Steve Gallow - A Year in Photos

With this blog I have begun a journey to improve my photography skills. My goal is to take photos everyday, and post my favorite photo from that day on this blog. So far, I have learned a lot, and try to share my experiences. Many of you have made comments on the blog, via email, or when you see me in person. I really appreciate all of them. I learn a lot from each of you. I hope that you will join me in my journey, and help me along the way. I have so much to learn.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Week 23, Day 166, October 6, 2009, Tower Silhouette

I'm starting to try and see in black and white. At least that's what some of my readings on black and white photography are telling me. They say that I have to try and ignore the color, and look at the lighting and shadows.

Tonight on the way home I looked around, and found this interesting. One book told me to avoid the sky, but we have a lot of clouds around here. Many times they create interesting effects.

I want to try and get better at all forms of photography. If you have any advice about black and white photography, or any type of photography, please let me know.

I like the iron work at the top of the tower, and in the arches.

Lessons Learned:

Bright Skies are great for silhouettes.

Photo details: Exposure time 1/1000 sec, Aperture f/6.3, ISO 100, Focal Length 40 mm, 35 mm equivalent focal length 83mm, Lens Canon EF 17-40mm, handheld.

This Monochrome concept came from Aileni at The Monochrome Weekly

7 comments:

webruci said...: Hi Steve.
You done it well. Its a good and nice contrast beetwen tower and sky.
who tell to ignor the sky, it's wrong! You going to see my B&W in weekend. It's a image to the sky. We can ignor when the sky have not clouds. But never with clouds. I give you a link, she's my friend Anne.

http://medkamerapatur.blogspot.com/2009/10/monochrome-monday.html

Look the B&W image and take a look to the sky. Without the image was only a nice picture, but with the sky is lock like a painted picture.
Your image is very good.
Ignor the colors is good and is not, because is colours whats look the same in B&W. The lite is important and the contrast. Much large your scale of grey, the image is mach aoustanding.

I only try to learn, I'm not a big photographer:-) My camera is maybe the cheaper like the others, but I think we can do it well because we like tolearn.

Have a nice day my friend.; October 7, 2009 at 9:39 AM
webruci said...: Sorry for my speling. I'm not english. I talk six languages, but is dificult to write.; October 7, 2009 at 9:44 AM
The Gilje Crew said...: Great picture! I don't have any advice on b/w since I'm still learning, but I do know my favorite "style" is high contrast. I agree that you shouldn't ignore the sky in b/w shots. I have one from a few weeks ago where the blue sky and white clouds made for a dramatic b/w.

Nice work!; October 7, 2009 at 10:06 AM
Gary's third pottery blog said...: spooky!; October 7, 2009 at 7:08 PM
Werner Sun said...: Wonderful atmosphere! Who knew Cornell could be so menacing?; October 7, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Seems to me you are tackling B&W brilliantly.
An excellent image.; October 8, 2009 at 1:42 AM
Peter West Carey said...: Steve. I like the shot and it'll be perfect in about 3 weeks at Halloween!

For info on B&W shooting, look to a master, Ansel Adams. His Zone system works great at predicting what things will look like. Remember, except for the digital back on your camera, he was working with the same parameters as you.
His book The Negative is a great place to start: http://tinyurl.com/aa-zone

Keep 'em coming!; October 8, 2009 at 11:47 AM