{31} ~ One Little Word / Another 52 Project

Prompt for Day 31 for Picture Winter

Inspired by Ali Edwards' class One Little Word, today's prompt was to shoot our word that we've selected for 2011 (and think about one, I you haven't yet). 

You might know by now that my word for 2011 is Inspiration, as I've mentioned it already more than once. So I won't write any more about it here and bore you (again) with it. It's just another representation of what I want to focus on this year with my word.

But what I also want to do this year is to do more b&w. I love b&w shots and I still fondly remember one afternoon spent in the school's darkroom, over ten years ago, developing pictures I'd taken in Venice. It was the only time I actually developed my own pictures and I sooo enjoyed it. I remember developing each photo several times, trying out all the different tones, from bright soft to harsh contrasts, watching how the chemicals made the image appear before my eyes like magic.

The digital process of turning colour pictures into b&w reminds me of that process. And I find it a 100 times more difficult than processing colour images. What works better for the image - soft greys, strong contrasts, darker, brighter, sepia, or even bringing back a hint of the original colours underneath?

I see quite a lot of b&w images around in my Flickr contacts' streams at the moment and it has inspired me to sit down and give it a try as well. I've joined the new Flickr group 52 weeks of no color to keep me inspired and to encourage me to go on with it and not give up again too quickly because I'm not satisfied with the result at the first try (and I've tried it quite a few times, most of them wandering straight into the bin afterwards).

So this is my first image for 52 weeks of no color and I'm already cheating a bit. I took this image the week before last and didn't intend it to be b&w at first but last night, when I processed it to bring out all the colours of the pastels, I just suddenly thought that it might be cool to turn a picture so full of colours into one without colours. I gave it a try and think I actually like it more than the colour version :-).

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.