Black & white challenge

Kacey over at Wine on the Keyboard issued a couple of days ago -- she showed us a great bridge photo and challenged her blog readers to play a little with Photoshop to convert a favorite photo to black and white. A big thank you to Kacey for this challenge because I had so much fun. It's been years since I did much black and white work, and digital makes it so much easier than what I remember doing in the darkroom. It smells better too, and best of all -- no rash from the chemicals.

Here are my favorites from an afternoon's session of tinkering:

My daughter shot this photo with my camera as the wedding guests were filing out of the church. I like that the happy father of the bride dominates the photo, but enough of the church's interior can be seen to allow a feel for the setting and circumstances. In the original color version, there's a blaringly bright red exit sign next to his head and a couple of other red lights that detract. Switching to black and white erased them.

Black and white gives a vintage feel to this photo of a heritage breed turkey. He's an old-fashioned Bronze of the Kardosh strain, and beautifully formed.

This one looks nice in color, but switching to black and white puts the focus on the light sparkling through the ice. It brings back fond memories of my youth and the many rolls of film I burned through while I was learning how to compose photos and manage light. It's much simpler and cheaper these days to experiment, thanks to digital technology.