Photography Grace Taylor

Intro to Digital Photography

The Landscape of Vermont in Black and White

I have had the wonderful fortune of being able to live in Vermont for most of my life. The splendor of the landscape is what first motivated me to pick up a camera over thirty years ago and endeavor to capture its beauty to tell a story. My photographic images are an extension of the world in which I grew up and live in today.

The images in this portfolio of Vermont are in black and white. I chose this medium because for me, black and white, or monochrome photography, comes naturally. When I am photographing, I try to look at how I can use the light, shadow, and composition to capture the character that black and white photography has to offer.

Having both black and white in a shot is important, but just as important is to have a wide gradient of the grayscale. The presence of a variety of...

Catching these grays is, again, a matter of proper exposure and making sure I did not wash out the grays with too much white. In all of my shots, I look for the possible middle gray and then expose the surrounding elements based on that exposure.
As aforementioned, proper exposure is key, especially in black and white shots, to maximize the visual and emotional potential of monochrome photography in every shot. Each shot should contain within it, pure black and pure white. Each shot should also be different in its range of tones; they do not all have to be the same level of lightness or darkness. Some will be much darker and some will be much lighter, overall. The proper exposure is what makes each shot accurate and unique in capturing when they were taken and under what circumstance. Just as the grays, darks, and whites are relative, so is proper exposure. What is appropriate exposure…