I was asked recently why so many of the pictures I’ve shared in the past weeks have been black and white. I really didn’t have an answer. I was aware that a lot of pictures were black and white, but I hadn’t stopped to think about why.

Perhaps it’s just a phase. I know I’ve gone through other phases before in my photography. A look back and one might see a phase of photos where I dulled the colours, and then another phase where I was saturating. Or another phase where I was doing something else entirely. I don’t really think about “what phase I’m in” while I’m prep’ing a photo for post. I just do what I feel like, what looks good to me for the particular shot. As I’ve said before, the pictures reflect my experiences; the places I’ve been, the things I’ve seen, and the things that that appeal to me.

That being said, there may be a more technical reason I can offer. My personal experience is that on nice bright sunny days, the type where it’s really nice to get out and take a walk, tend to be really poor for photography. The sky is really bright and easily over exposed. Shadows can be harsh and easilly underexposed and everything seems generally uninteresting. Perhaps a better photographer may be able to over come those challenges, and produce stunning images. But I know that I can take interesting subject matter , like a boat on a dock or a bonzai looking tree, take a shot in some uninteresting light, process black and white and make a picture that I can really like. It doesn’t always work, but it opens up some more possibilities.

Or maybe I’m just tired to seeing all the beautiful fall colours and I just need to get some monochrome into my system for good measure.