B&W RESULT: #238 Black & White Challenge

Wow, you did well to get so close. Our herons are really flighty (no pun intended).
I was just sat there seeing if I could see anything interesting on the opposite shore and it walked slowly and quietly in front of me. Been trying to sneak up on one for years. This one snuck up on me.
IMG_20220505_195453.jpg
 
Results coming at some point today, I’ve currently got 12 images shortlisted and every time I look at them, its different. Can we have tied places in this lol. I’m gonna Have a bloody big headache by the time I put the results up.
 
Ok, I’m not very happy with you guys! Every single person entering the comp has a valid reason to be in the top 3 images in this one. I’m not even certain I’d pick the same 3 if I looked again this evening but it’s got to be done, so here it is.
No apologies for the length of this, I honestly found every photo to be great and separating this lot was very difficult.


1St PLACE

let’s be friends by sinnerjohn

41D5D133-BB67-49C3-8764-32B6CAAD4B36.jpeg

it’s not the sort of image I’d usually go for when against certain other images, but in itself, this is brilliant and I’d be proud to have captured it. These guys are full of character and it’s been captured here. The focus is great too. I’d love to know what process was done to this, drama Or hdr type effect in snapseed perhaps?
you certainly didn’t make it easy for me with the images you put in this challenge.

2nd place

Airline by rizole

06974B9A-B29A-4615-B75F-419C62765295.jpeg


This is one of those proper old school photos as I call it. Possibly minimalistic, as I would call it, makes it clean with great tones. The position or angle, of the plane made me think about the image too
For me a case of less is more.

3rd place

Prayer flags by RoseCat

F200F8B6-3439-42B5-A45F-259626919A5C.jpeg

this is one of those that just sits easy on the eye for me. Tones, noise, light are all adding to it and just something very different from the norm where I live. It came into my head that I liked the chaos in this too but I have no idea how to describe that so I’ll just say I love this.


as for mentions where do I start?
rizole you put too many good photos into the same challenge. I really like the tunnel one but then you went and made my job hard by putting the excellent PRISM into the challenge. That’s one of the ones I agonised over. BATHROOM WINDOW BUDDIES was another That could have got there. Thanks for making my job hard lol
JillyG oh god, what do I say? Chaos was superb, and was definitely one of the ones I had to debate over, the Woman holding her hand to her face was simply perfect. It really was a gnats whisker from the top spots.
Starzee this went close ( still in the trees). Looking at it again, I don’t know why I didn’t pick it in the top 3 but I really had to make a decision but the effect was really good. The hi-key suited it perfectly.
sinnerjohn you dont know how close this was, but ONCE MORE AROUND THE BACK could have won this. Again, putting too many comp winners in one challenge just gives me a mega headache. Oh and THE HUMAN ELEMENT, don’t even go there. It could have won, and might well have if I’d kept to my stereotyped people photography, but this was a real corker. you made my life hell in deciding. wait, there’s the bits and bobs one too, the reflection added to it so much and hmmm, it just shot up to my second fav of yours, no 3rd fav, no 2nd fav, bugger it, I need a whiskey!!!,
psmoore the sky in your landscape was brilliant. it was hard not to include this but hope a huge mention is suffice.
terse oh god, another part of the day and you could have won it. Yet another person who made me writhe in agony. The PELICAN FLIGHT was excellent as was cave like but FISHING IN THE FOG, it hurt not to pick it, it really did and on another day I have no doubt it would have been up there ( It was still so close tho)
deepop big mentions to BOTH SAFE HARBOUR and ACROSS THE BOSPORUS. Yet another two images were worthy of the top spots I think especially considering the dramatic skies. Your vases is another one that appealed with outstanding tones and shadows
jpclicks loved sailboat at sea. living Right on and seeing the sea everyday was probably the only reason this didn’t get into the top 3 ( possibly the same for terse photo of his trawler thinking about it) but loved the simplistic view with the light on the water making it something special.
im not leaving WOTANICUS out either cos HOUSEKEEPERS DAY OFF is a potential winner and the sort of image I’d be attracted to straight away. I think that shows along with my record breaking mentions, that this challenge was so difficult AND close.
 
