The Online Photographer

Baker's Dozen: 'It Must Be Color' (Part II: Subtle Colors)

Photo by Tim Couttreel

Photo by Lee Shively

Photo by Stephen Cowdery

Photo by Marcelo Guarini

-

Tim Couttreel writes: "I had some trouble finding a photograph that 'must be in color.' In most of my photographs the color adds another dimension, but it is not essential. I guess this is because most of my photographs are more about light and composition. But this one is an exception (although for me the gravel is what makes this photograph) and the funny thing is that if you do a straight B&W conversion the 'No Parking' sign almost completely vanishes (try it!).

"This photograph is part of a series I made about signs prohibiting all sorts of (weird) things. It's a really nice photograph when printed very large. I had one made that's 175cm wide for the group exhibition we did.

"Now for the details: My name is Tim Couttreel and I live in Belgium. This photograph was taken with the Olympus E-M10 and the Olympus 25mm ƒ/1.8."

Lee Shively (AKA 'Dogman') writes: "I debated on whether or not to send this but finally decided to do so. It’s not spectacular and the color is subdued. I don't even know the identity of the lady pictured but the photo means a lot to me. I hope you'll indulge me with a short story.

"For almost 18 months I've had several health issues that have limited my ability to travel or even get around much except in my general neighborhood. Of course that also means the scope of my photography was also limited. At first, it was depressing. But I eventually began to appreciate the visual treasures in the commonplace subjects around me. Without getting too deeply into the matter, this particular photo was done in the surgical waiting room at a local hospital in November 2017. I was there waiting to be called into the preparation room for another surgery, a surgery my doctor felt would finally resolve my biggest health issue. The lady pictured was apparently there with a relative or friend who was scheduled for surgery. The light caught my eye along with the lady's silhouette, red hair, and plaid shoes. Later when I printed the photo, I thought is had a 'Hopperesque' look to it. Oddly enough, I had been concentrating on B&W for some time prior to this, but this one had to be in color.

"I shot it with a Ricoh GRII, in raw, and processed it with Lightroom 6. I’m located in Shreveport Louisiana.

"By the way, the surgery seems to have been a success. I've become more mobile and I’m able to get out and run errands and socialize a bit. I expect to continue to improve and be able to seek new photograph subjects. 2018 is looking like a good year for me."

Stephen Cowdery writes: "My submission is Two Women.

"Shot with Pentax 110 50mm ƒ/2.8 lens, ISO 800, 1/400 sec @ ƒ/4.5 on a Pentax Q7.

"Pretty much a straight image, with some minor cropping and other corrections. The flat north light on the scene made the contrast between the women's skin and hair and the drab background work for me. I tried a B&W conversion, but I couldn't capture the 'serene' quality of the scene.

"I live in Anoka, Minnesota. Here's my website."

Marcelo Guarini writes: I spotted this small beach around 10 years ago from a plane at 30,000 feet up, while traveling to the north of Chile. I was on a business trip. As I arrived to Santiago on the way back, I found the place on Google Earth, and started to make a way to go there, no roads, no trails, nothing. On September 2007 I tried to reach the place with my brother and respective sons in two 4WD vehicles. We spent seven hours from La Serena, located around 200 km away. Today we take 2.5 hours from the same place. The place is just pristine since no one goes there. We found that the place is super windy, with gale force winds. Camping is very difficult, but it is absolutely beautiful.

"The morning I took the picture on September 2013, the wind was unusually calm and the scene very beautiful, so I tried a long exposure with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 with a Voigtlander 17.5mm ƒ/0.95 and a 15-stop SinghRay ND filter mounted on a Gitzo tripod. The image was originally intended to be a B&W photo. Every long exposure I tried before, during strong winds, were blurred, so I was very lucky this time. When I saw the image in color, I immediately thought that will be difficult to make a better B&W version, the colors were beautiful that morning. Since then, every once in a while I imagine a B&W version and sit down on the computer to work it, but I have never succeeded, so I think this is could be a candidate for 'It Must Be Color.'

"The exposure was around three minutes at ƒ/11 I think. The Voigtlander ƒ/0.95 maximum aperture is very convenient in this case since it allows me to compose and manual focus with the 15 stop ND filter screwed in front (a very grainy viewfinder image, but enough to precisely get focus)."

I just thought that in the middle of this Baker's Dozen it would be interesting to offer a "counterpoint" to the received idea that color pictures have to be of bright, vibrant, or strong primary colors. What are your thoughts?

[To be continued...]

Mike

P.S. This is cheating, but as an addendum to this group, another subtle picture:

Chester Williams, The Goodbye Kiss

Chester writes:

Hi there...

My name is Chester Williams and I live on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

The image is called "The Goodbye Kiss"....

It was taken in an old dilapidated building that had an old wonderful love story happen under its roof...now missing.

I was there with three other photographers who failed to see the image and completely dismissed me about its possible impact. I guess the love story was in my mind and my eye too....

I just love its pastel colors...which add a warm romantic feeling.

Appreciate the opportunity....

I appreciate the picture, and the sentiment, but I can't make a determination as to whether color is necessary in this picture or not. I'm going to have to leave this one entirely up to the TOP commentariat to decide about. What's your feeling?

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

David Dyer-Bennet: "'The Goodbye Kiss' is very interesting. The fleshtones in (well, on) the cement (or whatever the surface is) helped me see it as a face instantly. I saw that instantly, before getting down to the title (which certainly would also predispose me to seeing the face). (They also contribute to my liking the picture for roughly the reasons the photographer gives.) Having seen it this way, doing a quick B&W conversion doesn't really tell me enough; my mind is already made up what it is, and I can't see it for the first time again. So...I report that the color seemed central in my instantly seeing the face in it, but I can't honestly express an opinion about whether the color is necessary. I'm inclined to think it's not, but that's speculation."

Rob Griffin: "I am with the other friends of TOP who are calling for a print sale of 'The Goodbye Kiss.' To me, it is an iconic photograph that I will remember in my mind's eye for the rest of my life. I would still love to own a print though. My heartfelt thanks to Chester Williams and also to you, Mike, for sharing it with us."

Bahi: "Can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this whole colour thread. Thanks for doing it—I know it was a tough one to adjudicate (if that's the right word) but the results are stellar, as are so many of the comments. Fantastic! My reaction to the 'The Goodbye Kiss' was exactly the same as David Dyer-Bennet's—I saw the face and the mouths while scrolling, before even parsing the title."

