Monochrome photography - give it a go!

 Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing well. It is freezing here today. A good day to be inside in front of the fire. Or even playing around with your photography. 

Yes on a wet cold day you can still do photography. What about taking a photo of that bowl of soup you have just made for dinner? Or just lay out some kitchen utensils. Experiment with something new. 

Have you tried monochrome photography - black and white OR tones of one colour? (ie you could change an image to tones of green) 

A couple of weeks ago our photography group had a zoom workshop with an eminent mono photographer. I was blown away by his images and learnt a lot. Len's work is so inspiring. 

Thank you Len Metcalf  

Len says he leaves his camera in black and white mode while he takes his photos, whereas "I thought" the "usual" school of thought was to take your photos in colour, then convert potentials to black and white later in post processing. Of course before the advent of digital photography we had to choose whether to use a colour roll or black and white.

I won't pretend to be anywhere near the level of Len or any of the other great black and white photographers, but here are a few pics maybe to get you thinking about monochrome - which is very much, I think, about shapes, texture, form, contrast, shades and light. Monochrome takes away the distractions of colour and allows us to hone in on the subject matter. 

Not all subjects photograph well in black and white. So experiment! 

Here are some tips from Digital Photography School: Beginners guide to black & white photography

Lets start in the kitchen. They usually don't recommend mono for food, as the colour in food photography is compensating for the viewer for the lack of taste and smell, but I think these few work... In case you are wondering, top left is liquorice allsorts minus the colour! 

In the garden or out walking. That is a seed head top left, and close up of a banksia flower bottom left. Don't forget you can also take photos against (facing toward) the light as in bottom right. 

or these....  Incidentally the top left photo is processed with tones of one colour

Architecture is a great subject for mono photography. Take a walk in any town or city and you will find shapes, angles, patterns everywhere. Look for shadows and look up and down. Reflections in windows are great subjects too. 

If you have Lightroom you can change to TONES of your image to tones of ONE COLOUR. Make a copy of your image, and then in the DEVELOP tab, change your image to black and white, then look for the split toning tab on the right hand side of the develop screen, and move the sliders so the HUE and the SATURATION are the same number. You can see below I have changed this image of the window reflection to blue - and therefore monochrome. 

I had a thing about photographing balconies and washing when we were walking in Spain and Italy a couple of years ago. Recently I read that when sky can be blown out because you are trying to compensate for the shadow in the narrow street - converting to black and white can make this less noticeable. I think it works in this photo. 

Black and white portraits are classic and timeless 

And a few more. Even fireworks - bottom right below

Monochrome - tones of one colour

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you have enjoyed this little look at mono photography. Do you enjoy mono photography?

To find out more: there are of course many many more......

Len Metcalf

50 great black and white photographs from the masters

Ansel Adams

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Imogen Cunningham

I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 
I am linking up to the link-ups below. Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!
   
MosaicMonday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf
Sharon's Sovenirs 

Our World Tuesday
Pictorial Tuesday 
ThroughMy Lens 
Image-in-ing
My corner of the world through my camera 
Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global hosted by Randomosity. 
       and Little bird - Pienilintu
Thankful Thursday 
Der-Natur-Thursday 
The Lovin' Life Team over at: Deep Fried Fruit
 Month end link up @ Live love craft me

Hello there! I love reading your comments. If you scroll down to the bottom you can comment too! I would love to hear from you.

Continuing my 52-2 project

My regular readers may remember that in 2014 I completed a 365 project - one photo a day for a year. If you go to the link you can see my 2014 year in pictures - 365 project  It was a huge undertaking, but I found it hard to stop when the year ended so I embarked on a new project - 52-2. This is a project conducted through the Western Australian Photographic Federation and is encouraged by our local Photography Group of Bunbury. You can read more about it here - WAPF - 52-2 project

The brief for the project is to take two photos a week - one colour and one mono for 52 weeks. It is actually a great way to get into the habit of experimenting with mono images. I introduced my project to you on a blog post in early February - A new photography project for 2015 and I thought today I would bring you an update

PS - I did finish this project - and printed a book at the end - for some reason I haven't shared with you.  Sorry! 

