Desert Shapes

We are so used to shooting plant life in color  -the creative possibilities of them in black and white seem alien to our thinking.

Recently I reviewed some of my desert colored images of plant life and decided to convert the original images to black and white.  To be honest I shot these images intending to make them black and white photographs originally. 

 If you are interested in having your viewer see the patterns and lines that make up the design of various plant life -black and white images will accentuate the shapes.  The object of this visual exercise is to concentrate on the shapes rather than the color.

THE AGAVE

The Agave plant, which was considered by the Aztec as a gift from the gods, is not a particularly exciting plant to look at but a challenge to photograph.

I never can resist photographing this plant when I find it on any of my photo walks.  The key is to move in close and look for the patterns that are created by the light and the bending and twisting of the leaves.  Depending on the time of day – the light creates patterns within the Agave leaves and the same plant’s image can vary accordingly throughout the day. Using selective focus (using f-4.5) you can isolate some of the background leaves while focusing in on a particular interesting leaf shape.  Using a little saturation in post-production can bring these plants to life.  The Agave plant is really about shapes and working with them in your final image.

All of these images were made at the Tucson Botanical Gardens

Black & White Desert

This is an exercise of looking at the desert plants in black and white.  I found that the various Agave, Blackfoot Daisy and flowering Saguaro stand out more dramatically against this dry brown backdrop when converted to black and white images.