My Take on 'Emma'

Jan Kwarnmark, Emma

I've added quite a bit of new material to the "It Must Be Color Part I" post, so you might want to catch up with that if you haven't already. Part II will be along on Monday.

I thought I should mention where I come down in the debate over Jan Kwarnmark's "Emma." Let me acknowledge that my opinion isn't necessarily more valid than anyone else's just because I have the "bully pulpit"*.

David Dyer-Bennet writes:

Even though they're 'the same photo,' and I find them both quite good, the two versions of Jan's portrait of Emma [color and B&W] aren't...the same photo.

Bingo.

Steve says:

In B&W, while the girl is still beautiful, the picture as a whole doesn't make sense any longer—the comb is a major thematic element but for no apparent reason. In color, you see the reason.

I agree with this. (Jan K. doesn't, just for the record.)

But...

D. Hufford says:

In judging whether another person's photo is better suited for black and white or color, I tend to allow that if the photographer understands these two types of photography and he or she decided it was better suited for color, it is.

It is that person's photo and that person's interpretation. It is not my business to second guess.

...And of course D. Hufford is right as rain as well. Except that anyone is allowed to second-guess, of course, because we're humans and humans tend to do that a lot. Especially artists do that a lot, because we're used to having control over our own work and applying our aesthetic judgements to that, so it's tempting to apply it to the work of others as well, especially when we think others have made a misstep. But his comment emphasizes that there's no right and wrong in matters of interpretation—there's only what the creator of the work wanted, and then there's your own estimation of whether his or her choice works (succeeds) or not.

Anyway, I guess this is obvious since I chose "Emma" for a feature called "it must be color," but I think, well, it must be color. Actually, Jan's photo of Emma, which he sent me for a different reason, was what inspired this particular "Baker's Dozen" in the first place. I thought, wow, if ever there was a picture that had to be in color, that is it.

...Even though B&W is my first love, and even though I'm  on record as having wished that John Moore's famous picture of Mary McHugh had been taken in B&W.  

And (back to "Emma"), nobody even remarked upon the lovely little tidbit of orange (and yellow and green) in the lower right-hand corner! I particularly like that.

Mike

UPDATE: ...And Ben said:

I’d argue that it being a good picture in B&W is part of what makes it work in color. Because you have her expression, along with the light, the shadow, the composition, the tonality...this is the foundation of the image.

I agree with that, too. In fact I think that often (not "always") a good clue as to whether a color picture is good is to see if it's also a good picture in B&W. If it's not, then it probably depends (or "might depend," if you prefer) too much on color for its appeal. [See Ben's Featured Comment below.]

*"A public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue. Early 20th century: apparently originally used by President Theodore Roosevelt explaining his personal view of the presidency." (Dictionary.com via Google)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

Mark Kinsman: "While I did not contribute a comment in the original post of Emma, it is that little bit of orange in the lower right corner, complementing the blue comb, that make it a Must Be Color photo, in my opinion."

James Bullard: "The fact that the blue comb and the 'tidbit of orange" in the corner pull the viewer's eye away from the face is exactly why I feel it works better in B&W. The subject is Emma, not the comb and whatever the other bits of color are. But then, I'm old school."

Randall Teasley: "When I look at Emma in color I see Emma first and then the comb. In black and white I see the comb first and it feels distracting. I'm really enjoying these Bakers Dozen posts. I feel like I'm attending a master class in photography."

Ben: "I agree 100% with Mike on this. Sure, in B&W it’s a nice portait, but in color it’s enough more to make all the difference. I’d argue that it being a good picture in B&W is part of what makes it work in color. Because you have her expression, along with the light, the shadow, the composition, the tonality... this is the foundation of the image. Without all of this, the comb would be much less effective. But with it, that fantastic interruption of blue has something to stand on, and we have a reason to keep looking."

Baker's Dozen: 'It Must Be Color' (Part I)

Photo by Jan Kwarnmark

Photo by Sean Geer

Photo by Mike Newton

Photo by David Comdico

-

Jan Kwarnmark writes: "In January 2017 I spent two weeks in the countryside of Sierra Leone with a volunteer doctor, an old friend of mine. We were the only white men in several miles. I took pictures in the hospital, of him educating in the villages and of 'anything that caught my eye,' especially the beautiful people. Helped by his authority I could photograph people almost without limits. They are friendly, calm and dignified, in spite of the poverty, in a way that other people who have been in Africa recognize. I don't speak their language, Krio, based on English. So the portrait sessions took a few seconds and a smile.

"When I saw my own pictures I could almost not believe they were mine.

"Here is 'Emma' 800 pixels wide and not cropped. Metadata: Canon 5D MkIII, 70–200mm ƒ/4 @ 78mm, ISO 4000, ƒ/7.1 @ 1/320 sec.

"We produced a calendar for 2018 and we have sold 1,000 of them, and every cent besides printing costs are used to help the people in Sierra Leone. My friend has a website, so far only in Swedish (and Facebook too). Bombali Health Development—We Are the People."

Sean Geer writes: "My name's Sean Geer; I live in London, England. I've been lurking at TOP for many years, but this fascinating idea has finally lured me out of the shadows.

"This really is an interesting challenge, and this is the only picture I could find from the last 18 months that I thought absolutely had to be in colour to really tell its story. I almost literally stumbled upon these Parisian pigeons feasting on a volcanically hot pavement last summer; I saw them only at the last second as I tried to avoid their lunch. It's imperfect for many reasons, but it's one of only a dozen or so images I printed last year.

"Technical details, for what they're worth: Fuji X-E2, 35mm ƒ/2 WR. Shot in JPEG at bizarrely random settings, as I had no time to do anything but grab the camera and shoot.

"Thanks for your exceptional efforts over the years. You're one of only a small handful of photo bloggers I still read. Really looking forward to seeing this Baker's Dozen!

Mike Newton writes: "Here's a submission for your colour post. My name is Mike Newton, and I'm a university lecturer based in Edinburgh, UK.

"My photograph was made in Mongolia, using a Panasonic GH2 and a 14–45mm lens. Here's my website."

