My parents gave me a Kodak pocket camera on my 11th birthday, and I never looked back. I enjoy the ability to document activities around the house.
I love black and white because of Ansel Adams and the fact that B&W is more pliable. It is much easier to express one emotion through B&W. The tonal quality of B&W is just beautiful, and I love to play around with the tones to create atmospheric photographs. It is also easy to venture to the unreal, the surrealist, the mystical, and the mysterious with these 3 tones and others in between. B&W is expression, and I believe you should put soul in your works to make it personal and unique.
Living in Indonesia is a blessing. We have 13,000 islands, and the marine biodiversity is the best on earth. We are surrounded by sea, so it's only natural to venture more to the depth of the ocean to see the beautiful world we don't yet fully understand. I look more to composition, texture, and the play between shapes and lines. I use a Canon G10 and G1x with Ikelite U/W housing for all of these photos.
The ability to play with grey, black, and white tones is very satisfying. It may not sound like too many colors, but you'll be surprised with the million of probabilities to arrange the tonality into work that can be appreciated.
Try to appreciate the work of Ansel Adams for his ability to orchestrate the tones into work of art. Also Michael Kenna and his masterful composition; he shows us that less is more.