The Beauty of Black & White Photography

When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in B&W, you photograph their souls! ~Ted Grant

The last couple months I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t had time to write anything new. I’ve wanted to, I really have, but at the end of the day I was so drained that I couldn’t even form a cohesive sentence. After feeling that way for too long, I decided I needed to find an outlet to take my mind off things. Sure I could play golf or go on an exciting shopping spree (#sarcastic) with my wife, but those activities tend to take a long time. I needed something that could get me away quickly.

I’ve always loved photography, but felt that I needed some badass camera to really enjoy it. Sure it makes it more fun to play with your aperture and shutter speed, but that doesn’t always translate to a beautiful photo. Looking back I could have probably enjoyed photography just as much with a point and shoot, but for some reason I had this mental block.

The freelance went well last year so I decided I was ready to buy that certain piece of badass. With the help of one of my best friends and a very accomplished photographer, John King, we were able to pick out the best setup for me, a Canon 60D.

Not knowing what to look for or even what the numbers meant on lenses, John advised me to start with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 fixed lens – very inexpensive, but a great beginner lens. He convinced me that starting out with a fixed lens would help me learn how to compose a shot and teach me what to look for instead of using one of the lenses that comes in a kit that can zoom from 18mm-135mm.

At first it sounded very limiting and I wasn’t too sure about it, but I trust him so I decided to go for it. He could not have been more right. If I had started out with one of the kit lenses I would have spent all my time zooming in and out and most likely forgotten about the basics of photography like composition and lighting.

It’s been a few months now and I’m still really busy with work, but I've been forcing myself to take some “me time” and have fun with the camera. Below are a few shots that I think turned out pretty good.

I also have a few more on my alibi productions flickr page if you want to check those out too.