Black and White photography

I am liking black and white photography more and more.

There are lots of different types of photographs, and the use of color can be spectacular, especially in landscapes.  But lately I have been thinking a lot about portraits, and how much I always liked to see the old black and white versions.  Sure, back in the day it was all that was really available.  But there's something fundamentally interesting about reducing the portrait to its basic elements by eliminating the distraction of color.  Here's an example.

This was originally a color shot from a live performance of Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers.  The lighting was very poor and sort of crazy with all the colored spots.  And there is a certain interest in those color shots.  But I took a crop from the original shot and converted it to black and white, while bumping the contrast and adding noise.  The blurring of Chris' features is the result of a relatively slow shutter speed coupled with his trademark stage action.  The black and white image focuses attention on the subject without distracting colors, and the blurring of parts of the image communicate the frenzied style of his performance.  I think this really captures more of the 'essence' of the performer, which is exactly what we want in an environmental portrait.

There are lots of ways to communicate with a camera, but I am liking black and white these days.