These sort of drab, colourless, black and white (and sometimes… er… not quite black and white!) pics certainly seem to have something going for them. Though I haven’t quite managed to put my finger on precisely what yet.
Gimme time though, and the chance to take a sufficient number of them (a boringly sufficient number in fact, or that’s how its beginning to look), and I’ll pin it down. Maybe.
Or maybe I’ll just not care and carry on snapping ‘em, cos that’s what I do. And they’re… um… quite appealing. [Peering quickly and suspiciously around to make sure no-one heard me mutter that]
I’d say it’s because of how dark the black appears. I really like the first picture because of how the reflection came out.
I think you’re likely right Maggie. I certainly appear to prefer the ones that have been processed to be more “contrasty” where the black is definitely black rather than the more grey-toned ones… though it seems to very much depend upon the subject matter.
Re that reflections pic, you wouldn’t believe how many shots I took before I managed to get close to what I was after!
I’ve always felt it’s the enhanced sense of texture and contrast that you get in a good b&w shot. I know all of these places well and I’m seeing stuff there that I’ve never noticed before. I particularly like the lighting and textures on the pavement in the second shot.
Never really thought too much about that aspect of it before, but I s’pose really that’s one of the functions of photography… to help us see things we’d not previously noticed. A different way of looking at something, sort of.
And I guess if it succeeds in that then a pic can be said to have worked. Maybe.
Maybe it’s the damp? Something about the way the lights reflect in such a diffuse manner from the wet pavement?