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.  

The Light

The photographer, Robert Frank once said, “black and white is the color of photography.” Black and white photography is about contrast –but most of all it is about the light.  You only have to study the cinema of the 30’s and 40’s to see how directors creatively used light to tell the story and set the mood in B&W films.  It is the quality of the light that gives us the dramatic black and white images.  I have always preferred a cloudy day to a bright sunny day when it comes to black and white photography.

Wall Twitter

Do walls talk? Maybe the walls around Exit 270 do whisper to some of us. I find it hard to pass a wall covered in graphics without photographing it. Each wall tells a story and I guess it is up to the viewer to decipher what that story is.  Some may look at it as crude graffiti -and others realize it is a new wave of art that exploded on to the scene in the late 1960's.  However, this social subculture has been around for several decades.  Images shot using 24mm and 35mm lens mounted on Sony Nex7 camera. 

More Faces of Exit 270

While Exit 270 is surrounded by desert occupied by some colorful walls, architecture and various mean looking plant life – it is the people that seems to draw my camera lens.  You might say the face of Exit 270 is the people.  I generally try and photograph people when they are not aware, which makes for a more natural image  – and when someone does catch me photographing them I ask them for their approval and to ignore me.  It is surprising how many times they do ignore me and go about their activities.  There are some however that ask not to be photographed and I respect their wishes.   

I think the key to shooting this type of people images is to just stop, look around you and absorb the environment you are standing in before you raise the camera to your eye.  My camera of choice is the Sony Nex7 equipped with the 18-55mm lens, changing the ISO and f stop according to lighting.  This camera besides being much smaller than my larger DSLR Nikon, allows me to move quickly in and around my subjects, and attracts less attention.  I think any point and shoot camera is suited to this style of photography.