Fellow Pentaxians,
I need your opinions. These are two photos that I am preparing for a photo contest. My topic is the title of this post. The contest is a 2 photo narrative, so the pictures have to tell a story. I headed out to eastern Colorado this last weekend to shoot the pictures. I just love it out there, it is such a barren beautiful landscape. We ended up finding this great desolate farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. It also happened that once we found this place (after stopping by a few other locations, while driving around all afternoon) I had time to do inside and outside shots, then the sun set, so the lighting was perfect. The stars come out so quickly out there, and I had a stroke of inspiration to shoot the sunset, leave the camera on the tripod until the stars came out, then shoot another exposure to help with the feeling of vast isolation, and the passage of time.

Anyhow, I'm trying to finalize the images and I can't decide on color, or B&W and I wanted to get some pentaxian/fellow photographers opinions. The contest is all about the narrative and less about the technical aspects of the pictures. I also want to evoke a Grapes of Wrath/Steinbeck feel to it (I was even thinking of making the title a quote from Grapes, so many amazing ones). I'm personally leaning toward the B&W, because I feel it puts more focus on the stroy, and less on the pictures themselves, but everytime I look at the color versions I waver a bit because I like them too.

Let me know what you think, both about the topic title, and the shots.

Love the feedback, and thanks in advance.


the two in color;






Now in B&W;

[wizofoz]

Benisona, these are truly great shots. I'm torn between the colour and BW versions myself.

Did you try a desaturated version of the colour images? I'm wondering if it might give a more vintage feel.

As it happens 'grapes' is on my bedside table at the moment, about a 1/4 read (for the 2nd time). Looking at your pics makes me think of the scene when the 'dozers came and destroyed the homestead of the Joad's, but to me the scene is in desaturated, washed out, worn out colour. Like the faded pink of a once scarlet shirt, flushed of all but the last of it's colour by hundreds of washes and countless hours of sweat.

Just a thought.

Good luck with the comp.

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Last edited by wizofoz; 02-03-2011 at 12:38 AM. Reason: misspelling

[benisona]

Thank for the ideas and thoughts everyone. I ended up going with the color. Hoping it helps them stand out as there are over 500 entries...