I love this effect. And the neat thing about digital is that you get instant feedback on whether or not you’ve done it right.

On the other hand, I still haven’t figured out how to print digital BW so that the prints can be hand colored…. a longer topic for another post.

photo: Pear tree and moon, digital black and white, 2010

Photo: Forest path, 16×20 hand colored black and white photo, 2010

Here are three new hand-colored prints that I was able to enjoy finishing up on a rainy Sunday afternoon. All are from recent black and white excursions into the woods around our house. This one, above, shows the trail that leads from our driveway to the upper well; I walk up that way several times a week.

One big difference to most of the work you see on this site is that these prints are big: 16 by 20 inches. When I get around to posting them in the sales gallery I will have to make a new price category for them. (I’ll also have to note that matting won’t be included, as it would be unrealistically expensive to pack and ship a matted photo of this size.)

Below, a look at a group of ferns and a very abstract flash blur of some viney maple.

photo: Ferns, 16×20 hand colored black and white photo, 2010

photo: Trees, 16×20 hand colored black and white photo, 2010

Here’s a quick flash-blur shot in the woods taken on the Pentax 645. It’s not stunning, but I really like the way the vines creeping up the front of the tree to the right were outlined in shadow. That’s an effect I keep working to replicate, not always successfully.

Again, one to be colored and reposted.

This is an especially wonderful, delicate hand colored photo, if I do say so myself, which I do. This little madrone tree sometimes catches interesting light where it lives on the edge of the dark fir forest. The added color is very light and oddly precise, which suits the subject well.

photo: Madrone, hand colored black and white, 2010

photo: Ponderosa Pine, Harney County, 2009