Starting Black And White Photography:

You see black and white is not just 'no colour'. Its so much more, so much deeper then that. The purpose of black and white nowadays (as opposed to when it was the standard and people had no choice) is that it creates a sense of stillness in time, and with the right perspective, a great story.

Personally, I've always tended to use black and white to highlight colour - using colour cutouts (similar to Tiago's photo below); Very rarely do I use black and white on its own, and that's probably a habit I need to correct, since the results can be simply stunning.

Strangely, the majority of my film days were spent shooting Ilford XP 5 black and white film on my (even then) aged Pentax, since I was shooting for a publication that didn't have colour processing ability. Perhaps that's why I tend to make the most of digital color in what I shoot now.

[photo by Tiago]

More on B&W photography on Digital Shot:
Dreamy B&W Conversions