365 MONOCHROME 2014 - aka 'Plan B'

Introducing the Project - Day 1 - 10th January

Now with 'Plan B' being in the title you may think that 'Plan A' has been ditched but it hasn't, I'm still developing it, but it's not ready to put in front of the public just yet and it could be a while!  So meanwhile I needed something that I could do over a period of time and that would provide all those things a project is supposed to, motivation, inspiration, challenge etc., etc.

Dying Rose

In searching for ideas, the commonest one seems to be the 365.  It sounds simple, take a picture everyday (yes everyday) of anything.  What to do with them varies between, posting on social media sites, blogging or creating calendars. I wanted something with a little more focus (no pun intended) and this brought to mind last October when I ended up rooting around in one of my old boxes (you know the stuff that languishes in the attic) and came across some of my original black and white images from my photography training.

Desaturated Rose

That was in the pre digital era, back in the day of hand rolling film and wet processing.  I trained using a huge twin lens Mamiya and Pentax K1000.  Decisions were made well before any photograph was ever taken as to the type of film to load, which ultimately had an effect on the final image. There is something about a good quality black and white print, where colour plays no part, and I tended to gravitate towards the grainy harsh films and papers.

Day 2 - Kildonan. Isle of Arran - 11th January

With no decision or start made on a project, the catalyst came when I was throwing out a bunch of flowers that had lasted since before Christmas.  Some of the roses hadn't opened but had dried on the stalk and I decided the time was right to get off the fence and actually do something! So 10th January 2014 is day one of 365.

Day 3 - Harder to recognise without his red breast - 12th January

In deference to the digital era I've decided to go monochrome and not just black & white. But all images in the project will be of a single hue, and I hope to blog every couple of weeks with some of the results.

Monochrome Rose

Dark Rose