Figure 1 – tree stump on the water, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

A magical aspect of modern digital photography is that you may start with a preconceived notion of a photograph: is it a black and white or a color image for instance, only to see that transformed when you go to process the picture.  There is a kind of leap of faith when you commit to grey-scale from color. Of course, you can still recover it.  I took Figure 1 with the an intense motivation towards black and white.  It was to be a study in contrast, form, and dynamic range. And, indeed, in the first attempt I took it over to black and white.  But i quickly fell in love with the intensity of warm light on the log, with the blueness of the water, and the reflections of sky light in the little waves that I had  preserved by choosing a shutter speed of 1/2500th sec.  I suspect that it has another life in black and white, but will leave that for another day.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM at 70 mm (through a chain-link fence I may add), ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE Mode 1/2500th sec at F/7.1 with no exposure compensation.