This past week I have been busy with other things than photography - I know...say it isn’t so! I haven’t taken the time to pick up my camera, so I will instead offer this rewrite of a post from 2020.
I looked out my window and the morning sun was poking under the clouds creating deep shadows on the cold white snow.
I mused about the quote by photographer Paul Outerbridge, “In black and white you suggest; in colour you state.” and with those words in mind I rushed to get my coat and boots, attached my 70-200mm lens on my camera, and went outside intending to get some interesting black and white photos of the shadows being cast in the yard.
However, as I trudged out into the snow the day changed, and clouds drifted over blocking the sun. Instead, the landscape become flat, overcast, and shadowless. Shaking my head, I remembered that verse by Robert Burns, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
I was disappointed, but I spied a planter poking out of the snow and in desperation I focused on it and released my cameras shutter. Walking through the snow a bit further I saw and photographed an old wooden wheel that was leaning against a frozen lilac bush, and I thought, what the heck I’d walk down the street and see what I can find.
I could see a bicycle waiting for summer against my neighbour’s fence, and some wire plant holders in my garden. Boulders jutted out, sharp branches protruded, the snow falling off my plastic covered greenhouse made interesting shapes, and the handle of a rusty old snow blower my friend Shaun stuck along the road in front of my house on a hot day last summer to remind me that winter snow was only a few months away.
I just needed to “think in black and white” and remember to meter the darkest areas of each subject so I would not lose detail.
I wondered if I should drive down to the river or up along the road to find some deep snow drifts. Maybe I was just lazy, but one never has to go very far from home to find subjects to photograph and anyway the road had very little snow, so walking was easy and instead I just took a slow stroll along the road.
Even without the bright sun making shadows everything still could work as black and white photographs and that’s what I wanted. I began by thinking flat overcast light wasn’t worth my time, but that changed and when I returned home and loaded my pictures on the computer, I was pleased with some of the photos I made.
A photographer I once met said that he believed “shooting in black and white refined one’s way of seeing.” That’s an intriguing thought, and if it is so, there wasn’t a much better time to visualize in black and white and exploit tonal elements in a scene as when one is viewing the soft tones of a snow-covered landscape.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
