Another hotel shot

I hummed and hawed about uploading this image, being worried about any possible copyright infringement of the hotel's logo. However, it's incidental to the shot and is partially obscured so I'm fairly comfortable about it.
I really like this shot - it took a lot of walking around the grounds of the hotel to find the pov that worked best and then for the sky conditions to be right. It's lucky I was staying there during the week for a few months!

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Catching up on the DDR backlog

Another take during a recent stay at a hotel near Heathrow. I was attracted by the cobweb shapes made by the windows when viewed from this angle.

It could be thought of as giving a nod in the direction of man-made stuff replacing / squeezing out nature.

It took a little while for the sky to improve to what I thought would work out in the hdr / tone mapping and I'm pleased with the overall result.

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Another for Urban Ugliness vol II

This is one I took a few weeks back that I finally managed to push through the DDR. I've called it Rubble To Be. The general decay of the building appealed to me - roof tiles gone with just the skeletal frame remaining but there was something missing...

After a wander around, I found the complementary element to the shot that I was looking for - the pile of stones and beams up against the building.

It seemed to me that it was "winding up" the decaying building - almost taunting it by implying that very soon, it too would just be rubble.

I often do that, paint a little story inside my head, imagining the conversation that might be taking place if the objects were animate. Ok, so maybe I'm a little nuts ;)

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Why does B&W connect so well with our emotions?

I've been asked many times what it is that makes monochrome - especially black and white - so emotive.

I hadn't really thought much about it but my understanding has increased each time I've been asked and struggled to get across my views on it. I think I'm now ready to try and give a full answer here...

I'm going to make a connection with our primaeval past and primaeval instincts and emotions as the main parts of my answer. To do that I need first to make some observations that will stimulate the right ideas in your mind.

Primaeval Instincts

The most basic primaeval instincts are fear and the need to procreate. That's one strand. The other is that at night, in dim and dark places we don't see colour - the rods and cones in our retinas are designed for colour vision when there's plenty of light around and black and white when there's little light around.

Procreation Instinct

An observation - when dating has gone so far along its course, we go out for a meal in a romantic, intimate, low-light setting. Ever wondered why the need for low light and candles? Whatever the reason, isn't that a direct connection with our primaeval procreation instinct?

Fear Instinct

Fear is heightened at night / in low light, when you can't really see any threats that might be around. Have you and some mates ever 'talked' yourself into a right case of the willies when in a spooky place?

In both these situations, a common factor is that you are seeing in (or close to) black and white. So doesn't it make sense that a photo / image / film in black and white triggers or stimulates at least a little, those more primaeval feelings? When this happens they are nearer the conscious 'surface' and therefore flavour whatever else is going on in your mind when viewing the work.

In a nutshell...

So in a nut shell, our primitive subconscious associates black and white with low-light and the possibilities of fight, flight or procreate (hah! managed to avoid the alliterative verb so as not offend any sensibilities!). And when we see an image in black and white it makes those primitive feelings come to the surface to 'colour' our emotional response to the image.

So what do you think? Do you see the connection? Is it a (fool /) full-ish answer?

Thoughts please...

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