Baker's Dozen: Black-and-White

We asked readers to submit examples of their B&W photography, and got a lot of responses. Here are a few examples. Thanks to everyone who participated—very sorry we could not include everyone!

Tech details and the photographer's website, if the submission included either, follow the main part of the post.

Because I'm on record as not liking infrared for my own work, I always want to be sure to give equal shrift to good infrared work by others. This fine landscape by Bryan Hansel of the far-northern U.S. town of Grand Marais, Minnesota, doesn't hammer you over the head with heavyhanded IR tones, and it also manages to be something that's increasingly rare these day—a landscape photo that doesn't look like ten thousand landscape photos you've seen before. The nice play of the actual and implied lines (it might not have worked without the line of the clouds and that angled band of dark sky), plus the symbolism of the brave little tree growing where it doesn't look like it can thrive all combine to make this a landscape that was worth a second and third look for me.

It used to be a truism that large format was excellent for describing objects exactly, and that an exact description of "the thing itself" (Edward Weston's famous phrase) had a nobility, and in some cases almost an otherworldliness, all its own. Ned Bagno made this simple but eloquent description of "Joe's Flower" using a flatbed scanner, which he then converted to black-and-white.

A great example of how straight photographs can work as art is this surreal portrait of his daughter Naomi by Richard Alan Fox of New City, New York. The face set against the negative space provided by Naomi's falling hair seems to be simultaneously a frontal and profile view, almost mimicking the manner of a Cubist portrait. The left arm with its wonderful contorted hand gesture seems almost disembodied, yet it's framed perfectly with the door jamb—note how the line of the right side of the neck also seems to continue right into the doorjamb above it. Naomi seems to be falling forward out of the frame. The languorous, theatrical facial expression and spotlighting complete the enigmatic but startling effect. A wonderful picture, one in a million, I think.

Photo by George A. Housley, Jr.

Photo by Glen Paling

Okay, I have to admit that "Mexican pelicans" as a motif for this Baker's Dozen is something I did not see coming, but you never know what's going to come over the transom. George A. Housley, Jr., has, he says, "a particular interest in images of birds flying," and took his picture of a Brown Pelican years ago in the Mazatlan area of Mexico. Glen Paling was vacationing in Puerto Vallarta over the holidays when he heard of TOP's call for work. His picture shows the rocky coast—with pelican—shot from a high-speed panga while traveling from Yelapa to Boca de Tomatlan. "Yelapa is a cool little fishing village without road access. There are no cars—all roads are cart-sized not car-sized."

Steve Buettner took this "damn interesting interaction of reflection and interior" (and I agree with him, it is) at one of the many abandoned structures found in South Park, Colorado. Why make Photoshop concoctions when the real world is so interesting?

What would a post on black-and-white photography be without at least one "street-style" photograph? It's always tough to make a really successful picture of people from behind their backs, because so many photographers are simply too shy or reticent to take pictures of people they're facing (our friend the late Michael Reichmann showed a bit of that tendency in his people pictures). But when it works, it works. Mark Gregg of Dexter, Michigan, pulled it off here.

"The Chelsea Community Fair is held each year in August and for a few years I worked on this project," Mark writes. "I can't remember the event, but most likely these kids were watching the Demolition Derby, a collision contest where only the strong survive. Favorite cars by participants were old rear wheel drive Detroit models, big Buick or Chevy station wagons out of the 1970s that could take a licking and keep on ticking. Title for this photo is 'Bleacher Boys.'"

The original in this case is a silver print from a film negative, and it's nice to have one of those in this post, too.

Mike Stone is a London, UK based professional photographer "largely working on long term documentaries with a smattering of corporate work." This wry portrait was shot in the winter of 2015 when he spent some time with a Traveler community in County Cavan in the Irish Republic. You can read the full story of the picture on Mike's blog.

