30 Days of Color
A Photo Story by Travis Jensen
I’ve been shooting almost exclusively in BLACK-AND-white for the last five years, even when using my phone. It has gotten to the point where I now see potential images as if they were already in B&W, though I’m not color blind. And although San Francisco is an incredibly colorful city, it simply looks better to me in B&W.
Recently I decided to switch things up and shoot color for 30 days using Hipstamatic.
Titled “30 Days of Color,” all images in this series were snagged on the streets of San Francisco, primarily using the Jane Lens and Blanko Film combo, with a small handful being shot with the John S. Lens and Blanko or Inas82 films. Though I tend to shoot with more traditional cameras in place of the iPhone, there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t take at least one or two phone snaps.
I’m not going to lie, there were a few instances throughout my 30 day experiment where I’d find myself incredibly frustrated with an image because it wasn’t rendering well in color --even when the light was next to perfect, but still I resisted the urge to convert to B&W and continued to pushing forward. This was not always easy.
I quickly realized just how much of an impact color has on an image. For example, under the right circumstances, vibrant and dramatic color can quickly turn what may otherwise be perceived as an ordinary subject or scene into a full blown masterpiece. And other times, regardless of how interesting your subject or scene may be, dull color or color that is too overpowering or distractive can make your image suffer. Yes, this is all common sense, of course, but something I don’t have to consider when shooting in B&W, where I’m relying mostly on interesting subjects, scenes and good light to carry an image.
Overall, I’m generally pleased with the results from this color experiment. And although I’m still partial to B&W, I have a new appreciation for color again and plan to incorporate it more into my work moving forward. I’m building a “Color” section for my website at this very moment, in fact. And who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
At the end of the day, regardless of whether you shoot color or B&W, or with an iPhone, DSLR, SLR or disposable, photography is about having fun, developing your eye, being bold, and doing what makes YOU happy. Always. Everything else is secondary. So now, I encourage all of you to consider stepping outside of the box and switching up one of your own photography routines for a month and see where it takes you. It’s these types of exercises that help us grow as photographers. Now get some...
