a green mountain weekend in black and white / randolph, vt
August 22, 2018
There’s nothing quite like the mountains to put my mind and my heart at ease. Perhaps there’s some nostalgia there for me, or maybe it’s the sheer beauty of such an imposing landscape that reminds me how small I am in the grand scheme of it all.
Either way, it’s my favorite place to be, and my favorite place to shoot. But sometimes when I’m shooting something I’ve shot 1000 times before, I like to challenge myself and try to do something different.
It isn’t difficult to take beautiful pictures of the mountains: they are a breathtaking scene to behold in and of themselves. But shooting something like mountain landscapes, I often rely on color to make a beautiful photograph–and sometimes it seems necessary.
When you take that piece away, however, you are left only with forms, subtle tonal shifts, and composition. Without color, all of these pieces and the balance between them become infinitely more vital.
Color becomes, almost, a distraction.
Without it, a different mood can be evoked. A different feeling can be captured. Focus is forced to shift. With the obfuscation of information, new meaning emerges, and you’re left with a completely different picture.
Most recently, we threw the pop-up tent on top of the Jeep and headed north with our 5-ish-month-old for his first camping trip. We met up with our friends and their babies and pups, and had a perfectly relaxing family weekend getaway in the Green Mountain State. Here is that weekend, in black and white.