The scalloped river

After a heavy fall of snow a river is transformed. Its bouldered edges sculpted by snow into delicately scalloped mounds.

The original - click to enlarge

This could be almost anywhere – Canada, USA, Europe, Scotland, if the conditions were right. It’s all about being lucky – in the right place at the right time. The location is incidental, but actually it’s the river Vispa at the top end of Zermatt where the ski run down to the village ends. And this is winter at its best.

The original image (above) was taken on my Canon G10 and is almost ‘straight-out-of-camera’. No adjustment needed to levels, curves, contrast or brightness. Just a straighten, a small clone at bottom left to remove a bridge rail, the spot healing brush to remove the more obvious ‘glitter’ points that are common with snow scenes when shot towards the sun, and final sharpening.

I converted it to B&W (see below) because I thought it seemed a fairly obvious choice for conversion. But, it just didn’t work for me. Without those subtle bluish tones in the water somehow the image ends up looking a little drained. That’s my subjective opinion. Maybe you think differently?

B&W version - click to enlarge

It just goes to show that there are some images that look like they will work well in B&W (simplified and enhanced by the loss of colour), but don’t. In losing those little subtle touches of colour you discover that they actually contributed far more than you thought, and that without them the image is diminished rather than enhanced.

Do you agree? Do make a comment and let me know what you think about this pair – both can be enlarged if you want a closer look.