The Color of Dawn

I was up for a 4 am sunrise as we passed close to the granite spires of Norway’s Lofoten Islands, well above the Arctic Circle. I have always loved this landscape, with cliffs rising right up from the sea, and small fishing villages clinging to the thin shoreline.

But although the usual fog was missing, there was still a lot of mist in the air – and my color images of the islands lacked intensity. The deep shadows and muted colors just didn’t work for me. But then I converted them to black and white…

In black and white, the shadows suddenly worked, and the wispy clouds in the sky jumped out at me. I’ll show you both versions here, but for my money, this color just got in the way.