New experience

Winter has arrived in Winnipeg. That means that the time for snowy and whitish pictures has arrived. Unfortunately most of these pictures are totally devoid of colour.

Old or new?

So, in that case, why insist on taking colour pictures? Let’s try a new experience and convert them into Black and White and see what happens.

Of course you immediately get the feeling of old times, when winters were cold and the chocolate by the fire was hot… Yes, me too, I remember those days, long ago.

But here in Winnipeg, these cold winters are still normal, while in Europe, decent winters seems to be a thing of the past.

So let’s just revel a bit in these memories and keep things in B&W. This is easily done by shooting in colour and then let Lightroom take care of the conversion.

Some things that come in handy, though, are the colour controls in Lightroom to change the aspect if your B&W pictures.

The Forks, full of iceThe Forks, full of ice

In the above picture, nearly the only thing having colour was the beacon. Converted to B&W, the red paint came out nearly black. Pumping up the lightness of the red colour made it a nice lighter grey, giving the picture a better balance.

The Forks harbour, from high upThe Forks harbour, from high up

Climbing up the observation tower at The Forks, you get a better view of what is happening. Pieces of soft snowy ice are being shaped into perfect rounds, then destroyed by bigger ones. The sound made by this process is a soft swishing. Some day I will post that sound here.

Abrasive stuffAbrasive stuff

For the bridges and the quays, I guess this stuff is rather abrasive and can undermine many a structure. The Assiniboine is not used for navigation other than by kayak or canoe and a small waterbus in summer. No reason to be afraid that big structures will sustain damage.

Next morningNext morning

Last night (one day later) it had been snowing again and the river presented a whole different sight this morning. The floes were covered with fluffy snow and seemed to make a decent and stable ice floor.

A closer look learned that this is still very unstable and that it is very dangerous to set foot on the river for now. A few hundred meters downstream, the ice is gone, leaving only open water to walk on. Hmmm, not really my style.

Keep off!Keep off!

No, better to stay on the firm ground and admire the work of Mother Nature. I tried to light up the falling snowflakes in these pictures using a flash, but I failed miserably. Another good reason to convert the pictures to B&W and have less problems with lighting too.

Falling snow? Where?Falling snow? Where?

If you look closely here, some snowflakes DID light up, but most simply remained a dull grey. Even more, as it was snowing, the ambient light was not very useful and everything turned out grey.

Antique viewAntique view

So what more to do with dull weather than to show dull pictures? Convert them into black and white and try to liven them up a bit. Deep shadows can be filled without changing the picture drastically. If you see the same picture in its original colours, you may wonder why that brick wall is so bright orange instead of the dark brown it is supposed to be… Smile

The above picture was taken a bit later in the day, on Portage Avenue. Only the cars give the impression that this is a recent picture, It could have been taken 40 years ago and nobody would have known the difference.

So, this was a post in Black and White, tell me what you think, if it’s worth pursuing in this direction or if it’s better to go back to the colour pictures. All comments are welcome, use your own language for this. Everything should be good!

Commentaires en français bienvenus!

Комментари на русском принимаю!

Kommentaar in het Nederlands welkom!

Ok, I had to show off I speak a few languages… Angel