civilized ku # 950 ~ not my usual vision
Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 11:49AM 
Secaucus Junction (work-in-progress) ~ NY, NY • click to embiggenSo I'm sitting around at the Secaucus Junction drop off / pick up area while the wife is spinning round 'n round (60 minutes thereof) the NJ Turnpike merry-go-round exit game o' chance, when the scene in front of my eyes strikes me as a picture making opportunity, re: my recent Robert Adams BW inspiration.
I had purchased, not one, but two Robert Adams books at my favorite little bookstore in NYC. In his book, The New West, I found the Forward by John Szarkowski, the pictures, and the reproduction thereof to be positively revelatory. Not that I am unfamiliar with the pictures of Robert Adams - I already have 3 of his other books - but the printed visual quality of the BW pictures in The New West was exceptional.
That visual quality resulted from the absolutely superior reproduction of Adams' capture in his prints of the radiant and luminous brilliance of the bright midday sunlight found in all of the pictures in the book. The captured quality of that light creates an amazing sense of revealed detail and an almost tactile sense of air and atmosphere.
In any event, there I sat, listening to the in-my-head conversation with myself, when the scene in front of me just seemed to proclaim, "Get off your butt. Set your camera to "monochrome" and make some pictures." As I normally do whatever the in-my-head conversation with myself tells me to do, I did as directed.
The Secaucus Junction picture posted herein is, of course, a work-in-progess effort. As John Linn has suggested, upon my return to my hi-end wringer setup, I will post this week's work-in-progress pictures together with their finished variants.
Stay tuned. Comments appreciated. Although, I am now out the door for some sunny South Jersey golf.
Reader Comments (5)
I'm curious why you set the camera to "monochrome". Wouldn't it be better to convert to b/w in Photoshop? (I like the control over individual colors.)
ummmm... I'm thinkin' your "treatment" (mainly the dark border) is distracting with a B&W image? Not sure, but that's what I'm thinkin'.
Good picture!
It does look like you had a green filter on the camera to lighten the foliage. Nicks question is a good one... shooting in color would allow you to create the "green filter" in post.
Mark
You have written about photography representing the ‘real’ and I believe that you have also written that you use colour because that’s how we see. But given that all photography is an abstraction with black and white being more of an abstraction that colour (I believe) maybe you would talk about what you consider this photo represents in B&W rather than colour.
I guess grey is a colour... ;-)
Pin-hole cameras, B&W images ... Mark has found a new muse or re-discovered some old ones?
I like the look of this B&W image: it does have an element of the "luminous brilliance of the bright midday sunlight".