Monochrome Madness: Into The woods

This photo was taken at the Beecraigs Country Park, near Linlithgow in central Scotland, which is replete with woodlands.

I must have been originally attracted by the strong leading line of what just about passes for a path that leads to a clearing. However, to make it more interesting for the purposes of this theme, I applied an infrared filter and pushed the three ‘Presence’ sliders in Lightroom to the left by varying degrees, which gives the image a much more mystical – eerie, indeed – feel.

Monochrome Madness: Woods

Monochrome Madness: Street Lighting

I confess that I had to do quite a bit of digging to come up with an interesting image of some street lighting. Typically, these are rather mundane artefacts that you wouldn’t often be bothered to get your camera out for.*

[Note to self: a conjunction is the wrong type of word to end a sentence with.]

However, I came across this image, which I had entirely forgotten about. High up on a wall in an old narrow street in the nearby town of Saint-Junien is this rather ornate but ancient lantern. Obviously designed for illumination, it certainly predates electric lights, and maybe even gas ones too.

Monochrome Madness: Street Lighting

Monochrome Madness: Everything Spring

This week the theme is the timely one of ‘Everything Spring’. Up here in the northern hemisphere it’s the time for planting and growing.

This little fella, just planted out in of our raised beds, will – if al goes according to plan – eventually provide us with some Brussels sprouts: chou de Bruxelles.

Monochrome Madness: Everything Spring

Monochrome Madness: Night-time

I took this photograph of a boat that was sailing along the Corniche in Abu Dhabi at night. The original image was pretty much monochrome itself, with just a few flashes of colour from the lights on board.

Monochrome Madness: Night-time

Monochrome Madness: The Waiting Room

I hope I’m not too late to join this particular party, but the latest theme for Monochrome Madness is/was ‘chair’ or ‘chairs’.

These particular examples of functional utilitarianism can be found in the waiting room of the main hospital in the town of St-Junien.

(Well, I say waiting room, but in reality it’s just a corridor with groups of colour-coded seats outside a long line of consulting rooms). In colour, these are actually a lurid, determinedly institutional green plastic, but the monochrome conversion does bring out some interesting textures, notably on the backs, that are quite invisible in their ‘natural’ state.

Monochrome Madness: Chairs

Monochrome Madness – Hands

First contact: our twin grandsons were born very prematurely and spent some time in the ICU. This is Grandma getting her first touch.

(It all turned out fine – the twins will be eighteen this summer and they’re both well over six feet tall now: and fine young men to boot.)

Monochrome Madness – Hands

Monochrome Madness: The Sea

This is a monochrome rendering of a photograph I took in St. Andrews in Scotland, looking out over the North Sea. Who could resist those leading lines – or those clouds?

Monochrome Madness: The Sea

Monochrome Madness: Places of Worship

This is a detail of the carving over the east door of the Collegiale in Le Dorat – a massive church, although neither abbey nor cathedral. The presence of the small statue – no doubt of a saint – and its contrast with the curves of the repeated arches adds interest to the image.

Monochrome Madness: Places of worship

Monochrome madness: Leading lines

Leading lines – one of the most fundamental elements of photographic composition.

Rather than a conventional road disappearing into the distance or a wall ditto, I decided to approach this latest theme a little differently. This is an arrow slit that can be found in the fortified chateau of Guédelon, in central France;

Monochrome madness: Leading lines

Monochrome Madness: The Demon Drink

Spooky shadows cast on the wall by this cut glass decanter.

Monochrome Madness: Spooky