IN BLACK AND WHITE

It started quite by accident. A slip of a finger on the controls of my old Canon 50D and the world turned into monochrome.

Monochromatic photography is a difficult subject. Some love it, others hate it. As an art form, I find this branch of photography very fulfilling indeed.
Look at the Blue Wildebeest photo. With colour photography a wildebeest is quite impossible to photograph. The best full colour wildebeest photos I have seen is where Mr wildebeest serves as a mere prop to the majesty of the surrounding landscape.

Switch to black and white, and the wildebeest becomes a worthwhile photographic opportunity. The folds in the skin, muscled hind quarters, beard… it gains life!

Onwards to our next subject. An elephant is a majestic animal. No one can deny this fact. But my goodness, my own computer suffers greatly from ‘elephant overload’ each time I download photographs. The issue is that all possible elephant photos have been taken. From the top, the bottom, the side, quartering to, quartering away…and then I switched. In monochrome the elephant became a worthwhile subject again. An ear, an eyelash, a trunk. It reflects life and vibrancy. I hope you like it too!

Some naturally black and white animals, like sable antelope and zebras make very good subjects for a monochrome photography. The same can be said about sable antelope.

Giraffe? Show me the person that does not love a giraffe, and…well, let’s just say that I have not met them yet. The opportunity to get close to them, with the fact that they stand head above shoulders over the surrounding landscape, means that the light conditions in the mostly cloudless sky can become bothersome for normal photography. Black and white curbs this to make the whole photo about the giraffe, and the giraffe only.

Black and white photography is not easy. To get the feeling of the subject, the light, shadows, background. It is an artform apart from colour photography. One that I would encourage. Very much so indeed.

BUSHVELD GREETINGS