Tag: Black and White

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: Week 20: Negative Space

I love watching clouds. Sometimes I think I photograph landscapes because of the clouds. It seems all challenge participants decided to look to the sky this week. I like Amy's interpretation of this week's theme. TheOnlyD800inthehameau looked to the skies for drama finding a moody cloud formation.

I vaguely understood the term "negative space", thinking it was the "blank areas" of an image, Wikipedia informed me further.

Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space occasionally is used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image.

Ok. Wait. What? "Negative space" can be the "real" subject of an image? I hadn't captured anything like this. I had three pictures from the week, which I thought represented my interpretation of "negative space". But which to choose for the challenge. The boring one of a water bottle or the more interesting one of my wife? Maybe I'm cheating a little, but I am submitting both. I think the image of the botted water is closer to the description from Wikipedia. Still, I think the portrait of my wife, giving me her best "do I have to do this" look is more interesting.

15 May 2020 | Apple iPhone 11 Pro | iPhone 11 Pro back dual camera 6mm f/2

I captured my choices for the weekly challenge using the native iOS camera app. The app has a portrait mode which is sometimes doesn't get it right. It uses multiple back cameras on the iPhone 11 Pro including the 6mm f/2 (which Apple calls the Telephoto lens due to its 51mm full-frame field of view) and the 4.25mm ƒ/1.8 (26mm FF). Together with software algorithms, a "bokeh" effect is achieved. I used Kevin Mullin's "Base Film" and "Newspaper" black and white preset.

What do you think?

Submitted for my 52 Week Smartphone Challenge.

Isolation Photo Project, Day 47

British photographer Kevin Mullins has launched a new website, Ministry of Shadows, dedicated to B&W and film photography. Along with the website, Kevin has released a set of presets inspired by the B&W film. Kevin is in lockdown in the UK, and like most wedding photographers, his business is currently inoperable. Kevin has used that time to complete the production of Edition 1 of his Black and White Film Lightroom Presets. Kevin is well known for his documentary style of wedding photography, and even though this is not a photography genre in which I am interested, I have long been attracted to his digital black and white images. His current foray into film photography at the same time that I am rediscovering film myself is fortuitous. Kevin's new adventure is an opportunity for me to follow along and learn something new. I purchased the preset kit last night and had an overcast (the sky is a large softbox right now) day to experiment.

The weather changed again, and this afternoon we have rain in addition to the cold that was expected. I just hope it doesn't snow. Driving home from my appointment with the endocrinologist1 I stopped at the Kingston Lock on the D&R Canal State Park. I saw one car in each of the three parking areas which left me all alone in the third parking area. I set about taking photos on my Asahi Optical Co. Spotmatic II which has a roll of Film Photography Project's RetroChrome 400 Color Slide Film. I purchased the film after reading a review by Simon King on 35mmc.

I walked around near the Kingston Red Mill, a subject of many of my past photographic adventures, photographing the mill from various angles.

I also photographed the old lock tenders house on the old Kings Highway with the bridge over the Millstone River leading to the Kingston Mill.

Overcast skies provided latitude in choosing exposure and aperture with this ISO 400 film. It was easy to stay within the 2s to 1/1000s shutter speed range of the Spotmatic II with a range of usable apertures between f/2 and f/8. My fingers are crossed that this roll has some keepers.

I attended a virtual "hoppy hour" with some friends and former co-workers from the security team at New Jersey Courts that started at 6:30 PM and lasted into the night. I think we ended up closing out the Zoom session around 10 PM. I'm sure Bhavna was a bit annoyed but I think we all had so much fun that we didn't want it to end.

Friday 8 May, 2020 | FujiFilm X-T2 | XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR
Submitted as part of the 100DaysToOffload project.
  1. I have Type 1 diabetes and hyperthyroidism and Graves Eye Disease. Every three months I do fasting blood tests at LabCorp and have a followup exam with the endocrinologist. ↩

52 Week Smartphone Challenge: Week 14: Center Frame

While TiongHan captured a photograph that evokes loneliness, for the weekly challenge, Amy Moranto captures a near-empty landscape. I opted to use a square format for the image and created a minimalist image. The side of the barn is painted red but I think converting to black and white forces the user to focus on the white square and the bench.

I took this photo while on a solo hike in the Watershed Preserve. It was quiet. So quiet I could only hear the wind in the trees. I was alone in my thoughts. When I saw the empty bench, heard the wind in the trees, the loneliness could be felt.

The Only D800 in the Hameau brings a lonely sad moment front and centre.

What do you think?

Submitted for my 52 Week Smartphone Challenge.