UPDATE: Mike Newton adds: "What a privilege to be included here. Thanks very much, Mike. I feel a little sheepish now to have included such a dull commentary about my photograph...as with a lot of other folk, I really liked the idea for your post (and the previous B&W series), so thanks for the inspiration.

"For what it's worth, I've probably spent more time trying to print this image than any other. And perhaps learnt the most as well. I've tried it in B&W several times, but in print there is just something I prefer about the colour versions. I think it's the relative simplicity of the colour palette, which helps provide separation in what could be quite a busy image.

"This was made somewhere in the north of Mongolia back in 2012. We had stopped for dinner at a roadside ger cafe (something meaty, as I recall...), before continuing on our 18-hour drive northwards. A few miles down the road we crested a small rise, and the trees thinned to reveal this incredible layered landscape of green and blue. It really had the feeling of being a live, slowly evolving watercolour, which is something I've tried hard to capture in the various printed versions. A 'final' version hangs in my house, printed on Canson Platine, and is about 16" square. Given the number of work prints, I guess this places me well within the 'amateur' category...! (C.f. 'The Digital Glow.')"

David Comdico writes: "Here is my entry. I wasn't sure what to send so was likely not going to (from indecision) until I read your 'yellow and blue' rant of January 23rd. Now, I love your rants because they are usually driven by some deeply-felt insight. But, being a contrarian, I couldn't help but send in something with yellow and blue. So, cheekily, here it is.

"I live in Collingswood, New Jersey, which is right outside of Philly, where I was born and raised and where this photo was taken. I think it is fairly self-explanatory, but what struck me about it—when editing—was the generational progression and how vibrant colors are worn on the extreme edges of age.

"I have lots of cameras that I actively shoot with but this was taken with a D810 and an old 180mm ƒ/2.8 (D, I think?). I don't use that lens too often but it worked well for this shot. Here is my website."

So what do you think? Do you agree these pictures "have to be" in color? Your comments welcome.

[To be continued....]

Mike
(Thanks to everyone who submitted to this Baker's
Dozen, and to all of you for your patience with me.)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

Ed Hawco: "Wow! I could look at Jan Kwarnmark's portrait of Emma all day long. Without the blue comb it would be a gorgeous and classical portrait that would work in either color or B&W, but that crazy comb ads a shock of humor and whimsy, and the fact that it is blue, and completely outside of the color palette of the rest of the image reinforces the oddness and perfection of it. In B&W the comb might just be a distraction."

Mike adds: For the record, brown and blue was a recurring color motif in quite a number of pictures sent in by readers. Here are a few:

Photo by John Yuda

Photo by Neil Sutherland

Photo by Jim Palmer

...And that wasn't even all! There are a number of other good ones as well. Based on the popularity of these colors in this Baker's Dozen, I'd say, whenever you get a chance to take a brown-and-blue-themed picture, go ahead.

Terry Burnes: "Do these have to be in color? Only Sean's I think. I imported all of them to Photos, clicked Edit and simply chose one of Photos' B&W filters. Nothing more. I liked Jan's photo better in B&W. It became about the girl rather than the comb. The comb was still an interesting quirk about her, but I find her beauty more compelling than the oddity of the blue comb. Sean's subject just looks like a mess in B&W. Much more vibrant and interesting in color. So yes for Sean. I also liked Mike's photo better in B&W. Color actually seems like a distraction from the forms and light that the photograph seems to be about. As to David's, the B&W conversion seemed to bring more emphasis to the people. Yes, the juxtaposition of the painted and real clouds is interesting, but the people more so I think. All very good photographs, just not sure about needing to be in color. It's a tough assignment. After all, for decades all photographs were B&W and good photographers found a way to capture almost anything well."

Steve: "Ooh, these are going to be controversial! I have no credentials as an art critic, but do feel strongly that all four of these work much better in color than B&W. Here are my thoughts:

• First picture: In B&W, while the girl is still beautiful, the picture as a whole doesn't make sense any longer—the comb is a major thematic element but for no apparent reason. In color, you see the reason.
• Second picture: Seems like there's agreement on this one—hard to even tell what it is in B&W.
• Third picture: Works much better in color. In B&W, there isn't anything interesting about the green portions of the landscape. In color, it makes me feel like I want to walk right in.
• Fourth picture: this is the one that you can make the strongest case for in B&W, especially if it was converted in such a way that the shadows in the lower portion of the image weren't distracting and dark. Still, it seems to me that what's being said in this image is about way that the blue and white sky and clouds in the actual sky and in the mural match up so neatly. That doesn't really come through in B&W.

"I've been waiting for this feature with great anticipation—it has been well worth the wait!"

(Conversion by) Daniel Smith:

(Conversion by) Stephen Scharf:

[Conversions posted with Jan's permission —Ed.]

David Dyer-Bennet: "Even though they're 'the same photo,' and I find them both quite good, the two versions of Jan's portrait of Emma (photographer's, and Ricardo's unauthorized B&W conversion [in the Comments —Ed.]) aren't all that much the same photo. If that makes any sense. I think I'm preparing to argue that it belongs in this collection even though a fairly simple B&W conversion (same cropping, no really drastic tonal changes) is still IMHO excellent—because, while excellent, and having the same perspective and object outlines and all that, they're not really the same photo. What makes them good isn't the same things (well, except the actual good looks of the model). This may be taking sophistry a bit far, though."

David Comdico: "Not sure of the protocol, but Ricardo I don't think either of your B&W conversions looks better than the color versions. The question isn't if they look OK in B&W but if color brings something to it that is lost in B&W. Jan's portrait is not just about the blue comb but the various shades of brown that offset it. The color palette is very effective. For example, in the B&W, her eyes start to take over and her posture is less awkward. I also think the scrape on her arm better parallels the tree markings. The color version is humane whereas the conversion starts to border into fashion. For my photo, the B&W conversion drains it of whimsy."

Editing 'It Must Be Color'

Two ideas for future Baker's Dozens: subtle color, and matching colors. More about this later...I think if I announced another BD before presenting the acutely late "It Must Be Color," a number of you guys would put out a hit on me.

In editing the "It Must Be Color" submissions I suspect the big problem is that the concept isn't entirely secure in my mind. Mostly I'm pretty confident when it comes to editing; I have my methods and my typical "queries" with which I approach any given picture. But I recognize a number of different ways that readers approached the challenge—that is, the criteria by which you chose your own selections—and I recognize that many of them are somewhat different, but that your choices are valid nonetheless. This makes it more than usually difficult to eliminate contenders.

