To Black and White or not to Black and White

When I first started down this road of photography I was taught all my technical skills in black and white film. Sometimes when I'm shooting digital I still shoot with a black and white bind set. If you have done both color and black and white you know the difference I'm talking about. Black and white can change the mood of a photograph and even quiet it down.

Let me illustrate my point visually:

In the above picture, color- I totally look at the fisherman's shoes and hat and wonder who is standing at the side of the frame and whether or not they color coordinated their outfits on purpose. Black and white- I notice the hat again but for the shape and feel of it, I wonder what they're looking at and what they may be thinking. Way more interesting, at least to me.

With that being said, I thought the below shark story needed to be told in black and white.

While we were fishing we walked up to the end of the pier to check out all the poles of the king fishermen. It was fascinating to see how they had their poles baited and rigged up to catch really big fish. While we were standing there we were lucky enough to watch a small shark get caught. (Mary watched the whole thing go down!) I was thrilled the young man who pulled it up was happy to play along with my shooting of the experience, and displayed the fish and even opened his mouth for me.

Alix looking out over the ocean surrounded

by the king fishermen's poles.

Bringing up the shark

Sweet...

Removing the hooks

Checking him out, he's really beautiful.

Molly was lucky enough to get to touch him.

Not so scary after all.

Here he is getting ready to put the

shark back in to the water. The young

fisherman was the coolest guy. He was

just this skinny young guy but when he

began to talk a really deep thick

southern drawl came out, it kind

of surprised us.

PS. One of the older fishermen told us that if people saw what they pulled up from the water onto that pier, they would never go in the water again...

In the week we were there they told us they caught a bull shark, a tiger shark and two hammerhead sharks.

Yeah, we went swimming after we went fishing that day. We laugh in the face of danger, unless it's "feeding time".