I want to dedicate even more time in 2014 to improving my photography. With that goal in mind, I immediately jumped at the chance to join a black and white blog circle when Meredith mentioned it to me! The vast majority of my photos tend to be in color, but many of the photographs that draw me in are in black and white. There is something about stripping away the color that allows you to focus on the raw emotion behind a photo.  I used to pretty much only convert to black and white when I had messed up the exposure or white balance. I hope that this blog circle forces me to focus more on finding interesting light and composition to capture photos that converting to black and white will enhance, rather than fix. Here are two of my favorite black and whites from the past year.

I have also been lucky enough to be in India visiting temples.. and practically every photo I have taken in the past few days has been screaming to be converted to black and white because the textures and light are so beautiful! Here’s one of my favorites — my friend Chrissy in Aihole.

Chrissy in Aihole

I hope you travel on to the lovely Jennifer Carr.