I received several pictures which fell under the heading of "nature closeups," and a number of them were more ravishingly beautiful than this. But I spent a lot of time with the large body of submissions over the past few weeks, and what I often find when I do that is that the more immediately appealing pictures that present themselves to my attention right away gradually recede after repeated viewing, and, sometimes, pictures that didn't grab me on first viewing do the opposite and come forward. Some pictures just get stuck in your head.

Like Richard Alan Fox's picture of Naomi, this odd but fascinating composition by Ed Wolpov, age 71, of Bethesda, Maryland, taken at the Kenilworth Aquatic Garden in Washington, D.C., seems to work in the way certain modernist paintings do. I don't think an analysis of it would do us much good, but look at it for a while, and maybe revisit it a few times—for me its shapes, complexities and arrangement began to have the same sort of distinct charm I feel from the work of Matisse, or from one of my favorites, Joan Miró of Barcelona. Ed says he photographed in film with small, medium, and large formats, but that, when he finally got his first digital camera, "after almost 50 years of darkroom processing, I finally saw the light." He works in a few different styles, namely landscape, architecture, and travel, but says he "enjoys pushing the envelope with a bit of abstract and conceptual work," mostly in black and white.

I loved the submissions sent by Lois Elling of San Leandro, California, and almost used two of them for this post (although that might have drawn some ire, given that there were so many applications for so few slots). She has a fine eye for composition. This has it all for a zoo shot—classical composition, great light, and a wonderful background. "A family excursion to the San Francisco Zoo was highlighted by a close-up visit with the giraffes to feed them. What beautiful animals they are! I was taken with the pose of this adult and young one inside the building. The light is from a large window."

I used to point out more often than I do now that we're not really looking at photographs online, just little representations of them. (Anyone who has purchased pictures from our print sales knows what I mean). This picture is really too small to see properly here, but I decided not to hold that against it. (You can double-click to embiggen, but it's still too small.) Alex Buisse of Chamonix, France, is a hardworking adventure photographer who, if his "Best of 2017" portfolio is any indication at all, is in his prime as a photographer. He took this dramatic picture "dangling from a rope on a frozen waterfall at night." He added, "it makes me a bit sad for them to be so small." I'd love to see this one 20 inches wide, and his other submission, of a hang glider dwarfed by craggy mountains, 30 inches wide.

Hans Muus of the Netherlands: "This picture is a dyptich, and the result of a small miracle: on a Sunday in April this year, just before dinnertime, I told my girlfriend I missed some essential ingredient for that night’s meal and would try to buy it in the supermarket near my house. Once outside, there was a crow in a nearby acacia tree making a lot of noise. I looked up and saw the bird, with the waxing moon right behind it. After a moment’s hesitation I went back in, said to my S.O. that though chances were slim the bird would wait for me, I really had to give it a try. I grabbed my X-Pro2, put on the telezoom (50–230mm) and hurried out again. The crow had waited for me. I set the camera and the lens and took one shot, and one second later it flew up. Immediately I took the second shot. Then I went back in to drop off the camera, and got out again to buy the groceries I needed.

"We all are familiar with the experience of seeing something without having a camera with us, and returning later to try to make the shot, but returning succesfully for a bird—it still makes me smile. The dyptich format followed naturally, as did the (very short) text, in English: 'hold!/never/a/falling/moon.'"

(As a certified lunatic as well as a great fan of crows, all I can say is that I love this.)

 And finally, one more for good measure:

I have to admit that the appeal of this one is a little...specialized, I guess you'd say. In my out-of-the-way area of Upstate New York, by far the best resource for photographers is the George Eastman Museum, a full-scale international museum based in the vast former mansion of the founder of Kodak in Rochester. The original house is part of the Museum, and the heart of the house is the music room, where George used to host tea parties and where he took his breakfast every morning, serenaded by an organist from the local music school he founded, playing what was then the largest organ in the world in a private residence. But the music room is dominated by a giant stuffed elephant head...which, of course, everyone tries to photograph. And therein lies a problem, as our last featured photographer, Mark Rouleau, explains:

"Here's my submission for the B&W Baker's Dozen call for work. I can't say it's a particularly remarkable piece, except that, for me at least, it solved the Elephant Problem.

