That was fun. The "Baker's Dozen" posts featuring readers' pictures have been rewarding. I posted the results from the B&W challenge on Friday. (That's the post below this.)
The next one is suggested by Jan Kwarnmark of Sweden, who sent me a JPEG of the picture he considers his "one in a million" shot. It's outstanding, and hopefully you'll see it eventually. But it occurred to me that Jan's picture must be in color. It couldn't be B&W; robbing it of its color would ruin it. Well, not "ruin" it—it might also still work in B&W, sort of—but the color adds a key element that it would be a shame not to have in the picture.
With that, we have the idea for this next Baker's Dozen feature: a picture that must be in color. That is, a great shot that you think works because of its color, and would just not be as good if it were converted to B&W.
This might be something it would be meaningful to discuss. It might require some thought.
The blue-footed booby must be in color!
Photo by David Brown of Saratoga, California
How to Submit
This is a call for your own work, and you must own the rights to it, so please don't send me anything but that.
To submit, use the subject line:
BDmustbecolor
Just like that...no spaces, spelled exactly like that, no variations. The reason is that when I begin building the post, I will search my email stack (which is humongous!) for that phrase as the subject, and if your email doesn't come up, then I won't see your picture. Pay attention to this, as each time I specify this I do get submissions that don't have the proper header. Those inevitably get lost.
I'll announce the deadline when we get near it, but it's at least two weeks from now, so you have some time. No promises when the results will appear...I learned from the last one that these features just take a serious ton of time to build, so it'll get done when it gets done. There's only one little man behind the curtain.
Email ONE (1) JPEG, 800 pixels wide, saved in sRGB. Include in the email your name, where you live (people keep forgetting that), any technical details you care to share, your website URL if you want me to publish it, and whatever you want to tell other TOP readers about your picture.
My email address is mcjohn ston a t macd ot com. Replace the "at" and the "dot" with the proper symbols and get rid of the spaces. The modest attempt at disguising my address is because I already get slammed with spam.
Hope this isn't too subtle a challenge!
Jan Kwarnmark's picture will be the first in the portfolio. So there are 12 spots left (a "baker's dozen" means 13). Give it a try, and let's have fun!
Mike
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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Herman Krieger: "Color is for the birds; as well as for flowers, sunsets, and medical problems."
Kurt Kramer: "The B&W were so good. I am going to enter and cannot wait to see the color selections."
"The blue-footed booby must be in color!'
Unlike a pink snooker ball...
"Steve is going for the pink ball - and for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green."
Ted Lowe
Posted by: Sean | Monday, 15 January 2018 at 11:15 AM
Mike,
Suggest you do a search for Spider Martin and Roland Sherman. Each covered aspects of the civil rights movement and Dr. King. I knew each (Spider more than Roland) when I was in advertising in Birmingham years ago. Great photographers.
Joe Sankey
Posted by: Joe Sankey | Monday, 15 January 2018 at 06:04 PM
With great affection I nominate Herman Krieger "Photographicus PunSmith Emeritus" Long may he reign.
Posted by: Gabe | Tuesday, 16 January 2018 at 10:35 AM
Somehow I managed to miss the deadline for the B&W call for action. Will not miss this one, there's an image that "everyone has seen", that must be in colors.
Posted by: Richard Man | Tuesday, 16 January 2018 at 03:59 PM