Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-105 f4L IS, 105mm, f8.0, 1/100th sec, ISO 400, handheld, black and white conversion in Adobe Lightroom.
The Brooks Range is filled with tiny little valleys that cut into the mountains. Each is unique, some make deep gashes that reach far enough for an afternoon hike, others, like this one are little more than a shallow gully. I love each of these places, the larger ones, I explore every chance I can get. The smaller, like this, provide pattern and texture to the landscape.
I made this image on the final day of travel during my Artist Residency at Gates of the Arctic National Park in July. We had just crossed over a low pass, and our final destination, Amiloyak Lake, was just a mile or two away (but over a horrendous tussock field). I was skirting the edge of this mountain, trying to stay up on dry ground for as long as I could before being forced down through the nasty tundra toward the water. It was early afternoon, patchy clouds, and I hadn’t been making all that many images. But this little valley stopped me. I set down my pack and lifted my camera. I started off with some wide shots showing the mountain and sky before eventually, over the course of several images, narrowing my image to just the lower end of the valley and the alluvial fan at the bottom. I knew it was going to be a black and white image the moment I clicked the shutter. The pattern and contrast between the shadows, dark vegetation, rocks, and patchy sunlight suits the monochrome format.
Do you include Black and White in your images? When do you decide whether color or monochrome is the better format?