"What is the Elephant Problem? Well, anybody who's been to the George Eastman House will know that one of the first things you see is the giant elephant head in the main lobby. It is so noticeable and striking that it demands to be photographed. The Elephant Problem is that, since the subject is static, and the number of vantage points to take a photo of that elephant is limited, the number of possible photos is also limited, and there ends up being perhaps a half-dozen different shots that can be gotten, and so they all start looking the same. And on every visit I've taken at least one of those cookie-cutter photos.

"Except for my last visit, where I finally solved the Elephant Problem, at least for myself, with the attached. It may not do a lot for you, but it's a load off my mind."

It's quite possible that I like this picture because I know that house so well, and have walked up that staircase so many times. Or maybe it's because, like so many other people, I too have wrestled with The Elephant Problem! This could stand for the difficulty that faces us all when trying to find our own individual approach to photographic subjects that are too well known and too comprehensively photographed already.

Mark's solution to The Elephant Problem seemed like a nice way to end this post. It offers hope that no subject, even the badly "overexposed" ones, are ever truly exhausted.

Mike

A few honorable mentions: I'd like to thank each and every one of you who submitted work for this call. You were legion. Here are the names of some (not all!) of the people whose work it positively pained me to leave out: Donald Vetter, Peter Komar, Thomas Johns, Wayne (no last name given, but, guessing based on his email address, it might be Bruzeks), William Schneider, Stephanie Luke, Dana Thomas, Mark Johnson, John Kennerdell, Jake Schoellkopf, Dan Smith, Robert Johnston (no relation), Hugh Conacher, Robert Deegan, Ed E. Powell, Rob de Loe, Thomas Paris, Brian Schnupp, Christian Lund, John Bergholm, Anton Soliva, Randall Teasley, Bruce Walker, Phil Krzeminski, Wisawa Sripungwiwat, and Chris Fuller. And if you don't see your name here, don't despair—the goal of the final set was not just excellence, but also balance and representativeness.

Technical details and links
Bryan Hansel: "Sony A7II converted to infrared with a [LifePixel] Super Color conversion. Making the black-and-white image takes a few steps. I start in Lightroom and color-correct the image using a custom camera profile. After that I move into Photoshop and use TK Infinity Masks with a pixel output to convert it to black-and-white. After that I bring it back into Lightroom for dodging and burning and final adjustments." The shot was handheld and taken from a canoe. Here's Bryan's website.

Ned Bagno: Although he made "Joe's Flower" with a flatbed scanner, for most of his photography, Ned sold all his digital cameras and bought a medium-format film camera after reading this article on TOP back in 2012, and reports he has "shot nothing but film since then."

Richard Alan Fox

No surprise, Richard Alan Fox is also an accomplished painter (and "a retired COBOL cowboy") who lives in New City, New York and has a studio in the Garner Arts Center in Garnerville, New York. He takes pictures of his children using Olympus and Panasonic Micro 4/3 cameras using Lightroom and Photoshop to convert the raw files. (COBOL cowboys have been in the news lately as they migrate from the workforce into retirement, leaving large scale clients bereft.)

George Housley says he seldom works in black-and-white, as he feels most of his pictures work best in color. He lives near Tupelo, Mississippi, and is still using Canon DSLRs..."for which I apologize," he wrote. No apologies necessary!

Glen Paling made his Mexican pelican picture with a Panasonic Micro 4/3 camera: "I love them for their portability while traveling."

Steve Buettner made his picture in Colorado in 2007 with a Canon 30D ("my first 'serious' digital camera") and EF-S 17–85mm ƒ/4–5.6 kit lens.

