Sometimes things are black and white

Hi it's me! (I bet you guessed that.) Don't you just love mirrors? I’m bad. The photographer in me just won’t leave reflections alone.I was thinking about reflections and about black and white photography. My media group at Wordsmith Studio has issued a B/W challenge for this week’s theme.You know, some days it doesn’t seem right when all I do is press a button or manipulate a function. I miss the days when I used to buy a roll of B/W film and it was so precious, you know, those 24-36 photos which took so much time and effort to develop.I miss my black room and I miss the smells and textures and the magic. I miss lugging my father’s Leicas, light meters, rolls of film. Did I ever tell you about the time I dropped the best Leica on the concrete floor of Heathrow airport? It bounced and rolled and came back unscathed. I thought that for sure I cracked the lens or something. My very expensive first digital Nikon became unfixable after I had it for about two years. The good folks at Nikon said, “Well, they’re only really good for about 10,000 shutter releases, but we can sell you a new one.” Really? I’ve had the Leica for about 50 million shutter releases! (Ok, marginal bit of exaggeration.)But it still is magic. It still takes an “eye” to concentrate on form and reflection with B/W. To see it in B/W even when you know there is colour, to reduce it in your mind and capture it with your camera. The pure and clean image, the fine lines, the sculpture, the magic. I love it.