As you might expect, the big challenge, accordingly, is...eliminating contenders. Usually, the easiest parts of editing are the outliers: the obvious "nos" and the obvious "yesses." It's those "hmm, maybes" that are maddening. But in this BD, there just aren't as many obvious yesses and nos.

I would say in general the easiest ones to eliminate are pictures that I think are clearly good but that I'm not convinced have to be in color...rightly or wrongly, I think they'd work in B&W as well. And, the pictures that I admit have to be in color, but nevertheless don't seem to be entirely successful as photographs.

Two other kinds of submission I've been able to be a little harder on are standard naturey subjects, and pictures that are mostly just "of" subjects that happen to be colorful. But even these aren't easy to dismiss, because there are some of each kind that are very good.

I'll put up examples of each of these types, but not until I pick the final Baker's Dozen. Never know what's going to make the final cut until the final cut is made.

All in all this has been more than a bit humbling for Yr. already Hmbl. Ed. I can't say I've done much more than circle around the task for weeks, without getting down to work, but that's because I know I'm not on footing that's as solid as I usually stand on.

More anon; I'm gaining on it. Thanks again for all the submissions, and no, I haven't forgotten about the Younger Photographers group.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

Joe: "I've been in your position, Mike, and it sure helps to be part of a small group making such decisions. It's also easier when there's a hard deadline with no extensions. Might not make for better decisions, but it makes for decisions."

Curt Gerston: "I’m looking forward to seeing your choices for this...I’ve recently assigned 'color' as a subject-assignment to my students, and it’s a bit difficult to explain the concept to middle-schoolers. I’m hoping to show your contest winners as examples."

Thank You

I'm not complaining—I have the world's best job, or second-best as I now conceive it—but sometimes the relentless pace of blogging, and more especially trying to remain mentally nimble enough to keep all the plates spinning at once, can get a Dawg downpressed*. Floating in the sea of all that, to suddenly get to see 300+ "It Must Be Color" submissions from so many wonderful people is just a treat. I really enjoyed it. I can only use 13, but it was a true pleasure seeing every one of them, and hearing from so many readers.

Photo by Rory O'Toole, who does weddings out of Cork, Ireland

This didn't make the final 13 (I suspect it would work nicely in B&W too), but isn't it a treat to get to see it? Multiply by 300 and you see what I mean. Many thanks, sincerely. These Baker's Dozen things just lift my spirits and make my day, day after day.

Mike

*Word courtesy of Peter Tosh.

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

Richard Man: "Excellent photo! The use of space is exquisite!"

Yellow Over Dark Blue

As I said yesterday, the deadline for the Baker's Dozen "It Must Be Color" feature is Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. I've already received enough submissions to build the feature.

I'm having a bit of a conceptual mindlock about the concept, though. Many people are simply sending in pictures that are of strong colors. I'm not sure that's the same thing as a picture that needs to be in color in order to work.

Pictures that are purely of colors or a color are descendants of things like Eggleston's seminal "Red Ceiling," simplistic advertising and photo-magazine clichés, and the American hard edge / color field painter Ellsworth Kelly. Of course they "must be in color," though, because the color is the point and without the color they lose all trace of meaning or attractiveness. So I will include some photographs of that type in the set. But you're unlikely to do it better than people who have committed their creative lives to it, such as Pete Turner or Harald Mante.

But consider the difference between Ellsworth Kelly and Mark Rothko:

Ellsworth Kelly, Yellow over Dark Blue, 1964–5

Mark Rothko, Untitled (yellow and blue), 1954

Very similar motifs, but to me, the Rothko painting is art and the Kelly print is just colors. (I've never cared for Kelly. I hope his fans will pardon me.)

I'm aware that color affects people differently, and although I'm sensitive to it, I have suspicions of it and misgivings about it. There's something knee-jerk about it, a potential toward some base animal instinctual trigger that I don't trust.

Consider what the English composer Benjamin Britten said of Beethoven, in an interview:

A certain rot, if that isn't too strong a word, set in with Beethoven. Before Beethoven, music served things greater than itself. For example, the glory of God, the greatest glory of all. Or the glory of the state. Or the composer's social environment. After Beethoven the composer became the center of his own universe. Hence the Romantic school.

I think you could say the same thing about Eggleston's "The Red Ceiling." A great deal of reverent verbiage has been piled up at the foot of that photograph, but really, the idea became debased, morphing into the cliché that if you want to be sure of appealing to viewers, "make it big and make it red."

And then consider (in light of the Rothko and the Kelly) this photograph by John Crowley of Clonmel, Ireland:

Photo by John Crowley

Human beings are intensely sensitive to hierarchies of status, and I'm well aware that all Rothkos and most Kellys are "better" or "worth more" than any photograph and you're not supposed to (perhaps not even allowed to) think otherwise. (Ve haff experts.) But I think it's instructive to try to set aside received hierarchies of status and received assumptions about value once in a while, just as a mental exercise; and in that sense I'd say John Crowley's photograph is better and worth more than either the Kelly or the Rothko, as outrageous and contrary as such a claim might be. (At least when all three are democratized to small JPEGs—Rothkos have real presence in person that almost no photograph can match. You can't make a one-of-a-kind photograph, even if you do.) It's just that there's a certain rot in modern art's addiction to color for its own sake. Yeah, yeah, blue and yellow are opposites, wow, and putting them next to each other strikes a certain emotional chord down in the lizard-brain, the amygdala down by the brain stem. We geddit. The Crowley has blue and yellow too, but does more with it, plays with it more, certainly than that simplistic thought-free Kelly print. It gives you a real sense of place and light, and isn't even less lovely.

I've no doubt that most people are going to love the next Baker's Dozen. The submission count is up to 205, approximately. That's going to make it a whole lot easier to edit than the black-and-white set was!

Although I don't think I've received one single "bad" photograph yet.

Mike

P.S. Here's a great photo of Ellsworth Kelly by Sebastian Kim. (Heh.)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

scott kirkpatrick: "That's a powerful Ellsworth Kelly picture. It didn't need color."