Mark Gregg: Nikon F4s with ("probably," he says) the 80–200 ƒ/2.8 zoom. Tri-X film, D-76 developer. "Paper...probably Ilford or Seagull."

Mike Stone took his picture with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and the Olympus 45mm ƒ/1.8, at 1/200th, ƒ/4, 200 ISO. You can see more of Mike's work at his website.

Ed Wolpov's first digital camera was an Olympus 2020 in 2000, and he now works with a Canon 5D Mark IV and Lightroom. Here's Ed's website.

Lois Elling used a Fujifilm X-E2 and 18–55mm kit lens. Here's more of Lois's work.

Alex Buisse's website is well worth a visit. "This image was shot on a D810 with a Nikkor 16–45 ƒ/4. I used my Elinchrom flash for most of this session but this one was lit by the climber’s headlamp only."

Hans Muus: "Fuji X-Pro2, 50–230mm at 205 mm, 1/125 sec. (IS and no coffee) and ƒ/14. ISO 400, LR and Nik Silver Efex." Hans has a website as well.

Mark Rouleau: "From what I can remember it was taken with an Olympus E-M1 Mark II with a Panasonic 20mm lens. I was playing with DxO Photolab at the time, which is probably why I overdid the local contrast. Conversion was probably DXO Filmpack."

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

Ed Donnelly: "Really nice work by all. What a great way to head into the weekend."

Rodolfo Canet: "A glorious selection, indeed, I loved them all, but I must confess I find Mr. Wolpov's image wonderful, absolutely bewitching."

wts: "Most of these would make stunning and unforgettable covers for books and record albums."

Stan B.: "Gotta give it up for the trunk—those giraffes ain't bad either!"

Comments

[Eolake]

I think that reflections and shadows are the salt and pepper of photography.

[David Bennett]

Well, that was well worth it - well curated.

[Ed Donnelly]

Really nice work by all. What a great way to head into the weekend.

[Alex Buisse]

Thanks Mike, it is a true honor to be featured on here in such good company. For technical details, this image eas shot on a D810 wih a Nikkor 16-45 f/4. I used my Elinchrom flash for most of this session but this one was lit by the climber’s headlamp only.

[Well, back at ya Alex--it's an honor to me that you read TOP. Thanks for the details, I added them to the post. --Mike]

[Patrick Dodds]

These are fabulous. Thanks for sorting this out Mike. Going over to Mike Stone's site and seeing his portraits there was wonderful, too.

[Michael Perini]

Really beautiful work, thanks to all and especially Mike for doing the work.

[Tony Rowlett]

Thank you very much, Mike, for doing this project. I really love seeing the photography and reading the analysis. I don't know why, but there seems to be little of this type of analysis out there. In very old editions of "Leica Fotografie" magazine, there was a regular series like this that I think is fascinating.

[Arg]

Now I'm glad I had trouble sending my 3 to an unrecognised address!

[Bryce Lee]

Mr. Johnston, you done did good in your selections!
I now understand why you had difficulty selecting "only" the required images.
Now as to that pink elephant in the room at The George Eastman House....

[Richard Alan Fox]

Thank you for publishing my picture and for your kind words.

[desmondism]

I'm just gonna go out and say it: 'The Elephant Problem' was an elephant in the room. I'm a dad.

[There might be other reasons, but one is that, in the old days, there were only a few channels, and if there was another photographer in the same vicinity using the same trigger channel it could wreak havoc on your procedure. Once again, I am not an expert in lighting by any means! Hopefully others will step in with other answers. --Mike]

[Phil Krzeminski]

Mike,
Thanks for the recognition in the honorable mention section. What a difficult task (but enjoyable) it must have been. Your patience and devotion to photography are once again revealed through your efforts and I'm sure, deeply appreciated by all who follow your blog.

Phil Krzeminski

[Thomas Paris]

Hi Mike,
Reading this post and looking at the beautiful photographs you had selected, I knew I was going to write a comment to thank you for another great, intelligent post (I have to insist on the fact they're not only beautiful, which would have been enough to please me, they're interesting too!). And I thought I was going to say that post was so good it had helped me not feel too bad for not being picked.

