Landscapes in B&W has been an eye-opening dive into black and white photography, something I'd never believed I was proficient at. The images here aren't necessarily perfect, but represent a concerted attempt to stray from what I find easy and natural. With challenging compositions and lacking the usual instant-reaction one gets from the colour of an image, this project has helped me focus more on the form of the images, maximising interest rather than simply reverting to type. Landscapes in B&W is a piece of work I'm happy with.
Bathing
This image was a particularly spur-of-the-moment type of capture on a fairly regular walk through Kibworth during in February with medium-low light. On reaching the roundabout in the centre of Kibworth Beauchamp I found that the sun was just catching the tops of the buildings on the SE side of the village.
In this case this building had its wooden features glowing with the rest of the surrounding situation in relative darkness. I had the Fuji already in B&W film simulation so went straight for this shot, aiming to miss cars and other distractions from the foreground, instead highlighting the building's bright face towards the sun.
Generally I have a fondness for architectural photography of buildings facing the sky or seeming like they are looking in a particular direction. The natural light cascading over this scene makes this building appear like it is craving, longing for the sun as it bathes in the dying light.
Fujifilm X-T30 ii 23mm f/4 1/450s ISO160
2023, Kibworth
Finding inspiration in Bath is something not especially difficult. The city is full of beautiful historic landmarks and rich textures that it's almost impossible to capture anything not photograph-worthy. Having spent a long time in Bath, I think there is a breadth history which is less well-known and harder to experience for those only spending the day there. Bath's parks and residential areas are bustling with quiet charming features, just waiting to be snaffled up.
This image is from Sydney Gardens, where the railway cuts underneath a number of bridges almost parallel with the canal. The Fuji prevailed here with only moments to capture the train moving beneath the bridge. I started the day shooting black and white as part of this project, and was keen to use the Fuji in an attempt to capture some atmospheric film-like aora around the city. Within this shot I can't stop looking at the subtle blur on the train contrasting with the crisp focus of the surrounding textures in the gravel and rails. Perrhaps a little cliche in photographic language, but satifsfying nonetheless. I feel like this gives the rush of the train making its way out of the city in a hurry, racing away to an exciting destination.
Fujifilm X-T30 ii 23mm f/5.6 1/80s ISO200
2023, Bath
Racing
Appledore is another location dripping with potential both architectural and personal. The busy seafront and bustling shops give ways to smaller, quieter alleyways which lead you up and across the village in a charming manner.
Passing was taken during a walk from the Eastern end of the village towards Northam along an alleyway which runs parallel to the coastline. This image embodies the classic charm of the village, pulling the eye through the passageway, up and along the path in the middle of the image.
Much of Appledore comprises rendered cottages painted white, and I've always felt this automatically makes it a brilliant candidate for black and white photography. In this example I was striving to retain the glow on the other side of the passageway but wanted to retain sufficient contrast in the beams overhead to create a cosy yet intriguing appeal to the composition.
Nikon D850 50mm f/1.8 1/320s ISO640
2022, Appledore
Passing
Another wintry walk through Kibworth yielded Hidden; here the name is purely as a result of having lived in Kibworth for over a year yet never appreciated the beauty of this manor house in the centre of the village.
The winter morning light is always appealing in this setting, and with the 3/4 angle lighting the window frames with shadow over the bushes in the foreground I felt I could capture the feeling that the building is hiding in plane sight despite being lit so beautifully. A slightly larger aperture than I might normally go for on such an image pulls the viewer through the foliage and all the way through the garden; the house may remain well-lit, but will always remain somewhat hidden.
Fujifilm X-T30 ii 23mm f/4.0 1/850s ISO320
2023, Kibworth
Hidden
MainSt was another attempt at using the Fujifilm X-T30 as a means of replacing a film camera. With the express purpose of shooting black and white, I remember focusing on improving my ability to shoot street photography-inspired compositions. Street photography itself has never been a strong suit of mine, but the texture and contrast of much street photography I find very appealing.
