When I started learning photography in my teens, I learned by shooting and developing black and white film in a darkroom. Since then, 99% of what I do is in color but I still experiment with black and white. With Lightroom and other computer editing software, it's easy to take a color photo and turn it into black and white. Many digital cameras have "scene" modes to convert a photo to black and white in the camera very easily. I don't really "think" in black and white so much today but I still like to experiment. Sometimes a very "meh" photo in color and can become very striking in black and white.
My favorites are the "arch" photos below from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This is a beautiful old building with some amazing architecture and graceful arches. In color, the rather bland yellow-ish paint does not look great. But in in black and white with the contrast increased, it becomes a very interesting image I think. My favorite place for B&W in recent years is the Guggenheim museum in NYC. Using B&W lets you focus on the beautiful curves and lines of that one of a kind building. I honestly could walk around that place for hours shooting photos.
Note: If you click on any image below, it will appear in a large "lightbox".
You can scroll through all the images by clicking on the "lightbox" or the < and > navigation arrows.