Ellsworth Kelly, Yellow over Dark Blue, 1964–5 (original in color)

Tex Andrews: "I kinda felt the same way about Kelly (although I loved his drawings), until I saw a works on paper show of his at the National Gallery sometime back in the late '80s or early '90s. It was revelatory—and he was doing it in the '40s, which surprised the heck out of me. I've thought a lot more of him since. That said, I can see why you seem...'suspicious'? But there really is a zen to his work. The challenge to the viewer is sort of seeing beyond that first smack of color."

Eolake: "Funny, I had the opposite reaction to the two paintings. I love the Ellsworth Kelly one, it really moves me. But of course art is subjective, and the more abstract it is, the more subjective it is, surely."

Mark: "Here’s a true story. Husband and wife buy a Rothko painting many years ago and loan it to a museum. I won’t identify it precisely as I was an ancillary part of the litigation later surrounding it. Husband takes ill and dies. Widow discovers soon thereafter their liquid cash for living was nowhere near what she thought it was and needed money. Gets the Rothko back from the museum to sell. But being embarrassed about her financial position, does this on the QT. She’s advised auction will bring the best return, but she just can’t allow her high society friends to know she’s in difficult straits requiring this sale. So she contacts the art dealer they originally bought it from. He finds a buyer who signs a non-disclosure agreement and an agreement not to resell, all of which is probably not worth the paper it’s printed on, so it turned out. He paid her $9 million for it. Within a year or two he places it up for auction and it sells for $29 million. She then sues the art dealer and the buyer/seller. That was my intro to Rothko, never having heard or seen anything of his before. The photo you display above is much nicer. The fact anyone feels a square or rectangle or two can possibly be worth that kind of dough boggles my simple mind."

Mike relies: What happened with the suit? Seems to me like it was her own fault; she could have put it up for auction herself. It was her own desire to keep it quiet that cost her the extra $20 million. If you want the best price for something, you have to make the product available to the greatest number of potential buyers. Or was she just angry that by having it put up for auction, her own financial position was advertised to her social connections, despite her intentions?

As for the agreement not to resell, I think it's difficult to a.) control events from beyond the grave, b.) control events past your own ownership. I have an acquaintance, a childhood friend who is very wealthy, who bought a large farm property north of Milwaukee on which to build a house and use as a private estate. The farmer had been having a bitter battle as he wished to keep the land out of the grasp of developers. She apparently made him some assurance that she would not resell the land for some period of time—under what exact conditions I do not know; or else he just assumed she would not. I don't know the details. She then found a nicer piece of property not far away, bought that, and sold the first. The farmer was apoplectic. My feeling at the time is, if he wanted to control the land, he shouldn't have sold it. Once it belongs to someone else, he and his demands are out of the picture.

Robin Dreyer: "Although I love representational art as much as anyone (I'm a photographer, after all), it was a room full of Rothkos at the National Gallery that produced one of the strongest emotional responses I've ever had in the presence of art. No JPEG on a screen or even a well-printed image in a large-format book can reproduce the effect of being in the presence of those paintings—especially if they are arranged and lit as well as the were in that room."

Mike replies: I'll second that. I find Rothko's best work very moving in person, almost ineffably so.

William Langford: "To me Art is never a thing hanging on a wall. Art is what happens between the thing and the viewer. As seen in reproductions a Rothko painting is not very interesting. The real thing, seen under the prescribed lighting, with limited seating, and cordoned off for a personal experience...now that is when Art can happen."

Mike replies: I agree with that, but for devil's advocacy, there is John Berger's Marxist critique of the "aura" of the original object in his four-part documentary "Ways of Seeing." "If Sister Wendy Beckett is the kindly grandmother who takes you by the hand, and leads you, beatifically, through the wonders of art history," writes Carolina A. Miranda, "John Berger was the hippie-Marxist uncle who gave you the red pill and told you it was all a mirage." ("Art's red pill: An appreciation of critic John Berger," L.A. Times, Jan. 5, 2017.)

Deadline for "It Must Be Color"

...Is tomorrow (Tuesday) night at midnight. I've gotten enough submissions for a great feature and then some, so it just seems greedy to keep soliciting more. I sure have been enjoying seeing all of them, though. A lot of enjoyable, wonderful and interesting shots.

In other news, I just got a chance to play some pool! And hot diggety, did I ever have fun. I was the baby of the group by a long way—the guy who won, Loyle, is 89 years old, and the guy who came in second, Norm, is 93 and a WWII vet. Great bunch of guys, and collectively they made me feel just fine about the prospects of old age. The next-youngest, Jerry, is fifteen years my senior and could pass for my age. Freemont used his walker to get to the table and sank some fine shots. I think most if not all of them are veterans, and we played "pea pool" (also called kelly pool) on a Dynamo coin-op 7-footer at the local Moose Lodge, and how much more American can you get? (Aw, I should have taken a group portrait. Didn't think of it till just now.) All I can say for myself is that I didn't embarrass myself, which was good. I got invited back, even.

I had a great time. First time I've touched a pool cue in more than three years. I really miss it.

Keep those cards and letters coming, till tomorrow night.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

New Baker's Dozen Call For Work: It Must Be Color!

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

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

(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."

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."

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

(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!"

Black-and-White Update

Submissions for the "Baker's Dozen Black-and-White" are now closed, as of last night at midnight. Counting them was not a trivial task, but I believe I got 223 submissions and well over 350 individual photographs—let's call it "between 350 and 400" and that will probably be correct, although it's possible that if I actually counted the individual photographs the total might be more than 400 or even more than 450. Most people sent three.

From which I now need to select 13.

And virtually none of the 350–400 are incompetent. A few might be somewhat nondescript, but that's the worst I can say. (And even some of those might come alive in context.)

Plus, many people sent along nice letters to me or long explanations of the circumstances of their shot (like Richard Kelley's that I published on Wednesday). I've read all of those, and I beg your forgiveness for not replying to everyone. It would be a week's work or so to write individual replies.

I've completed the first two rounds of editing, and have flagged the entries that I feel merit further evaluation. There are maybe 50 of those. The next step will be to go through all of those again, spend more time with each of them this time, and select the "shoo-ins" you might say—the ones I wouldn't want the feature to be without. That might do it right there, I don't know; we'll see.

With so many to choose from, I'm just going to pick pictures I myself like looking at. I don't know what else to do—the idea that the ones I pick might be "better" and the ones I don't "worse" is silly. We all have our own taste, and I'm sure if any of my friends were doing the editing here we'd all come up with different groups of 13. (Thirteen is a baker's dozen, as you probably know by now.)

