Black & White

You don't see a lot of black and white shots taken underwater.  And for good reason -- they don't really work.  At least not for me.  I'm not sure why since the early attempts at black and white photography underwater, say, everything from William Beebe's pre-Great Depression shots, all the way up through Cousteau's and Hans Hass's stuff in the 50s and early 60s, is just fantastic.  But a lot of that is probably due to their historical significance.   Black and white shots taken underwater nowadays, though, tend to strike me as gimmicky.  Again, just my opinion.

That being said, when I felt like trying something different earlier this week, processing a few recent shots as black and white seemed like the thing to do.  And what better subject than nudibranchs -- animals known for their beautiful colors.  I guess what I wanted to see was whether stripping them of those colors would make it easier to focus on something else, something like form, function, maybe texture.

So I spent a few hours dodging and burning, applying overlays and whatnot, things I never usually do.  I can't say that the monochromatic results have brought out anything in them for me that's otherwise obscured by color.  But I'll give them some time and space, take another look in a month or so -- see if anything jumps out.