Hello everyone in this community!.... This is my entry post here, I have been looking at everyone's work here at "Black and White" from many days ago, and I am extremely pleased to see the quality of the images presented here. I hope that my contributions can at least come close to the quality of the ones posted here. I'm sure that my participation in this community will make me improve my photographs over the time.
Well, this first photo set correspond to pictures from the small town where I live. This place is named "Montalbán" and it is located in the west of Carabobo state in Venezuela. In the future, I hope make a post with the history of "Montalbán", but this is not today's topic.
This town is an interesting place what recently turned 290 years old. Today it is a very eclectic place where the old, the contemporary, the progress, the decadent and the quotidian converge in equal parts. That's why it's easy to find images when you go for a walk with a camera in your hand.
Well, I'm not much a tech guy whenit's about photography. My passion for the images has more to do with the images itself and not with the equipment. So I'm not able to give much detail on how photography is done. But I can summarize in that I have a couple of old Nikon digital cameras, a D3100 and a D7000 and I mostly shoot with 35mm or 50mm prime lenses, although I also have an 18-200mm Zoom whose image quality is not as good as the prime lenses, but it gives me a very desirable responsiveness when shooting on the street.
And finally, I like my photos better in black and white, because in my opinion black and white "brings out the soul of the image", so when you want images that make an impact and are eloquent, seems to me that it is much better (but "much much better, better!") in black and white.
Well, I think I'm already talking too much, I'd better go on to place the photos, because this should be something about photos, not about many words!
Better said, "let's talk about photos". :-)
"Mass"... Picture of people attending a religious service in front of the village church. This service is usually held outside the church, due to pandemic restrictions.
"La Quinta"... An old mansion formerly the main house of a hacienda in the town, now converted into a recreation center where people drink beer and play "bolas criollas". We name it "Botiquines".
"Children playing ball in the street"... I really like this kind of photos, seem to have sound, seem to have movement... This is why I like to carry the 18-200mm zoom with me, because it allows me to take these photos from a great distance and go unnoticed.
"Child looking out at the door"... Sometimes, I don't take the photo, on the contrary: "The photo takes me"... This is why I say that "Black and White" extracts the soul of the photo and turns it into a message.
"Barbershop"... It is for this kind of things that I say that this is an "very eclectic" place... The old wooden door, the new paintings, the ramshackle motorcycle, the embracing sun toasting everything...
"The thoughtful old man"... When the image transpires past times, summer heat and silent streets.
"The horse-drawn cart"... Well, what can I say? Here in my village still some horse-drawn carts that are still used for transportation!... And no wonder, this is a country where sometimes gasoline is scarce! :-)
"The window in loneliness"... Yesss!... I loved this photo!... That's why I decided to culminate this publication with it. This hidden window, in an abandoned house, with the broken frame and those bottles, also those old mud bricks, the battered barbed wire... Everything, absolutely everything, was a black and white image overlapped in a corner of a street!
Well, So I've finished my first publication. I hope that some of you will like it. For me is a pleasure to build this publication. I also hope soon have better images and I can be able to participate in these contest in this community called "MONOMAD", that seems to me a fascinating challenge... Best wishes to all from here, from "Montalbán -Venezuela" in "Black and White" ;-)
