Colorless December ... Perspective

Sometimes when you look at a scene, like the one below, it is hard to know what it is that you like when you see it. Why did I stop to look at this?

It is a view that I have photographed a lot in the last couple of years, a tomato field down the valley from our house on Fork Mountain. I don't think it was particularly special of a view, or different, but something caught my eye.

But what?

This? I don't know, but I like it. It is simple and pleasing to me. A longer lens makes it stand out.

Don't forget to think wide and narrow when you look at something.

Colorless December ... Angel flying in for the holiday

Sometimes you take a photo and see more than what was there when you framed it. This is one of those, and black and white definately looks better than color. By losing the color, the illusion of motion in the backlit wings pops, and there is no distraction from the red bows and green branches

Moral of this story... take all the happy accidents, keep 'em coming. And be happy when angels land in your tree.

Colorless December ... The Dogs Like It

Since embarking on colorless December, I have had 30% less depression, 60% less anger issues, I have lost 35lbs and the dogs love to have their photos taken. Oh and it is a coincidence that North Korea has lost their internet too.

Some of those facts I just made up, I will let you be the judge.

The dogs don't seem to mind having their photos taken, though. Maybe they heard about North Korea?

Colorless December ... Around Hot Springs

Not a lot to do or see in Hot Springs on Sunday in December, especially on the shortest day of the year. Still, there is always something to take photos of if one is determined.

As your time for your hot tub mineral spring soak arrives, you can forget this phone number, seen at the bridge. 

After you get out, you can go home and face the holiday pet shoot. No problem, mon!

Colorless December ... Holiday windows around town

Colors for this season? Bah. Humbug. My holidays are monochrome.

Colorless December ... A grumpy harrumph

Up to this point, I have shared black and white photos which were from my newspaper days, in Topeka and New York. This was based on finding some old prints and negatives which I thought were long gone in a box. If this has bored you, I have some good news, I am done (barring finding more) with anything that interests me enough now.

So, what now? I hear you. He is giving up, halfway through, right?

You should be so lucky.

No, I embarking on a new angle on this topic today. As I approach (or pass) the tipping point into old age, I understand the curmudgeons of my past more and more. There were guys at the paper who never seemed to do anything but bitch about us "young idiots with fancy cameras" and without much prodding would always pull out Speed Graphics if we wanted to learn "how real news photographers worked."

I never understood the attachment to gear. Still don't. Things change. The fancy new cameras of my youth are old and tucked away in closets, attics or worse. The old press photographers are all dead, and there are good news photographers whose parents were not yet born when I started working.

This is the way of the world.

So, I dedicate the rest of the month to using, as much as I can, the camera I have with me all the time, my Samsung S3 Note.

All three of the photos on this page were taken with it. With a little thought to light and it's limitations, and using the right software (I really like Black Cam Pro), you can take photos of acceptable quality of most anything.

I really like Black Cam Pro, it allows you to use the colored filters, like on lenses. Yes, filter is not a new term for the digital age, kids. You can also alter exposure times manually and lots of other things I have not yet toyed with.

So, that is my harrumph moment. I hope you will forgive and forget. Since I am getting older, I am sure I will forget.

Colorless December ... Humpback Whales, Cape May, 1983

Along with some Storm Petrels looking for scraps. One of the things I wish the most that I had paid more attention to things when I was younger. All the birds and ocean wildlife I saw in my time in the military...oh well.

Compare what I did every day with the cost of paying a tour boat to go out and do these things. Today's lesson. 

Enjoy everything you can, as if it is the last time you ever get to see it.

Now, if I could just remember that more often.