A Year in Photos -- Annual Wrap-up (1 of 7)

Well, this was a mixed year. I managed to maintain the daily roll of film goal for about seven or eight months (ending at the same time as my taking a job in the suburbs, where there is less interesting stuff to photograph.) But I did manage to take a good number of photos with which I am happy or very happy. Since I'm in a cast and immobile until sometime in January, I'll use this month to summarize this past year, meaning all the best photos are coming every day from now until the end of the month.

Starting on the 12th, I'll begin a countdown of my 20 best photos from 2012. Next year, we'll pick back up again in late January, once I'm back on my feet. Until the 12th, I'll share a mix of good photos and some of the YouTube videos I've made throughout the year.


Blackbeard here is from Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. He's outside one of the shops along the wharf, and the link in the previous sentence takes you to that exact shop on Google Maps.

Black and white photography captures many subjects well -- those with texture, contrast, and that certain quality which transcends description benefit greatly from black and white. Certain subject simply lend themselves better to rendition in silver. Black and white film, and black and white in digital, still sees color, though. And using light and color to your benefit when shooting in black and white can help enhance, moodify, or ruin an image. Here's a video I did earlier this year on using colored filters to enhance black and white imagery. This video explains -- and shows -- how colored filters change the way a medium sees tones as colored filters manipulate light wavelengths that reach the photographic medium.