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The winter decided to come early this year

A few days ago it started snowing here in Trondheim, Norway, and it seemed like it would never stop. Suddenly in a few days we had about 30-40 centimeters of snow, and even more in some areas.
After a few days the skies cleared up and me and some friends went out the last sunday to take some photographs. It was cold but it was so refreshing and inspiring.

Since I am currently using a Leica Monochrom I can only take pictures in black and white, which is brilliant for snow and contrasty winter shots. After using this camera for almost a few months now I am starting to get comfortable with it, and I work a lot quicker with it each day I use it. And I try to use it every day as well. It’s so small and compact, it’s always with me no matter what I do.

I find that I have adapted to the monochrome style of shooting and I especially noticed that this sunday. I totally ignored colors when I was composing, or, when I was looking for scenes or subjects to photograph. This is great news as I had some doubts if I would be able to adapt myself.

I played a bit with these images in my post-processing workflow, and the results are highly creative. But I like it. The MM’s files are so full of detail and latitude – you can push them incredibly far in post in any direction without getting much noise or artifacts at all. Very fun and very satisfying files to play with.

Enjoy the winter!

5 Comments

Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.

mindominreply
October 29, 2012 at 22:52

When I saw your title I was quite curious about how you would show the early winter in photos. It’s been beautiful here the last days, but I see there’s lot of “pritty” pictures out there. , It’s not easy to capture more than the nice colors. So I haven’t posted anything yet myself (I will, I got some a bit special from Sunday).

But of course, with youre camera you have to focus beyond the colors, and then you are getting or creating much more interresting photos. Nice work!

Børgereply
October 29, 2012 at 22:59
– In reply to: mindomin

Hi 🙂 It’s been a while, or I’ve just been incredibly busy (probably the last bit).

Thanks for your very nice comment! 🙂 Let me know when you have published your winter photographs as well, can’t wait to see them 🙂 Well, being able to only shoot in black and white allows me to be a bit more creative. I think more about composition, contrast, light and form, which is very liberating actually, but also very different. I love it! 🙂

pomgonewalkaboutreply
October 30, 2012 at 05:24

Great pictures and I admire your stance on selling your gear and getting a mono camera only. Funny how with mono you actually see more than with colour. I know someone who has just purchased a Nikon D800. Every picture I see that he has taken is Colour HDR, Each to their own but they do absolutely nothing for me. The images just have no heart or soul to them.

Børgereply
October 30, 2012 at 09:17
– In reply to: pomgonewalkabout

Thank you.

The decision to go mono only was an easy decision. I have many color photographs but the photos that I myself am most pleased with are always black and white. So I figured if I could only take black and white photographs I would make even more images that please me more. My eyes see in color, so I’m also always very curious to see how my photos look in B&W once I come home. It’s like seeing the world differently, and for me that is inspiring and exciting.

Yes, colors can be and are mostly very beautiful – but – colors can also cover up compositional sins too easily. Doing proper color compositions is actually very difficult. In regards to the typical HDR images – personally I don’t really like the typical HDR look in many images. They are usually extremely over-saturated and looks kind of painterly. Some people might like this, but I personally don’t. Proper HDR images however can look very nice – but it seems like 98% of the HDR images out there are a bit over the top for me to handle and appreciate.

simonsundarajkeunreply
January 5, 2013 at 09:59

Reblogged this on Simon Sundaraj-Keun.

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