Sunday, 01 November 2009

• PhotoPost: Monochromatic Photography

  Monochromatic Photography

  I've been following with interest Janet's (slmret) recent posts utilizing black and white photography. I know I just posted a PhotoPost a couple of entries ago, but the weather's been nice, and I've been taking Photo Expeditions, and have a lot of new photos to share. For this PhotoPost, I am doing something different. Almost all of these photos were taken in monochrome, or black and white. In the good old days, the only way to take b&w photos was to use monochrome film. Nowadays, one only has to push a few buttons on the digital camera.

   

  This is really a color photo, tweaked a bit with carving elements in the picture publisher, and saved to grayscale. I include it from my latest batch of Hollywood photos, so I can tell you where I went on Hallowe'en. This is the Museum of Death, on Hollywood Blvd, near Gower Street. Inside are displays for embalming (including a rather clinical movie showing EXACTLY how it's done), plus exhibits on serial killers. Inside is the actual head of Paris' "Bluebeard" Henri Landru. I found this museum to be really interesting, and not for the squeamish. A perfect way to spend Hallowe'en.

  

  This is a study from the Betty Boop museum. Both Groucho Marx and Betty Boop originally appeared in black and white movies and cartoons, so it's fitting that they appear in monochrome. The color photo is rather busy, because there is a lot going on in my little displays. However, I feel the black and white version, shot in monochrome and not altered in any way, is the better photo.

  

  My Cape Cod village display, which is pretty small. (The buildings shown are about 3/4" high) lends itself very well to monochrome. I did black out the background in the Picture Publisher. This model is sitting on my cofee table in my living room.

  

  The contrast was adjusted post production in the Picture Publisher program, a few different ways, in truth, but this began as a monochrome photo. I wanted the lava look of the tiki god to show a little better. Also notice the highlights on the Shakespeare book spines, and the glow of my silver mug. The book in the background, by the way, "The Sands of Time" is a fake book jacket for the novel I wrote in high school, and was created in 10th grade.

  

  My possum skull, "smoking" an Oscar Meyer weiner whistle. This little guy sits on my night stand, and no external modification was done to this photo, shown as shot. I did take multiple shots, however, to get the best angle and the best contrast.

  

  Another study, this time of the porch outside my mobile home, taken at about 10:30 this morning, and not modified in any way. I like the play of shadows and light in this photo, which is why we take black and white photographs in the first place.

  

  Ansel Adams didn't need color. And I don't either in this shot of the rocky bluffs above Malaga Cove on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I've taken this shot more than once in the past, and here it is again, in glorious black and white. I did adjust the contrast somewhat in the Picture Publisher before uploading it online, so the blacks are really black.

  

  Another photo of the same outcropping. You can just make out the tops of the hills on Catalina Island in the distance. (26 miles away) It was rather hot today, even though the evenings and nights have been somewhat cool. There were quite a few photogs roaming about on the bluffs as I took these photos. There isn't a cloud in the sky either. One of the lcolor photos I'll post in an upcoming Photopost shows how clear the water is. You could see all the way to the reefs on the bottom. If I were to slip and fall, I'd go tumbling about 25 feet to the rocks  below.

  

  San Vicente Light, with Catalina Island in the background, framed by the Federal barbed wire fence. You can't go into the lighthouse, which is on Federal property. I like how the curve of the lighthouse is highlighted. This is something you'd surely miss if this photo had been taken in color instead of in monochrome.

  

  While driving home, I took a jog about four blocks from where I live, to get some shots of the train tracks disappearing in the distance.

  

  Here is a shot that could be from a small town in Texas, but is actually very close to the mobile home court in which I live. The color shots I took of this area aren't interesting at all, but the monochrome shots have a grandeur to them.

  

  I waited till the right moment to shoot a tank truck with glistening sides crossing the tracks. These shots have not been modified in any way, and are presented as shot, at about 2pm in the afternoon, with the sun low in the sky.

  

  Speaking of the sun, you can see that I shot this against the sun, which is behind the railroad signal. I've been wanting to get some shots of this railroad crossing for years, and today, with black and white imagery in my head as I set out to get some photos, I knew it would yeild some excellent images.

  

  There is a bit of modification in this photo, to adjust the contrast. They're tearing up the street about a block from the railroad crossing and on my way home, so I stopped to take some monochrome photos of the big cranes.

  

  Lastly, this photo of a crane sitting in front of a church, has not been modified in any way. A fitting end to Sunday's monochrome PhotoPost. I live in such a great area. I didn't go but ten miles today, and got some shots that look as if they were taken many more miles apart and in different states even.

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