Jeffrey Smith

Sometimes color is a distraction while black & white captures the mood and feeling of a scene better. A lot of my photography focuses on things that are old - steam trains and lighthouses for instance - and black & white brings out the nostalgic feel that puts the viewer in the mindset of a simpler time when the world was slower and less complicated.

Prior to 2006 I was shooting Agfa & Illford b&w film processed by DR5 in their unique reversal process. I liked the tonal range and level of contrast that the final images had. After 2007, I switched to capturing images in color and processing them in SilverEffects Pro from Nik Software to obtain black & white images.

This gallery displays about a dozen images from my black & white portfolio.

The golden hour - or magic hour - is the coveted first and last hour of sunlight in each day. Everything looks better during the golden hour because of the soft warm glow as the sun creeps toward the horizon. During the golden hour, the sun light travels through more atmosphere reducing the intensity of the light which causes more blue light to be scatter resulting in an intensification of the reddish glow. Additionally, the low angle of the light creates long shadows. It is simply the best light you can shoot in as you will see from the photographs in this gallery.

Railroads - especially steam locomotives - were the original subject of most of my photography. Steam locomotives are the closest thing to living things that mankind has created. Although deeply rooted in our industrial past, today they have a romantic appeal and are a reminder to a bygone era.

As time passed I became interested in a variety of other subjects related to our past. In the past few years I've been photographing lighthouses around the United States both in daylight and at night.

Photography at night has intrigued me since I first picked up a camera 15 years ago. The lure of photographing at night is the control I have to highlight the elements that I want the viewer to see while hiding the elements that I don't want them to see. This enables me to make an otherwise dull scene very interesting or a nice scene highly dramatic. Most of my night photography is in back & white as it highlights the contrast between lit and non-lit areas of the photograph better than color photography does.

Some of the images in this gallery - such as the one of Pemaquid Lighthouse - were taken with available light on timed exposures or using high ISOs. Other images such as those at the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad were taken with synchronized flashes using Lumedyne, Hensel and Pocket Wizard equipment.

This gallery features images that are captured with a variety of alternate processes or equipment. A few years ago I started experimenting with a selective focus lens from Lensbaby. A variety of swappable optics make the lens function as a zone plate, pinhole, fisheye or plastic lens - each providing a different way of effect that gives an alternate view of reality.

I also use a Canon 5D DSLR converted to capture Infrared color photographs. Color infrared photography yields some interesting color combinations that result in a lurid and dreamlike appearance. In black & white, infrared yields so high contrast photos that are very surreal as the skies typically turn very dark and foliage turns bright white.

Lastly, I have been experimenting with shooting at shallow depths of field allowing me to focus the viewer on specific elements of the photograph. This has often led to new perspectives of previously captured scenes.

Glamour photography is a genre of photography that seeks makes the model look the best they can look - usually in a romantic manner. The genre should not be confused with fashion photography where the outfit is the focus of the photo as oppose to the model themselves.. Good glamour photographs are about finding the strongest features of the model and posing them in a setting that will make them look their best.