Enjoying a great style of picture-taking

In a recent conversation with a fellow photo enthusiast, the subject of black-and-white, or monochrome, pictures surfaced. Not surprisingly, she said she particularly enjoyed that type of photography.

It was not something I hadn't heard before. In fact, I'd need several scores of hands and fingers to count the number of times fellow photography enthusiasts have extolled the virtues of monochrome pictures.

And I concur.

The conveyance of imagery in grey tones is a powerful way to express a vision, and expression is what this and all forms of art is about, right?

Like most photographers who ventured into this craft 15 or more years ago, I cut my teeth on black-and-white film. Taking two photography courses required for my journalism major at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, I was able to live out the process from start to finish.

It began with threading the Kodak Tri-X 120 film into our class-issued Yashica-D twin lens reflex cameras (left), which captured images on 2 1/4" x 2 1/4" (or 6x6cm) frames, much larger than 35mm film for the single-lens reflect (SLR) cameras which were growing increasingly popular then. (It wouldn't be until several years later that I fully appreciated the fact that I had trained on a medium-format camera. That became apparent when I used my first 35mm camera at a job editing a weekly newspaper in Columbus, Wis.) Of course, with the Yashica-D cameras, we would have only 12 frames on each of our Tri-X 120 rolls, compared to 24 or 36 on the rolls of 35mm. So we quickly learned to compose carefully; there was no "do over' opportunity like there is today with digital technology.

We also learned to develop our film and make prints in the photo lab, using enlargers (my first exposure to dodge and burn) and print chemicals.

All of this "history" flashed through my head last night, while photographing the annual Christmas pageant at at my granddaughter's school. I came upon several situations where I suspected use of monochrome would be ideal when I got the pictures home and up in my editing software.

Today's post is dedicated to that monochrome art form, leading off at the top with a youngster whose expression reflects the tedium he probably was feeling while waiting in line with classmates for their turn to march onto the stage to perform. Another frame of him (below), taken about 25 seconds after the one on top, has him interacting with the classmate in front of him in line just a split second before the line began to move forward and head toward the stage.

You'll notice most of the shots below are devoted to one family. The reason for that largely is because of convenience. I was seated on a tiered aluminum bench, and they were directly ahead in my line of sight in the auditorium. The opportunity to exploit the linear and selective focus composition -- and my hope to catch the small child on the one woman's lap looking in my direction -- kept me after various shots of them. This was one of those instances when having and using live view proved to be a great tool; it made my picture-taking far less conspicuous, thereby rendering far more natural compositions. I simply rested the camera on bended knees -- well away from my eyes -- focused through the LCD screen and held the shutter button halfway while I kept watch on the family with my eyes (not the screen) for optimum moments to trip the shutter.

All of these shots in this post, in fact, were taken this way. So in addition to using monochrome (these were converted to B/W in post-processing, by the way ... they were not taken in monochrome), I also used the same vantage point and methodology -- the LCD live view screen -- to compose.

The two girls immediately below the family are my granddaughters; the older first-grader was performing in the pageant and waiting in line, the second, her 3-year-old sister, just decided to mug for the camera while sitting with us on the aluminum benches. But she didn't stand very still, and the combination of that and the more inferior light condition where she was situated complicated focusing, taking its toll on sharpness.

The last two girls below, again, were waiting in line for their turn to take the stage. The penultimate frame was another of those in extremely low light, complicating focus without the aid of a tripod or drawing attention by focusing manually. The very last one looks like she was praying, but she wasn't. The position of her hands the way they appear is a coincidence.

From the b/w archives: Shooting sports with a Yashica-D

Above is one of the first sports shots I ever took. I was in college, taking a photography course required for my journalism major, and decided to see what kind of shots I could get with the class-issued Yashica-D camera at a flag football game on campus. Harry, my sophomore year dorm roommate, was playing in this game; he is the quarterback in the above picture. I was standing along the sidelines when Harry dialed up a down-and-out pass play that ended up coming right at me. I was fortunate enough to capture the ball in flight; as I remember, the receiver did make the catch.

The twin-lens reflex Yashica-D (pictured) entered the market in the early 1950s and was out of production not long after we trained on these in college. It was considered a "break-in" unit affordable for those interested in moving into medium-format (medium-size negative) photography because of the large images it provided (compared to negatives provided by the smaller 35 millimeter cameras already more popular by this time). The Yashica-Ds shot 6cm x 6cm frames (2.25 inches by 2.25 inches) on 120 film (we used Kodak Tri-X) and was equipped with a Yashikor 80mm f/3.5 lens. With such large frames, photographers could squeeze a lot of material into a picture -- if they wanted it. Sometimes, though, they didn't want so much, like for a portrait. So because there was no zoom option, photographers had to move forward for tight frames, or backward to take in more subject matter ... much like photographers do today when using any prime (fixed focal-length) lens.

It wasn't until I developed the film and made the contact sheet that I realized that not only did I capture the neat ball-coming-at-me-in-flight, but also got two unexpected nuggets -- the gleam of sunlight off the car behind Harry and the grossly mismatched pass-rush battle on the far right. Good thing Harry was so far over to the left; I don't think his undersized teammate could have staved off that defender for very long!

Below is another sports shot I took with the Yashica-D in about the same time period. I had brought the camera home to shoot some pictures of family. I took it to the playground of a nearby intermediate school, where my brother, Pete, was playing two-on-two pickup basketball with two neighbors and an interloper we knew from grade school. Pete's the one taking the shot, on the far left; the interloper is defending. The fellow on the far right, who lived across the street from us, went on to play on the local high school team as a center. I don't think he made the team because of his agility, or scoring or rebounding prowess, as much as he did for his size and eventual bulk (as I recall, when this was taken, he had just begun a growth spurt that would max out at somewhere around 6-5 or 6-6).

Pete and I used to play basketball at the playground a lot, and snowy weather was not an obstacle, as you can see in this shot. In Wisconsin, where we grew up, you get a lot of snow in winter, and it made playground basketball more interesting. After particularly heavy snowfalls, we'd bring shovels to remove just enough to move around and create a path to the basket. Besides, a good snow would slow down a stray ball rolling away from the court!

I don't pretend that this is a spectacular image; it's not. Plus, the quality of the print itself (from which this scan was made) has suffered a bit through the years. That gray area in the sky is not a twister moving in; it's undoubtedly evidence of inadequate time in the darkroom stopper or bath (and, yes, I did the lab work on these). Nevertheless, it has preserved all these years ... and it was taken by that classic Yashica-D.