Some photographers work primarily with Black and White.  For me, I rarely shoot a photo conceiving it as a black and white image from the beginning, before I click the shutter.  Rather, the inspiration to convert to black and white strikes after the fact, as I review photos on my computer.  There is so little color in some images, why not take out the rest?  Or, color adds nothing to this image; it is even distracting.

Black and white excels at capturing texture, contrast, tone, light and shadow.  Some photos have more emotional impact on me in black and white than in color.  They convey a mood or feeling.

Here are some of my favorite black & white photos.  The one below was shot on the Milwaukee lakefront during a foggy winter day in January 2008.  The row of trees fading away into the fog caught my eye, but something was missing until a young couple walked by hand in hand.  They balance the row of trees on the right.

The photo below is from an early morning walk at the Wehr Nature Center in Whitnall Park.  The sun had not yet burned off the fog hovering over the waters of Mallard Lake.  The mood of the scene struck me as melancholy with the dark branches of the weeping willow tree reaching out menacingly as a lone duck escapes into the middle of the lake.

Below are the weathered root system of an uprooted pine along the Dream Lake trail in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Many lighthouses warn boaters to stay clear of dangerous shallows along the shores of the Great Lakes.  Wind Point Lighthouse is in Racine County, Wisconsin, on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Another Lake Michigan lighthouse is this one on Cana Island in Door County, Wisconsin.

On the same island is this gate in the low stone wall facing Lake Michigan.

Some days at the zoo you watch the animals.  On other days, it seems they are watching you, like this Zebra at the Milwaukee County Zoo.

This trio of Arctic Wolves live at the DeYoung Family Zoo in Wallace, Michigan (in the Upper Peninsula).

By far the most photographed building in In Milwaukee is the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum on the lakefront.  From this angle, facing east, one could imagine that you are standing on the deck of a sailing ship.  A sailing ship would roll with the waves so why not tilt the camera?

Someday it would be an interesting exercise to go for a day or a week shooting nothing but black and white.  To look only for light and shadow, texture, tone and contrast.