This image marks the start of ‘fog week’ with black and white images taken on an incredible foggy night in early December. I shared a few color images from this night last week but have to admit the black and white ones ended up being my favorites. I had six in particular that stood out and am sharing five of those this week. The benefit of black and white, especially when it comes to images of light and fog is that it removes the distraction of color and forces the viewer to focus on textures, lines and gradients. I hope you will agree that the images shared this week benefit from being converted to black and white.
To begin the week, we’ll start with an image taken on State Street. I had made a few stops prior to coming to State Street but knew that I wanted to capture the winding street with its old lamp posts throwing out arcs of light. This image was taken shortly after a color version shot from the top of the street near where it meets Washington Street. This one was taken where State and Front Street intersect and I had setup with a particular shot in mind when a woman came walking down the street. I immediately thought back to two black and white images that were awarded Best of Show in the past few years and thought this was an incredible chance to extend the series. When she came close, I asked if she minded walking back up for a second and got this image as the woman passed the nearest street lamp.
The slightly slowed shutter speed (to account for the little available light at this time of night) served to blur her silhouette and add a sense of intrigue to the image. There is something about including people in the landscape images that seems able to transport the viewer into the scene and I felt that as soon as I began working on this image. The black and white helped simplify the scene and made it timeless.
Here are the two other shots in the ‘In a Fog’ series:
