Arizona’s iconic Antelope Canyon in black and white. Seems a real contradiction. As the Antelope Canyon is an explosion in light and colors. But last weekend I visited an exhibition of renowned nature photographer Norbert Rosing with his breathtaking black and white photographs of nature’s monuments in the West and Southwest of the USA. His photographs are very much inspired by the work of Ansel Adams. They show an inspiring and exciting play of light, contrast and composition, which make these shots quite unique. The exhibition inspired me to look back at my photographs from a tour of the US Southwest back in 2012 and convert some of them from color to black and white. I started with images from amazing Antelope Canyon. I invite you to continue and take a special tour of Antelope Canyon in black and white…
Selecting the right images for conversion was not easy. And a lot of the images I took ten years ago were abundant with hundred shades of red and orange. The variety of the colors were making the image. As soon as the color was gone, many of the photograph were quite boring. Taking color away reduces the photograph to light, shadow, shapes, texture, contrast and composition. It was a quite interesting exercise to select the photographs best reflecting the just mentioned elements. The elements that make a good black and white image.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the monochrome conversions, leave a comment below.
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Have a great Wednesday
Marcus
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