What the Hell Was I Trying to Capture?

We recently traveled to St. Augustine for their big Christmas celebration, and while the holiday lights and mood were fun, I was really excited about being able to do some shooting of Castillo de San Marcos - the Spanish fort built there in the late 1600s. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy the day we went, which left the colors pretty flat. I was happy with the shots I got, but grew frustrated with what I could do with them in Lightroom to draw the eye in. What the hell was I supposed to do with these shots?

I closed everything down on my Mac and decided to give things a day or two, which was EXACTLY what I needed. The fort is built out of blocks of Coquina - a sedimentary rock comprised of tiny shells and solidified sand, and its texture was not only rough, but showed an incredible depth of history in its formation. I can only imagine most of the shells in the material were prehistoric. That's when it hit me - color needed to be removed from the photos to allow the fort and Coquina to be presented as history. I think the effect speaks for itself in the above photos!