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Ok, I’m not very happy with you guys! Every single person entering the comp has a valid reason to be in the top 3 images in this one. I’m not even certain I’d pick the same 3 if I looked again this evening but it’s got to be done, so here it is.
No apologies for the length of this, I honestly found every photo to be great and separating this lot was very difficult.


1St PLACE

let’s be friends by sinnerjohn

View attachment 180204
it’s not the sort of image I’d usually go for when against certain other images, but in itself, this is brilliant and I’d be proud to have captured it. These guys are full of character and it’s been captured here. The focus is great too. I’d love to know what process was done to this, drama Or hdr type effect in snapseed perhaps?
you certainly didn’t make it easy for me with the images you put in this challenge.

2nd place

Airline by rizole

View attachment 180205


This is one of those proper old school photos as I call it. Possibly minimalistic, as I would call it, makes it clean with great tones. The position or angle, of the plane made me think about the image too
For me a case of less is more.

3rd place

Prayer flags by RoseCat

View attachment 180207
this is one of those that just sits easy on the eye for me. Tones, noise, light are all adding to it and just something very different from the norm where I live. It came into my head that I liked the chaos in this too but I have no idea how to describe that so I’ll just say I love this.


as for mentions where do I start?
rizole you put too many good photos into the same challenge. I really like the tunnel one but then you went and made my job hard by putting the excellent PRISM into the challenge. That’s one of the ones I agonised over. BATHROOM WINDOW BUDDIES was another That could have got there. Thanks for making my job hard lol
JillyG oh god, what do I say? Chaos was superb, and was definitely one of the ones I had to debate over, the Woman holding her hand to her face was simply perfect. It really was a gnats whisker from the top spots.
Starzee this went close ( still in the trees). Looking at it again, I don’t know why I didn’t pick it in the top 3 but I really had to make a decision but the effect was really good. The hi-key suited it perfectly.
sinnerjohn you dont know how close this was, but ONCE MORE AROUND THE BACK could have won this. Again, putting too many comp winners in one challenge just gives me a mega headache. Oh and THE HUMAN ELEMENT, don’t even go there. It could have won, and might well have if I’d kept to my stereotyped people photography, but this was a real corker. you made my life hell in deciding. wait, there’s the bits and bobs one too, the reflection added to it so much and hmmm, it just shot up to my second fav of yours, no 3rd fav, no 2nd fav, bugger it, I need a whiskey!!!,
psmoore the sky in your landscape was brilliant. it was hard not to include this but hope a huge mention is suffice.
terse oh god, another part of the day and you could have won it. Yet another person who made me writhe in agony. The PELICAN FLIGHT was excellent as was cave like but FISHING IN THE FOG, it hurt not to pick it, it really did and on another day I have no doubt it would have been up there ( It was still so close tho)
deepop big mentions to BOTH SAFE HARBOUR and ACROSS THE BOSPORUS. Yet another two images were worthy of the top spots I think especially considering the dramatic skies. Your vases is another one that appealed with outstanding tones and shadows
jpclicks loved sailboat at sea. living Right on and seeing the sea everyday was probably the only reason this didn’t get into the top 3 ( possibly the same for terse photo of his trawler thinking about it) but loved the simplistic view with the light on the water making it something special.
im not leaving WOTANICUS out either cos HOUSEKEEPERS DAY OFF is a potential winner and the sort of image I’d be attracted to straight away. I think that shows along with my record breaking mentions, that this challenge was so difficult AND close.
Great choices, Ric. John’s menagerie is growing weekly. Congrats to Rizole and Catherine. I really appreciate the time and care you took to honor all the entrants and entries. Fantastic!
 
Great choices, Ric. John’s menagerie is growing weekly. Congrats to Rizole and Catherine. I really appreciate the time and care you took to honor all the entrants and entries. Fantastic!
It was hard to judge, they all had merits so deserved mentioning. Thank you.
 
Ok, I’m not very happy with you guys! Every single person entering the comp has a valid reason to be in the top 3 images in this one. I’m not even certain I’d pick the same 3 if I looked again this evening but it’s got to be done, so here it is.
No apologies for the length of this, I honestly found every photo to be great and separating this lot was very difficult.


