STURGIS IN BLACK & WHITE

(UNDER CONSTRUCTION - THESE ARE GENERAL IMAGES AND HAVE NOT NECESSARILY BEEN CHOSEN FOR THIS GALLERY/PROJECT.  PLEASE CHECK BACK FOR THE FINAL IMAGES.)

Black and white is my favorite.  Many years ago, photographers had no choice but to shoot in black and white.  And while we may feel that color is necessary to convey a true representation of a scene, early photographers accomplished this with just black, white, and shades of gray.  Black and white causes the viewer to focus on the content - shapes, textures, lines etc without being distracted by bright colors.  For the photographer, shooting for black and white requires him/her to concentrate on composition rather than relying on bright colors and gaudy, trendy processing techniques (that quickly go out of style and homogenize social media photography.)  The photographer has to develop new skills for "seeing" in black and white.  Yes, there are situations where colors define the scene.  Those should be left in color; but, for other images, the colors can be a distraction.  Not every image can or should be converted to black and white; but black and white can give an entirely different perspective of an image. The process of conversion to black and white is not simply "draining" all the color from the image, but rather involves the manipulation of each color (now represented as a shade of grey) as a way of highlighting and refining the image.  Today, shooting and editing for black and white images has become it's own art form and there are photographers who shoot exclusively for black and white.  While most of these gallery images are true black and white, there are a few monochrome (one color with various shades of that color) images scattered throughout.  

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