When conditions aren’t conducive to color photography, give black and white a try

 

 

While travel photography is very appealing for a variety of reasons, including being able to visit different and exciting places, there are some potential downsides to shooting in new locations. Even if you scout locations ahead of time online, it is not possible to understand a new place like you know your favorite local photography spots. As photographer Thomas Heaton puts it, travel photography can feel like a "whistle stop tour," meaning you often visit a lot of locations in a short amount of time, never being able to dedicate enough time to each spot. 

When conditions aren't favorable for shooting near your home, that's no problem, you can just head back and it's not a big deal. There'll always be another chance. When you're traveling, you don't have that luxury and you also can feel obligated to try to make things work even if the conditions aren't great for photography. You don't want to go home empty-handed, but especially not when you might not get another opportunity to visit that location.

For Heaton, he was travelling in Northern Ireland and the conditions were not very good. However, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. In Heaton's case, the conditions were not going to be conducive to color photography, so he opted for a black and white approach. Sometimes the colors in a scene don't deliver the desired emotional impact, but with good contrast, a black and white image can be very striking.

To see more videos from Thomas Heaton, check out his YouTube channel and to see more of his work, visit his website.

(Via Thomas Heaton)