Which is when I read the "honorable mentions" section. You have no idea how good THAT made me feel.

Thanks a lot. First and foremost for another great post. But certainly for that mention too!

And thanks to everyone whose photographs have been selected. I'll definitely come back to this post and the great work you've shared with us.

[Hans Muus]

Mike, what a great pleasure to see my home flown crow reach out to the world at large by ways of TOP. Thank you.

[Brian Taylor]

You've evidently had fun with this Mike. On reflection I think what makes Richard Alan Fox's striking picture of his daughter, and Ed Wolpov's beautiful water lilly composition , so arresting is that whilst both feel 'just right' as framed moments, they also convey the dynamic tension of movement - rapid in one case, and very gradual in the other.

So far, though, its been Mike Stone's portrait that has stood out for me. I like to read a bit about a project, and it was good to see Mike Stone's blog where the background of the portrait seems lighter (suggesting a subtly different mood)?? Its also good to see the work at a bit larger size, of course.

I'll look forward to seeing the next 'dozen' :).

[Ken Tanaka]

These are all very good images, Mike. I can only imagine the (joyful) challenge you faced.

For me, the image of special distinction is Ed Wolpov’s entry. It represents some terrific conceptual visualization every bit as engaging as that of Minor White and Paul Caponigro. I’d love to see a monograph or small show of that work.

[Jim Simmons]

Here's more praise for Ed Wolpov's photo. These types of images are deceptively difficult to make at this level of elegance, and Ed had created one that is sublime.

[Rob de Loe]

Wonderful to see the results of everyone's work, Mike, especially yours. Thanks!

I do have something for you to ponder, and perhaps address in a future post. In the past you've suggested you have not been impressed with digital black and white photography. You had a couple posts this year that fleshed out your thinking. After going through this exercise, how do you feel now?

[MikeR]

A wonderful and enviable selection. I feel both inspired and daunted.

OT - but not for you - this from the New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/audiophilia-forever-an-expensive-new-years-shopping-guide

[Gary]

Bravo. The crow dyptich blows me away.

[DavidB]

Some of the selected images are immediately obvious as to their quality. Others -- not so much. It's not the images, rather I just can't see the way these photographers do. Oh, how I wish I did!

[Randall Teasley]

What a wonderful collection of images. I find it hard to imagine how tough it must have been to make your picks. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing the next installment of bakers dozen. Bring on the young photographers!

[PDLanum]

I have an old ongoing love of B&W images based on two facts. First, being old, I remember newspapers, Life, Look, and other "Picture" Magazines of my youth. Second, when starting out in my 50+ years of developing and printing film, the only thing I could afford was B&W. It got to the point that I was purchasing 100ft rolls of Kodak Plus-X in order to keep the price down. It helped to have a father who scored a case of MICRODOL-X at a auction along with a case of fixer.
Now that digital is out and I am more-or-less all digital these days, I would love to have a B&W digital camera. The ones that are available are just too darn expensive. I have converted some of my digital images to B&W, but nothing beats watching an image come up in the soup. Something that current digital photographers just don't get to experience.

[Jim A]

Beautiful work. I've reviewed this bakers dozen several times now and each photograph is a complete success. I'll need to review several more times before I can even think of picking a favorite. Congratulations to all.

[Nature Lover]

Thank you for displaying my image Mike. What a range of subjects and approaches.
For me the most striking in this group is the still life of Lilies by Mr Wolpov.

For anyone interested, my website; www.housleyphoto.com is a combination nature encyclopedia and more arty approach. Still having trouble making up my mind. The color version of the pelican is buried in birds/pelicans.
Pelican: Canon 1DMKII (heavy and replaced) 70-200 f2.8
George

[Andrew Kelley]

Mike, that was completely delightful. Might there be the genesis of a print sale or two in this batch?

