#Monochrome – Journeys with Johnbo

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Monochrome

photobyjohnbo — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 07:07:01 +0000

In my youth, I learned darkroom skills using chemical processing for both black and white and color printing. I was a “color snob” always wanting color in my images and on my TVs. Now that I’ve gained some life experience, I’ve discovered that the absence of color is often an artistic statement about texture and mood. This week, Patti Moed suggested that we can share monochrome images, sepia images, single color images and images that feature a spot of color in a black-and-white world. You can check out Patti’s challenge post here. I’ve learned that not all color images work when converted to black-and-white. I occasionally just pull back the saturation on an image to get a feel for whether or not it has promise as a monochrome image. If I like what I see, I reach for Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 and start the conversion process in earnest. Every one of the images I share here were tweaked in Lightroom prior to being exported to Silver Efex Pro 2. The opening image features an elderly gentleman creating those curved clay roofing tiles like the one on his left side table. Those hands take on a story of their own when shown in monochrome.

Sepia Tone

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An abandoned railroad bridge on the White Pass and Yukon Railway in Alaska deserves a sepia treatment. In my mind, that made the photo appear to be as old as the bridge.

Inland Passage, Alaska.

Converting the image to remove the large amounts of blue in this view of the Alaska coastline’s Inside Passage adds drama to the sky and emphasizes the sun’s rays peeking through an opening in the clouds.

I haven’t published this photo before. It’s not truly a “monocolor”, as I left the warmer colors intact. The greens were reduced but not completely eliminated giving strong focus on the beauty of the orchid.

Old 353 at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher’s Reunion near Rollag, Minnesota is one of my favorite color shots, but its conversion to black and white provides an extra level of drama to the sky. The detail in this HDR image in the undercarriage of the engine is worth getting a closer look. If your browser supports it, you can click on the image to enlarge it and see greater detail.

This image of draft horses at the Steam Threshers Reunion is my final submission for this challenge. It’s an image that looks fine in color, but I think the conversion to monochrome makes it a better image all around. Thanks again to Patti for allowing me to share some of my favorite black-and-white images.

John Steiner

Weekly Photo Challenge – 2017 Favorites

photobyjohnbo — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 02:30:48 +0000

This week I share the last photo challenge of the year. Next week, due to the holidays, the challenge is on hiatus. Ben Huberman asks us to share a meaningful photo from 2017 rather than picking a specific theme. He writes, “This isn’t necessarily the ‘best’ photo you’ve taken this year — feel free to post your most technically accomplished photo of the year if you’d like, but we equally encourage you to think about other parameters.” You can read the entire challenge post here. In this gallery of images, I feature a collection of black-and-white images, many of which I’ve shared before. In 2017, I rekindled my love of monochrome photography. I added some tools to my collection of photo processing software that helps create dynamic images. An additional aid to improved images is the Nikon D500 camera I began using in late 2016. In most browsers, you can click on an image below to enlarge it and scroll through the gallery.

But I Digress… Daily Photo Buckets

photobyjohnbo — Mon, 01 May 2017 14:04:33 +0000

Montezuma Well, Arizona.

For Monochrome Monday, check out this sycamore tree. With seeming intelligence beyond my expectation, this sycamore needed to wrap around a cliff ledge overhang in order to achieve maximum sunlight. If your eyes follow the trunk to the extreme top of the image, you’ll see the edge of the cliff that it had to negotiate around.

Let me take this opportunity to invite you to join me on my daily photo posts. Every week, I post a new theme and each day, I post an image that somehow speaks to that theme. Mondays always start a new theme and this week’s theme is “Winding Trails”. I post the images to my social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Instagram. If you spend time on one or more of these sites, I would be honored to have you follow me there.

Of course, I will continue to post my Travel Tuesday, Cellpic Sunday, the Weekly Photo Challenge, and my digression submissions right here at Journeys with Johnbo on WordPress.

My other social media pages can be found at:

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1KCxgS3 (or Search Facebook @photobyjohnbo )

Flickr:Search People for PhotoByJohnbo

Instagram: Search steinej2

Twitter: Search @photobyjohnbo

And here on WordPress, of course @photobyjohnbo

John Steiner