A while back a friend send me the website of her favorite photographer. She did beautiful work but the thing that caught my eye was - she specialized in black and white. No color in her world, just black and white and all the shades in between. I was in awe, that would be the perfect fit for me. Don't know about making a living but if you shooting for pleasure only, that would rock my world.
There is just Something about taking a photo, any photo and finding its perfection in black and white. There are very few photos that I have taken that I don't like better in black and white. Not just like but sense some kind of emotion or purpose that you just don't get with color.
Everything that is framed in my house is in black and white with the exception of the kids' room which is filled with bright, colorful layouts for them. Even in my office, the layouts I have on my wall, are black and white. One of my favorite things to do with my digi layouts is to run them through Lightroom and see what pops up when I enter the B&W preset mode. It truly is a different world where life is pared down to the basics and all distractions are removed. Stripped of the confusion of all the color, the theme of the photo or layout, shows its true colors. There is no hiding or trying to make magic - it just is. The focus shifts from the oohs and ahhs of the color that first captures our attention to the immediate separation of things color and makes you pick a place to focus on.
I don't know if there is much of a market or if one could sustain a photo business in Idaho by only offering black and white photos but I am not too interested in the moeny making part. The idea of working in a black and white world makes me darn near swoon. I am married to Mr Random. He is so right brained - creative and lives in his Many Shades Of Gray World but he finds that his job is one of black and white, as we have discussed - poor planning on his part. He was talking about The Powers That Be the other day and how they couldn't get it into their heads that he needed lead time to get what they wanted and since they couldn't make up their minds about How Much, his hands were tied. Black and white, where my head and heart have been all my life. Welcome to my world, my friend, welcome to my world...
