2016 Photochallenge Week 37: B&W Shapes

Week 37 of the Photochallenge.org 2016 challenges encouraged us to take a black and white picture that focuses on shape.  This one is up my alley for sure since I'm a lover of B&W.  Hey I grew up with a black and white TV!  Try watching Voltron on B&W and having no idea what color the lions were...  I also used to help my mom develop her B&W photos in the dank and spidery basement of our old Hopkins home.

1) Sad Umbrella:  I saw this sad looking broken umbrella floating in a showy fountain at Disney's Epcot theme park and just had to take a few pics of it.  I think the geometric shape of the umbrella works for this challenge.

2) Spaceship Earth:  The classic giant silver faceted ball that is the centerpiece of Epcot, as well as a strange ride through the history and future of the human race on the planet Earth.  I took this with my iPhone since I left the camera at home most of the trip.

3) Gears:  This pic was taken just outside Lake Monster Brewing at the Vandalia Building in St. Paul.  They have all these cool old giant gears bolted to the exterior walls from when the building used to be a mattress factory.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few shots.

2016 PhotoChallenge Week 25: B&W Textures

At the end of last year I discovered Photochallenge.org.  This is a small group of photographers who set forth a weekly challenge to other professional and amateur photographers.  What I was drawn to with this weekly assignment is that is pushes you to try new techniques and get out and take pictures on a weekly basis.  I'm taking part again this year and will also do a quick blog post about each of them.  The rules of the challenge do require that these are new pictures, not from your back catalog.  With my busy work schedule, I may not be able to get out each week and do this, so I will likely add a few of my older photos on the blog--taking the opportunity to look at the plethora of pictures I've taken and actually do some processing and weeding.

2016 PhotoChallenge Week 25: B&W Textures

This past week's challenge is right up my alley!  I love black and white photography--perhaps because I grew up with a B&W TV for at least some of my childhood (try watching Voltron without being able to tell what color the robots are...) I'm usually drawn to textures when I've got my camera out--always snapping shots of rust, peeling paint, wood grain and more.  

1) Leafy:  I like the contrast on this one a lot, taking the somewhat ordinary green leaves into a bright and furry looking B&W shot.

2) Fuzzy:  This tiny plant's fuzzy filaments really struck me while taking pictures this fine day.  I may have taken about 30 shots of these guys but this one is my favorite...

3) Wood & Metal:  This is an old one from our trip out to Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania.  They used all old style techniques to recreate the old fort and all the old reinforced wooden doors and gates were a wonder to shoot!

4) Fluff:  This one is also an older shot.  I took this in the backroad ditches behind my family cottage a few years ago when my cousin Kathleen and I went out on a walk with our cameras.  

Photo Challenge #1: Go Black & White!

After playing along with Erin's 30 Word Thursday weekly challenge on her Treasures Found Blog for the past year I have finally taken the plunge and started taking photography more seriously.  Starting with my iPhone, I soon found that the limitations of that device were getting to me.  Upgrading to a Cannon Eos Digital Rebel SL1 camera, I have started experimenting more with technique.  I have also invested in Photoshop Elements 12 and most of my post-production on photos will be from that program.  As a way to force myself to try new things, I'm going to start a weekly photo challenge--with each week focusing on a different photography or editing technique.  Some of these may be simple and others more difficult.  I encourage any of my readers to take part in the challenge!  I'll try to post a link-up every Monday with the results of last week's challenge and the rules for the following week.

So for my first challenge I set the rules of changing 2-3 pictures from color to black & white format.  I figured that this would be an easy one, since most photo software can quickly do this for you.  I discovered that it was more difficult than I thought to find pictures with enough contrast to really pop in black & white!  I also realized that subconsciously when taking pictures I actually earmark many of my more "industrial" pictures like old machinery, ironwork details, and brewery equipment as future B&W pictures.  All the pics I was drawn to initially for this challenge had little color in them and were already close to monochrome!  So I worked hard to dig out a few more unusual pics for this one and forced myself to stretch a bit.

This was taken in Ghent, Belgium at an unusual modern structure surrounded by ancient stone buildings and churches.  The patterns were odd and out of place, but intriguing!  I think the contrast is more noticeable in the B&W version.

This was taken in Chiny, Belgium during last summer's trip.  We saw big trout jumping in this river and wandered the forested banks.  I think the effect is very different in B&W: with the texture of the ripples more noticeable than the green trees and weeds in the color version.

This one is my favorite of the three!  Taking a brightly colored (yet having all shades of green) picture and then showing the off the gradations of that color in the B&W version makes this look more impressive to my eye.

So there you go!  First week down and many more to come.  I'll be focusing more on editing effects for a while, since Minnesota winters are not ideal for picture taking.  If you want to try this along with me, feel free to post your own blog links below on the Inlinkz widget.  I'll keep that open for the whole week to encourage more playing along!  Also share this challenge with any of your friends who are into photography…especially newbies!

An InLinkz Link-up

Next week's Challenge #2 is another easy one, but a technique that is essential to modern photography: Cropping.  Since this is a pretty easy one I'm making it a two part challenge.  First I want you to fix a picture (by cropping) that is "ruined" by somebody's head, random passerby, car driving by, etc.  Second I want you to take a picture that is "good" on its own but needs to be cropped to either get closer up to the subject or to move it to a more pleasing spot in the frame.  I'll post my link next Monday for this, so you have a whole week!