Comparisons

Most photographers know that some images are more attractive with color and some look better without. On occasion I'll remove the color from the original image and have a look at them side by side. I get Romie's opinion, and while his taste in art and mine are worlds apart, I still value what he thinks about it.

Yesterday's photos of the fog left me wondering which was which when it came time to post them. Color? Black and white? It was too close to call. That's how drab things are out there right now. No snow anymore, thanks to the rain we've had for the last two days, but much of the landscape is still covered up - with brown flood waters.

To illustrate the point, here are two photos. Each is shown in color as well as black and white.























See what I mean?


Let's look at another subject from yesterday's post: the gorgeous Scotch Heather (Calluna vulgaris 'Robert Chapman'). For some reason, I never thought heathers would grow well here and I'd not seen them in local nurseries until last fall. I liked how this one looked as it sat in its gallon-sized pot on the metal shelf at Lowe's. It wasn't in bloom, but it had me at "Hello! Look at my foliage!"

The identification tag stated it was hardy to zone 5, so I bought it. I didn't exactly have a spot in mind for it in the garden, but you know how that goes. At the moment it's a short distance away from a white pine and on its other side is a row of four Burning Bush (Euonymus alata) shrubs positioned at an angle to the pine and the heather, somewhat following the curve of the nearby stone fire pit.

The red fall color of the E. alata leaves contrasts nicely with the fall color of the heather. The heather's unique foliage is a softer and more compact form of the needles on the pine branches. A plant like this really holds its own when you consider the different looks it takes on as it passes from season to season. In September, it looked like this:



In October, it was going through its peachy stage...



By mid-January it was turning a definite shade of red...


...and as you saw yesterday, it's stunningly scarlet. This doesn't do it justice; it's even darker than it shows here.


This is one photo that does matter whether it's in color or black-and-white!