I was reading a magazine article on B&W images while we were in Cornwall. I was fascinated by it because I really find it difficult to ‘see’ in B&W, I’ve always been a full-on colour girl myself. My disdain for B&W does, to a degree, spring from looking at photos on PBASE that have been turned to B&W and ‘grained’ or ‘blurred’ up in PS (in my view) to disguise a poorly composed or not sharp image. I have seen dozens of examples of this type of pic and I just can’t get them out of my mind. That’s not to say that all of the B&W I see is poor, just a sizeable proportion.

The likes of Mike R, DM, Angela, Penny and Ian’s (along with a few others who have momentarily slipped from my consciousness) B&W shots do beautiful justice to the medium, bringing me hope that you can do digital B&W and make a good, strong interesting image but by and large whenever I try for a B&W shot, I find myself plunged into the depths of despair as I can’t get the image I want so I skip on back to my comfort zone of bright colours.

But I want to improve my photography skills and try to push on my own boundaries so I looked at this article with interest and extreme curiosity.

The writer of the article made me stop and think…..he/she said that the most important thing to make a B&W photo truly great is that you can focus on shape and texture without being distracted by the colours in the image. Ah ha – that’s where I get stuck – I look on all photos as a way of bringing my life to life in a photo and my life is colourful and bright by and large. So, today’s photo is an attempt to make a reasonable B&W image by looking at form and texture.

After reading the article, I saw Penny’s horse pic in B&W from yesterday or the day before and I saw exactly what the writer of the article meant – she’d captured a stunning photo that stood on its feet purely by the strength of the shape of the snout and whiskers. I got inspired……even though horses and me don’t make a happy allegiance.

I then got more inspired when a Bill Brandt book plopped onto my doormat today too!

These gloves have been used by me on countless occasions when I have been digging or weeding in the garden. Last time I used them, I left them on an upturned bucket just outside the back door. I looked at the rotting rubber and the shape and got my idea. It’s not a masterpiece by any means but I think I now ‘get it’ if you see what I mean and I will be trying to make this work for me over the coming weeks.

Disclaimer: No grain or blur were brutalised in the making of this photo.