52 Weeks Project: Black & White
from the Photo Lab
Welcome to Friday’s 52 Weeks project post, a creative blog ring in which a group of fellow pet photographers post their photographic interpretation of the week’s theme and link to each other’s blog. We are back this week and have some great images to share. Start here and click on the link at the bottom of this post to jump to the next photographer’s blog, follow the ring until you end up back here.
This week’s theme: Black & White
It is safe to say that black and white film photography was what made me first want to pick up a camera. There is so much to it that just pressing the shutter; there is light, there is film sensitivity (ISO), there is grain and tonality, there’s Ansel Adam’s famed zone system… whew! In its simplest form, it is alluring and beautiful. Black and white can be powerful, it can better convey emotion and mood in some cases than color; you need only look at the work of some of my favorites like Modotti, Karsh and a favorite and dearly missed teacher, mentor and friend Nick Dekker to see what I mean.
Although wonders can be done digitally today, and yummy new presets, actions and filters can be purchased to emulate the “look” and feel of film, to us, there ain’t nothing like the real thing baby.
We took the dogs to the beach as the sun was rising, in celebration of Willow’s 1st birthday, and brought along nothing but a film camera. “What?! That’s risky! What if the film doesn’t come out?!” Well, it is exactly that “risk” that I believe makes us slow down, think, compose, expose and shoot mindfully, all the while making for a great opportunity to perfect our craft. And the delight and surprise that comes when we develop our film, never gets old.
For this session, we brought our favorite color negative film (click HERE if you want to see that too), but with this assignment in mind, we thought we’d play around with a roll of expired black and white film. Yep; film has an expiration date! Expired film can be unpredictable but it can render some pretty sweet results. In this case, large grain and high contrast. The abstract nature of the composition make for an effective nostalgic feeling. What do you think?
Follow the blog ring now for some more black and white eye candy, on to Princeton New Jersey dog photography, Barking Lab Studio!
Yay! I’ve been looking forward to seeing your scans and they are just as gorgeous as I expected them to be!
Stunning! I love the look, the mood, the “feel” of these images.
I LOVE that you used film! If I had any film, I would of done the same! These shots are fantastic
Wow! just WOW! Awesome images, I love them!
Super. The compositions, light and grain definitely unique. You’ve inspired me to go pull out my film camera!
Gorgeous photos! the grain and contrast are wonderful. Happy birthday to Willow!!
I get nostaglic with film as well. Wonderful images.
These are all wonderful.
My fav is the third one.
Lovely!
I think these are lovely! I’ve never been a fan of grain but I’m coming around – these are not the first photos I’ve seen lately that have convinced me to give it a chance.
love these – I miss the film days!
Love these! So glad someone broke out the film
WONDERFUL JOB!! Love these!