1St PLACE

let’s be friends by sinnerjohn

View attachment 180204
it’s not the sort of image I’d usually go for when against certain other images, but in itself, this is brilliant and I’d be proud to have captured it. These guys are full of character and it’s been captured here. The focus is great too. I’d love to know what process was done to this, drama Or hdr type effect in snapseed perhaps?
you certainly didn’t make it easy for me with the images you put in this challenge.

2nd place

Airline by rizole

View attachment 180205


This is one of those proper old school photos as I call it. Possibly minimalistic, as I would call it, makes it clean with great tones. The position or angle, of the plane made me think about the image too
For me a case of less is more.

3rd place

Prayer flags by RoseCat

View attachment 180207
this is one of those that just sits easy on the eye for me. Tones, noise, light are all adding to it and just something very different from the norm where I live. It came into my head that I liked the chaos in this too but I have no idea how to describe that so I’ll just say I love this.


as for mentions where do I start?
rizole you put too many good photos into the same challenge. I really like the tunnel one but then you went and made my job hard by putting the excellent PRISM into the challenge. That’s one of the ones I agonised over. BATHROOM WINDOW BUDDIES was another That could have got there. Thanks for making my job hard lol
JillyG oh god, what do I say? Chaos was superb, and was definitely one of the ones I had to debate over, the Woman holding her hand to her face was simply perfect. It really was a gnats whisker from the top spots.
Starzee this went close ( still in the trees). Looking at it again, I don’t know why I didn’t pick it in the top 3 but I really had to make a decision but the effect was really good. The hi-key suited it perfectly.
sinnerjohn you dont know how close this was, but ONCE MORE AROUND THE BACK could have won this. Again, putting too many comp winners in one challenge just gives me a mega headache. Oh and THE HUMAN ELEMENT, don’t even go there. It could have won, and might well have if I’d kept to my stereotyped people photography, but this was a real corker. you made my life hell in deciding. wait, there’s the bits and bobs one too, the reflection added to it so much and hmmm, it just shot up to my second fav of yours, no 3rd fav, no 2nd fav, bugger it, I need a whiskey!!!,
psmoore the sky in your landscape was brilliant. it was hard not to include this but hope a huge mention is suffice.
terse oh god, another part of the day and you could have won it. Yet another person who made me writhe in agony. The PELICAN FLIGHT was excellent as was cave like but FISHING IN THE FOG, it hurt not to pick it, it really did and on another day I have no doubt it would have been up there ( It was still so close tho)
deepop big mentions to BOTH SAFE HARBOUR and ACROSS THE BOSPORUS. Yet another two images were worthy of the top spots I think especially considering the dramatic skies. Your vases is another one that appealed with outstanding tones and shadows
jpclicks loved sailboat at sea. living Right on and seeing the sea everyday was probably the only reason this didn’t get into the top 3 ( possibly the same for terse photo of his trawler thinking about it) but loved the simplistic view with the light on the water making it something special.
im not leaving WOTANICUS out either cos HOUSEKEEPERS DAY OFF is a potential winner and the sort of image I’d be attracted to straight away. I think that shows along with my record breaking mentions, that this challenge was so difficult AND close.
An absolutely fabulous piece of judging Ric. Thank you so much. I feel your pain when it comes to picking winners from the amazing selection we get every week.:notworthy: Super congratulations to sinnerjohn John - a lovely portrait of a goat which captures all of the animal‘s character. High fives to rizole Rizole and RoseCat Catherine, second and third respectively - two great images. All the HMs, give yourselves a pat on the back because you can be sure that Ric means exactly what he says.:thumbs: Okay, I’m off to The Gallery with John’s goat friend. What’s that smell?
 
Ok, I’m not very happy with you guys! Every single person entering the comp has a valid reason to be in the top 3 images in this one. I’m not even certain I’d pick the same 3 if I looked again this evening but it’s got to be done, so here it is.
No apologies for the length of this, I honestly found every photo to be great and separating this lot was very difficult.


1St PLACE

let’s be friends by sinnerjohn

View attachment 180204
it’s not the sort of image I’d usually go for when against certain other images, but in itself, this is brilliant and I’d be proud to have captured it. These guys are full of character and it’s been captured here. The focus is great too. I’d love to know what process was done to this, drama Or hdr type effect in snapseed perhaps?
you certainly didn’t make it easy for me with the images you put in this challenge.

