Weekly Black and White Photography Thread # 8 (23 March 2025)

Looks like a photographer could have a heyday there. Great composition, like something out of a fantasy novel. Wonderful tonalities, angles, and lines. There's a tad of halo on that left side, but in a creative edit like this it isn't a huge bother (though you could mitigate it if you wanted).

Love is in the air, indeed. A decisive moment?

H&D, L&L, C&B, B&W…

Walking off home

Nice find. The tonality sets this image off as does the line from the dog to the pole which corresponds with the shadow line of the water. The small choppy waves add to the interest. Sometimes one just has to be lucky to find a scene. However, luck or not the photographer still has to take advantage of the luck.

There is some lovely contrast in this photo and I don’t just mean the in tonality, but also in the textures. There is the shiny metallic surface of the handrails, the grain of the jetty in the foreground, the smooth, mirrored surface of the water and the gnarled, weathered posts, which are so abundant that together they form a visual texture of their own.
The composition is symmetric and peaceful.

You have caught some good light and it is highlighting the textures in the clouds, the sea and the sand nicely. My eyes are drawn to the dog, and there is a line of shadow linking it and the post, which in turn points into the clouds, and this forms a natural visual track through the image for the eye and binds the three main areas together visually.

This ticks lots of boxes. The subject itself is interesting, and with all that chrome, dark paintwork and leather, and intricate details it is also ideal for B&W.
The tiled floor (or is it a grid?) is more interesting than a smooth surface and provides some leading lines too. The background, although busy, appears foggy through the glass and does not distract.
It is an enjoyable 8mage.

It's not the kind of photo where my first choice would be black and white, but there are some textures that look really good with that processing...

Very well controlled light on the white plumage, and a risky cropp that works well...

A slightly too tight frame, but very well-controlled lighting that delicately highlights the shapes and soft texture of the petals...

As you say, it looks like a great place to spend some time with the camera. I like the whole look, the variety of grays the cladding offers, and especially how the shadow of the railing is projected onto that uneven surface...

A striking location, well represented with this symmetrical composition. The use of black and white schematizes the image and highlights its geometric aspect...

A nice, simple composition with very few elements. The intense light creates beautiful textures on the water's surface and, in the case of the waves, also helps connect the different planes...

Thanks Pete, I'm glad you like the image...

I normally don't do birds and I seldom do color. However, this was a scene that was basically B&W to start with. The sky was deep blue with no clouds so quite boring. The pine tree was all the same boring brown color. Of course sun lite longleaf pine needles are a pretty boring green. Ospreys are beautiful birds - actually beautiful black and white birds 😉. The real interest in the scene was the birds, geometry, textures and contrast.

I like this but how full the bike fills the frame creates a tension. That tension can be bothersome, while at the same time make the image more appealing. The converging lines of the tile floor add to that tension. Add it all together an interesting shot.

Thanks so much for the comment. The location where I found it had its limitations, so I decided to give the motorbike all the prominence and make a tighter frame...

Thanks for the comment, Alan.
It's not my bike, and I can't move it. And, as I was saying to my colleague, the place where I found it wasn't ideal, and it affected the shot a bit. And don't worry, the floor is tiled, and there's no problem with the sidestand. And it's just as well, because with all that chrome, if it falls I think it would end up in the garage, two floors down...

One of the beauties of photography unless you are in a studio and have complete control - in many situations you have to work with what is in front of you. In a the forest you can't cut down a tree to get the perfect vantage point. You have to work around it. On the street you can't direct people where to go - unless they are actors and you pay them.

Yep - you can't move someone else's bike but it would make a good subject. So the challenge comes in working around the other limitations in the scene. While I am not a complete disciple of Henri "Thou Shall Not Crop" Cartier Bresson, I do adhere to his philosophy of working with the scene as is to tell your story because the totality of the scene is the environment in which the story takes place. BTW, from time to time HCB did instruct his technicians to crop an image in the printing, but only as a last resort to save the image. I will crop and change aspect ratios, "the world does not conveniently fit in a 2x3 frame" as said by Eugene Smith. I am not a fan of image manipulation.

In you bike image, the creation of the tension of the bike running the length of the frame - plus the from chrome focused the eye directly to the lines and forms and stark tonality difference between the chrome and the seat and fenders. The converging liens of the tile help that process. These eliminated the eye being captured by the somewhat distracting background. When you are handed lemons, make lemonade.