January 21, 2013

Black and White

I spent New Year's Day driving south from Bend, Oregon to San Jose, California thinking about my photography. With Ilfochrome discontinued and ~2 years left of stock, I wonder whether I might take up Black and White photography. I certainly enjoyed my time with Polaroid Type 52.

There's a lovely expanse of rolling hills south of Winters along HWY 5 that beckoned a side trip which took me through lots of agriculture land. At one point, near sunset, I passed a group of stacked pipes on the side of the road. They begged a U-turn. I only had my Nikon D800e which I still associate with as a color photographic tool. But I worked up a composition attempting to visualize the scene as a black and white. Having nice contrast in tonality plus highlights on the front edge of the pipes felt critical to the success of the image. Post processing in Lightroom was a series of stops, starts, and redox, considering the ways tonalities are changed with different adjustments. Lots of learning ahead but I like how this first pass turned out.