Sweeping

The BurJuman Centre is one of the oldest shopping malls in Dubai, and features a couple of grand sweeping staircases, with elements of Art Deco. This is a view taken from the ground floor, looking up to the balcony and ceiling above. The image is almost abstract and works quite well in black & white, I think.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Perspective

Bridge of Sighs

Quite possibly the world’s most expensive form of public transport(ation), gondolas pass beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Public Transportation

Abstract shadows

Palm trees cast long shadows across a path in Hili Oasis, near Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, producing the illusion of depth in an abstract image that makes me think of something a space probe might send back from the surface of a distant planet. (Although that’s probably just me.)

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Reflections and Shadows

 

 

Reach for the sky

Taken on a Boxing Day walk in 2013, this image shows the bare branches of an oak tree against the sky.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Trees.

Crocuses

Presenting a monochrome image of a flower that’s at least as interesting as the original is quite challenging, since one of the main selling-points of flower photography is the colour. Hopefully, though, this picture of a couple of crocuses does the job – helped by the lead-in lines provided by the leaves.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Flowers

Moving Parts

Not a refugee from a Transformers movie, but a close-up of one of the cylinders on a propeller engine from an old aeroplane.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things With Engines or Motors

Sabots

Until well into the last century, the ‘ default’ footwear in rural France was wooden clogs, made by the local ‘sabotier’ (the French word for clog is ‘sabot’ – from which the word ‘saboteur’ is also derived). Indeed, part of our house was once the local sabotier’s workshop, as shown in the second image at the bottom of this post.

Nowadays, clogs are mainly used for decorative purposes (we have a couple of old pairs ourselves), but they are still used by a local traditional dance troupe, as shown in this image.

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(On this occasion I decided to use a sepia tone as it seems more in keeping with the ‘retro’ subject)

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Hands, Feet or Paws

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This room is now our entrance hall. It’s been done up a bit since this was taken.

Classic Citroen

A beautifully restored classic Citroën car, certainly more than 50 years old, displayed at the annual Lesterps exhibition of vintage cars and agricultural equipment. The clouds reflected in the glossy bodywork, give an extra dimension to the image, while the dappled sunshine on the ground behind adds depth.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Older Than Fifty Years

 

Monumental

Large? You want large? Take a look at the human figures at bottom left of this image from Petra and you’ll get some idea of the scale of this monumental work.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Large Subjects

Art in the service of religion

In response to this week’s Black & White Challenge from Cee, here is an image of the extraordinarily intricate carving above the great door of Chartres Cathedral.

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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge