Leanne Cole

Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 220 — Circle(s)

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all monochrome (mostly B&W) photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 220 — the theme is Circle(s). 

For a while, I was stymied  . . . then I pulled a Homer. 

. . . mmm . . . doughnuts. 

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Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 216 — Season(s)

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all monochrome (mostly B&W) photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 216 — the theme is Season(s). 

This has put me in a bind of sorts . . . you see, when I do these themed posts, I tend to cycle through multiple choices for what I could offer and — of course — that’s what I did last year when Monochrome Madness had the theme of Season(s) (see THIS post and the associated monochrome madness,  MM 4-15).   In fact, the above is my submission for last year’s Season(s) theme. It done uses up shots I could have used.

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Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 212 — Boat(s)

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all monochrome (mostly B&W) photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 212 — the theme is Boat(s). 

I live on an Island and we’ve been on a few cruises . . . there’s no question I have photos of boats but there is a question regarding my ability to pare them down and eventually choose only one. Because, as we all know, there can be only one.   

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Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 207 — Relaxation

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all monochrome (mostly B&W) photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 207 — the theme is Relaxation. 

This has actually caused me a measure of anxiety . . . well, not really. But, even Leanne admitted it would it been a bit easier if the theme would have been “relaxing.” 

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Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 203 — From Under

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all monochrome (mostly B&W) photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 203 — the theme is From Under. Since I still haven’t set up my PC, I don’t have my usual 100K+ photos to draw from and I ended up having to choose something from the 1,600 photos on my phone. 

I went with a rendition of an accidental selfie I took shortly after we got our new phones last year. I’d been snapping photos out the car window and I put the phone on my lap as I drove . . . this is the result:

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Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 199 — Telephone

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all B&W photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 199 — the theme is Telephone. I’m sure many people will have artistic interpretations that escape my linear mind. Namely, instead of a photo of E. T. pointing to a far-off galaxy, I’m likely to just photograph a telephone.

The first idea I had was the infinity telephone . . .  

A picture of a phone showing a photo of a phone showing a photo of a phone showing . . . well, you get the idea. 

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Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 195 — Street Art or Graffiti

Leanne Cole does a weekly Monochrome Madness post consisting of all B&W photos submitted by users each week. It’s not a contest, but a place for photographers to show their B&W work; anyone can submit photos and it’s also a good place for seeing what can be done when it comes to B&W. 

At the beginning of each month, the submissions are supposed to follow a theme and for next week — Monochrome Madness No. 195 — the theme is Street Art or Graffiti. Now, since I don’t typically photograph graffiti (I seldom see any that are interesting) I’m going with my own interpretation of Street Art. I’m interpreting it as Murals. 

Contestant No. 1

Now, while technically a mural, that’s more of a sign for a store, but it is a mural, albeit not a very inspiring one.  This next one is perhaps more within the spirit of street art since it’s in an alley behind some stores on Aliʻi Drive. 

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A quick opinion poll: monochrome or black and white

This is a quick poll to get a feel for where readers fall when it comes to Monochrome versus Black and White. I’ve mentioned before that I contribute to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness.

I typically consider monochrome as meaning B&W . . . but — obviously — the literal meaning doesn’t limit one to think only in shades of gray. 

This photo is my submission for next week Monochrome Madness 4-32 (fourth year, 32nd week). 

Just to change the pace, I’m doing a few weeks of Still Life (my interpretation of it). However, in the course of preparing a few files for the run, I’ve been confronted by a dilemma. Well, dilemma is a bit strong. 

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Up in the Air

Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness — a weekly offering of monochrome images submitted by multiple photographers — has a theme for the first week of each month. For the first Thursday of December (MM 4-31), it’s “Up in the Air.” 

Note: because of the time differential, Monochrome Madness comes out on Wednesday here on in the US. If you plan to contribute — and I urge you to — makes sure you send your contribution no later than Tuesday.

This merits serious consideration since for the past few months the contributions have been outstanding. I mean, they’ve always had a high-quality index but, lately, the submissions have been especially interesting. Mind you, it’s not a competition, and you don’t win anything. It’s just an opportunity to showcase your work at a site that gets a lot of views. Still, I’ve been guilty of occasionally sending something in at the last minute without giving it much thought. Now, I give it some thought.

Anyway, the above shot came to mind . . . I mean, the Moon often seem as if it’s up in the air. That particular shot is from THIS post that shows the moon setting on . . . er . . . behind Pikes Peak. 

But, I think that doesn’t show much imagination and I thus embarked on a long journey to find an appropriate candidate. 

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In The Open

Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness — a weekly offering of monochrome images submitted by multiple photographers — has a theme on the first week of each month. For the first Thursday of November (MM 4-26), it’s “In The Open?” 

This isn’t a no-brainer. There is interpretation to be exercised and applied. For instance, the above shot of buffalos grazing in Yellowstone National Park’s open expanse could fit the bill. 

Also this next shot of herbivores grazing in the openness of the Badlands.

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Doors for Monochrome Madness

Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness — a weekly offering of monochrome images submitted by multiple photographers — has a theme on the first week of each month. For the first Thursday of October (MM 4-22), it’s “Door or Doors.” 

Some of my readers might have seen that particular shot before, probably in THIS post. By the way, if you’re tempted to click on that link and actually read that post, know that is ranks as one of the longest posts I’ve done, if not the longest. 

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Seasons in Black-and-White

This post is about the selection process for my submission to Leanne Cole Monochrome Madness weekly journey into the world of Black-and-White, where she invites you to submit your favorite B&W efforts. That link is to this week’s submissions, but next week — Monochrome Madness 4-15 (fourth year, 15th week) — is a themed week and the theme is “Seasons.” 

I often post the contribution on the same day as it appears, but I want to leave plenty of time for anyone so inclined to send Leanne a contribution for next week’s MM. She publishes MM on Thursday but she lives in Australia, so it comes out on Wednesday, here in the US. That means you should send your contribution by Tuesday at the very latest. I suggest sending it no later than Monday as a courtesy to Leanne; it gives her time to compose and edit the post.

Edited to Add: The Monochrome Madness (MM 4-15) is live now. If interested in seeing the other entries, I updated the above link. You can also click HERE.

So! . . . Seasons . . . As usual, it’s left to the contributor to interpret the theme. I was tempted — as I oft am — to be a smart aleck and . . . 

Get it? “seasons” . . . nevermind.

I then decided on the sensible interpretation of the word.  

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Repetition in Black and White

Please vote in the poll below. I put this here in the hope more people read past the first few lines.

This post is about the selection process for my submission to Leanne Cole Monochrome Madness weekly journey into the world of Black and White Photography. This coming week, there’s a theme: repetition. The theme post will go live this coming Thursday (Wednesday, in North America).

There is no SmugMug gallery for these since all of these already appear in existing galleries. You can, however, click on the photos to get a larger version or click on the gallery therein to view them interactively. 

Right; here we go.  

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Movement in Black and White

This post is about the selection process for my submission to Leanne Cole Monochrome Madness weekly journey into the world of Black and White Photography. This coming week, there’s a theme: motion or movement. The theme post will go live this coming Thursday (Wednesday, in North America).

There is no SmugMug gallery for these since all of these already appear in existing galleries. You can, however, click on the photos to get a larger version or click on the various galleries therein to view them interactively. 

Right; here we go.  

One of the easiest ways to imply motion is to show something that is in motion. Over the years, I’ve gotten somewhat comfortable with shooting birds in flight. I mean, photograph birds in flight.

The two birds I’ve photographed most are Hummingbirds . . . 

. . . and Hawks . . . 

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