Ah...shoot.

“I saw a black an' white picture an' it caught my stare,

It was a pretty girl with bouffant hair.

He said: "That's my Bonnie,

Taken 'bout a year after we were wed."

I will admit, although my camera takes very nice color photos, when they are converted to black and white, they are much better. Sure there is no way to change the impact of something that needs to be in color---a fire, painting, or something where there is no replacing the impact color has on the outcome, but for the rest, give my good ol’ black and white.

This is a time of the year where I am shooting events; some are annual, some I hope will be annual as they are really a lot of fun to experience. Now, when I photograph portraits I offer them in color and black and white. It’s literally a flick of the switch to change them, and when other photographers charge money to make the change, I think…”that’s ridiculous.”

Recently I photographed an event for a Montessori school within the vicinity of where I live. The vicinity would be around 30 miles away. Although somewhat of a trek, I did like the people a lot, and I knew I captured some pretty fun and cool shots. I am not going to lie, the best photos are the ones they were never expecting for me to take. I am sure they never in their wildest dreams planned on doing what they did.

But, it’s my photo shoot, and in the end, they usually like them a lot more than 2 people standing next to one another looking into a camera. If that were what the shoots were all about, I would pass on the project. For this one, I had no idea who the people were, how they would respond, or feel about my asking them to step outside their comfort zone. Some did not want to, most did. I applaud those who did---I think they had fun.

I convert all of my photos now to black and white---take your pick, I want you to be happy. But what makes me happiest is when they pick black and white---it’s the one that usually ends up on the wall and not in the drawer.

The photo above is from the shoot; although I am sure they thought this was going to be dinner and auction, they walked away hopefully with a memory---one of taking a fun photo and having a memory to look at in their homes. Him...not her.

Thanks for stopping by.