Black_White_Photography_-_Winter_2014

57

B+W

TECHNIQUE

All pictures © Lee Frost

THAT SENSE

OF A PLACE

Capturing the character, mood

and feel of a location is the key

to successful travel photography

• and by converting your images
  to black & white you’ll make a
  true connection to the place.
  Lee Frost explains his approach.

T

ravel photography, for me,

represents the ultimate challenge

• to go somewhere with a
  camera and return with images
  that get to the heart of a place in
  such a way that anyone looking
  at those images will get to feel like they
  know it without ever leaving home.
  As bizarre as it sounds, I find it easier to
  achieve that when working in mono than
  colour. Colour may be realistic, but it adds
  a superficial layer of reality that encourages
  no more than a cursory glance from the
  viewer. Mono is different. Mono is about
  mood and emotion. Colour tells the story
  but mono allows the viewer to make up
  their own, to use their imagination and read
  between the lines. For me, that’s half the
  battle won before I’ve even started.
  The key to success when it comes to
  capturing a sense of place is building a
  strong relationship with your subject and
  you can only do that by investing time and
  effort. If you’re caring, compassionate
  and patient that relationship will grow and
  deepen like any love affair, but if you take
  a casual and fleeting approach it will never
  be anything more than a shallow fling that
  ends as quickly as it began – and the
  images you produce will reflect that.

HAVANA, CUBA A long lens is ideal for capturing

the sense of congestion in a busy street by

compressing perspective so the different

elements appear crowded together.

Canon EOS 5D MkIII with 70-200mm lens,

ISO 800, 1/250sec at f/4

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