MM 3-31: Monochrome Madness

The post should be started with an apology. I haven’t been around the last few days. In truth I’ve been up at my mums and the internet was so bad there that I couldn’t get onto this blog or much else. I’m home now and everything will return to normal. Starting with this weeks Monochrome Madness. This is the smallest week ever I think. A friend suggested it might be the end of it, and perhaps it is. I will keep it going for a little longer, but we might have to begin to see that it is the end.

Let’s take a look at this weeks MM.

brim-silos-painted-portraits-monochrome

I happened to go past these silos in Brim on my way to my mothers. The last few times I’ve photographed them it has been very sunny. On my way up on Sunday it rained continuously. I stopped and jumped out to get this one. It was too wet to do any long exposures, but I like the clouds. I also thought that since the painting was monotone that I could do a monochrome image with it.  I like the moodiness of it, I hope you do too.

Don’t forget all the instructions on how to enter your own images are at the bottom of the post.  If you have entered an image then please remember to check your image in the gallery, scroll down and see if anyone has left you any comments.


1/ One Day | One Image

the-bright-bright-morning-melinda-green-harvey


2/ Rainbow Junkie

rainbow-junkie-3-31-beautiful


3/ MyBlog – solaner

mm31-610_7622-ect_w


4/ Rajiv Chopra

asliceofheaven-rajivchopra


5/ THEPHOTOSEYE

dsc_1558-001


6/ Ritva Sillanmaki Photography

ritva-sillanmaki-rue-obscure


7/ Crow Canyon Journal

crow-canyon-journal-mm-3-31-fall-in-the-redwoods


8/ MICHELLE LUNATO PHOTOGRAPHY

mm-3-31-mlunato-photography


9/ rainy day reflections

oldpickupbw_rainydayreflections


10/ Stupidity Hole

dogs-in-motion-small-stupidityhole


11/ ARTKORPPI II

artkorppiwordpresscom_mm3_31_orch


12/ THE RUNES OF THE GATEKEEPER’S DAUGHTER

abandonment


13/ P N C O

suus-bw-klein


14/ Leanne Cole

brim-silos-painted-portraits-monochrome



Monochrome Madness each week and if you wish to participate and submit an image here is how you do it:-

  • You must email me the image you want to include and if you have a blog or website, or somewhere else, please include the link. My email address is leanne@leannecole.com.au
  • The image size should be low res, so the largest side should be 1000 pixels or less.
  • Please insert either your name or your blogs name in the file name.
  • Remember I am on Australian time, so with GMT I am +11 hours at the moment, I publish my post on Thursday morning.
  • If you need more help with sending images, and get confused about time zones, etc, well, there is a great website called The World Clock, if you go to that and look at Melbourne time, if it’s before 6pm on Tuesday evening, then you can still send me images.  If it’s after that time, you can send me an image, but it will be set aside for the following week.
  • Remember to include a link to your blog or website.
  • Please remember to resize your images, it is fairly simply, you just need to go into any editing software and usually under Image you will find, resize, scale, or image size, something like that and you can resize your image there. Change the dimensions to pixels and make the longest side 1000 pixels or smaller, hit return, and for most types of software that should change the other side automatically as well. Just remember to save it with a different name so you know it is the smaller version.  If you have any problems, please contact me, I don’t mind helping out.

Please note you don’t have to be a WordPress blogger to be in this challenge, you can have a link to a Facebook page, a Flickr page, anywhere really, or no link.  We just want to encourage people to do monochrome images, just for the madness of it. Just to let you know also, that as soon as the challenge is published, all emails and images you have sent me are deleted from my computer.

You might be interested in …

59 Comments

  1. gosh, I love MM!
    I’d even …consider sending in some of my b/w to get numbers up. I haven’t before, as I’m quite aware, my photos are not up to the calibre being presented for MM… all Stunning images!
    and WP readers have fallen in waves this past year & esp. this past 2 months or so. I kept wondering what I was doing that my numbers were falling. I think, most do not want to take time to read. If its a just ‘pretty picture’ thats about all the time they’ll spend.
    Many followers have dropped and relocated to IG. anyway, I Hope you don’t cease the MM. I love looking 🙂

    1. I think you are underestimating yourself Debi, it is something we all feel. I have noticed the same thing, I wonder if people have time for blogs anymore. At this stage I’m going to continue MM for the time being, if I start getting under 10 images for it, I might have to rethink. Thanks Debi.

