New iPad Black and White app

I've just bought a new app for the iPad called Dramatic Black and White and it does seem to offer a wide range of black and white opportunities as well as being able to play around with infrared as well. This is the first attempt which also raises an interesting question when does a photograph become an iphoneograph as this was actually captured with my old Canon 1D and 500mm lens but then post processed on the iPad and iPhone. Indeed I used similar post production methods on the original image only that was in Photoshop. I guess in the end all that matters is the image rather than how it was made.

Sent from my iPad

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Going through old images

St Margaret's Bus Station - c1980

Over the past few months I have been going through my old transparencies.  This has been a revelation as I have come to appreciate how my photography has developed over the years - especially since moving into the digital domain.  What I have come to appreciate is that my key photographic skills lie in post production.  Here I am able to create the image I envisioned whilst out shooting.

This is also true of the old images I have scanned onto the system.   The image above is a good example.  These three image were taken circa 1980 in an around St Margaret's bus station in Leicester.   They were originally colour, I believe shot on Agfa slide film (21 DIN - that shows my age!).  However, in post production I have been able to make them into a much more impactive set of images.   Each one has a story, however small, attached to them and perhaps one day I will get around to putting them down in writing.   For now I think they show two things;  first, how times have changed in the last 30 years;  Second, as we enter another recession we will not doubt see people protesting about there lot, however, few I guess would be wearing a 'donkey jacket.'

More Black and White

As I go through the new year I find myself making more and more black and white images.  Why is this?   Is it because I am getting older?  Is it because my mood is becoming more melancholic? Or perhaps it is because I am appreciating the power of black.  Not just the blackness but the darkness.  This is even true in the colour images I am making of late.  I find myself making images with bold and heavy black.

Perhaps this is the influence of Winston Link.  he made images that were controlled by the darkness of night.  He used this as a canvas upon which he could literally use light, in his case flash bulbs, to illuminate the images he wanted to make.  Perhaps not.  Either way I am making more black and white images.

The above images is a field that will soon become a park and ride car park.  Of the joys of modern life.

Just can't help myself

Motorway bridge

I just love taking photographs.  I have no idea why but it inspires and makes me feel very good.  Anyway, I have just spent an hour or so making a panorama of Leicester and another image of a motorway bridge.  Black and white again...is this the start of a move to totally black and white?  I doubt it.