I’m beginning to enjoy working in black & white.

People often wonder why a photographer would eliminate color from a photograph.  I make the decision to go monochrome if I feel the composition would be improved because the colors in a photo were no longer diverting the viewer’s eye around the photograph.  When the image loses the dimension of color it simplifies the composition to a more graphic form.

These images were taken outside of Ninghai at Mt. Wushan.  There’s an old quarry that’s been turned into “grottos” with carvings.  The quarry dates back about 100 years, but the carvings are more recent.  Most of the grottos have filled with water and the high winds inside of several of them almost knock you down.  This is a tourist attraction with hiking trails that are not especially well marked.  We missed a sign somewhere and ended up in an orange grove in a small village nearby.