Monday, January 19, 2009

Black & White in Color


Man has always fascinated by the beautiful sceneries the nature has presented to us, awe by its swift color changing, feel the live and death, it is a wonderful world. And yet, and as it has always been, photographers over generations have strive to define what naturally presented to us in bold black and white, not all, but mostly did, me included.
What is so intrigue that we are drawn back to the essential of pure tonal value while everyday our eyes see things in colorful way? Are those colors just illusional? Or it is a gift from higher being or a reward from advanced development of the human being? But does color means anything to us? Or does it mean something to us because we have the choices?
I shot this picture back in November 2006 in the beautiful Rajaprapha Dam in southern Thailand, in closing hours of the day, while on a boat cruise to return to the land, the nature has bathe the sky with a setting sun and unbelievable vibrant color, I had to call the boatman to stop, ask the beautiful Russian model Elina to climb the tree submerge from the water, shot with a Canon 1Ds MK2 and 70-200/2.8L IS using the shoe mounted EX580 flash gun, and this is among the most favorite ones. Why do I like it? The model is the subject of the picture, good skin tone from the whole day shooting in good sunlight, should it be better to allow the picture to show the vivid color of beautiful sunset and the model herself? But then will it be more interesting if I try to portrait the picture in pure black and white? Or can I leave some original color there? And here it is, I want the picture to portrait the nature, rather than just focus on the model, so the expression of the body, the tree branches and the background sky gave me the opportunity to get this picture as it is presented here. I want the shadow of the body be a part of the nature itself, tried to disassociate the model is a human, rather, tried to just portrait her as part of nature. And so the final result of picture.
Color or black and white is a choice, it matters how the photographer want to express by way of the photography, presented as a picture. Will a pure black and white or full color presentation of this very same image will have less visual impact? Or vice versa? Or may be it will be a different story, or may be really it is the same story told from different point of view?

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