While I have no intentions (yet) to switch to all monochrome for my blog images, there is a reason for me to keep pursuing the variations and capabilities of making monochrome images which I will explain later.

The camera industry just announced two new cameras that only produce monochrome image files.  There is no possibility, with them, to decide later whether or not to make color or monochrome images during processing.  The two new ones join other models which also only produce monochrome images.  It seems, or at least the camera manufacturers hope, that more photographers will switch over to monochrome, or at least the well known photographers already working exclusively in monochrome might upgrade their cameras.  As a minimum, at least, the writers, reviewers, influencers, YouTubers, etc. now have more to write about since there has been an uptick in viewers interested in monochrome.  Even my blog has undergone a slight uptick from those searching for “Monochrome with a Pentax K-3 III”.

Getting back to my reasons for monochrome you should understand why I have photography as a hobby.  It is to keep me busy in retirement.  I like to make pictures everyday and then play with their processing.  On my walks I take pictures that interest me since I like to see what they show me … to find out what they “tell” me when I process them.  I often process them in several different ways just to see how they look.

I like to pursue monochrome styles since they are more malleable; i.e., I can play with them more extensively to create various moods, to darken areas that are not of interest (yes, hide things), etc.  Working with monochrome styles give me more things to do and they also often take more time to process; i.e.they give me more entertainment.

Now, you see why it isn’t likely that I will get a purely monochrome camera.  That would diminish my enjoyment, unless it gave me reason to go out more often to look for images.  My goal is to have fun, if you wish to call it that.  It is only to see what I can see in my common everyday scenes.  To do that I use the color data in color files so that I can lighten or darken individual colors to make a more interesting monochrome image.