    2. that is very kind of you Leanne! thank you. I don’t think people want to make time for much of anything – other than work, going out, looking at their iphones. to be honest. I’m astounded – by the drop in my art students. And, in their expectations for Instant, success in 2 minutes. Seriously. No one, is willing to put in effort. imo I will rummage around and see if I can find 1 b/w that is ok, if I do I’ll show it to you first. 🙂 lol

    3. I think you are right. I think people also don’t want to spend money anymore, unfortunately. I am find similar, anything I do that requires people to pay money makes it almost dead in the water straight away. Only if you want to Debi, don’t feel pressured to do, and only if you are ready, but I do think you are doing well. Yes, of course you can do that, for sure. 😀

  2. I know I don’t have a leg to stand on as I can’t seem to contribute regularly (if at all), but it would be a shame, for us and you, to loose this excellent challenge. Even when I don’t post, I try to stop by and catch up on the inspiring photography it generates. And, I notice you get 180ish likes for the post suggesting people enjoy seeing it. However, I can’t imagine the work involved in managing it. Either way… Thanks for all your hard work.

    1. Yes, I am getting that feeling too, they do seem to enjoy it, but compared to what it was, the numbers seem to continue going down. Time will tell, and I’m happy to continue for the time being to see what happens. Thank you.

  3. Oh no .. I love MM and have followed some wonderful photographers because of it! I too have noticed the change this last year in the blogging world. Let’s not lose MM yet ..😃 please

    1. I don’t think it will be stopping any time soon Julie, there is a definite change in it, but we will be continuing for the time being.

  4. Blogging has been very on and off for me this year, and I seem to be on permanent catch up Leanne. There are so many lovely blogs to visit /look through/ and comment on it’s not easy to give enough attention to everyone and everything on WP or anywhere else Lol. And trying to master more photography skills and processing is another story alongside taking the actual pictures ! I hope the numbers improve as those who join in every week do enjoy it and come up with some great images and never the same twice .
    The silos well worth stopping by for 🙂 what an artist / artists too .

    1. I know that feeling Louise, I have felt a bit like that, I keep getting distracted by other things.It does take a lot of attention, all of it, we have to do what we can, I do appreciate you dropping by from time to time. We will see how MM goes with time.
      The silos were great, and now there are more of them as well, I’m looking forward to going back to up to get the latest. Thank you Poppy.

  5. no apologies necessary Leanne. Myself, I have fallen behind again in blogging. I might have to recommit in the New Year. So much is going on. wonderful entries from everyone and whatever happens it’s been a wonderful challenge every week.

  6. Hi Leanne, I certainly have enjoyed the MM and think it has been inspiring. I missed sending you MM for this week because I was out in Seattle. Is there a theme for December?

    1. That is great to hear Amy, I understand, you can’t be expected to do it every week. The theme is Square or rectangle.

  7. Oh I do hope that you do continue on. Strangely I have noticed that WordPress as social media has slowed down a bit – ie those stopping by and viewing. I do love MM as I do love photographing in black and white. I love your shot and such an interesting scene and the monochrome works beautifully.

    1. I have noticed the same thing Debby, over the last year, it has slowed a lot. I wonder if blogs are too time consuming for many people. I don’t plan on stopping MM yet, but am wondering if the writing is on the wall. Thank you, I thought the silos would work in monochrome.

    2. I think that one has to decide their reason for blogging – to continue on in spite of the numbers. I think that the likes of Twitter, Instagram and other various social media venues have taken some of the audience – not sure why. I will keep my fingers crossed for continuing on with MM.

    3. I think those other audiences have less attention span, meaning you don’t have to devote as much time to them. There isn’t a lot of reading, etc. I think there is still a place for blogs, and maybe we just have to wait it out.

  8. It has been very slow here, too. Actually, it has been slow since late September, but there are ups and down and I’ve been through them before. The American election put a real damper on Internet activity, at least in the U.S. with a lot of bloggers just dropping out. But it will come back. I don’t think this is just a passing fad.

    Also, whenever I’ve taken a break from blogging? My stats go down the tubes. I try not to worry about the numbers. I’m not sure they are accurate anyhow. Periodically, WordPress seems to change how they count and then, after a while, they numbers come back up anyway. But i don’t blog for the numbers, not at this point. It’s so I have people to talk with and share photographs.

    And didn’t your neighbors just have a big earthquake? That must slow stuff down!

    1. I think stats have been down for a while, I know I don’t get as many as I used to. I do wonder if blogs are too time consuming for many people now.

