Is the World Black and White?

I've always loved black and white photography, but I can't count how many people have expressed a preference for color photos to me--especially for things like portraits and wedding photography. Certainly there are photos in which color is arguably the subject of the photo, and something would be missing from the photo if it were presented in greyscale. Still, I love what tossing out the color can do to a photo, especially with portraits, where I think a monochromatic treatment can really even out skin tone, or in photos on very grey days, where the colors have been a bit washed out.

Below are sets of some of my photos with the color version and at least one monochromatic treatment. There are a few I think work better or at least as well in the color and monochrome versions, but most of them are photos which I think were improved by throwing out the color. What do you think? You can see larger versions of the photos in the photo viewer by clicking on any of the photos in the post.

Heidelberg, Germany

 

Northwestern Glacier, Alaska

 

 Pine Cone in Paris, France

Wedding, Anchorage, Alaska

 

Paris, France

Portraits

 

 

Florence, Italy

(In)decisions

Most of my time lately has been devoted to shooting portraits (see my previous post) and some new travel photos in Germany, France, and Belgium (below), but I also have some exciting news to share. In early March, I decided to enter the Guardian newspaper "Been There" travel photo competition. Much to my surprise and pleasure, I was selected as a finalist for the March competition, and my photo was published online (click here to view my photo, entitled Solitude on Stanley Lake). Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty motivated to enter the April competition, so I need to make some decisions.


Unfortunately, as usual, I'm having a hard time deciding which photo to enter, and the photo is due tomorrow (the 23rd). The theme for April is "Street Life"--anything which captures daily life in an urban setting. I think I have a few shots which capture urban life from my recent trip to Paris. While I'm drawn to the photos of the performer climbing the lamppost with a soccer ball, perhaps the Parisians lounging on the banks of the Seine does a better job of capturing daily life? I also feel that the film grain on the performer pictures is a little distracting--it was a very dreary day, and the ISO settings combined with the high humidity mean there's a lot of noise in those photos.

Suffice it to say I'd be grateful for some external opinions. Is there one that strikes you as fitting the theme particularly well (or badly)? One with more striking composition as compared to the others? I'd love to hear your thoughts!