Taking in Life Around Me ....#sundaystills....Daylight in Black and White

This #sundaystills challenge is hosted by Terri from Second Wind Leisure. I've also been loving visiting the blogs of the other participants and being inspired by their interpretations of the theme. Sometimes I'm a week late commenting but I do try to visit everyone. After all, if you take the time to produce something, you sure hope people visit. 

This weeks theme is Daylight in Black and White. I'm sure someone, possibly even Terri, will play with this theme in a non-obvious way. I actually thought about it, but I just got done watching my grandkids for 3 days, and to be honest, I'm exhausted. 

Observing a photo in black and white allows you to focus on certain aspects that you might miss if you were viewing it in color. Tone, texture and light are viewed in a different way. Sometimes a sub par color photo can take on an entirely different look when edited to black and white. In an article from Digital Photography school, they list 5 reasons you should try black and white photography:

1. It helps you see differently

2. It eliminates distraction

3. It offers increased creative choice 

4. It adds emotion and mood 

5. It feels timeless

I would agree with all of those. 

We are probably all familiar with Ansel Adams and his stunning black and white landscape photography. I was reading a bit about his life and it is pretty interesting. He was raised to follow the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson; to live a modest, moral life guided by a social responsibility to man and nature. 

I had fun with this challenge. I browsed my photos for ones that I just didn't care for, or wondered if a B/W version would do something different to it. I've included the color photo of each to see the difference. I wanted to edit in Lightroom, but my daughter and I share an account and I wasn't able to log in because she was on it. I just used my edit option in "photos" on my Mac.

This one I definitely like the black and white. It was December and we had a wind storm. My FIL and I went down to clear the road since we couldn't get anyone to respond and it's the only road up to where we and others live. Another gal stopped and helped as well. 

I love the Astoria bridge, but didn't really like how this photo turned out at all. I felt it was too hazy, not a great angle, etc.  I do think I like the B/W version better. 

One of the many buildings in Italy. I love the color one, but thought it would be fun to play with B/W version. I like it, but the B/W version takes away the colors of the flags and the poles that I think help make the photo pop. 

This little eatery on Murano was super small, but cute and the food really good. The owner was awesome too. There really wasn't much color to start with, so why not make the whole things B/W.

The mountains of Switzerland were stunning. I thought it would definitely be fun to play with B/W. I'd like to play with it in Lightroom where I have more options. 

I'm less of a fan of flowers in B/W because I want to see them in all their colorful beauty, but it's still fun to play around. 

This scene was on Puget Sound while we were on Orcas Island. Boats are always fun in B/W and I liked how the sky looked. 

My daughter and son in laws wedding was beautiful. She went with a 1920's reception theme and some of the pictures were taken in a downstairs room that probably used to function as a bar. It kind of had that vintage look to it so I thought it would be great to try one in B/W. 

Thanks for the fun idea Terri. I need to play with this more! 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin