Somebody discounted my opinions this month on the colour performance of a particular camera because I’m a black and white photographer.
It’s funny, because I don’t think I’m a black and white photographer. I tend to publish only black and white photographs, but I photograph in colour and I see in colour. I go on to create in black and white because I enjoy the distillation of a scene this gives; the removal of distractions and the paring back to shapes and form.
When I was a commercial flower photographer I published virtually no black and white images. Now I am free to publish monochrome I am enjoying doing just that but I still shoot flowers and gardens if I’m visiting. Any time I have put limits on my creative output I found my horizons narrowing and overall quality decreasing. So that’s not something I do any more.
April in my house has always heralded the proper beginning of spring. The bluebells, the blossom and the continual risk of a late frost. This year in particular the first flowers are carrying the hopes of the whole nation that we really will be coming out of lockdown for the last time.
My main photography focus this year will be my little England project in black and white but you’ll still find me photographing splashes of colour as I go. As an example, this shot just doesn’t work in black and white so it will remain loved but unpublished in my archives:
