MINI Challenge #181: People in Nature: Monochrome

1magineer

My theme for this Mini is People in Nature: Monochrome

That's right, it's time to flex your conversion muscles on new images or classics from your portfolio.

Here's what I'll look for:

• The image works as a photograph, rather than is just something cool to photograph.
• The image contains a person, or identifiable part of a person, that contributes to the overall feeling or statement of the capture.
• The image evokes a mood or something about the character of the individual in the photograph. This can be an abstract feeling, and the person could be in the distance, or even out of focus, as in one of my examples below.
• The landscape or nature image should work fairly well even if you took the person or persons out of it.
• Extra points for artistic/judicious use of tonal range (in other words, if the shot calls for full scale, you've got it, if it calls for vignettes or silhoettes, or graduated neutral density, you use it. Get creative!)

Though this is regular fare for some photog's here, for others it might prove a little out of their comfort zone. My advice: go for it anyway!

This Mini will run from this minute through Sunday, February 2, 2014 @ 9:00PM EST.

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OUR UN-OFFICIAL GENERAL RULES
1. Have fun sharing and seeing what others share!
2. The host supplies a topic and YOU POST 1-3 IMAGES. The host judges the winners (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and is not eligible to enter. The 1st place winner becomes the next host, chooses the next topic and becomes the next judge.
3. Any photo you’ve taken is eligible, regardless of when taken or camera used.
4. Any amount of post-processing is allowed. However, it is helpful if you list your camera and lens along with your photo.
5. You may comment on other contestant's images. If you want someone to leave you some critique or criticism, just ask within your post.
6. The winner has up to three days (72 hours) to begin a new mini-challenge, or the honor goes to the #2 finisher and so forth.

IMPORTANT: ENTRIES DUE NO LATER THAN 9PM EASTERN TIME ON Sunday, February 2, 2014

Guidelines:
1. Enter 1-3 photos and put them in a single post.
2. Either embed your image in the thread or, if you must, supply a link to it. Keep in mind, however, most people don't want to click to open photos hosted elsewhere (i.e. on your website).
3. Also try and resize your photos prior to posting so they're sized appropriately for viewing without having to scroll (~800 pixels on the longest side works best.)
4. Give each image you enter a title.
5. Enjoy discussion with members about their images, don't let this just be an entry thread!
6. When quoting a post, change the IMG urls to a 200x200 size picture so it is clear your post is feedback and not another entry. (See here for help).
7. Don't be hesitant; share 'em and enter!

Mini-Challenge pointers:
1. Upon winning a mini-challenge round, your first step is coming up with a new theme and starting a new thread using the same format as others have used.
2. Make sure to notify the admin of this thread to update the main thread links with your entry thread.
3. Feel free to watch the thread as it grows or wait to the end time and look at all the entries all at once.
4. After the time/date has passed, then officially close the thread with a single post notifying everyone of the fact.
5. After you're finished judging, start a new thread (again using the prior formats) and post your Winner and runners-up. It is important to have runners up in case the winner does not show within the 72-hour window.
6. PM the winner with this info above and let them know they have 72 hours to set up the next mini-challenge.
7. If the winner does not show/start the next mini-challenge after 72 hours, notify the next runner-up and post a message on the Winner thread of the fact.
8. Remember, if you're the Winner, you run the next mini challenge!

Examples:

Everything's Solved by Walking


Cold Heavy Air


A Toe in the Water

CHANDLERJA

1. Isolation



2. Girls



3. Work

davev

Withdrawn

1magineer

Delighted with the entries so far!

lifeinfocus

#1 Family Sledding (It was 15 degrees outside when I took the first two shots. Big snow machine off to the right adding snow to the air.)



#2 Red Wings and Penguins (For non hockey fans those are NHL teams.)



#3 Fly Fishing In Michigan (It was a beautiful 70 plus degrees for this shot)



Phil

kentwaller

1. monrepos





2. loop head





3. ludwigsburg

pixelpeeper

1. Slightly scary seaside



Moving on ...up




We made it!


A nice challenge - its good to use monochrome for a change.

grandmaR

I'm struggling with the concept of "rather than is just something cool to photograph" as I don't know what the difference is between something that works as a photograph and something that is just something cool. I am interpreting that as an Art photo rather than a descriptive photo or a photo where the point of it is to show you how something looks. Almost all the photos I take are to show what something looks like. I rarely take a photo just because it will make a nice picture.

Also having a problem with Nature as applied to this challenge. It doesn't seem to mean just trees and land and stuff like that, but also includes buildings. People I can figure out and I think I know what monochrome is. I had one of a fisherman, but the one already entered is so much better that I discarded it. I don't really care for monochrome work. I did it with film (Does anyone want an enlarger?) and back in the day, I tried printing color negatives in black and white but there are very few photos that I think are better without color. Mostly when I use black and white it is to hide a flaw in the photo.

This Challenge will end when I am on a trip to St. Croix, so I'm going to go ahead and enter some things that I think might meet the criteria.

Photographing a geyser in black and white


Walking through the past - sepia


Showing my granddaughter Fern spores


(I have tinted this green - the original is BRIGHT green and my hand is very pink)

Photoaddict

This was easy for me as I love B/W and experimenting with it.

Loneliness

wishing you were somewhere else redo by Danny M. Long, on Flickr

After the Big One

5061281544_cb49081cd1_o by Danny M. Long, on Flickr

Flock of followers

5054012778_d8884e41c7_o by Danny M. Long, on Flickr

Alans Grin

Mountain Photographer






Vallee Blanche






Aiguille du midi ridge



Please excuse the red copyright notice. I shoot quite a lot of snow and mountain scenes, and black, white or grey copyrights don't cut it and Lightroom has a one style fits all copyright setting.