2nd place

Airline by rizole

View attachment 180205


This is one of those proper old school photos as I call it. Possibly minimalistic, as I would call it, makes it clean with great tones. The position or angle, of the plane made me think about the image too
For me a case of less is more.

3rd place

Prayer flags by RoseCat

View attachment 180207
this is one of those that just sits easy on the eye for me. Tones, noise, light are all adding to it and just something very different from the norm where I live. It came into my head that I liked the chaos in this too but I have no idea how to describe that so I’ll just say I love this.


as for mentions where do I start?
rizole you put too many good photos into the same challenge. I really like the tunnel one but then you went and made my job hard by putting the excellent PRISM into the challenge. That’s one of the ones I agonised over. BATHROOM WINDOW BUDDIES was another That could have got there. Thanks for making my job hard lol
JillyG oh god, what do I say? Chaos was superb, and was definitely one of the ones I had to debate over, the Woman holding her hand to her face was simply perfect. It really was a gnats whisker from the top spots.
Starzee this went close ( still in the trees). Looking at it again, I don’t know why I didn’t pick it in the top 3 but I really had to make a decision but the effect was really good. The hi-key suited it perfectly.
sinnerjohn you dont know how close this was, but ONCE MORE AROUND THE BACK could have won this. Again, putting too many comp winners in one challenge just gives me a mega headache. Oh and THE HUMAN ELEMENT, don’t even go there. It could have won, and might well have if I’d kept to my stereotyped people photography, but this was a real corker. you made my life hell in deciding. wait, there’s the bits and bobs one too, the reflection added to it so much and hmmm, it just shot up to my second fav of yours, no 3rd fav, no 2nd fav, bugger it, I need a whiskey!!!,
psmoore the sky in your landscape was brilliant. it was hard not to include this but hope a huge mention is suffice.
terse oh god, another part of the day and you could have won it. Yet another person who made me writhe in agony. The PELICAN FLIGHT was excellent as was cave like but FISHING IN THE FOG, it hurt not to pick it, it really did and on another day I have no doubt it would have been up there ( It was still so close tho)
deepop big mentions to BOTH SAFE HARBOUR and ACROSS THE BOSPORUS. Yet another two images were worthy of the top spots I think especially considering the dramatic skies. Your vases is another one that appealed with outstanding tones and shadows
jpclicks loved sailboat at sea. living Right on and seeing the sea everyday was probably the only reason this didn’t get into the top 3 ( possibly the same for terse photo of his trawler thinking about it) but loved the simplistic view with the light on the water making it something special.
im not leaving WOTANICUS out either cos HOUSEKEEPERS DAY OFF is a potential winner and the sort of image I’d be attracted to straight away. I think that shows along with my record breaking mentions, that this challenge was so difficult AND close.
Wow thank you Ric, most honoured and LOVE your judging style mate, love hearing what you thought of everyone's images, you must have put a great deal of thought into that and you know what, I don't think it will be the last time we see you judging :thumbs:

Funny you should say its not normally the type of image you go for, as its not really the type of image I take either! Although that family trip to the adventure farm has gained me 2 b/w challenge wins so far :)
As far as the edit is concerned as you ask, its just a filter in Lightroom. I've a few in the app that I've imported from desktop to mobile (which is a faff in itself. I'm not a massive fan of longwinded editing, just give me the right filter. a few adjustments and wham bam thank you mam.
Glad you liked 'the human element' I love street photography (although I don't take as many as I'd like) and you've posted some great 'street' shots since you been with us, so its a massive compliment for you to like it :thumbs:

Well done rizole (a drugs thing?) and RoseCat two great images. A week stuffed with great photos, so well done all the HM's too.
 
Ok, I’m not very happy with you guys! Every single person entering the comp has a valid reason to be in the top 3 images in this one. I’m not even certain I’d pick the same 3 if I looked again this evening but it’s got to be done, so here it is.
No apologies for the length of this, I honestly found every photo to be great and separating this lot was very difficult.


1St PLACE

let’s be friends by sinnerjohn

View attachment 180204
it’s not the sort of image I’d usually go for when against certain other images, but in itself, this is brilliant and I’d be proud to have captured it. These guys are full of character and it’s been captured here. The focus is great too. I’d love to know what process was done to this, drama Or hdr type effect in snapseed perhaps?
you certainly didn’t make it easy for me with the images you put in this challenge.

