Black and White photography

Black and white photography has always been a bit of a conundrum for me. It’s so romantic, so dramatic, so direct, and yet, not real. I enjoy photographing rich colorful landscapes with deep azure blue skies, or magenta sunsets, or lush green sprawling meadows, or bright yellow “pop off the page” daisies. This is how we see, so I’ve always felt that if the photograph was drained of its wonderful palette there must be dark forces at work. One of my favorite photographers, Moose Peterson, recently taught a class on Kelby Training about black and white photography. It’s much more of an art form then I had thought.

Technically there’s a few things a black and white picture needs to have, namely something black and something white. These two obvious necessities give your mind the parameters to frame the rest of the shades of grey. Without a clear black the picture looks like everything is in a fog, without a clear white the picture lacks contrast and becomes just a darkened scene. Think of pure white and pure black like the header and footer on a page. Your brain can see that the interesting stuff is in the middle.

Emotionally, the power and depth that a black and white picture can emote is impressive. As an observer, having the color stripped away lets you look deeper, into the essence of light. Without all the color, the picture feels more precise, more pure, and even more truthful.

I used to wonder if color technology existed at the beginning of television and film, would black and white as a medium, even exist today. Now, I am sure that it would. Black and white images have a beauty that is only possible without color, and sometimes a story is better told without a rainbow of noise.

Nikon D800 Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 @ 50mm f/16 ISO 100 1/60 sec

#Travel Tuesday The South Rose Window in Notre Dame Cathedral

Long ago, around 1260 AD ,the south rose window was installed in the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was designed by Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil and was donated by King St. Louis. The window’s themes are from the New Testament and focus on the Triumph of Christ. For the meaning of specific panes you can check out this informative website. The pictures on that site are not mine.

A few facts. The window is almost 13 meters in diameter and contains 84 pieces of glass. Some of the panes have been lost and replaced, including the center one. Many of them are now out of order. Beneath the rose window there are sixteen lancets (spear shaped windows) which were replaced in the 19th century. They depict sixteen prophets and the four evangelists.

Sometime in my early schooling I learned of the miraculous rose windows at Notre Dame. I remember a picture in a textbook in history class. I remember the time I made “stained glass” with my grandmother. We melted Crayons placed between wax paper, then pasted them behind cut out black construction paper. When we hung them in a window it gave the general effect of stained glass.

Beautiful as the window itself is, one of the main factors that contributes to its glory is its surroundings. Hearing the whispered echoes refract endlessly in this holy place, smelling the musty incense from almost a millennium of worship, tracing the steps of millions of believers through the recesses of the hallowed Notre Dame, gives a sense of religious awe. To look up and see the spectrum of colors glittering into the immense hall sends chills down your spine and is a delight to the eyes. My picture hardly does it justice. So you’ll have to go yourself.

Nikon D800 ​Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 56mm f/5.6 ISO 1600 1/200 sec

The Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation

Last evening I attended the Cappie awards at Upper Darby High School. The Cappies is a critics and awards program for high school theater. Think of it as an Oscar night for high school students, including its own red carpet, and performances interspersed throughout the awards presentation. My daughter is the lead critic on her high school’s Cappie team and vice president of the drama club. She was nominated for two awards this year. While those particular awards eluded her, she was awarded the Casey A. Feldman Memorial Foundation Scholarship.

Casey Feldman was killed by a distracted driver while she was a senior attending Fordham University in July of 2009. The Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation was created to “support charitable, educational and literary pursuits and encourage volunteerism and good citizenship.” Every year, at the Cappies awards, one student is gifted with a scholarship from the foundation. My daughter was chosen for this honor and humbly accepted it last evening. I am proud of the things my daughter has accomplished, and my heart goes out to Casey’s parents and family. Thank you for creating a wonderful way of remembering such a kind and loving spirit.

Click!

As a relatively new photographer ,I don’t have a ton of work from the past, so now and then I don’t have anything fresh to post. So here’s an image I shot last year in September,for which many people have expressed their adoration. I was up early searching for a sunrise picture. Everywhere I drove, I came away empty handed. The scene was either too cloudy, or too congested, or too blah, or too, well, not inspiring. This church was one of the places I had paused in front of earlier but nothing stood out, nothing caught my eye. When I returned, with my new vantage point, I could place the Sun behind the church and see its rays play in the morning mist. The clouds that had earlier obscured the dawn, broke into soft patterns across the sky, transforming the solid blue into gradients of azure. Then (purely by accident of course) the hot air balloon drifted into frame. Click!

Church with hot air balloon (1 of 1).jpg

​Nikon D800 Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 38mm f/10 ISO 100 7 image HDR

Shippensburg Women’s Softball

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do some work for Shippensburg University’s Women's Softball Team. They are playing a tournament this weekend and their opening game was yesterday. The venue is in Quakertown so there was a little bit of a drive for me, but I had a blast! I’ve seen softball played before, but the strength, speed and professionalism these women played with was impressive. From a photographer’s standpoint I got to make good use out of a piece of hardware I don’t get to use often, the Sigma x2 teleconverter. What a teleconverter does is increase the magnification of the lense on the camera. A x2 teleconverter effectively doubles the range, so a 300mm lense becomes a 600mm lense. 600mm was the perfect length for me to take pictures from the outfield (behind the center field fence) to frame the batter, catcher and umpire at home plate. I was glad I put it in my bag.

Nikon D4 Sigma 300mm f/2.8 + x2 teleconverter @ 600mm f/5.6 ISO 400 1/1250 sec