Colorless December ... Landscapes in Black and White

Landscapes are rarely these days done in black and white, but think back not too long ago--people decided where to go based on beautiful black and white glossies, from postcards to magazines, to coffee-table books of travel destinations all over the world.

I am certainly not comparing myself to Ansel Adams or Jay Wesler not by any stretch, but the challenges they and I face are the same.

For instance, ice and water lend themselves very well to the kindness of black and white's exposure latitude in the post processing. If that sentence lost you, let me try again. In color, to bring out the details of the water (achieved with a long exposure and moving water) AND the icicles on the rock would require some trickier processing than black and white.

The amount of dodging and burning would throw off the color of the rock or the water. Remove the color, and the problem is gone leaving a much cleaner image.