I’ve been interested in photography for most of my adult life and recall taking a darkroom class 30 years ago, but life happens, and photography took a back seat for years.

I really started to get into it maybe six years ago when we were in Italy. I took tons of pictures with whatever iteration of iPhone I had at the time, and mostly with the Hipstamatic app, which is still one of my favorites.

When I returned home from that trip, I sold all of my Canon gear, for a much smaller, lighter, mirrorless system. I started with Olympus, but recently switched to Fujifilm. I am absolutely in love with these cameras!!!

In the past, I’ve mostly shot landscapes, seascapes, sunrises, and sunsets – the beauty of nature. I also enjoy architectural photography and still life. Let’s just say, I shoot anything I find interesting or beautiful.

I rarely took pics of people. In fact, I’d get annoyed when they were in my shot. But I’ve always loved street photography as a genre, before I even knew there was a name for it. As I look around my house, at artwork I have on my walls, I have seven framed prints of what I know now to be famous street photos (Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, etc). I’ve had them for close to 30 years.

I’ve been toying with street photography for about two years, but really got hooked since participating in the Women’s March in NYC in January.  I’ve since gone to the NYC gay pride parade, and had a wonderful time shooting there. I shot both of those with my camera set to shoot in both color and monochrome, and loved the experience of seeing the black and white image on the screen as I took the shots. Many people asked why I was posting B&W from the pride parade, since it was so colorful, and all I could say was:  the black and whites moved me, unlike any of the ones in color. The absence of distraction, the tones, the contrasts. It’s made me want to really concentrate on black and white for all different genres, not just street. So that’s what I’m planning to do!

You can see more of my images at – www.melrolleriphotography.com