Black & White Not Gray

Here are a couple more photos from a friend of mine that I wanted to post up here. I really enjoyed these two, if for no other reason than he is obviously stretching the boundaries and trying some new and creative methods. It has a startling effect on the view…at least, it did me.

Here is what my friend said about this photo:

I loved the texture on the ground on this one. I just wish the shadow of the spokes and the pedal would have shown up more.

The texture says everything in this photo. I look at the ground, the pedal (and don’t worry, being in the shadows has not harmed this subject a bit), the front wheel, everything. I feel like you have cut out just enough to say what you needed to say in this photo. If you show the viewer too much of a subject, you tell the whole story, and it is not visually stimulating. Not the case here; I love looking at this.

By inverting the colors and making the sky black, I felt the photo became more serious or, in a way, sad. The composition isn’t as strong in this one though, I think. Sometimes simpler is better, but this one just doesn’t have much depth. I guess that’s what I’m feeling it lacks (sometimes it’s kind of hard to pinpoint what a photo lacks for me).

Well, this photo may not have depth, but it is so stark (no grayscale at all, rather solid black & white), I would describe it as evocative. Yet, it does not say much, that is unless you have something to say about nature and electricity or some such. I would have cropped out the top, right corner since it does not seem to stick to the same black & white only, non-texture aspects of the rest of the photograph.

I really like these two photos. I think we, photographers, should strive to simplify our backgrounds and hone in on our subjects with all our shots so that we do not have to resort to drastic editing to bring it out, though. In other words, I love the effect, but try to accomplish the same “clarity” of vision in the composition of the photo instead of in the editing of the photo.