And before you suggest it, no, it would be way too much administrative work to actually send everything to someone else and let them edit their own groupings. There's nothing at stake here; no prizes for you, no income for me. We're just having fun.

Mild critiques
Before I get back to work on this (I don't know when I'll finish; sometime between later today and Monday, I imagine), a few observations. First, please allow me to gently suggest that heightening the contrast and "clarity" (it's called "Structure" in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2) in a cloudy sky doth not by itself a B&W photograph make. Second, the same is true for a picture containing areas of white set off from areas of black or areas of black set off by areas of white—the picture still has to work on the level of content—emotion, meaning, connotation, information, feeling-tone—just like any other photograph.

In making "criticisms" I usually like to illustrate what I'm talking about using positive counterexamples, because it's never nice to hold anyone's specific work up as an example of what not to do (what did they do to deserve that?), and there are always exceptions to every rule. So here's a "black on white" photo that I think works very nicely:

Photo by Chris Fuller

It's called "Mueseo Soumaya (Mexico City)" and it was sent in by Chris Fuller of Helena, Montana. "Museo Soumaya was built by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world, in honor of his wife. It contains the largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside of Paris, including the very famous one in this picture. I liked how the pensive posture of the security guard balanced the statue." Me, too. Taken with a Fuji X100.

I'd also like to introduce the notion that submitting three photographs to a "contest" is a bit of a trap. (Not one I set intentionally, I assure you.) It probably felt to people like they would increase their chances if they included three, but actually I think the opposite is the case. Three pictures in a submission is almost like a mini-portfolio; one strong picture is weakened by being in the company of two weak ones, and three pictures that have nothing in common with each other suggest that the photographer has no coherent vision or style, no concerns that distinguish him or her from the crowd. Even if that isn't really the case.

I'd like to show you two examples of the opposite—sets of three in which each picture makes the others stronger.

The first set is by Dan Rubin of New York City, who uses a Canon S95 point-and-shoot and describes himself as "non-professional":

Photographs by Dan Rubin

It goes without saying that you can't represent your range as a photographer and the range of your accomplishments in three pictures. Many photographers can't do that even in a single book, even with forty to sixty pictures or more. But I think by confining himself to a coherent theme, Dan makes a better case for each picture; each picture reinforces the others and each makes the other two stronger.

Another positive example:

Photographs by David Adam Edelstein

Here, in another effective set, David Adam Edelstein of Seattle, Washington, doesn't make use of a common theme, but rather a common aesthetic approach or "mood" you might call it. (Although all three have in common that they were shot with his Leica M Monochrom in Florence, Italy.) All three are dark, enigmatic, and work through a sense of mystery and indirection—in different ways, but together they speak of an underlying visual intelligence in common.

(David did say of the middle picture, "No, I can't explain the panda," which made us both smile.)

In general, though, I was surprised by how many submissions of three seemed diluted...the strongest picture undermined by the other two, or the effect and impression of the mini-grouping weakened by a lack of coherence between the three.

Another type of exception to that might be this pairing of a high-key shot and a low-key shot together, sent in by Peter Dewar, a retiree who lives near Cape Town, South Africa, and photographs for his local camera club:

Photographs by Peter Dewar

These two photographs (extensively manipulated, as he explains!) work nicely together by means of contrasts...they're opposites, in several ways. I suppose it was just accidental that they appear together in this order in his email, but I liked looking at them together, going back and forth.

One and done
Finally, although chosen by a minority of senders, the best approach when you're allowed to send three photos might be just to make a stand: one and done. Pick a strong picture and live or die by it. It's the no-nonsense approach, the don't-hedge-your-bets, take-it-or-leave-it approach. 

Photo by Michael Knowles

This submission by Mike Knowles of Edinburgh, Scotland, taken with an Olympus E-520 and 11–22mm lens at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, is a good example of that. It's the only picture Mike sent.

...Although, as we'll see in the final portfolio in the case of readers Lois Elling and Hans Muus, sending more than one picture sometimes does pay off!

A big thanks to everyone who participated. I can't show everyone's photographs because 400 doesn't fit into 13, but I enjoyed seeing everyone's pictures, and I read everyone's comments.

More anon. In the meantime, hope you have a very nice weekend! As for me, I'll be working.  :-)

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

Oskar Ojala: "I enjoy these posts since the topic brings out interesting stories like the one that was featured a few days ago to thoughts and discussion around photography. B&W is particularly interesting since it's your preferred medium and I anticipated the readership of this blog would be quite comfortable with it (me I mostly do B&W for portraits).

"It's interesting to note what the trend is with contrast and clarity (boosting the local contrast). My advice is to look at photographs from various photographers taken at various times and see what makes then work; a lot of classic BW is not all that high in contrast; looking at such images helps to reset my compass after too much time on the Internet."

Tippler: "Can we do a selection of another baker’s dozen, only this time the selection made on the basis of voting by all TOP subscribers. This would yield a selection based on the group perspective and would be interesting to compare to your selection. Setting up automated voting might prove to be too cumbersome an exercise, though. Happy new year to all you snowbound upstaters. We are merely freezing in NYC."

Mike replies: Actually, crowd-sourcing is not the best method of editing. The reason is that editing is in part a creative process; for example, I pay a lot of attention to the mix of work and to the pacing of a group of photos when I edit a set. As a hypothetical example, let's say that the crowd likes landscapes better than street shots, and, for that reason, four very similar landscape photos all score higher in the voting than the best of the street shots, leaving no room for any street shots at all. That would be a worse set of pictures than one which chose the best landscape but also included a street shot, for those who like that genre. Do you see what I mean?

For example, I'm having to choose right now between two flower closeups. I don't think there's enough room in a set of thirteen pictures for two flower closeups; so I really have to choose one or the other. They're both excellent. Which one I choose will not have to do with which one I merely like the best. It will have more to do with the one that suits the overall mix better and provides the right degree of dissonance or distinction with the picture placed before it and the picture placed after it.

Open Mike: Keep Trying

["Open Mike" is the anything goes, often off-topic Editorial page of TOP. It appears on Wednesdays, except on those occasions when Yr. Hmbl. Ed. is running a bit behind himself. —Yr. Hmbl. Ed.]