      Though, I was referring to the number of images that people were sending in for MM, it has gone right down, especially when you consider that at one stage we were getting around 60 and this week, just 14. I know that things will always come to an end, but I thought it might go for a bit longer. We will see what happens.
      I’m not blogging for the numbers either, not really, and I know my numbers for it have been down, but I also think that part of that is me, and not really sure what I was doing. I do feel like I am getting back into it now. Thank you Marilyn.

  9. Yes, great shot of the silos.. they have been featured here before but even in B&W they stand out!

    And it would be a bummer if MM would dissapear. It really is great to see all the entries each week.
    Perhaps it is a wake up call to some, but i have to agree that 14 entries is not much..

    1. I have shown colour photos of them before Pieter, but I wondered how they would look in monochrome, now we know. Thanks

      I agree it would be a bummer, yes, perhaps. I think I would continue doing it with this many, but I think around 20 is nice. Will see how it goes Pieter.

  10. Lovely collection, as usual. I would hate to see it go as I love to see all the styles of black and white from across the world. It also forces me to stay regular in my own photography quest. Maybe this will prompt more people to submit:) Thank you for all that you do.

    1. Yes, perhaps it will Nato, but I think sometimes things just die a slow death, haha, I don’t plan on stopping it right now, but we will see how it goes in the future. That’s great to hear. maybe you can start doing some other things as well. You’re welcome.

    2. Very true. Well, let’s hope this is not a slow death but just a lull. Yes, I am trying to expand my skill set. I was stumbling around trying to do a long exposure of a river during the day. I go a few technically horrible shots, lol. Practice and study in daytime long exposures is apparently needed.

    3. Yes, I’m hoping it is a lull, though good to hear how many want it to continue. Yes, long exposures can be incredible, but they do take a bit of working out. YOu will get there. I love them now, and can pretty much guess the filter and time needed, that makes it easier.

    4. Yes, maybe this call to warning will get all of us who love it to start submitting more. One of the main reasons I started blogging was to advance my writing and photography skills. My good eye needs to have some technical skill behind it for more power. And, I just can’t imagine my life without a camera:)

    5. Yes perhaps, I just don’t want to keep doing it if people are not interested in it anymore. I just wanted to make sure that people still liked it. They are good reasons to start Nato, I must admit I did it to get me shooting, to give me reasons to get out and take photos. I know what you mean, what would life be without that camera?

    6. I can understand that: not doing it if people have lost interest. I’d bet people are just letting life get in the way. Life interrupts my photography all the time, lol. It is nice when parts of my life are the photography though. Funny though. When I joined the military, I couldn’t take a decent picture most of the time. They taught me some basic. Just enough to be dangerous and feel the power of it. Now, I am hooked, and need to raise the bar.

    7. I think so too, perhaps with Christmas coming up people do get very busy.That is great to hear, lucky you joined. It is great when you get hooked, I have been for quite some time now.

    8. I know the feeling! I was shooting a military retirement ceremony just a couple of days ago. And now I have family in for an early Thanksgiving. But, we are going South for the weekend so I feel some pictures coming on!

    9. lol- no worries. When I started my “wordy” blog, I created the blog name of Nato. Then, I started my photo blog….so it can be confusing!

  11. Great photos once more, I hope you will continue. this has been a hard year to me and I have been less active in all my art and photography interests. I will do my best to bring my input to this very classy challenge in the future.

    1. At this stage I don’t plan on stopping it, but if the numbers keep dropping, I might have to consider it. I know people are busy, and such, so time will tell. Sorry to hear you have had a hard year. Thank you Ritva, do what you can.

  12. Great photos this week. I’d miss MM if it ends. Maybe we could try once or twice a month challenges for a bit. Thanks for putting it together. 🙂

    1. I think I would miss it too, but if the numbers keep dropping we might have to consider it. I’m happy to keep doing it, so we will see what happens. You’re welcome, thank you for being a regular contributor. 😀

  13. Oh no, I like MM, although I have contributed very little and not at all recently. Got away from B&W when my computer was down for an extended period. But I always enjoy the fine contributions here. I must say that for me the old WordPress gallery display using the Tiled Mosaic worked better on my small laptop. The individual views are fine, however.

    Now I better get back to my black-and-white photography so that I can contribute to MM lest it fade into a monochrome sunset.

    1. That’s good to hear Ludwig, I don’t intend to stop it, but if I start getting very few entries, then I might not have a choice. Yes, I lost that option for the gallery when I went self hosted, but I am always on the look out for a new theme that will work better.
      That’s a great idea Ludwig, I look forward to seeing some images from you. Thanks.

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