Color AND Black and White

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 41.3mm, f/16, 1/125sec., ISO 200

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 41.3mm, f/16, 1/125sec., ISO 200

My photographic background, learning, roots, or whatever, can pretty much be summed up in the phrase "Color AND Black and White."
My first camera, a Kodak Pony IV, was found, almost totally forgotten, in a closet at my parent's home when I was 13.
Having no instruction manual, I checked out library books from Robert E. Lee Junior High School, and later Neville High School, and learned f-stops, shutter speeds, ASA (now ISO), optic theory and all manner of things about operating a camera and also about how cameras operate.  (That last part, being just as interested in how things operate, would be a crucial part of my psyche in pushing me to become an engineer, but that's another story.)
I used that Pony IV to take snapshots of my friends and I until a couple of years later I when I had saved enough money from mowing lawns to buy a brand-spanking-new Canon AE-1.
With the AE-1 came learning to develop black and white film and black and white prints.
I had the joy and foundation of developing many rolls of TRI-X and thousands of black and white photos while on the yearbook staff in high school.
I took a couple of photography courses for fun while in college the first time and learned from a truly kind and patient and passionate instructor more about all aspects of photography.
By the end of my college photography classes, I was so very disillusioned with color 35mm prints.
You take a photo, and you get back prints produced by some machine, or if you spent the money, some other person's ideas of what you wanted your prints to look like.
I had begun dating Lovely Wife by this time and her father, my future Father in Law, was an amateur photographer who took 35mm slides.
I was in awe of the color and clarity of the slides and so bought my first roll of slide film, some Agfa slide film.
This led to decades of slide film use.
Even to this day, my grown daughters beg me to prepare slide shows when they come to town or are around on special occasions.
Digital photography, to me, is like putting on a favorite old flannel shirt.  The "expose for the highlights" ethos that dominated my decades of slide film use is back in play with a vengeance.
Now to the two photos above.
Based on my personal experience with black and white imagery AND with the foot-thick, saturated colors from Kodachrome and Velvia slide films, I often see an amazingly colored image through the viewfinder and know that the colors themselves make the photo worthwhile.
On the other hand, some looks through the viewfinder have me immediately planning a contrast-y black and white final image.
This photo of the bright yellow pedestrian crossing sign with the rows of palm trees in the background was one of those photos where the instant I looked through the viewfinder and saw my composition come together, I knew this would have to have to be processed in both ways.
I hope you like them both.  I do.