Is shooting black and white kinda the equivalent if “eating your vegetables” for photographers? And is doing it on film different from converting a raw file that doesn’t work in color over to the dark side? These are things I’ve been wondering as I shot through a few black and white rolls over the last few weeks.

I was always reluctant to shoot BW as I thought color kind of my shtick, and justified my aversion with the expense, inconvenience and ability to convert any color film to BW in Photoshop. The last BW film I shot was when traveling Europe five years ago. After relocating to a new apartment a little further from my favorite photo labs I started to consider doing some of my own development, and as BW is a much simpler affair than color I thought I should shoot it a bit more. That and some recent work by a good friend inspired me to load in more of the stuff.

I’ve enjoyed my few weeks sans color. And have found myself focusing more on composition and varied tones of light. Shooting in BW from that start (not converting later) is making me look in a new way, to see photos where I might not have before. It’s a stripped down process, and I find myself focusing more on the essentials of the frame. Here are some outtakes.

Kodak TMAX 100, KODAK TMAX 400, ILFORD HP5 400

Dongdaemun fabric market, Tmax 100

Gwangjang food alley, Tmax 100

seoul flea market, Tmax 100

dongmyo backstreet, tmax 100

hospital and orchid, Ilford 400


cafe killing time, Ilford 400

bundang, Tmax 400

bundang, Tmax 400

subway, Tmax 400

carting around, Ilford 400 and Tmax 400

waiting, Tmax 400

Tmax 100

junk for life, dongmyo, Tmax 100

Ilford 400


Tmax 400

Apartment, Tmax 400


lauren, Ilford 400

Filed under: 35mm, nikon fe2, street photography Tagged: 35mm, black and white, Ilford, nikon fe2, photography, seoul, South Korea, street, tmax