larryzplace Loc: Elk Grove Village Illinois

Had a good time with that camera... Great aunt gave it to me when her brother passed away... Hence my hobby started over 50 years ago.... The lens was a 90 mm f .9 you read that right F.9 it was a german one.... wish i had it today.....

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I agree with you. It seems to be a fad in wedding photography currently. I can't grasp that a bride who spent a fortune on makeup, wedding and reception color schemes, dresses, etc. truly enjoys capturing precious moments of her special day in shades of gray.

I did a portrait session a few months ago for a 40-ish couple with two kids. She wife said they'd want 11X14s and some B&W shots of their two kids separately and together. So that means she had seen that somewhere before. But when I sent them samples of 34 shots for them to choose 15 for their 11X14s she ended up not picking a single B&W.

That's why I feel it's a fad that is spread by somebody seeing somebody else's package that included some "artistic" B&Ws and thought they ought to have that as well to be just as cool.

I think there's a place for B&W but not everywhere all the time. I have an 8X10 of my mother in a portrait studio about 1950 and I know it wouldn't be improved with color. Certain subjects almost demand trying B&W but I'm seeing too much of it lately.

I also suspect some photographers are masking uninteresting photos by trying to make them interesting with B&W.

Woodie Rick

LaSalle Bank? Photography? I'm confused? Guess I have been shooting black and white for way too long, kind of messes up one's mind. I would have stopped years ago if I had known it was just a fad and there were too many B&W pictures out there. Live and learn!

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

Me too. I've been chasing a fad. Making things look good that were crappy by turning them to B&W. They were crappy all along I just didn't know. Looks like I'm moving back to Texas and back to color. Bet it will be the best thing that ever happened.

Back to Texas

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

OOps I almost forgot.
Be sure and say a prayer for me...will ya?

The Light of Prayer

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Apparently you guys can't read what I or the thread author said and prefer to put your own meaning to our words. I said there are places where B&W is appropriate and some subjects demand it but that it's being overused by many shooters today. I also did not say that all photographers are trying to turn bad photos into interesting ones with B&W.

On the LaSalle banking you'll notice that the bottom of the sign says Drive Thru Banking and somebody drove thru the drive thru sign. That was the subtle humor of the photo.

Similar to the Bubba family stopped for driving while having a concrete picnic table precariously roped onto the roof of their station wagon. When the cop who stopped them asked why they were doing this dangerous thing the driver said, "Well we stopped back there at the rest stop and it said 'Free Picnic Tables' so we took one."

Woodie Rick

pale: Very nice work indeed! Keep it up!

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

In the many months you've had that avatar up, I never noticed the damage and wondered why that bank was your avatar. Thanks for explaining. :thumbup:

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

When it comer to B&W I still use film and still use my darkroom the rest of the time I use digital Nikon d300 for color :thumbup:

vgosnak

I can understand your "frustration". But the same question you can ask those playing blues or r&r or even classics. I'm speaking as a b&w amateur photographer who had to learn to see in b&w, to be able to apply interesting compositions and textures and respect very straight forward rules in b&w. Most of color photographs are based on how the person saw that colors in a particular moment. Usually ignoring the behind the color effects such as interesting story, composition and emotions. Colors alone are not enough.

SENSORLOUPE

Great==Great== Portrait

FredB Loc: A little below the Mason-Dixon line.

B&W is not a medium. It's a technique. A medium is the CARRIER for the vision - charcoal, pen & ink, crayons, watercolors, etc.

Why is it that some people can't understand what I wrote? Is it that obtuse? I've re-read my original post in this thread from 13 pages ago, and nowhere in it do I say these things:

1) All B&W is crap
2) Your B&W is crap
3) My color is better.

I simply said, and I suggest those with a problem understanding re-read it, is that A good percentage of B&W these days is created by new photographers who don't understand how to shoot it, have a bad shot to start with and think that converting to B&W automatically makes it better.. The same goes for photographers who use selective coloring, excessive Photoshopping, and so forth. It's crap.

If that rankles your sensibility that's too bad. If it hits too close to home, that's too bad. If you have not done this, and all of your black and white pictures are perfectly marvelous, then obviously my comments don't apply to you.

Nowhere did I claim that my shots were better. Nowhere do I claim that it's not a good idea to LEARN how to shoot B&W. (It probably IS a bad idea to display your crude learning attempts in a gallery on SmugMug or Flickr as if you are the next Steiglitz or Adams, but no one seems to understand that around here.)

Of course, now some people will jump all over me for defending my position, or tell me to "lighten up" or whatnot, but I'm not doing anything more than they did when they derided my statements.

To those who want to see my crappy color, I suggest simply looking at the posts I've made in the Photo Gallery section. They may well be crap. If you think they are, convert them to B&W and see if they're magically better...

waykee7 Loc: Cortez, Colorado

All art is some degree of abstraction from reality. Sometimes more abstraction works, sometimes less. Some people love Picasso or Pollock, and others don't. I'm primarily a black and white photographer, but I think the test of a photographer's mettle is the ability to make a fine photograph when conditions aren't conducive to their primary approach. Thus, when the light is flat or diffuse, I tend to focus on color interpretations, and when there's strong contrast and a strong image, I tend to shift to a b&w visualization. There's also no doubt that many of the finest photographs humanity has produced are b&w, partly because color is a relatively recent development, and partly because there's an artistry in a finely crafted and finely printed b&w. It takes a long time to get good at black and white; the beginner may occasionally make a fine black and white image, but I have been photographing for over 40 years and I feel it's only in the last two years that I started "seeing" in black and white. It's very difficult to master. If you ever get a chance to see an exhibit of someone like Ansel Adams or Edward Weston, those huge silver gelatin prints have a luminosity and a sublimeness that's just amazing. One last point in my long-winded commentary. B&W generally renders clouds more dramatically than color, except when the main purpose (sunrise, sunset) IS color. In terms of creating drama (note I didn't use "capturing") it can give a very real edge to scenics. Maybe not catching autumnal colors tho!

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

This brought Tears to my eyes. All those years. I think I need to find some clouds.

Holding Back Tears

waykee7 Loc: Cortez, Colorado

In the foreword of his autobiography, Teddy Roosevelt said:
We of the great modern democracies must stove unceasingly to make our several countries lands in which a poor man who works hard can live comfortably and honest, and in which a rich man cannot live dishonestly nor in slothful avoidance of duty; and yet we must judge rich man and poor man alike by a standard which rests on conduct and not on caste, and we must frown with the same stern severity on the mean and vicious envy which hates and would plunder a man because he is well off and on the brutal and selfish arrogance which looks down on and exploits the man with whom life has gone hard.

This was written before my country adopted the Ayn Rand Jesus apparently.