Sunday, December 20, 2009
Flowers unpainted
Click to view Black and White Flower gallery
While in college I read Ansel Adams' photography books and spent hours in bathrooms with tape around the doors to hide from light while I developed film and printed images. After I found steady work and could afford a real darkroom, time was too short to spend processing film and printing pictures. In fact, time was often too short to take pictures at all.
Decades later Canon, among others, makes cameras that produce images comparable to film, Epson manufactures desktop printers that use the same inks and paper as larger commercial units, and software such as Lightroom and Photoshop have replaced the darkroom for all but the most conservative photographic purists.
These technical advances along with the inevitability of retirement, led my return to photography where I marveled at the beauty of color images, first of flowers then of animals and scenic landscapes that I had neither the equipment nor skill to create when I first began making prints.
Nevertheless, I remain intrigued with the monochromatic shapes, textures, and patterns that characterize black and white photography and have posted a gallery of floral images in black and white rather than in color.
The image at the top of this post is, to my belief, that of a Star of Bethlehem, but I remain open to correction from any botanical-minded individual who has a different opinion.
Labels: Bethlehem Flower, black and white, flowers, photography
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