The terms ‘black and white’ and ‘monochrome’ are often used synonymously in photography. But when you consider the meaning of the latter you quickly realise that they need not be the same thing. A black and white photo can be described as monochrome, but a monochrome image isn’t necessarily black and white. Monochrome simply means ‘one colour’, so any photo dominated by shades of a single colour can be said to be monochrome.
-
-
To focus on a single word and bring it to life in an image; it sounds simple, but … This month’s Pick a Word choices come from Botswana, China, Oman, Guatemala and Peru. Whatever else they make you feel, you could well be dizzy travelling so far so quickly!
-
Summer has been in rather short supply this year, although August has given us some nice days. On the whole, however, it has continued July’s pattern of unseasonably cool and damp weather, again due to that stubbornly stuck jet stream.
-
Today’s rainbow will have only three colours: red, yellow and blue. Why? Because they are the primary colours from which all other colours can be made.
-
The traditional ceremony of Tak Bat, or almsgiving, isn't unique to Laos, or even to Luang Prabang, but has become particularly associated with this town because of the sheer number of temples in a concentrated space. Every morning the monks leave the temples to walk the streets, carrying a pot in which local people place food, usually sticky rice. In this way the monks have food to eat, and the people receive good karma and blessings in return for their giving.
-
If it is the case that crows eat slugs and snails, then surely I should be glad we have so many in our neighbourhood. Our garden is plagued by snails in particular. But on the other hand, if crows do eat snails, why then that plague?!
-
It’s August, so where better place to be than the English seaside? Although truth be told I like our coastal areas much more in the winter months and maybe even more so in spring and autumn.
-
With 7.888 billion people in our world it shouldn’t be hard to find someone interesting to photograph. Yet, among so many, how do we find the ones that stand out from the crowd? Which are the faces that speak to us? Which seem to tell a story that can be captured in a single shot? Perhaps it’s their clothing, their expression or what they are doing?
-
We photograph flowers for their beautiful colours and shapes. But without seeds we would have no flowers, and those seeds too have their beauty, especially while still on the plant. Their often-dramatic sculptural structures are ideal for macro photography both in colour and monochrome.
-
When I first started visiting in the early 1980s Newcastle did seem like a city in black and white. Once a great industrial hub it had been hard hit by the closure of the shipyards and coal mines of the region.
