2205_0953 Nightfall at Aspen Coulee
It's time for a break from birds! Yesterday I took a break from Flickr; this should be fun, not another chore. Between recent commitments and the need to get my garden planted asap due to our brief growing season, the past few weeks have been hectic.
But beyond that, I feel like I'm going a little stale as a photographer - so it's back to basics. And in my life, basic means black and white.
The prairie lends itself well to monochrome: such a simple, yet highly graphic landscape. To do it well, some deep looking is required. Essentially, I've had to get over the need to please people by photographing the prairie the way it's usually seen: hay bales against a sunset sky, for example. I've done that, but I know... well, I know it's been done. Done to death, perhaps. Flip through any calendar that has at least one prairie image and you'll find hay bales against a sunset sky, or if not that, maybe a combine in a wheat field. Nothing wrong with that. But the prairie offers a whole lot more. There must be different ways to see it!
Over the next few days I will offer some recent and some older black and white takes on the prairie, my prairie, starting with this view of some Trembling Aspens: a thick tangle of branches at the top, thread-thin trunks below, and in between, the seeping inky blackness of nightfall. There was barely enough light to focus. I resisted the temptation to process for detail - the camera's sensor captured a whole lot more than what's visible here - and instead tried to maintain the murky quality of the subject as I saw it in the gathering dark.
Photographed at Aspen Coulee in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2022 James R. Page - all rights reserved.
2205_0953 Nightfall at Aspen Coulee
It's time for a break from birds! Yesterday I took a break from Flickr; this should be fun, not another chore. Between recent commitments and the need to get my garden planted asap due to our brief growing season, the past few weeks have been hectic.
But beyond that, I feel like I'm going a little stale as a photographer - so it's back to basics. And in my life, basic means black and white.
The prairie lends itself well to monochrome: such a simple, yet highly graphic landscape. To do it well, some deep looking is required. Essentially, I've had to get over the need to please people by photographing the prairie the way it's usually seen: hay bales against a sunset sky, for example. I've done that, but I know... well, I know it's been done. Done to death, perhaps. Flip through any calendar that has at least one prairie image and you'll find hay bales against a sunset sky, or if not that, maybe a combine in a wheat field. Nothing wrong with that. But the prairie offers a whole lot more. There must be different ways to see it!
Over the next few days I will offer some recent and some older black and white takes on the prairie, my prairie, starting with this view of some Trembling Aspens: a thick tangle of branches at the top, thread-thin trunks below, and in between, the seeping inky blackness of nightfall. There was barely enough light to focus. I resisted the temptation to process for detail - the camera's sensor captured a whole lot more than what's visible here - and instead tried to maintain the murky quality of the subject as I saw it in the gathering dark.
Photographed at Aspen Coulee in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2022 James R. Page - all rights reserved.