conveying mood

I am probably not alone in thinking that b&w helps to convey mood, particularly those of sadness and isolation. I am partial to b&w portraits, there is something special about them with no distracting colours of clothing etc. My focus tends to go straight to the eyes to see what emotion the person is feeling which is very powerful to me.

I do have some portraits that I will share in this project but today I'm going to share a landscape that I converted to b&w. There is a solitary figure on the beach in silhouette and while I do not know what she was actually thinking, when I was taking the photo, she portrayed to me a deep sense of sadness by being all alone on this wide stretch of beach. Now the sadness was implied by me, she may well have been thinking it was a magnificent sunset and had simply stopped to enjoy the beautiful view but in b&w, it really highlighted her isolation and how small we are in comparison to the earth and it's true size and magnificence. 

This shot was taken at Henley Beach. In terms of geographical interest, Grange beach which I featured in my introductory posts, is the next beach over going north. Henley and Grange both have beautiful jetties and it is great exercise is to walk between them. And of course in between, is a beautiful and serene stretch of beach. If you are ever in South Australia  visit them. They are not tourist attractions, so you will find quietness (particularly during the week), good food in the foreshore restaurants and wonderful views all year around. Exceptions are in times of heat waves as everyone is there cooling off :)).

18-55mm, 1/60, ISO 800, f/8, ND8.

shadow play

Shadow play is one of my favourite things to look at on Flickr. There are some amazing street photographers that use shadows to create the most incredible shadowscapes that rely on precise timing. Once such photographer is Flickr - christian1712. His work is so clever and the titles he uses show just how much thought has gone into his composition.

It has inspired me to get into the city and do some street photography but while I am getting motivated to do that trek, I thought I would give shadow play a go outside of my home. This is R walking down the street on bin night, it was around 8pm. I used the light from the street lights above him and my 50mm on f/1.8, ISO1600. It is quite grainy which I think adds to the mood I was trying to create. I converted it to black and white in Lightroom.

50mm, 1/20, ISO 1600, f/1.8.