Seeing in black and white

Organ Pipe Cactus, Arizona

I’ve photographed in color for pretty much most of my photographic non-career.  I’m mostly self taught by reading John Shaw & Jack Dykinga books. I took a large format workshop with Michael Gordon and Guy Tal to solidify some LF techniques. But I never went through the black and white process most people learn in school.  I feel I missed something.  Sure, I can make this digital image in color and convert to black and white, but there’s a sort of (let’s call it) journeyman process I never went through.  I’m not arguing film vs digital here – I’m simply talking about a sort of step of learning that got bypassed by me. So what do I do about it? Try shooting in black and white.  It’s been tugging at me for some time, so I exposed a sheet of black and white film on this scene.  At some point I’ll try developing it…ooh, chemicals, scary! Can’t hurt to try.

You are reading a blog posting from the photographer Laurent Baig. Feel the wilderness experience.