Hi Donald,
I won't comment on you photos since people much more qualified than me have already done so. My limited experience at taking pictures however might help shed some light on why you didn't get a emotional high when taking them.
I've been taking photos for about a year and am only now beginning to occasionally experience that feeling. It happens when everything falls into place as I set up the shot - for me a rare occurance. I suspect that it happens to you every time that you shoot a landscape. Now that you are out of your comfort zone, each shot requires much more analysis, more trial and error and therefore less confidence that the shot will be what you want as you release the shutter. I am convinced that if you keep taking that style of photos, the "gotcha" feeling will soon be back.
I have a question as to why you elected to go B & W for these photos. I think that I understand why you do it for landscapes where you capture shape, tone, texture and mood. I would be grateful if you could explain the reasoning behind you choice of B & W for these environmental portraits.
Andre
Andre
I am, if I may, going to respond to one part of your post now and, because I've had a couple of glasses of wine, want to leave the other part (about why B & W) until tomorrow.
As for:- "Now that you are out of your comfort zone, each shot requires much more analysis, more trial and error and therefore less confidence that the shot will be what you want as you release the shutter."
Thank you. That is so insightful and makes so much sense. In fact it's so obvious, that I was unable to see it for myself. I think you have captured my predicament very precisely. And, again, if I may, I am going to include your assessment in my written report of my work in this assignment (referencing you of course).
Last edited by Donald; 26th December 2015 at 08:39 PM.
Glad I could be of assistance. If I had a dollar for each time that I said "why didn't I think of that myself" I'd be rich by now!
Of course you can include that assessment in your report. You probably were only one glass of wine short of getting it yourself anyway.
Andre
I didn't get back to you, Andre, as to why I made these into B & W images
I suppose the first reason is that it is what I feel most comfortable with. Secondly, the B & W treatment suited what I think the series was about. These are all people and businesses that have been important to me in the year since my wife died. I didn't want them to be colourful. I wanted to extract the colour so that the attention was on the subject, which is something, as I say, I feel more comfortable doing with B & W than with colour.
This is the educational software site I have used here in the USA.
http://www.academicsuperstore.com/
I like getting my programs on a disk, rather than downloading them from the Internet.