This is one of my favorite photography genres. Early in the history of photography, black-and-white photography was a photographer's only option for taking pictures. Even when color photographs became available, black-and-white photographs were initially of better quality and less expensive to develop than color photographs. As the quality of color photos improved, color photos became a more popular choice, causing black-and-white photography to become less popular. However, black-and-white photography is currently more likely to be used to create certain effects that can be obtained from various photo editing applications so that the resulting photos are more meaningful and interesting.