Monochrome Shots

Today was the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures reaching 25ºC in my parts. I took the advantage to do some spring cleaning, including a lot of laundry I'd been putting off because I could dry everything intraday by hanging them outdoors in the garden. I went for a walk in the late afternoon, camera in hand, to see if I could get some snaps for the Wednesday Walk challenge. The light was a little too harsh for my liking, being a very sunny day with clear blue skies, so I decided to go black and white. Monochrome usually handles harsh light better than colour in my experience.

This would have worked in colour as well but not too much is lost here. The flowers are white and they looked interesting against the redbrick wall of the buildings in the background.

This is a very high contrast scene with lots of lines, strong shadows and bright colours. I believe the fence was green and the building was covered in graffiti. The monochrome actually cleans the scene up and makes it more attractive than it would otherwise be in colour.

This is the elder cat in the neighbourhood. I've known her for nearly 10 years which must be very old in cat years. When she moved into the hood, she was already an adult with multiple batches of kittens. She's very calm and wise in demeanour and didn't mind me taking this photo even though my shutter release is quite loud on this camera.

I think this tree is actually dead. The surgeons clearly worked on it in previous years but, judging by the twiggy branches, they ignored it this year. Also it hasn't shown any signs of sprouting new buds like the other trees. This photo itself would have been quite boring except there was one large but isolated cloud that suddenly came out of nowhere and swept across the sky. Just to the left and right of this photo the sky is blue and clear. A lot of people noticed it too. I wish I had taken a video now that I think about it. It looked very odd in real life, even if not in this photo :)

I have to say I had fun looking for photos that would work in monochrome. I'd forgotten how limiting one's self actually improves photography. I used to do this a lot back in the day but I've since given it up. I think it was the pandemic that killed that hobby for me. Maybe one day I'll get back to doing it.

Peace & Love,

Adé