Ace of hearts

Black and white preset scene shot straight out of the camera.

I have always preferred color photography over black and white, and I especially love red. I have for example taken series of red abstracts inspired by Kazimir Malevich's Red Square, and I have many times photographed especially red items because they just pop out.

Every now and then I also challenge myself to take one picture per day, and try to follow some theme for each week. During one week I shot heart symbols that I kept on seeing everywhere.

Then one day I realised I'm not bound to shoot colors in colors only, but I could shoot them in black and white! For the following collage, taken in spring 2017, I first took some "warm up shots" at home, and then went out for a walk around the town. I already remembered seeing few hearts that I could shoot. I decided to use very casual 'point and shoot' approach, and I already had planned to put them up on 3x3 square collage:



The heart between two fences/gates turned out the best. I had photographed the same graffiti also before, but this time I decided to utilize the small size of the mobile phone camera. I tuck the camera through the fence, aimed what I could, and took only one shot. I was super lucky to get two girls walking by on background, and just a nice amount of "Dutch angle", both by accident:



So, the idea is to say "RED" in black and white. Here are some more ideas for the future:

- Lipstick on collar
- "DONT WALK" traffic light
- Car brake lights seen in dark
- Red high heels
- More hearts
- Bloody Film Noir murder scene
- Strawberries, a lot of them!
- Cherry fruit, maybe between painted lips
- STOP-sign
- Flag of former Soviet Union, Turkey or China
- Fire truck
- Fire alarm signs
- Fire hydrant
- Red wine
- And tomatoes, of course

One can try to do similar exercise also with other colors. For example try to show something blue (e.g. sky, jeans or Campanula flowers) on black and white photo.

P.S. I have always thought luck is an important factor on photography. One can of course try to improve the chances with practice and by developing the skills. And chances of course increases if we just decide to go out with the camera, and keep the eyes open. But very often the successful image comes like an accidental stroke of luck.