iPhoneography Challenge: Black and White

Posted on May 20, 2013 by lensandpensbysally

20 May 2013

Lens:

1. Mill Buildings, iPhone 4s, April 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

2. Ceiling Lights, iPhone 4s, May 2013; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2013

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

Gracie (http://graciebinoya.com), Polly (http://watchingthephotoreels.com) and I began this iPhoneography Monday Challenge in February. If you’d like to join the fun, please click here for details.

It’s black-and-white Monday, and a way to turn my universe into a grayscale wonder. Monochrome gives the visual a patina and tilt that focuses as much on design elements as it does on contrast, shadows and tone. It’s deeper effects play with our perceptions of reality.

Black-and-white images manipulate time. They spark our linear and non-linear notion of the here and now, or past and future, or each.

Time is a fixture that travels and toys with us, affecting nearly everything we contemplate and do. Just when we think that we might understand it, we are tossed into a quandary about what it is. Its silent or loud tick tocking wavers between black-and-white and something that we cannot grasp.

Albert Einstein, who created the general and special theory of relativity, changed our perception about time. His view of its rhythm as relative to the universe’s physical space opened minds to new vistas. It’s easy to stretch his discoveries into the realm of human emotion, which is steeped in time’s hands.

Albert Einstein (1915), Google Images

Here are quotes by Einstein that move through spatial science and the alchemy of the heart.

“Relativity teaches us the connection between the different descriptions of one and the same reality.”

“Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.”

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT’S relativity.”

I know that when I push the shutter to record an image, I am in the realm of science. But that’s relative, because I also am in the arena of creativity and perception.

In the Lens section are two images that weave together time and the monochrome. The first is a sunset, which is one of the regulators of daylight. The second is a cluster of artificial lights, which radiate during nighttime.

Time is the construct of human genius. It slips and slides as though it needs control. It jumps, hovers, delays, and mostly, is mysterious. As an abstract and concrete concept, we hold onto it or let go of its importance.

As each day closes and another opens, time works its magic and then evaporates. It forces me to wrestle with it. It also forces me to see its constancy that gives our lives the grey that is (to me) obvious in the black-and-white.

Tip of the Week: If you are searching for an app that shouts monochrome, click here. Marty Yawnick, who writes for the online iPhoneography magazine Life in LOFI, reviewed the app Vint B & W MII. There are many, many apps available that render an image in black and white. It’s good to get advice from those dedicated to iPhoneography, but it takes experience to find the one that fits into our personal tool box.

Here are other entries:

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com

http://simplylifestuff.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-challenge-bw-2/

http://blogagaini.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/image-created-with-snapseed-2/

http://ayearinmyshoes.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white/

http://streetsofsfphotos.com/2013/05/20/eye-of-god/

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-monday-bw-challenge/

http://acrossthebored.com

http://nwframeofmind.com/2013/05/20/iphoneography-monday-black-and-white-2/

http://watchingthephotoreels.com

http://weliveinaflat.wordpress.com

http://graciebinoya.com

http://nosteptooloose.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white/

http://zimmerbitch.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/iphoneography-challenge-black-and-white/

http://rfljenksy.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/black-and-white-and-shadows-and-light/

Note: As always I welcome comments about this post or any part of my blog. The following is a reminder of the weekly schedule and themes for upcoming challenges.

1st Monday: Nature

2nd Monday: Macro

3rd Monday: Black-and-White

4th and 5th Mondays: Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel).