This week I wanted to share another monotone photograph that was taken back in college. At that time, there were active weekly contests on the AccessPhoto.com forums, each with a theme to guide the entries. The theme for that particular week was “patterns,” so I decided to head over to the library’s stacks to see what I could come up with. I brought along what was at the time my brand new Canon EF 85mm f1.8 lens to give it a thorough testing in different conditions also. Happily, both the lens and the photograph that it produced were well accepted. It is a lens that I continue to use often today, especially in low light conditions such as concerts.
The above image was originally shot in color, but like the sunset I felt it just worked better in this blue tone. All of the books were different colors, easily distracting ones eye to bounce around from place to place. In the singular tone, it is simplified into the light and dark contrasts, and helps the eye not get so lost with one single focal point in order to take in the whole image.
If you have not done so, give monotone colors like this a try on some of your own photographs. Save it as a different file name, and look at both back to back. You might be surprised what it can do to the feel of the image!
During my short time residing in sunny California, I was privileged enough to have a 350Z to drive for a weekend. The car was a fairly new 2006 model, with all the options one could ask for – including the navigation system. And, being new to the LA area, I decided to ask some friends where the good driving roads were. A few carefully placed taps on the navigation and I found myself in the spaghetti-like strings of tarmac that make up the hills just North of Pacific Coast highway. Somewhere between Stunt, Las Virgenes, and Mulholland I pulled off to admire the scenery, or more the billows of fog that were piping their way over the sides of the cliffs. It was there that I found the unique view for the shot above, and another that astute readers will recognize from my automotive portfolio. The shot was done originally in color as all of my work is, but the mood just seemed to work better in this monotone. It feels very still, with only the large highlight by the top of the headlamp drawing your eye closer, making you remember that this is a photograph of a car, and not a landscape. A car that was quite a lot of fun to stomp on through what are still the best curves I’ve ever experienced.
Oh, and a quick P.S. for this week. Make sure you tune into tonight’s season finale of House on Fox (preferably in HD). The whole episode was shot using a Canon 5D Mark II. Being a Canon user myself, I’ll be interested to see what they have been able to accomplish with this next step forward for the medium.
