Color Or Black & White?

Decisions, decisions! Sometimes it’s very difficult to choose if I’ll use a photo in color or convert it into black & white. I absolutely love the the sometimes simple non distracting, yet dramatic tones of black and white photography. My eyes are attracted to the light, shadows, and contrast of black & white but, I also love the bright, vibrant, and often bold variations of color photos. Sometimes I sit at the computer trying to decide until I get frustrated, even giving up and coming back to deal with it later. Over the weekend I took my son the local carnival and I LOVE all the beautiful colors that are found at carnivals or fares. So after I shot my photos and made it home to process them I found myself stuck in the color versus black and white predicament again. Due to the time of day we were there the sun not only created great lighting but also provided tons of great shadows which would look good if converted to black & white. So, what to do? Well, I ultimately had to make the decision as to which I’d use for submissions, but for the purpose of the blog I can be more free to use whichever I want. Now I’ll leave it up to you…which do you prefer?