Thursday, July 21, 2005 :: Proud and Dead
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It was a bright, sunny day almost a year ago. We were a big gang hiking through the dense foliage in Oak Mountains. And we chanced upon this dead fella. Deep reddish brown bark, topped with feathery, white fungal growth against the bright, rain-washed leaf-green of the other trees, he took my breath away. It was regal death amidst a thousand rustling, compellingly alive leaves.
But those were the days when I had just started messing with the black and white medium. Days when I didn't yet know how to manage all the light. I set the camera on Auto, B&W and shot this.
Back home, this picture was my first, big lesson in appreciating the unforgiving nature of the medium. Such vivid colors and such lively detail were transformed into a flat, confusing image. The brown and green didn't seem much different. The zillion leaves were distracting. And the light did nothing. Just fell flat on its face. It did not 'light' up the shot like it should have. In black and white, I realized, it was all about light.
RamV :: Some Rights Reserved :: Permalink :: Blog This
bw seems perfect for the dead stump in the middle
i agree with you aditya, b&w does bring the subject out ... what i was saying was that i didn't use it properly.
and after i posted this pic, my stance has been softening. true, i did not capture what i wanted to. but the image doesn't exactly look horrible, after all.
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