Photography

“The Horse in Motion” – Photographer Eadweard Muybridge unveiled the true answer of whether a horse is ever has all four hooves off the ground any point as commissioned by railroad tycoon and former California governor Leland Stanford. 

Set at a very short exposure under a second, Muybridge set up 12 cameras made to capture an image once the horse triggered the tripwires connected to each one.

Muybridge’s discovery proved many people wrong as it was thought that there was always at least one hoof on the ground at all times. From this, people used his technique of putting multiple images after each other in the same way, creating the beginning of moving pictures.

Changing an image into black and white can have a huge effect on the overall mood. I took a photo of myself, not thinking much of it, and turned it to greyscale. The outcome reminds me of a memorial photograph which gives it a bit of a morbid feel, in contrast to the original, which looks quite a bit more vivid and lively.

Some use this kind of filter in a stylistic sense, but here I prefer the coloured image as it includes more depth from the contrast of colours over the saddened version made flat from the similar tones in the hair and background.

I feel as though taking away the colour in this image of my cat had a very similar effect as before.

The coloured photo has a feeling of playfulness and we are already drawn to look at the face of the cat because of the strong contrast of light from the surroundings and dark from her fur.

However, what I like about the black and white version is that this is amplified. We still see the bars of the banister but the light tones blend more into the background which made the deep black stand out even more, bringing us to the small portion of the subject that is actually showing. Now we are left with something that has a hint of horror or misery as if that cat is trapped and looking to the outside.