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Those of you who've been following my photography will know that I'm fascinated with colour - as I look at my recent work I see a slightly over-saturated version of the world that is still subtle and full of texture. Maybe that's a good reflection of how I try to live my life, I'm not sure!!
 However I've been interested for a while in creating some black and white work. This is in part because b&w has always seemed to me to be inherently more "frameable" - acceptable to a wider audience and clearly distinct from, well, let's say it... other art that some might see as more commercial or even more suited to a lads mag than a wall. For someone with a strong visual preference, black and white is also, of course, fascinating. The shapes and tonal gradations are all the clearer, stripped of the extra information. (Funnily enough, I remember really not wanting my parents to change the old black and white TV for a colour one... that certainly dates me, but is also something I've never linked to my photographic ideas before!).
 So here's a first real foray into black and white territory. We shot these at the Hotel du Vin in Brighton. They've taken a lot longer than normal to create - partly because I'm fairly new to this, and partly because you can see the opportunities to improve things so much more clearly in b&w! The temptation is just to keep playing away... :)
I'm not going for a very processed look in these, but there has been a lot of work refining the contrast and the b&w conversion to try and create an image that is pleasing to me - clear, interesting shapes and a wide tonal range (thanks Ansel Adams). These were shot using SB800 speedlights and an umbrella as the key light, with a focused bare beam for hair light.
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