we came up with this theme but, hey, I like a challenge.

Even though I enjoy looking at other people's black and white shots, I don’t think I’ve ever deliberately taken a photo in black and white. I’ve converted quite a few colour ones when I felt the colour wasn’t doing anything to add to the picture, but I find it almost impossible to bring myself to shoot with black and white in mind.

One thing I really do like about black and white is its strong graphic qualities and I also love that sort of glowing effect that some people manage to achieve. Taking the colour away immediately puts a photo at one remove from ‘real’ life and imparts a dream-like quality to it. (They say most people dream in black and white; I don’t know how true this is as I’ve always dreamt in vivid colour - see, even in sleep I have to have colour!) Something I often feel in winter is this sense of not quite being part of the world; it's a half-asleep, dream-like time for me. In summer I’m outside a lot and feel like I belong in the world; in winter, I’m more often inside and looking out on it, and I feel a bit disconnected, and even slightly lost. It's a feeling that's emphasised by the soft, muffling effect of snow on both sound and colour; black and white shots do convey this feeling a lot more effectively than colour.

The photo above had very little colour in it to begin with – just the brown trunks of the trees. I converted to black and white and added an Orton effect to give it something of an other-worldly look.  ~Ania♥ has also added an Orton effect to her picture, which I think gives a very dreamy, not-quite-there feeling to the scene. In the comments section of her photo on Flickr, she shows the same scene in autumn colour; go and have a look - it makes for an interesting comparison. Does colour make you feel most alive, or do you prefer black and white?

gilly of the camera points both ways

winter visit by ~ania♥

and the next theme is... WINTER IN BLACK AND WHITE

There is something about winter that calls me to black and white.

december skies by kirstinmckee 

 The contrast in the weather and the bare branches of the trees.

  Weather Pattern by Kat Eye View 

 The feel of the snow, gently falling.

  sister, in the snow by tumbleweed.in.eden 

 The land is in hibernation, and color recedes.

  5/30 Simple Sage (+1) by soupatraveler 

We leave our mark, in different ways.

 october snow by Urban Muser 

Today, start sharing your experience of WINTER IN BLACK AND WHITE with us in the Flickr Pool. We love black and white here at the Mortal Muses, with an everyday photo selection on our Life in B&W page. Have you noticed it before? If not, you are missing out! While we muse on the WINTER IN BLACK AND WHITE theme, we will celebrate our ongoing love of black and white on all of our three pages.

 But first... We celebrate the New Year as we start musing on FRESH tomorrow. See you then!