theonlyD800inthehameau
Photography by theonlydeadheadinthehameau
Monochrome Madness – Any Colour
Posted on July 24, 2025
There’s a very interesting twist on the idea of monochrome in this latest Monochrome Madness Challenge. The automatic assumption is that monochrome must mean black and white or, at most, sepia. However if something – or image thereof – has only one colour, whatever that may be, then it can fairly be described as monochrome.
This is, of course, a rose – and Madame’s favourite to boot, as it reminds her of her grandmother, who grew these in her own garden. I don’t recall us ever having so many blooms at the same time as this summer, and the scent is blissful: just what you imagine a rose should smell like: heady and almost sensual.
Monochrome Madness: Begins with ‘H’
Posted on July 9, 2025
An interesting challenge for the latest iteration of Monochrome Madness: can I spy something beginning with ‘H’?
Well yes, albeit after a little thought. This is the harbour of the city of La Rochelle, as the sun begins to set.
Monochrome Madness: Transport
Posted on June 25, 2025
I have no end of pictures of various forms of transport suitable for this week’s Monochrome Madness theme of ‘Transport’. I think I’m especially well-equipped for tractors – unsurprisingly, given our location in the depths of rural France.
However, I thought I’d go with this. No, it’s not a child’s drawing of a bicycle – this is Leonardo da Vinci’s design for a bicycle, on display in a museum in the city of Venice. Note the characteristic mirror writing.
It looks a bit of a bone-shaker, to be honest, but it can’t be denied that he was well ahead of his time.
Monochrome Madness: Into The woods
Posted on May 28, 2025
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: Street Lighting
Posted on May 18, 2025
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: Everything Spring
Posted on April 18, 2025
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: Night-time
Posted on April 5, 2025
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: The Waiting Room
Posted on March 11, 2025
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 – Hands
Posted on February 22, 2025
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: The Sea
Posted on February 7, 2025
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?
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