Accidental black and white

Cornflake

Occasionally I visit our botanical garden, particularly in spring when a lot of succulents are in flower. I visited recently. I discovered after I arrived that I'd inadvertently put my infrared camera into the bag instead of my standard camera. I had to forget about photographing spring color and look for contrasty subjects. The mistake actually forced me to look at my surroundings in a different way.

black mamba

3 for me, Don. I'm intrigued by the first one. As you see it, I'd crop from the right margin just enough to hide the white strip and from the left margin enough to hide the dark area at top left. Then I'd rotate it to a horizontal landscape image. Blown big, it would be dramatic.

Cornflake

Thanks for the comment, Tom. Don't know about you but I see photos here against a black background. In this instance, that makes it difficult to see that there are dark gray areas on the left and right side of the third one.

Juano

Gorgeous set Don, the first two for me. I think Tom's cropping suggestion refers to the first shot, there's a thin clear strip on the right,.if you cropped it you would get a nice natural dark frame around the lighter area in the center.

Cornflake

Thanks very much, Cristobal. Yes, I meant the first one too and said third one. Duh.

Stumblebum

First 2 are EPIC! Last one is fine too but BG is fighting hard with fg. Cheers Don

willard3

I like 1 and 2 and agree with the crop on no. 1

Cornflake

Taz, willard, thanks for the comments.

El Gato

Don...

Wonderful work and rendering in B&W.

A great lesson...I suspect that we might be surprised if one time, we purposely left our "go to" kit at home and tried shooting with an alternative lens, setting, f-stop, time-of-day, HDR, etc., we might be surprised (and delighted) with the images we come home with.

Thanks for sharing this presentation of contrasty subjects. Well taken and presented.

Cornflake

Thanks, Gato. I think you're right about leaving our routine behind.