To me, MainSt feels almost like still life but with classical compositional lines I would normally use for landscape work. The film-inspired contrast and texture in the brickwork is fantastic and combined with the excellent Kibworth setting creates an uncertainty over when the image was taken which again fuels the film simulation effect. It looks like this image was shot on a particularly poor day for weather, but in fact this was a sunny morning, with some glare peeping out over the tree on the left side of the sky. Initially I found this disappointing but this further gives a hazy feel to the sky which further propels uncertainty about when and how the image was taken.
Fujifilm X-T30 ii 23mm f/4.0 1/600s ISO250
2023, Kibworth
MainSt
B&W to me has been a divisive topic and one reason I've stayed away from it for so long is that I've never been completely sure about whether I prefer black and white images of the almost daguerreotype-style with muted contrast and a lack of clarity or whether I prefer the high-contrast style often used for dramatic cityscapes and architectural work. I've struggled previously to make the high-contrast language work with my taste for landscapes, but this rarely works for me. However, Tower is a solitary example of where I believe this has succeeded.
This was shot on in between Northam and Appledore in North Devon, with the tree being the first landmark seen when travelling along three roads which all intersect beneath the reach of this tree. Shot in December, the cold - looking branches towering over pedestrians and cars alike are quintessential winter, while the light cloud cover provided a neutral backdrop which gives sufficient contrast. It is unlike most of my work, but I'm reasonably pleased with the outcome of this piece.
Fujifilm X-T30 ii 23mm f/5.0 1/680s ISO160
2022, Appledore
Tower
Being completely honest, Ascent is an image not captured after the conception of the Landscapes in B&W project, but one captured some years ago. This image was shot in the early days of my owning a 'real' tripod specifically for using in still photography work. Desperate to find other uses for the tripod, I made an unusual special effort to try and shoot some landscapes using the Tamron G2 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. I'm reminded of this every time I look at this photograph, and makes me long to force myself to use longer lenses for landscapes.
Ascent represents the main tree subject's ascent upwards into the valley in which it is growing, a subtle reminder of the particularly interesting ascent made during the walk to get to the location in the Mendip hills. The lighting on this day was particularly interesting, starting out as a misty cool morning which brightened up significantly, offering the small shadows seen in the image, This is why I felt this photograph worked well in black and white, this time opting for a low-contrast scene for most of the image, but the main tree subject shows up beautifully with hits darker hues drawing attention to itself.
Nikon D7200 185mm f/11 1/50s ISO100
2019, Mendips
Ascent
I find Gone a little haunting; what appears to be a disused children's play area has been left to the elements, covered in leaves and moss. This play area is directly adjacent to a public footpath with only a moderately-sized hedge in between, in the image seen as out-of-focus foreground. As soon as I saw this I knew I had to switch to black and white on the D850, the medium contrast level making the image look a little spooky, yet timeless. I've always had a love for photographs which have no clear timeframe for when they were captured; I feel like this could have been captured in 1990 as much as it was in 2022. There are some distractions in the composition which I might have tried to remove had I shot this again, but the size and shape of the hedge meant this angle was the only suitable opportunity to capture the rope and steps, which form the main subject of the image. Gone is perhaps the most haunting image of any project I've made yet.
Nikon D850 35mm f/4.5 1/320s ISO1250
2022, Kibworth
Gone
Landscapes in B&W
The first project. The first subjects. The first vision.
11th April 2023
I have never studied photography. Creating compelling and interesting images has been a hobby of mine since 2007 yet I have never put pen to paper about the images I create and I have never once thought about them analytically. Perhaps this is about to change, with this - my first Project.
My intention for these projects is to challenge myself to create images which are not only meaningful to me, but also allow me to develop as a photographer. I thought a good place to start with this would be Landscapes in B&W. A combination of something I hold very dear, landscape photography, with something which I have taken very little of, B&W.
It wasn't until a photographer friend of mine was bemoaning the lack of good light on a shooting day and opted to shoot B&W on location that I realised it was something I had completely neglected. Focusing on overall image impact, I had totally forgotten that form and texture are integral to the appeal of photography, and that B&W is the purest essence of showcasing these important elements of images.
The work in this project is a collection of images which are a combination of hard-won compositions and opportunistic snapping. As much as possible, these are images which I took with the sole focus on displaying in B&W, rather than realising after the fact and converting manually.