This week Ann-Christine gave us the prompt Surprise for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge.
I had no ideas for the challenge before going for a walk with the camera early on Sunday morning.
In the 1970s and 80s I could “see” in monochrome. There was times when I was shooting more black and white film than colour. By the late 1980s I had stopped shooting black and white film and some time later I realised that I had lost the ability to see a monochrome image.
However, as both of my modern mirrorless cameras have an electronic viewfinder they can be set to monochrome. As a result the image you’re seeing in the viewfinder is in monochrome.
So on my Sunday morning walk I set the camera to monochrome. Imagine my surprise when I discovered how useful it was to see the monochrome version of the subject in the viewfinder. After a while I was seeing in tones and light and shade before I put the viewfinder to my eye.
If it wasn’t such a silly idea I would pick up a second camera body and have one set to colour and one set to monochrome the way I carried two film cameras for a while.
Trees in the snow at Hatherton near Nantwich in southern Cheshire. An early monochrome photo taken with my Olympus OM1 in the mid 1970s.
In the early 1980s I was one of the field testers for Ilford XP1 prior to its release. The Houses of Parliament from the South Bank of the River Thames in London, England.
Backlit Maple leaves photographed on my Sunday morning walk with the camera set to monochrome.
Fungi, dead wood and new growth on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario. Another photo from my early morning walk on Sunday.