2nd place

Airline by rizole

View attachment 180205


This is one of those proper old school photos as I call it. Possibly minimalistic, as I would call it, makes it clean with great tones. The position or angle, of the plane made me think about the image too
For me a case of less is more.

3rd place

Prayer flags by RoseCat

View attachment 180207
this is one of those that just sits easy on the eye for me. Tones, noise, light are all adding to it and just something very different from the norm where I live. It came into my head that I liked the chaos in this too but I have no idea how to describe that so I’ll just say I love this.


as for mentions where do I start?
rizole you put too many good photos into the same challenge. I really like the tunnel one but then you went and made my job hard by putting the excellent PRISM into the challenge. That’s one of the ones I agonised over. BATHROOM WINDOW BUDDIES was another That could have got there. Thanks for making my job hard lol
JillyG oh god, what do I say? Chaos was superb, and was definitely one of the ones I had to debate over, the Woman holding her hand to her face was simply perfect. It really was a gnats whisker from the top spots.
Starzee this went close ( still in the trees). Looking at it again, I don’t know why I didn’t pick it in the top 3 but I really had to make a decision but the effect was really good. The hi-key suited it perfectly.
sinnerjohn you dont know how close this was, but ONCE MORE AROUND THE BACK could have won this. Again, putting too many comp winners in one challenge just gives me a mega headache. Oh and THE HUMAN ELEMENT, don’t even go there. It could have won, and might well have if I’d kept to my stereotyped people photography, but this was a real corker. you made my life hell in deciding. wait, there’s the bits and bobs one too, the reflection added to it so much and hmmm, it just shot up to my second fav of yours, no 3rd fav, no 2nd fav, bugger it, I need a whiskey!!!,
psmoore the sky in your landscape was brilliant. it was hard not to include this but hope a huge mention is suffice.
terse oh god, another part of the day and you could have won it. Yet another person who made me writhe in agony. The PELICAN FLIGHT was excellent as was cave like but FISHING IN THE FOG, it hurt not to pick it, it really did and on another day I have no doubt it would have been up there ( It was still so close tho)
deepop big mentions to BOTH SAFE HARBOUR and ACROSS THE BOSPORUS. Yet another two images were worthy of the top spots I think especially considering the dramatic skies. Your vases is another one that appealed with outstanding tones and shadows
jpclicks loved sailboat at sea. living Right on and seeing the sea everyday was probably the only reason this didn’t get into the top 3 ( possibly the same for terse photo of his trawler thinking about it) but loved the simplistic view with the light on the water making it something special.
im not leaving WOTANICUS out either cos HOUSEKEEPERS DAY OFF is a potential winner and the sort of image I’d be attracted to straight away. I think that shows along with my record breaking mentions, that this challenge was so difficult AND close.
Nice work @ric.
Congrats sinnerjohn, I kid you not :p
Well done RoseCat and all the HM's and thank you for my 2nd. :notworthy:
 
Wow thank you Ric, most honoured and LOVE your judging style mate, love hearing what you thought of everyone's images, you must have put a great deal of thought into that and you know what, I don't think it will be the last time we see you judging :thumbs:

Funny you should say its not normally the type of image you go for, as its not really the type of image I take either! Although that family trip to the adventure farm has gained me 2 b/w challenge wins so far :)
As far as the edit is concerned as you ask, its just a filter in Lightroom. I've a few in the app that I've imported from desktop to mobile (which is a faff in itself. I'm not a massive fan of longwinded editing, just give me the right filter. a few adjustments and wham bam thank you mam.
Glad you liked 'the human element' I love street photography (although I don't take as many as I'd like) and you've posted some great 'street' shots since you been with us, so its a massive compliment for you to like it :thumbs:

Well done rizole (a drugs thing?) and RoseCat two great images. A week stuffed with great photos, so well done all the HM's too.
Thank you. I just didn’t think there was a weak photo in that one. It did take a couple of hours to scan and write up but totally worth it. Thanks for the heads up on edit. And yes, sometimes I wish I could do a fast edit. Using SuperimposeX instead of the over complicated affinity photo has helped but I do wish there was some iPad post processing editor for the hipstamatic gear. I’d have a field day with that I think. As for human element, god I wish I had taken it. The timing was perfection.
 
