{"id":270,"date":"2025-06-01T03:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/?p=270"},"modified":"2025-06-01T03:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T03:00:14","slug":"photos-in-black-and-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/photos-in-black-and-white\/","title":{"rendered":"photos in black and white"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I used to tell people that black and white film photography was easy because everything looks cool in black and white. That’s probably a silly take, but over the years I’ve taken a lot more photos in colour than black and white. That’s not because it’s harder though, I think I just like it better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, instead of folding the laundry, today I’ve decided to put on some Italian music and flip through some of the black and white photos I’ve taken over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for the record<\/em>, my favourite song from the playlist so far is Mina’s Citt\u00e0 Vuota off her 1965 album Studio Uno. <\/em>It’s a banger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don’t know a lot about the actual mechanics of taking nice photos. I’ve tried a couple times to learn, I’ve bought books on the subject, and I’ve even practiced! The only thing that stuck around in my head is the rule of thirds, which I think I actually did apply in this photo, though it might not seem like it. It’s just that I also caught a bit of finger, so I had to crop it. That’s the only editing that any of these photos have gone through, by the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one was taken up in Whistler in January 2024. Black and white is very effective in snowy conditions, ’cause it’s all about the contrast. The photo below was taken on the same trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I got a copy of Susan Sontag’s On Photography<\/em> for Christmas the year before last. I was really excited about it, but to date I’ve only read through about a third of the book. It’s very good, but not gripping in the same was as a good sci-fi novel or a biography. I’ll pick it back up one of these days, but for a book literally on photography, there are no pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it mean I’m getting old if most of what I read these days is non-fiction? I just finished The Art of the Impossible: Dave Barrett and the NDP in Power, 1972-1975 <\/em>by Geoff Meggs and Rod Mickleburgh. Dave Barrett was the first NDP premier in BC’s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barrett’s short stint in Victoria was, from what I understand, BC’s first time electing any left-wing government. It’s a good read if you’re interested in that part of the province’s history. One of the things I admire about their approach was their commitment to making positive change over seeking re-election. Apparently, after winning the election, Barrett’s first question to his caucus was, “are we here for a good time or for a long time?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I’m not here to shill for an NDP government from fifty years ago…but if you’re curious, they are the reason we have things like the seabus, ICBC, the agricultural land reserve, Consumer Protection BC, and they’re the reason why resource extraction companies pay the province royalties as they rip things out of the ground to ship out of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Last week’s episode was supposed to be all about the west end, which you can see features prominently in the background of this photo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a spot near the Maritime Museum just above the dog beach where you have this beautiful view across the water. If you pull back a little more, it’s nicely framed by trees on both sides. Here’s another photography tip: framing. It’s important!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn’t find a good example of framing with my black and whites, but here’s a photo I took from the Cambie Street Bridge looking towards False Creek’s dead end at Science World. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I’m writing this, the playlist has unfortunately moved away from Italian music and towards David Matthews and Coldplay, but not before playing another of my favourites, L’Appuntamento by Ornela Vanoni. Have you seen Oceans Twelve<\/em>? You’ll recognize the song if you have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quick side note: when you’re writing about music, do you italicize the song? Markdunn.ca doesn’t have a style guide yet, but I think album in italics and song straight up and down makes sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, I know that when people talk about the best trilogy, Ocean’s usually isn’t part of the conversation. I think that’s a tragedy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think my partner actually took this one. Remember the Naam? I think they’re still around, but I haven’t been in a while. They used to be open 24\/7 and having a vegetarian restaurant that does almost everything vegan open all the time was such a privilege. I miss that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, this little fella was sitting in the planter box outside watching us as we had brunch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you didn’t make it to my 2024 gallery show, BEACHES: a retrospective<\/em>, I made the mistake of using a photo my partner took of a French press with my camera as like, one of the main publicity shots. It was on Instagram, and that was about it, but I didn’t really post a lot so using a photo someone else took on my camera meant that something like 50% of the marketing for the event wasn’t even my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To be clear though, when I say things like “my gallery show” and “the retrospective” I’m talking about the time where I was moving out of my apartment, and since it was all clean and nothing was in it, I decided to get a bunch of photos printed and hang them up around the apartment. I made little description cards and everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the photos included was the shot above. The funny thing about this one is that the sky was so <\/em>beautiful that day. It had all these different shades of pink and blue and when I was setting up to take the photo, my partner was like, “aren’t you using a black and white roll? You’re not going to get any of this.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I was like, “but the texture <\/em>is so interesting.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m really happy with how it turned out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But photos of people are so much more interesting than photos of things aren’t they? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This one was taken on a hike near Porteau Cove. You go up to a lake. I’m not sure what it’s called. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve got a few more photos from this hike, and even though it was a beautiful day and we all had a really nice time (I think! I did at least), I find that they all feel quite tense. I think it’s something to do with the lack of colour, but to me when I look at them all I get a real feeling of tension from the photographs. Here’s another one: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Okay, less tension in this one maybe. It does demonstrate one of my favourite elements of photography though: flipping off the camera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flipping off the photographer would be more accurate actually. Either way, a classic pose, and an excellent option for when you don’t know what to do with your hands. Another good one is flexing the biceps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And of course, the peace sign. Something we need now more than ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This seems as good a place as any to wrap up. The train’s running out of steam, the playlist isn’t hitting the same anymore, and it’s almost time to make dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember when I had long hair though?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions, comments, concerns, complaints, and compliments can be directed to Mark at mark@markdunn.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photos were taken on 35mm film by yours truly. Ilford rolls in this case. 200 and 400. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I used to tell people that black and white film photography was easy because everything looks cool in black and white. That’s probably a silly take, but over the years I’ve taken a lot more photos in colour than black and white. That’s not because it’s harder though, I think I just like it better. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markdunn.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}