Alan.

billseye

Moonstone Beach


Point Arena


Eastern Sierras

1magineer

Hi grandmaR,

Glad you decided to participate. I'll try to address your your concerns.

First, if you are interpreting my first guideline as "art photo," you re right on the money--you got it! I like to see the artfulness of the artist in the shot. Perfect. That "admonishment" of sorts was aimed at those who might find themselves tempted to take the lazy way out. ;-)

Next, you'll have to use your best judgement on what constitutes nature, but I would err on the side of a photo in which the natural environs are obviously a big part of the image.

Last but not least, who can argue preferences? If you prefer color over mono images, that is your privilege (though based on what I've seen if your work, I would not give up on making mono ones!). Some of us (me included) appreciate both the challenge of making, and the joy of be drawn into, a great black and white!

Safe travels and thanks for participating in this challenge!

~Mark

grandmaR wrote: »

I'm struggling with the concept of "rather than is just something cool to photograph" as I don't know what the difference is between something that works as a photograph and something that is just something cool. I am interpreting that as an Art photo rather than a descriptive photo or a photo where the point of it is to show you how something looks. Almost all the photos I take are to show what something looks like. I rarely take a photo just because it will make a nice picture.

Also having a problem with Nature as applied to this challenge. It doesn't seem to mean just trees and land and stuff like that, but also includes buildings. People I can figure out and I think I know what monochrome is. I had one of a fisherman, but the one already entered is so much better that I discarded it. I don't really care for monochrome work. I did it with film (Does anyone want an enlarger?) and back in the day, I tried printing color negatives in black and white but there are very few photos that I think are better without color. Mostly when I use black and white it is to hide a flaw in the photo.

This Challenge will end when I am on a trip to St. Croix, so I'm going to go ahead and enter some things that I think might meet the criteria.

grandmaR

Thank you for replying to my concerns. I am having fun with trying new things in this group, especially since you all don't seem to hold my opinions against me

THe firtst one was of my grandson who was interested in volcanoes, so I took him to Yellowstone. The second one was of another grandson on our visit to Pompeii. I think probably the only one of mine that shows anything about the human in the photo is the last one - I was a biology major and formerly taught middle school science. I tinted the last one green as I don't think monochrome necessarily means just black and white or sepia. This was an experiment. In case you are interested, this is the original of that photo - it obviously didn't start out as an 'art' photo.

kdotaylor

#1 Fishing Buddies


#2 Multnomah Falls


#3 Sisters

Gaby617

This shot was taken on my wedding day. Very small justice of the piece type shindig. We dated for 15 years prior to this day 5/26/12. This was a garden we used to sneak of to to meet since her parents did not like me. We probably havent been to this gaden in over 10 years. Ironically we drove past it the day of marriage and just had to stop and bring back memories. Set the tripod up, camera on a 10 second timer and after numerous attempts we both agreed this was our favorite.

AllWeather

1. Taking in the view



Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ISO 100
Focal Length 22mm (22mm in 35mm)
Aperture f/18

2.Rowing


FUJIFILM X-E1
ISO 640
Focal Length 50mm (75mm in 35mm)

ShootingStar

Fierce competition on that subject! I love a lot of the photos already submitted. You will have a hard time voting 1magineer.

Here are my entries:

1. Off the beaten track in Jordan


2. The real Outback


3. I really need to do a new travel as I keep entering photos of the Sahara…



Claire

crevest

Heat
Heat.

This one was taken during summer in the very south of Morocco. 45°C and higher temperatures occur from 9am.
The two men chat protected by the shadow projected by the wall.

1magineer

ShootingStar wrote: »

Fierce competition on that subject! I love a lot of the photos already submitted. You will have a hard time voting 1magineer.

Claire

Claire, you've got that right! The response is way better than I'd hoped for, and the artists are rising to the challenge! A look over the thread every day, because I will need to see them over and over, and love seeing them over and over, before I make my choices. Big smiles here for my first mini. thumb

~Mark

TonyCooper

All right...the photographs already submitted are far too good
for me to even consider trying to compete with them. So, I'll
go for some light relief.

They were all taken outdoors. That's nature. Right? They all
have a people in them. That qualifies. Right?

Gary752

I don't stand a chance against the great photos already posted, but thought I'd give it a shot anyways.

Grandpa and grandson taking in the view aboard the historic river ferry boat


Soaking in the sunshine


GaryB

Earache

Great challenge theme Mark, and lots of cool images!


I Am The Sea



Up and More Up



The Tempest

1magineer

This is a quick note to let you know that I am current'y at 37,000 feet somewhere over Indiana, and I am evaluating all the wonderful images that are the responses to this challenge. I hope to complete my comments in the air here, edit, then post them as soon as I can tomorrow (I get in very late tonight, Eastern Time).

Thank you all for your participation! Not back to the difficult task of picking the winner!

~Mark

grandmaR

I thought this was to run until NEXT Sunday (Feb 2)???

sapphire73

I've been away and was happy to see there was still time to enter this mini (for the fun of it) when I saw Feb. 2nd as the closing date. Maybe compromise and give folks a couple of days to enter? Either way, great mini and wonderful entries.

1magineer

Yes, my goof. The deadline is Feb 2! My apologies! ! Put it down to temporary cognitive distortion due to travel!

grandmaR

I only knew because I was going to be away at the end of this mini and I haven't left yet

RyanWsurf

African Beach Walk



Winery Life



Elephant Man

sapphire73

1. Time for Reflection (Honolulu)


2. Sunday Afternoon (Maui)


3. Climber (Joshua Tree National Park)

grandmaR

I can't find the results of this. Have they been posted?

JAG

I guess that Mark is still in India. Lets give him a couple more days to get the result thread done. In the meantime, this thread is CLOSED to any more entries!