Please click on "read more" to keep seeing and reading more

Heritage architecture in Bunbury

The project for Project Flickr this week was "windows and doors".

There are some lovely old homes in Bunbury in what is known as the "tree street" area. So I decided to make a mosaic of some lovely doors and windows and entrances. They have such beautiful styling, detailing and warm welcoming feel.
People probably wondered what I was doing driving around stopping outside of houses and taking photos!

It is a lovely area - not one street, but a collection of streets. There are lots of old style houses - some grand, and others more simply styled, but many beautifully restored. I really like the detail in some of the entrances - with the gates, the arbours, erns, and planters. And see that bay window draped with the lace curtain? beautiful. And for a simple cottage homely feel, I really like the one in the middle of the top row - a terrace house. 

Below is the entrance door of the Bunbury Regional Art Galleries. It is a beautiful building - and the former Sisters of Mercy Convent and Chapel built in 1897 in Federal Free Medieval style, a blend of Gothic and Southern European architectural characteristics.
The building is pink and I really like the decorative plasterwork you can see here above the arch.

 Doors within a door - I can see 4 in the picture (& also my reflection)

I love this building, and I often photograph it from different angles - here are some of its beautiful arches.

And another mosaic of Bunbury architecture - some old and some very new!

Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday. To see the beautiful work of Mary at Little Red House and other contributors please click on the link - Mosaic Monday

A walk around Bunbury's history, Western Australia

I took a walk around Bunbury the other day taking photos of architectural detail for an assignment on Flickr.
It really highlighted to me the many different eras of architecture we have in Bunbury.

The history of Bunbury and Australind began in 1803 when the first registered sighting was recorded by French Captain Louis Freycinet. The Leschenault Estuary was named after the expedition’s botanist, Leschenault de la Tour, and Geographe Bay after one of the fleet’s ships.

British interest dates from 1829 when a survey party from the Swan River Colony sailed down the coast and explored the area around Koombana and Vittoria Bays.  A military post was established at Port Leschenault in 1830. It was renamed Bunbury by Governor Stirling in 1836 in honour of Lieutenant HW Bunbury, who explored the area on his expedition from Pinjarra to Vasse. In 1838 Stirling leased part of his land in Bunbury to John Scott whose family became the first settlers. The Bunbury townsite was gazetted in 1841.

There are two Bunbury Heritage Trails which feature 58 sites of historical and natural interest. In the collage you will see some of the different styles of architecture -

Bunbury’s original post office, constructed with convict labour in the early 1850s.from limestone with a shingled roof (see detail of the roof second from the right bottom)

The Regional Art Galleries in Wittenoom Street is housed in the former Sisters of Mercy Convent and Chapel built in 1897 in Federal Free Medieval style, a blend of Gothic and Southern European architectural characteristics.(middle left)

An attractive part of the city’s streetscape is the Rose Hotel in Victoria Street built in 1865 and although extended several times, the two storey wrought iron verandah reflects Bunbury’s prosperity during the goldrush era. (middle right)

The building on the opposite corner was constructed in 1937.  Its symmetrical facade is typical of American art deco styling. (middle top)

The Grand Central Hotel built in 1900 is now part of the busy cappuccino strip and houses speciality shops.(center pic). And some decorative scroll work from the 1890's (bottom left hand corner)


The old railway station which features a bent-rail supported platform roof, now houses the Visitor Information Cenre (bottom right)   The building was constructed in the early 1900s following a fire that destroyed its predecessor.

The checkerboard lighthouse built in 1971 (top left corner)

The Bunbury Tower (bottom left), often called the "Milk Carton" for its distinctive shape and blue-and-white colours, is the major feature of the city centre's skyline. It was built in 1983 by businessman Alan Bond (who won the America's Cup from the American's in 1983.

Thankyou for looking. I look forward to hearing from you.

This is my contribution to Mosaic Monday at Little Red House - to see the wonderful work of Mary and other contributors across the world, please click on the link - Dear Little Red House