This is one of our all Black and White Theme Weeks
Joseph Leotta – Bronx, New York
Coney Island Pier Gazer
Street photography always seems to go better in Black and White. This one from last year was taken on the Steeplechase Pier at Coney Island. D300 18-70 DX converted in NX2
I love B&W photography. It’s all I did in the beginning. When I got my first Nikon, a Nikon F FTn the very next thing I got was a Watson bulk film loader and 100 foot long roll of TRI-X. I developed every photo I took in my home darkroom. I had a Bessler 23C enlarger and everything you would want to go with it. I used 100’s of gallons of chemicals over the years – D-76 developer, Dektol for papers, acetic acid for stop baths, Kodak Fixer, Hypo clearing agent and photo-flo 200. 3 films ruled Tri-x, Plus-x and Pan-x. Last year I found most of my negatives from the 7o’s and 8o’s. The enlarger is gone but my Nikon scanner is all I need. I have about 30 rolls of B&W film in the freezer, plus a 100 foot roll of T-Max. Still have the bulk loader with new cassettes, my stainless steel tanks and reels and a fresh stock of chemicals. Time to go old school. Going to take out the Nikon F and F2.
Tags: Coney Island, Stepplechase Pier, S treet photography, Brooklyn
Haig Tchamitch – Scottsdale, Arizona
This is one of my favorite photos from a train ride I took up to the South rim of the Grand Canyon from Williams, AZ. If you get a chance, it is certainly worth it. Converted to B/W in Photoshop and a little bit of dodging and burning to enhance the clouds..
Pentax k10d, DA 16-45@ 16mm, f/8, 1/1000 sec, ISO 250.
Tags: The Train, Pentax k10d, Grand Canyon
Alejandro Held – Buenos Aires, Argentina
A man contemplatin the vastness of Rio de la Plata, in the port of Colonia.
Nikon D300 + 18-200 VR @ 170mm – ISO 500 – f14 – 1/2000
Tags: Sea, Lonely
Gej Jones – East Lansing Michigan
Every year from about Thanksgiving to the weekend before Christmas, the Polar Express leaves Owosso, Michigan, giving the kids and adults a thrill of a lifetime. The Pere Marquette No. 1225, the largest operating steam locomotive of its kind. This majestic locomotive was also used to generate computer images for the Warner Brothers film, “The Polar Express.” Currently the 1225 is undergoing a federally mandated overhaul and she will be out of service for all of 2011. I couldn’t find any information indicating when she will return to the tracks.
On Saturday after Jana asked for an all B&W photo of the engine and Lil asked for some information, I did a little more research. To my surprise, I found that I spent time climbing on this engine in 1966 & 1967. The Pere Marquette No. 1225 sat on display in a field across from my college domatory. I passed it nearly everyday while coming and going to classes. The area was a nice place for college students to play ball, walk with friends and have informal gatherings for the imbibing of spirits and sometimes food. Small world!
When I took this photo I was about 15 feet from the engine. The engineer let loose a gush of steam and hit the whistle at the same moment. I admit it scared me but I got the shot. I hope you remember these beasts and get a chance to be near one sometime. It’s a real thrill.
Gej
D90 – 18-200@62mm – 1/60sec – f/5.0 – ISO 200 – Aperture Priority
Jeannean Ryman – McAllen, Texas
I was walking around Thursday looking for something with a lot of contrast for this week’s black and white theme, when I spotted my neighbor’s papaya tree. The leaves have always interested me, so thought I’d take a stab at processing a shot looking up in black and white. I liked the way the light was coming through illuminating the veins of the leaf. While my processing skills are pretty weak, I enjoyed the challenge of converting a photo to black and white. It was a good exercise for me and a change of what I usually do, which is a good thing. 🙂 (D90/Sigma 150mm@1/350, f/8, ISO 400, spot metered in manual mode)
Jeannean
http://jeannean.zenfolio.com/
Tags: black and white macro, papaya leaf.
Bill Shenton – Sheldon, Connecticut
This was taken in our back yard in Connecticut after the last snow storm. Connecticut has just surpassed the record snow fall for one month at officially 74.5 inches… with more falling as I send this. The area in the middle of the picture is a completely frozen trout brook called Cherry Brook named after Chief Cherry a native American Indian who’s tribe inhabited the area many years ago… while the picture is in color and untouched I hope it will be included as black and white… I would be happy to push the button and modify to pure B&W if desired… however when I did this and compared the two… the difference was virtually undetectable… except for the brown dead leaves in the right foreground.
