The Online Photographer

Mike J., Color Picture

Although I've gotten a few great shots so far, the "Younger Photographers" Baker's Dozen feature is not populated yet, and I've extended the deadline.

In the meantime, I'm loathe to let this new feature fizzle or fade. It's too much fun. Accordingly, we'll just get on with the next one.

So far we've done large format contact prints, smartphone pictures, pictures taken with Leica lenses, and we're working on pictures taken by photographers under 30 (I've got about half that post built so far.)

Next up: black and white.

Please submit 1–3 JPEGs of photographs in B&W in an email with the subject line:

bakersdozenbw

Just exactly like that, nothing different. Send to me at mcjohnstonatmacdotcom. I won't be able to acknowledge receipt, answer questions, or return emails.

It's very important that you get the subject line right. On the deadline of Thursday, December 28th, I'll be searching my email stack for that exact subject line. If your entry doesn't come up in the search, I simply won't see your picture(s). That would be a shame—for both of us!

JPEGs should be 800 pixels wide and saved in sRGB. Tell me your name, where you live, tech detes, and any interesting facts or stories about the picture you'd like to share.

So get out your "grays cameras*." There are no other requirements than that the picture be black-and-white and that you must own the rights to it or know that no one else does. Photoshopped or not, film or digital, new or old, all else is open.

Hope to hear from you!

Mike

*"My little boy startled me at age five when he offered his first critique of Daddy's artwork. He had asked me to take a picture of how small his watermelon hard candy had gotten in his mouth, opening his mouth wide and presenting the remarkably diminished candy on his tongue. Never one to refuse a proffered photo opportunity, I took the picture. Later, though, when I showed the print to him, he launched into a tirade that I still think is wonderful: "Daddy, you need a new camera. Your camera is a grays camera. You need a colors camera. When you buy another camera next time you should make sure it has colors in it." And so forth. It was a pure critique, succinct and pointed—art criticism direct from a five-year-old heart." That's from this post.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

toronto wedding photographer: "As Karl Lagerfeld once said, 'black and white always looks modern, whatever that word means.'"

Nigli: "'Dad, you always take photos of boring trees. Is it because you're from New Zealand?' (My six year old)."

Ernest Zarate: "As a lecturer at California State University at Sacramento a few years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching a class titled Photography in the Field. This class consisted of alternate weeks of being on field trips to various locales to make photographs, and then to present them to the class every other week. It would be difficult to create a more perfect union of work/critique. As we were going around the room, looking at and critiquing work, there was one student whose work was all B&W. All the other student work was in color. No particular mention was made of it until I asked, 'Why is all your work black and white?' Her answer clarified and distilled everything to a basic and resolute solution: 'Because, when I photograph in B&W, everything is clearer and better.' And of course that is completely true. And 'true.' And when she said this, it make complete and total sense to me. Duh. All my foundational work was in B&W. I saw in B&W. It was my gut reaction to the world. Why would anyone work in anything other than B&W??? There is no de-evolution back to Robert Frank's statement: it is essential and fundamental. Clear as an azure summer sky. Black and White are the colors of photography."