Continuing on the Black & White theme here an image I took a year and half ago at Yosemite National Park. Reworked with some of the new Black & White treatments I am slowing learning. Inspiration comes from an Ansel Adams image he took in New Mexico. The image is of a small town against a back drop of mountains with an almost black sky that was at least 70% of the image. He once said the dark dominating sky drew your attention to the small town beneath.
Landscape Photography 
G’Day Neal! Looks fantastic mate! The black and white conversion is really point on. I like the dark sky against the fine detail and soft light of the rock faces in the Yosemite valley; it really helps focusing on the important parts, as Ansel said. Usually, one would think contrails can ruin a nature image but they really help here IMHO, giving the frame a nice vintage touch, almost like you added a texture. Superb work Neal. Keep those NoCal shots coming and make me jealous! 😉
Stunning work again Neal ,
Loving the detail with these black and white images this would look awsome printed up
Cheers David … So much to photograph up your way, would love to get back and shoot some more …
Cheers Kirk … This was taken 18-19 months ago so the largest I could really print would be 30×20 …
love it mate! I think i know the image your talkin bout!
Cheers Dylan, yeah it is an absolute killer capture of his … And just think over the years and years he processed that image it got progressively darker as he found new ways n his post production methods …
yeah and then think of how technology has made this process so much easier, and we can now experiment with those things in a minute and scrap the idea then and there if we dont like it! ahhhhh the easy life! 😉
It certainly has. I guess it does give us all more time to improve out eye. Something I have so much to learn. I look at others and always think holy cow would I of seen that, and more times than not the answer is no …
Very nice Neal…would like to see the colour version also as I reckon you would get really good depth with this image by having warm colours in the foreground and cooler in the background…difficult to do in Black and White eh!
I believe that you are referring to “Moonrise, Hernandez”. That image was created from a single negative as in the time that it took to flip his negative carrier he had lost the light on the crosses in the foreground. Many of Ansels images fluctuated back and forth in terms of darkness over the years to correspond with his moods.
Beautiful shot you have here. Very nicely done.
Cheers Mark … I will re wok the colour version and post it up today ….
Thanks Scott … Yes that is the image I was referring to. I saw it for the first time at the Gallery inside Yosemite National Park on a very rain filled day. The next day I decided I would shoot Black & White a majority of the time in the park after seeing that image. For me it is one of the best Black & White images I have ever seen. It makes one feel they are viewing the town above ground from some spaceship, just an awesome awesome image. Cheers for stopping by and commenting, having a professor of Black & White photography and someone I have been following along with the likes of Sexton, Frye and others is very very cool … Cheers …
Sensational one of the best black and white images i have seen in some time… would love to see this printed on fuji flex really big.
Thanks Darren, I hope to have one printed up in the next couple of weeks. At best the largest size this image could be is around 30 x 20 as I would not like to forgo quality over size.
Cheers Neal
This image really works Neal, get a great feel for the grandeur of the place with the composition
Cheers Andrew … I played with the colour version so much that in the end I just shelved it as a lost opportunity … Then while doing some Black & White research I thought I would revisit the file and see what could be done, thus the posting of the black & white version …
Liking these B&W shots Neal, nice work.
Cheers William I am learning a stack while doing them. Today I had a go at MIrror Lake which came up nice … I will post it soon …
What got me really started was an image from G Dan Mitchell … When he gets back from Yosemite next week I’ll ask him if I can post the image. When I saw it, it sat me back in my chair and really made me start thinking about grey tones … It is a wonderful image
Photography is dependant on the reaction of the chemicals on the film to light, it is easy to deduce the importance of light conditions when taking photographs. As light is as important as indicated, one must also be aware that light can be reflected off certain objects, it can be absorbed by others.
Black and white photos