[D. Hufford]

After seeing these, I can only imagine how difficult it was to chose only "A Baker's Dozen."

I enjoy all of them, but the one that immediately struck me---or rather jumped up and slapped me upside the head---was Ed Wolpov's. The composition, the elements, the design, and (although I rarely say this) the tonality is perfect for me.

How long have I searched for such a photo myself and failed. Ed has done it so well, I may as well just give up. It's just beautiful!

[Ned Bagno]

Honored to be included in such a short list of wonderful photographs.

[Del Bomberger]

I think I've looked at your selection a "baker's dozen" times by now and I find myself spending time studying Mike Stone's portrait of the Traveler-the stories do impact the perception of the image it seems to me. Ed's photo is a clear winner as well, as good as Butcher to me-though a print to print comparison would be nice. Alex Buisse's photo of the cave is spectacular but I agree it would be better seen large and in person-which I imagine to almost always be the case. I hope this carries on-a testament to B&W. I attended an opening last night at the Etherton Gallery in Tucson and it was packed. One artist had people standing in line to buy the last copies of a couple of now out of print books at $250.00 and $1,000. Was wonderful to experience and a reminder of the differences between digital and film.

[Bryan Hansel]

It's such an honor being included in this selection of images.

Thank you for taking the time to do these Baker Dozens. The entire series has been thoroughly enjoyable.

If readers are interested, my website is https://www.bryanhansel.com/

[Stan B.]

I woke up at 4AM this morning (no, really)-
Did I say... "ZEBRAS!?"

[Whoops, I meant to change that. Fixed now. We all knew you meant giraffes. --Mike]

[Fred Haynes]

I found this post to be one of my favorites, after many years of stopping by. I liked seeing the work of others, and how many turned out to be really good, whether they make any kind of a living out of it or not.
I had a similar feel for the post of a few years back, where folks shot film on Leica or any other rangefinder camera for a year. if I remember correctly, that was all black and white as well, or maybe that's what I remember most.
I know this is your enterprise Mike, but I'd like to see more about black and white photography and the techniques in doing the work.
Fred

[Lois Elling]

It is an honor to be included in this group of black and white selections. I've enjoyed looking at all of the pictures several times, now. Each one has something interesting about it, which is what really makes an image appeal to me. Thank you for all the work to collect these and make the selections.
One more note about my process is I use Silver FX Pro to convert to black and white.

[Mike Stone]

Mike
Wow, honoured to be selected as part of this wonderfully diverse set of pictures.
Your perspective and writing on B&W has been an influence on my work since Camera & Darkroom.
Across the board there's something to think about in all the images, but Richard Alan Fox and Ed Wolpov are the knockouts for me.
Mike

[Olivier]

Congratulations to the artists and to Mike for this remarkable achievement.
And I am so happy that one infrared picture made the final cut!

[Patrick J Dodds]

I thought the zebras thing was deliberate and a reference to something I didn't understand.

[Roger Bradbury]

I do enjoy these Baker's Dozen posts. I met one of the photographers, Mike Stone, when a group of us met Ctein in London, in May 2016. Hi, Mike.

[Tom Bell]

Thank you Mike .... I so enjoyed all of these. But for me it is Richard Alan Fox’s image that stays in the mind. Truly thought provoking and for me a little mind bending. Wonderful

[grigoris]

i liked them very much.PLEASE share with us the honorary mention photographs on another post or two. "the sets" post that you made before based on b w submissions was excellent!

[Don McC]

This is a wonderful selection of images that has really stimulated my imagination, thanks Mike!

My shot didn’t make the cut, but actually this has given me a ‘shot in the arm’ to try and improve my photography and reach a similar standard to the other submissions. Actually I realise this will be harder than it sounds, but it’s really very encouraging to have something to aim for.

Thanks for running these Bakers Dozen posts, they are really very inspiring!

All the best,
Don
Cheltenham, UK.