Some Days Lend Themselves to B&W
Programming Note - A great PCPH conversation on Thrusday wiith MaryAnn McKibben Dana and Marlon Weems about the Oscar-nominated masterpiece, Sinners. You can find the video here or in Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Our next conversations will be about the book (March 16) and the movie (March 30), Project Hail Mary. I can’t wait for those! Onto B&W…(Also, substack says this post is just barely too long for email - you know what to do).
Not going to do much of writing with this other than to say that some scenes just lend themselves to black and white more than others. Friday was one of those days. As my last post shared, we’ve had a bunch of rain the last few days and so the creek at Sharon Woods was running strong and the three waterfalls were just beautiful today. The thing for me about black and white photography is the way that it allows a focus on the details and the patterns more so than full-color images sometimes do. The color in these photos today (mostly shades of brown) felt distracting from the movement and the flow and the patterns of the water. But you’ll also see a few at the end that needed to be in color...
But before I went to bed Friday night, I read this from Rilke that seemed to connect with this.
Where I Am Going
Again the murmur of my own deep life grows stronger,
flowing along wider shores.
Things grow ever more related to me,
and I see farther into their forms.
I become more trustful of the nameless.
My mind, like a bird,
rises from the oak tree into the wind,
and my heart sinks
through the pond’s reflected day
to where the fishes move.1
One note about all of these photos except the last two. They were all using my iPhone and a portable magnetic tripod (PeakDesign Link) and an app called Slow Shutter Cam. So, just a reminder that you don’t need high end photography equipment for beautiful photos. :-)
In these first two, I was especially drawn to the flat rock on the left side. So in the midst of the rush and movement, there is solid, unshakeable ground.
These next three were about the constrast between the “still” water before the falls, the place of transition between, and the fast flow below. Also in the third, notice the small flecks of movement even in the smoother waters. There’s still movement even in stillness.
More movement, but really zoomed in on a small piece of the creek. More subtle movement and flow but different ways that the reflections are shaped by the flow.
Not water images here but the interplay between light, fog, path, and trees. Not as much on the movement but the sense of place - both wide and close-in.
Finally, maybe my favorite of these. The contrast here between the wide rush and flow and the dry and solid on the right. Rilke’s words at the beginning speak to me in this one, especially as he opens with these lines:
Again the murmur of my own deep life grows stronger,
flowing along wider shores.
Things grow ever more related to me,
and I see farther into their forms.
And then the two that aren’t in black and white. Scout is the black and white in contrast to the colors of passing Winter and emerging Spring.
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed
Book of Images quoted in Barrows, Anita; Macy, Joanna. A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke (p. 65). Kindle Edition.