P#28: A Black and White Memory of Two Smiling Boys

Two Brothers Caught in Time

Cheryl Dorskind: This photograph of the smiling boys is of Paul and Luke. They're sitting in a lifeguard chair. This is after the session. I did a family portrait of them with their mom and dad. Luke is the youngest one. As you can probably imagine his attention span isn't the longest and he was done miles before the mom was done.

Oftentimes, when I'm doing a family portrait, the parents lose their patience and I have to calm them down also. As I said earlier, the kids will eventually get tired of being bored. Then they'll just quiet down. At the end of this session I let them climb up on the lifeguard chair and took this picture of the smiling boys. (click the image for a larger version)

The mom hangs it in her house. It was like an afterthought that became a great shot.

Audri Lanford: This one is black and white. Could you say a little bit about black and white versus color since we're on a black and white?

Cheryl Dorskind: Black and white photographs offer a timeless look. The thing with digital photography is the color. A lot of photographs are all about the color and who can saturate the red the reddest. There's a lot of pumped up energy going on, which can really take your eye away from the person.

With black and white, it really strips things down. It creates a timeless, more moving, more romantic moment. Try taking new pictures and converting them to black and white. With film, you had to do one or the other. That's one of the beauties behind digital photography. You can always turn it into black and white later on.

In Summary

It seems that digital photography has taken us in the direction of more color. Bigger, brighter, better - the images are bright and sometimes even overwhelming. With this photograph Cheryl took a step in the opposite direction. This picture of the smiling boys reminds us of what black and white photography has to offer.