After Bruegel

© Tom Parkes

Testing the P300's macro capabilities: These tiny figures, inspired by Bruegel's Parable of the Blind were made by Chris Goat.

P300 'Hidden' Monochrome Mode

© Tom Parkes

There is a third way when it comes to shooting in-camera black and white with the P300, one which may actually prove to be more useful than the Scene modes Black and White Copy and the special effect High-contrast Monochrome.  And that is to call up the creative slider in one of the main exposure modes - M A S or P - and dial the saturation (or vividness as Nikon refers to it on the P300) down to zero. In ascending levels of contrast we then have the desaturated regular colour mode followed by the Black and White Copy and High-contrast Monochrome scene modes. The latter two restrict the photographer to program mode, auto ISO and a fixed centre focusing point, whereas the desaturated colour setting retains the flexibility of all of the focusing, exposure and sensitivity controls offered by the camera.

© Tom Parkes

Groyne, Angmering on Sea

© Tom Parkes

Sea Front, Worthing

© Tom Parkes

Car Park

© Tom Parkes

Kite Surfers

© Tom Parkes

I spent the first ten or so years of my career shooting, processing and printing black and white images for newspapers and magazines, often sitting on the floor of hotel bathrooms to do it. I enjoyed the darkroom work, but somehow, when it was over I wasn't sad to see it go. I'm revisiting black and white as a medium, together with using a small Nikon P300. Different camera, different medium, different approach. More to come.