Ok, I’m not very happy with you guys! Every single person entering the comp has a valid reason to be in the top 3 images in this one. I’m not even certain I’d pick the same 3 if I looked again this evening but it’s got to be done, so here it is.
No apologies for the length of this, I honestly found every photo to be great and separating this lot was very difficult.


1St PLACE

let’s be friends by sinnerjohn

View attachment 180204
it’s not the sort of image I’d usually go for when against certain other images, but in itself, this is brilliant and I’d be proud to have captured it. These guys are full of character and it’s been captured here. The focus is great too. I’d love to know what process was done to this, drama Or hdr type effect in snapseed perhaps?
you certainly didn’t make it easy for me with the images you put in this challenge.

2nd place

Airline by rizole

View attachment 180205


This is one of those proper old school photos as I call it. Possibly minimalistic, as I would call it, makes it clean with great tones. The position or angle, of the plane made me think about the image too
For me a case of less is more.

3rd place

Prayer flags by RoseCat

View attachment 180207
this is one of those that just sits easy on the eye for me. Tones, noise, light are all adding to it and just something very different from the norm where I live. It came into my head that I liked the chaos in this too but I have no idea how to describe that so I’ll just say I love this.


as for mentions where do I start?
rizole you put too many good photos into the same challenge. I really like the tunnel one but then you went and made my job hard by putting the excellent PRISM into the challenge. That’s one of the ones I agonised over. BATHROOM WINDOW BUDDIES was another That could have got there. Thanks for making my job hard lol
JillyG oh god, what do I say? Chaos was superb, and was definitely one of the ones I had to debate over, the Woman holding her hand to her face was simply perfect. It really was a gnats whisker from the top spots.
Starzee this went close ( still in the trees). Looking at it again, I don’t know why I didn’t pick it in the top 3 but I really had to make a decision but the effect was really good. The hi-key suited it perfectly.
sinnerjohn you dont know how close this was, but ONCE MORE AROUND THE BACK could have won this. Again, putting too many comp winners in one challenge just gives me a mega headache. Oh and THE HUMAN ELEMENT, don’t even go there. It could have won, and might well have if I’d kept to my stereotyped people photography, but this was a real corker. you made my life hell in deciding. wait, there’s the bits and bobs one too, the reflection added to it so much and hmmm, it just shot up to my second fav of yours, no 3rd fav, no 2nd fav, bugger it, I need a whiskey!!!,
psmoore the sky in your landscape was brilliant. it was hard not to include this but hope a huge mention is suffice.
terse oh god, another part of the day and you could have won it. Yet another person who made me writhe in agony. The PELICAN FLIGHT was excellent as was cave like but FISHING IN THE FOG, it hurt not to pick it, it really did and on another day I have no doubt it would have been up there ( It was still so close tho)
deepop big mentions to BOTH SAFE HARBOUR and ACROSS THE BOSPORUS. Yet another two images were worthy of the top spots I think especially considering the dramatic skies. Your vases is another one that appealed with outstanding tones and shadows
jpclicks loved sailboat at sea. living Right on and seeing the sea everyday was probably the only reason this didn’t get into the top 3 ( possibly the same for terse photo of his trawler thinking about it) but loved the simplistic view with the light on the water making it something special.
im not leaving WOTANICUS out either cos HOUSEKEEPERS DAY OFF is a potential winner and the sort of image I’d be attracted to straight away. I think that shows along with my record breaking mentions, that this challenge was so difficult AND close.
ric alexander What a great synopsis! I love learning how others see an image and what about it speaks to them. Appreciate the time and effort you took.

Congrats sinnerjohn John! I love a good goat face, and this capture is fab. rizole Your image is amazing… the trajectory of the plane is crazy! And I’m most grateful for my third place! Thank you. :)
 
ric alexander What a great synopsis! I love learning how others see an image and what about it speaks to them. Appreciate the time and effort you took.

Congrats sinnerjohn John! I love a good goat face, and this capture is fab. rizole Your image is amazing… the trajectory of the plane is crazy! And I’m most grateful for my third place! Thank you. :)
I did warble on a bit lol and I tend to repeat some things and not notice. Suppose I just get carried away.
 
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