Roberta Davidson – Destrehan, Louisiana
The Candy Man
Hi everyone, this week was more of a challenge than usual for me. I went out of my comfort zone, put the macro lens down and went out with the 70-300 ( my least favorite of lens). The post processing to convert to black and white was a another challenge !
The following is a photo of a old New Orleans icon, the Roman Candy Man Cart. The carts were pulled by mules to sell the taffy like treat. I do believe that there is still one cart out and about occasionally selling the sweet treats. This cart now resides at Audubon Park nestled amongst the moss draped oaks.
D300 70-300 at 90mm f/11 ISO 200
Roberta Davidson
birdied@cox.net, www.birdied.zenfolio.com
Tags- Moss, Black /White , Carts
Bogdan Nicolescu – Pitesti, Romania
Not much behind this shot, from the same series of photos taken in Carpathians last November, a stray dog that followed us all the way of our hike. Of course we made this guy very happy when we opened our food ratios and give him his hard earned share.
Shot with Mamiya 7II, Mamiya 50mm F/4.5 lens, Kodak Tmax 100.
Matthew Brennan – Birregurra, Victoria, Australia
This exposure was deliberately shot and edited for high contrast and wide ranging shades of light and dark to accentuate the dramatic sky in the scene. I used a polariser filter on this image to further set the cloud from the blue sky and deliberately under exposed the shot using the dodge tool and rendering it B&W all in PS. It’s another in the series of photos taken over the linseed fields where I work.
Ken Yamamoto – Tokyo, Japan
Thank you for your comments for my last week submission. I should have kept the B&W version of that street photo for this week 🙂 But I have another one here. This is the scene of Bryant Park in NYC. But obviously I am no longer in NYC and can’t take this years pummeling snow. So, this is from last year winter. When I thought of B&W, this image popped up in my head as the “right” subject for the special B&W week.
D700, 24-70, @26mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO200, B&W converted by Color Efex Pro after some PP by Capture NX2 (I only have used Capture NX and NX2, so sorry that I couldn’t help the noise reduction stuff. I have never seen PS series and have no idea what it is 🙂 Noise Ninja seems interesting and I might try it).
Tag: New York, Snow, Winter, Bryant Park, B & W
Stanley Beck – Jackson, Mississippi
Donkey Pump
Domestic oil production – one day I will try to find out just how many barrels of oil is produced from these wells every month. From what I can tell, it doesn’t look like very much. This is one of the larger pumps that I come across. This image was converted to B&W in Photoshop CS3.
Nikon D200, ISO 200, f/8, 1/180 sec.
Filip Lucin – Cakovec, Croatia
Hello all!
Another photo from the archive. This is photo of Vestibule, part of ancient Diocletian palace in Croatian city named Split. This is where Roman emperor Diocletian lived after he abdicated and where he planted his cabbage. 🙂 Thank you for the comments on my photo.
Greetings, Filip.
Moje fotke: http://www.filiplucin.com/
Moj blog: http://www.blog.filiplucin.com/
Tags: Vestibule, Roman, Split, Diocletian palace
Don Enderlein – Brooks, Georgia
On our first night in the bush of Alaska, I took my camera out to a clearing to see if I could see the peak of Denali. And I could. This shot was taken around 10:00pm as the clouds were starting to part, but at that latitude and time of year, it’s light until 1:00am. What you cannot appreciate in this photo is the sheer size of the mountain – I was about 65 miles from Denali, but I still had to tilt the camera UP about 15 degrees to get the peak. Simply amazing. We never saw the peak again during that trip.
Nikon D100, Nikon 80-200mm f2.8 D lens, 110mm, 1/350 sec, f5, ISO 200, converted to B&W
Rick Dohme – Tampa, Florida
Thanks to all the great comments on our pictures.This picture was taken a couple weeks ago when we walked 4 miles looking for pics. I saved it for our BW week. This is not a conversion. This is as shot. Looking forward to all the great photo’s this week.
Nikon D3, Nikon 300 2.8, Nikon TC-20E III, 600mm, F/9, 1/500sec, ISO 800, mono pod
Jens V Frederiksen – Elsinore, Denmark
My photo is from the oldest part of Elsinore. It shows the old pharmacy, now store for a music shop, but in service from 1550 – 1970.
It is situated in the most narrow street in the town, only 2 metres wide. You might get a photo of that another day
Regards
Jens
Tags: chemistry, house, street
Peggy G – Tupelo, Mississippi
Taken at Elvis Presley Park here in Tupelo. I was there taking photos of Elvis’ birthplace, and sun on the white trees caught my attention. I just thought it was interesting.
