Black and White or colors

 

I used to say that Black and White photography was my favorite thing to do and in some ways it still is. But who doesn't love color? Bright beautiful colors?

The photo above was a fern leaf on a plant attached to a rock in the creek bottom. It stuck out from the rock and was surrounded by snow during that last rainy day we had.

In my way of looking at things, I thought it would make a nice black and white shot with the leaf isolated. Then I could admire the patterns of nature. An additional surprise was the drop of water that is hanging on the leaf frond at the top of the photo.

On the 8th of January we had some incredible fog and frost. I hiked through the woods to look for interesting shapes and patterns. Since the light was still quite dim and flat, it was hard to get anything interesting except shapes.

When I took these I noted that there was nearly no color at all in the tree trunks so I went with Black and White for the the shapes.

Some of the Ironwood aka Hornbean trees keep their leaves until spring and I just love the slight color contrast they give the dark forest.

Below is a small understory Hornbeam - Ironwood really provides a bit of interesting color to the backdrop of a large old twisted maple tree.

I came to the edge of the woods and looked up at Staghorn Sumacs that are so brilliant in the fall. 

I loved how entangled they looked in the frost with the forest behind them. Moody as all get out. To me it looks like a scientist's drawing of brain synapses. I don't know why I think of it that way.

It feels.
Entangled.

I moved on to my favorite Locust Tree and tried to find a clear shot of one of the branches without a background of brush and forest. I took one shot of the branches against the sky that was just okay.

The photo of the one below appealed to my mood much more in the final cut. The foreground itself was naturally black and white, the oaks in the far distance lent some color to the photo.

I think this one and the Sumac are my favorite for that day.

The very next morning, the frost was still around but the intense fog cleared and there was sunlight.

Here color ruled.
The pinkish orange sunrise colored the land and the frosted trees in the forest.