-

My friends will have to be patient with me. I don't know how aware you are of the universe of discussion about writing mechanics, but it's extensive—writers work hard doing what they do, and they find a myriad of ways to struggle with it. Just the descriptions of how writers work is an endless variety—everyone has to work out his or her own method. Anne Tyler cannot listen to music when she writes; it interferes with her ability to hear the music of the words. Balzac wrote in the bathtub, and when his pen got hot he emerged hours later shriveled as a prune. Hyemeyohsts Storm labored for years on her deeply flawed but also magical monolithic masterpiece ostensibly about plains Indian culture, going so far as to translate it, allegedly, into Lakota and then back again into English; whereas logorrheic L. Ron Hubbard cast off books left and right like my Butters sheds dog hair...and Butters-hair collects in drifts in the corners of the rooms of my house like dry snow in blowing wind.

Anyway one of the key skills of the kind of writing I do is suiting the subject to size, biting off just enough to chew on, neither too much nor too little. As a former magazine editor, I can testify that it's a skill not everyone has.

...And it's a skill I have definitely not yet learned when it comes to the "Baker's Dozen" posts. What I have done recently is misstep twice. First, I asked for pictures from people younger than 29. Turns out very few of those read TOP, which I guess makes sense...we stick with our age cohort. Young people don't identify with a guy whose world views started to take shape in the '70s, which to them is the mythical world that might or might not have existed before anything was actually real, like the 1920s are to me. Then, disturbed that that call for work had so little reach, I overcompensated, and asked for black-and-white pictures. Not further specified, just black-and-white pictures. With which I have been inundated. I might be coming up on a thousand submissions by now. I'm not saying you should stop, because I am greatly enjoying seeing the work; but I've gotten so many submissions that the idea of reducing it all to thirteen pictures has become almost absurd on its face.

My sin is simply that I lack the judgement so far to suit the concept to the scale of that feature. I'm going to have trouble putting together as many as 13 pictures by younger people (although some of the pictures I've gotten are very fine), so that feature might end up with six or eight photographs in it. And then I'm going to disappoint a whole lot of people who sent me superior black-and-white photographs that I won't have room to present. Both of these missteps are my fault, the result of poor calibration between the concepts and the calls for work.

No tooth
My other writing problem this week is that I'm procrastinating over the Book of the Year post. I'm actually not very confident of my abilities as a writer; it's a longtime, persistent character defect of mine. I know what I want to say about it, but I mistrust my ability to say it. I'll get back to work on that, but sometimes writing is like pulling teeth.

...Then again, I recently had a tooth pulled, and it went okay. It was easier than I thought it would be. I just had to face it, and deal.

So you see? This post is 675 words, more or less, and the topic suits the length. Didn't say too much, didn't run out of things to say. I've had a lot of practice. I'm pretty sure I'll get better at the Baker's Dozen posts, too, with practice. In the meantime, as I say, you'll have to be patient with me. And, dare I hope, forgiving.  :-)

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

Andrew Eckert: "You might not have many young readers, but I'd wager that they take more from TOP than most other online photography resources. I've just celebrated my 32nd birthday, so I don't make the cut for the under-30 group, but I'm still technically a 'millennial,' and I'd count TOP as a major influence on how my approach to photography developed. Then again, I'm probably among the last group of people whose first camera was a standalone object rather than an app on a phone, so even my perspective might be a little dated."

John Camp: "I was a newspaper columnist for a few years, and had to do three columns a week. It was like a very slow death, and I eventually went back to straight reporting with great relief. I honest-to-God don't know how you do this blog thing, especially at your quality levels. Of course, the need to eat occasionally is always helpful in freeing the creative juices.

"As for the black-and-white photos, why not create some subcategories? As you said, reducing a thousand to thirteen is going to be a problem. I can see getting the number down to a hundred, or even fifty, but after that, it's throwing darts. Maybe B&W portraits, B&W landscapes, B&W street, etc. You also buy yourself a few free columns that way...."

[Former Pulitzer-Prizewinning reporter John Camp, who writes thriller novels under the name John Sandford, has well over 30 New York Times bestsellers to his credit. —Ed.]

Call For Work: Black & White (Baker's Dozen)

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.

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

(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."

Call For Work: Millennials

For our next Baker's Dozen readers portfolio, we're featuring younger photographers. Anyone in their 20s or younger is eligible. You are this site's smallest demographic (as I just found out), and the feature is not yet populated yet—we still have seven spots left. Maybe you could spell this "o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y."

If you more mature photographers know younger ones, you could tell them about this call for work.

I was going to ask for only teenagers and kids to submit work, but I decided to arbitrarily set the dividing line at your 30th birthday—if you're 29 or younger on the deadline, you can submit. Because work is trickling in so slowly, the deadline, originally yesterday, is extended another four weeks to Thursday, January 11th.

Regular readers might remember this one by my son Xander (short for Alexander). He's 24, and has been shooting his rock-climbing buddies and other scary things with my old Sony A900. 

The specs are the same—send 1–3 picture(s) in an email to mcjohnstonatmacdotcom, saved in sRGB and 800 pixels wide. The subject line must be

bakersdozenyounger

...Just exactly like that, or I won't find your entry when I search for it in the email stack. In the email, tell me your name, where you live, and any details about the pictures you care to share.

Take a shot!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Baker's Dozen: Young Photographers (Call for Work)

Good mornin'.

First of all, it's "Cyber Monday" today. It's the day when you're supposed to buy something through the links of your favorite website to help keep them in business (hint, hint) (wink).

I get remunerated for the number of things I sell through my links as well as for their dollar amount, so even if someone (a hypothetical person) were to order a few things of negligible cost they would still be helping out. I'm just mentioning this theoretically—I'm not entirely sure, but I think the terms of service of my various affiliations specify that I can't actually urge you to use my links. I'm just reporting about Cyber Monday here. Here's a list of those affiliates:

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

But in case you do, thank you! Of course, I'm just as grateful if you ordered anything through my links during the rest of the year, but I'm trying to go along with the program here. I don't know what I'm doing. It's really hard to make a living on the Web.

It's going to take me longer than eight hours to compile the "Baker's Dozen: Leica Lenses" post, so please look for it tomorrow instead of today. I didn't want to start until I had all the entries in, and they were still arriving as of late last night. 