Nikon D5000, F/8, 1/400s, Auto ISO 1000
Tags: Black and white photography, Sharpshooters,
Joshua Fahler – Jhubei City, Taiwan
This was taken in Daxia last week, an old-style village in Taoyuan County. Most of the brick buildings in the town center are original, which is rarer for Taiwan than mainland China. There was a lot of shopping, though considering our cold weather and the fact that night was descending on us, it was pretty empty.
Anyway, here’s wishing everyone “Congratulations and Good Luck” (or 恭喜發財/Gong xi fa cai) as Chinese New Year is around the corner in about two days. I’ll be celebrating it with my fiancee’s family and a few members of my own family who will come to visit during my time off from work.
So again, Happy New Year!
Tags: sanxia, taiwan, nikon, prime, 35mm, b&w, world, culture
Jana Hughes – Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Hello Everybody,
This week will be especially interesting, I think. I love B&W photos, especially the ones shot with this colour scheme in mind.
Mine has been rather an easy choice, as I just got myself the dress on the photo and I had a desire to do something Frenchy for this week, hence the styling as a vintage postcard from Paris. I used some brushes that I found online to get the final result
Nikon D700, 24-70 f/2.8@ISO 1600, f/2.8, 1/40s
Have a lovely week and I am impatiently awaiting all your submissions.
Tags: vintage, postcard, Paris, texture
Joseph Leotta, Junior – New York, New York
Back to the photos taken of the old railroad bridge gears that were taken in Burlington this spring. The various tones make it a excellent choice for black and white conversion.
Tags: gears, raildroad bridge, bridge gears
Greg Kowalczewski – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Black and White. This week I have submitted two images, one showing a black and white conversion and the other showing an image that is “naturally” black and white (no black and white conversion). Both images were shot at night under a full moon.
A spider fan. This image was converted to black and white.
Camera: Nikon D300 Lens: AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
Settings: 1/250s at 200mm with f/2.8 and ISO 2200 (Manual, hand held, UV filter, flash used, -1EV, Spot)
The full moon. This image is the original color (no B&W conversion).
Camera: Nikon D300 Lens: AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II
Settings: 5s at 200mm with f/8 and ISO 200 (Manual, tripod, UV filter, no flash, Spot)
Gladys Millman – Westport, Connecticut
I cannot remember a time when NYC has been covered in snow like this. Before the traffic took over the city streets, the views were pristine. Here is one of a park adjacent to a building on 1st Avenue. This photo seemed fitting for B&W.
ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/800, Coolpix S8000
Tags: NYC Park, snow
Ertugrul Kilic – Paramaribo, Suriname / South America
I was at river side in the city during sunny-washer-sunny loops of tropical weather. I saw this passenger captures traditional juice seller’s cart while sitting at front seat of taxi. Seems he was a serious photographer. I set Shutter Priority because rain. Hope you like it. Take care and many cheers you to all my dear friends. Regards,
Ertugrul Kilic
Nikon D2Xs, Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D AF, Shutter Priority, f/16, 1/80sec, ISO100, ExposureBiasValue -0.67
Ken Papai – San Rafael, California
I went out Sunday morning after the rains and had an area in mind for this black & white theme. There is a railroad track adjacent to our neighborhood (next to McInnis Park) which runs north-south in Marin & Sonoma Counties. I’ve been visiting these tracks many years with my camera; they get rare to zero rail traffic but that changes with a commuter train service opening up in next 3-4 years.
Canon EOS 7D, 18MP raw capture, 30mm lens (24-70 zoom), ISO 400, 1/320, f/7.1, dated 1/30/2011.
Processed in ACR (raw) in PS CS5 and converted to B&W, grey scaled, and resized to 700 pixels tall.
Special Bonus photo
The bonus photo is a current event of interest from somewhere in the world
Elvis before Graceland – Peggy G
This is the house that Elvis Presley was born in. The small, but very nice park, has a chapel, the house, and the church that Elvis’ family attended on the grounds.
There is also on display a car like the one that the family rode in when they moved to Memphis, TN when Elvis was about 13 years old. Elvis’ mother Gladys, bought his first guitar at Tupelo Hardware Company in downtown Tupelo. It is still very much in business today.
F/8, 1/320s, Auto ISO 560 – house
F/5.6, 1/50s, Auto ISO 200 – car
