Filling in the blanks.

When I go home to visit my Dad in St. Louis, I will often look at photos that were taken when I was a baby or even before I made my presence into this world. What’s interesting is how black and white photography was pretty much the only game in town. That or really bad color photos.

Now black and white is very much in vogue--what I like/love about it is how you have to fill in the colors with your mind. You don’t have to worry if that outfit looks bad because of the colors, because there is no color. Plus you use your imagination in a way that is much more creative than looking at the “exact.” One of my favorite things to convert to black and white are scenery shots; probably the one subject that should never be converted. (Tell Ansel Adams that!)

In digital photography, and with the help of Photoshop and other “enhancers,” you can pretty much do whatever you want with a photo. Don’t like the tree, then move it; head not right, change it. It’s all pretty simple and you really cannot tell the difference.

When I used to sell advertising in a magazine called, “Sunset,” I will never forget hearing how the cover photo had a cloud moved from one side of the photo to another. Since this is not newsworthy editorial, changing a photo for visual reasons (it fell right on top of the magazine’s logo) is perfectly fine. Changing a newsworthy photo or one you might find in National Geographic, that’s not fine. Accuracy is an important part of what they produce each month.

For me, photography is way to make the ordinary creative. Whether it’s a photo that is shot from behind the individual or a quirky angle, that’s okay if it looks visually interesting.

The photo above is one I wanted to shoot and knew it would be fun. The two girls above are my daughter and her good friend, Ava. They have known each other for years. What I like most about the photo is the silhouette because you use your imagination but also split in the water line. Shot at Brookfield Zoo’s new bear exhibit, the bears were nowhere to be seen, but luckily either were the people when I wanted to take this photo.

Thanks for stopping by.