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.

Category: Black & White Tagged: Chairs, hospital, Monochrome-Madness, utilitarian
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.)

Category: Black & White Tagged: Baby, Black & White, hands, Monochrome-Madness
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?

Category: Black & White Tagged: Black & White, Leading Lines, Monochrome-Madness, St Andrews, The Sea
Posted on January 10, 2025
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
Category: Black & White Tagged: Black & White, Collegiale, Le Dorat, Monochrome-Madness, Places of Worship, statue, stone carving
Posted on November 17, 2024
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
Category: Black & White Tagged: Architecture, Black & White, Guédelon, Monochrome-Madness
Posted on October 30, 2024
Spooky shadows cast on the wall by this cut glass decanter.

Category: Black & White Tagged: Decanter, diffusion, Monochrome-Madness, Shadows, spooky
Posted on October 19, 2024
Sometimes it’s necessary to look from a different angle at something mundane in order to find an interesting image. Last week I posted a very mundane image of the side wall of a multi-story car park. Its one redeeming feature was a partially visible spiral fire-escape.

For Monochrome Madness this week, where the topic is ‘Steps or stairs’, I cropped out all the mundanity and flipped the steps through 90 degrees to produce what I think is a far more arresting photo.

Monochrome Madness: Steps or stairs
Category: Black & White Tagged: Black & White, Composition, Monochrome-Madness, Poitiers, Steps
Posted on October 8, 2024
In ‘real life’, as it were, these tiny flowers have bright pink petals. However, converting the image to monochrome goes some way to transform a ho-hum record shot into something a little more striking in its own right, partly helped by eliminating background distractions.

Monochrome madness: Flowers out in the garden
Category: Black & White, Flowers Tagged: Black & White, Flowers, garden, Monochrome-Madness
Posted on August 21, 2024
Not all dogs are afraid of water. This pooch is frolicking very happily at the beach of Watson’s Bay, near Sydney.

Monochrome Madness: At the beach
Category: Black & White Tagged: beach, Black & White, Dogs, Monochrome-Madness, Water
Posted on August 16, 2024
This image was captured in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. As usual, I have no idea what it is, but the petal was a creamy white, so the monochrome conversion was already halfway there.

Monochrome Madness: Things in the garden
Category: Black & White, Flowers Tagged: Black & White, Botanical Gardens, Flowers, Monochrome-Madness