Next up
To paraphrase Monty Python, and now for something completely noncommercial. For our next Baker's Dozen, we'll be featuring younger photographers. TOP's audience skews old (they have more in common with me—you know, like polymathic sagacity and dashing good looks), but I know you're out there! And I'm sure you more mature photographers know younger ones you can clue in about the call for work.

I was going to ask for only teenagers and kids to submit work, but I decided that would be pushing my luck (extra points if you're still a teenager or younger, though). So we'll arbitrarily set the dividing line at your 30th birthday—if you're 29 or younger* on the deadline, you can submit. The deadline will be Thursday, December 14th.

Regular readers might remember this one by my son Xander (short for Alexander). He's 24, and has been shooting his rock-climbing buddies and other sad and scary things with my old Sony A900. 

The specs are the same—send the picture(s) in an email, saved in sRGB and 800 pixels wide. The subject line must be

bakersdozenyounger

...Just like that, or I won't find your entry when I search for it in the email stack. Tell me your name, where you reside, and any details about the pictures you care to; keep the verbiage shortish if you would be so kind, as I am swamped with words...happily, but still**.

On to "Pictures Taken with Leica Lenses" tomorrow—it is gonna be great.

Mike

ADDENDUM: Peter Marquis-Kyle brought up an interesting wrinkle—this is a call for work from photographers who are young now. But Peter suggested we do a call for pictures people of any age took when they were young. It's a great idea, and I'll do that in the future. But not this time 'round.

*In honor of Jack Weinberg, below, who coined the phrase "Don't trust anyone over 30" during the free speech protests at UC Berkeley***. The phrase, which was picked up by a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and radiated outward from there, "became one of the most memorable expressions of the turbulent 1960s era" according to the Berkeley Daily Planet.

Jack Weinberg. Courtesy Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley Archives.

Jack Weinberg is now 77.

**I know I should take my own advice. I've been writing too "long" lately.

***I hope you noticed that this is an old-guy reference about youth. ("Amused myself, and that's half the battle." —Craig Ferguson)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Baker's Dozen: Leica Lenses (Call for Work)

Glad you enjoyed the "Baker's Dozen: Smartphone Photographs" on Saturday.

We're trying for two-week intervals, so the next one would naturally be presented on Friday, November 24th...but that's the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S., AKA "Black Friday," famous as (usually) the 11th- or 12th- or 13th-biggest shopping day (or so) of the year. So I think I'll post the next Baker's Dozen portfolio on the Monday following. That's "Cyber Monday," a day that might not be quite as popular as Boss's Day (a so-called "Hallmark holiday") but is better known than May 13th, International Hummus Day.

But I digress.

For the next Baker's Dozen, we're asking for pictures taken with Leica lenses.

Here are the specs:

• Send 1–3 JPEGs but no more
• 800 pixels wide
• sRGB
• Tell us who and where you are
• Don't forget the techie details

Send them to me at m c j o h n s t o n a t m a c d o t c o m. VERY IMPORTANT: please use the subject line:

bakersdozenleica

...Exactly like that. The last thing I want to do is scold, but near the end of the submission period I will search my oceanic email stack for messages with "bakersdozenleica" in the subject field, and if your email doesn't come up then I probably won't see your picture(s). So it's important to use that exact subject line. I (a sentient human) won't be looking out for your email; my Mac (a heartless machine) will be. So close is not good enough.

It would be great if you could say a few words about your lens. A picture of the lens itself is not required, but can't hurt. I think I am likely to give a little more weight to pictures taken with lenses that are interesting, unusual, exotic or aristocratic in some way, but don't let that stop you if yours isn't. Pictures taken with any Leica (or Leitz) branded lens of any vintage is eligible. A digital snapshot of a physical print is also okay.

Be creative. That should put you ahead of the game.

Don't forget that subject line. Spread the woid!

Mike

[UPDATE: While Panasonic/Leica lenses are certainly valid for the call, I've already got two I'm definitely going to be using and I'm unlikely to select any more than that. Might select one more. But no more than one more. Just thought I'd tell you in case it might influence your selection decision.

If it's any consolation, Panasonic lenses will feature in a future Baker's Dozen. —MJ]

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

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

John Robison: "This is where the essential honesty of contributors must be assumed. I was quite shocked at myself because for a brief moment I considered sending in some random photo, claiming it to be shot through Leica glass (I own no Leica lenses). I cannot imagine what possessed me to entertain such a thought for even that brief moment."

Mike replies: Yes, no juvenile games, please! With our medium here people will not be in a position to critically examine files and fooling people (or me) by being dishonest would not be a terribly slick trick. We're just having fun here.

Thanks for pointing this out John.

Nigel: "I have a Leitz Wetzlar projection lens...cost £6. Does that count?"

Mike replies: Thanks for pointing this out too. Early on, "Leica" (Leitz camera) referred to the cameras, and some of the lenses were branded Leitz but not Leica. I changed the post to allow Leitz-branded lenses as well.

Steve Smith: "Re 'International Hummus Day': Houmous—another word Americans can't spell!!"

Mike replies: Actually it's spelled حمص بالطحينة, ḥummuṣ bi ṭaḥīna, which means chickpeas with tahini, tahini being a condiment made of roasted sesame seeds. The dish originated in the Levant, which is the region East of the Mediterranean. The Turks use one "m," but the dialectal word transliterated into Roman characters is ḥummuṣ, and it's spelled "hummus" by the Encyclopædia Britannica, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, and Wikipedia, and "hummus" is the preferred spelling of the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, which is the only one I found that gives "houmous" as a secondary alternative spelling. So I'm comfortable with "hummus."

Never poke an Internet researcher with a stick.  :-)

scott kirkpatrick: "הומוס or hummus only needs one 'm'-like letter in any of its natural languages. The 'mm' is doubled to keep the vowels before and after it short in languages that don't know better, like English.

Mike: Doesn't הומוס mean humus, i.e., organic matter in soil? That what Morfix ("the leading online Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew Dictionary") says. At least, that confusion would constitute another good reason not to spell it with one "m" in English.

scott: "My Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary includes humus as organic matter, and doesn't say anything in either direction about hummus. It's a curious omission, as Israel could not function without hummus."

Jeff Markus: "הומוס a few bars and we'll fake it."

Mike: Jeff wins the Herman Krieger award for best/worst pun not by Herman! Good one, Jeff.