The Horned Tree

 

The Horned Tree

I found this dead tree one August morning in 2010 on Lookout Mountain, just at the point where Daugherty Gap Road comes up from McLemore Cove to the top of the mountain.

I photographed it first on Fuji Provia color film with my Minolta twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera, which makes square pictures. Then, just for fun, I set my new Olympus E-PL1, my first mirrorless digital camera, to make square photographs and photographed the tree again. Because this is a very strong, graphic shape, I converted it to black and white in Photoshop.

The Horned Tree in living color.

I like the richness of the tones in the color version, but to me the stark, graphic strength of the tree comes through much more clearly in black and white. What do you think?

 

There's really no right and wrong involved here. Some pictures work better in color, and some in black and white. They are both tools in our artistic toolbox, and it's up to us to select the tool we want to use to give the effect we desire. 

 

 Software programs are available to make B&W conversions, and are probably the best way to do it. If you don't want to pay for software, it's easy to find instructions for making conversions in Photoshop on the Internet. 

If you're really into black and white, you can set most digital cameras to shoot two files at the same time -- a jpeg in black and white, and a RAW file in color. An advantage of doing it this way is that the image in your viewfinder will be black and white, so you can see exactly what you're getting.

If you like my photographs, you can see more of them in my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and, who knows? You might find something you want to keep.

The second edition of my book, Backroads and Byways of Georgia will be released in June, 2023. 

Photographs and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.