...AND SPEAKING OF LANDSCAPES

Aloha. I found my Hawaii disk. I love my Hawaii disk. It disappears, then reappears when I least expect it. The photos are not on the computer, but on this precious little disk. The photos were created long before I had any inclinations of becoming a photographer. They were shot with a simple point and shoot. An old point and shoot, not one of these super megapixel point and shoots you can buy these days.

But I reviewed the disk again because I love the landscape of Hawaii. Or I should say the seascape of Hawaii. The photos were shot in 2004 on the island of Oahu. The reason I’m bringing them out is because I stated in my previous post that I don’t have the photographic talent to shoot landscapes (or something of that sort). When the Hawaii disk does show up, I realize I underestimate my own talents. And this before I took the whole photographic thing seriously.

Now to be fair, I did do a little touch up on these photos, added some contrast, pulled the color for a sharper image. But the skies and the sea are real. That’s why I love Hawaii. The skies and the sea are absolutely beautiful.

So maybe I do landscapes (or seascapes or cityscapes or riverscapes). To me a landscape is rolling hills, but I do know there's more to it than that. Rolling hills bore me. But the sea and the city and the river, just my style. And black and white (yeah, that's a style thing too).

Aloha!

THE COLOR OF WINTER

Birds are circling nearby my house. I’m reading a dark comedy about the Apocalypse and the trees are close to bare. The death of fall is upon us, the coming of winter approaches. But these are not the signs I generally look for to signal winter’s grand entrance. How do I know winter is so close? I start pulling color from my photos.

Now, you could say, “Whoa, slow down Kerri. There’re still plenty of leaves on the trees and there’s a brilliance of orange and yellow and red in the air.” Yeah. I know. I see it. But as I believe that I lack the artistic view of a landscape photographer, this does me no good. So yeah, if you’re big on landscapes, the land is still stunning. Fact is, every time I drive North on I-95, I marvel at the light dancing across the color of the leaves (okay, that’s really more when I’m a passenger than when I’m driving – on I-95, you just don’t take that chance).

But I digress. Where were we? Oh yeah, pulling color from photos. You see, I like the lay of shadows this time of year. I like the bare limbs. I like the dark side of winter. I look at a scene now and I know if the final result will be color or black and white before I even shoot. Used to be I stayed inside all winter, plopped down in front of the computer or TV, but since my ventures into black and white and tints, winter brings out the dark side of my artistic pallet. I know, it’s not to everyone’s taste, but that’s art.

So let me share a few shots from my latest fall excursion (I actually was looking for color). Don’t worry; I popped in a bit of color so as not to rush the season.

And that book – the dark comedy about the Apocalypse - Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. A lovely read for winter. When you get into your own black and white winter doldrums, this book will put a smile on your face (if it doesn’t make you laugh out loud).

EMOTIONS

I was reading an interview with Mitchell Kanashkevich the other day about the importance of color in photography and how it's needed in order to pull emotion for the viewer. This in turn led to quite a few black and white photographers decrying the statement. While I find Mitchell's work stunning, I have to say that I agree with the black and white photographers.

Emotional pull can be further rendered with black and white. I've been playing around with black and white photography lately. I always shoot in color, but when viewing the image, I look at it to determine what I want the viewer to see. I experiment with dark images, gritty images. I don't think everything is about happy, vivid colorful shots. I've also been playing around with industrial imagery, which to me, while it holds a certain value in color, expresses a lot more emotion in black and white. Maybe it has to do with the fact that color film wasn't available at the beginning of the industrial revolution and by processing the image in black and white, it holds true to form. The industrial age, while it made many rich and brought the world to a new stage of being, at least in my eyes, was not a pretty picture. Personally, it's effect is black and white. Gritty. Dirty. And in today's green environment, showing the beginning as it was, gritty and dirty, makes for a true life emotional image.

So, with that said, tell me, which photo elicits more emotion - color or black and white?

UNTITLED 1

Seriously? I honestly don't know what to call this. The photography? Piece of cake. Titling? Well, sometimes it just boggles my mind.

But the trip, the trip to get this photo was unbelievable. It started on the Canal Walk in Richmond, VA, by Tredegar Iron Works (now the Civil War Museum) and ended on Belle Isle.

Tredegar Iron Works has all this beautiful, black, industrial ironwork that makes for wonderful shots. I've been working with black and white lately and there's nothing like industry to make a great black an white. I only touched the surface.

Belle Isle was once a prison for Union Soldiers (a pretty nasty prison from the historic markers around the place) and served many other functions before it became a city park. It's a great point of exploration. I only walked a small part of the island and will definitely return.

The whole place is surround by the James River which in and of itself is a beautiful body of water. Over the next few weeks, I'll share some of what I found.