The Young And The Old

Up until this point, I have always shot photos in color.  I looked through quite a few portfolios and books of several photographers and organizations such as Annie Leibovitz, Magnum, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and National Geographic to gain some inspiration and hopefully, to learn something.  I'm not even in the same league as the afore-mentioned, but one thing I took away after studying the photos was a large portion of the images were in black and white, or monochrome.  After downloading my own b&w images to my Mac, I realized monochrome photos possess a different appeal.  B&W seems less distracting than color and forces the eyes to pay serious attention to lights and darks, not just "things" to fill up the frame.

Today, not only did I shoot in b&w, but I focused on the two ends of the human population - the young and the old.  The two age extremes are comparatively easier to shoot than those humans in the middle, who to me seem quite a bit more self-conscious, judgmental, and reactionary - especially when there is a camera around.

These were taken at the Maui Mall in Kahului:

Then again, as I pulled over on the side of the road this afternoon on the way home from work to snap this photo, I realized color definitely has its place too:

For comparison, here's a black and white shot: