Yep, it's just like the title says. You'll see some black, some white, and quite a few shades of gray here, but ...
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... but that isn't all. I have to warn you that the post contains some unexpected, colorful moments, as well. Ok, you have been warned - let's go.
MUSHROOMS AND STUFF ON A WET AUTUMN DAY
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It happened in autumn last year, if I remember correctly.
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It has been raining a lot, so I used to spend most of my time at home, in those days.
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These photographs were probably taken in one of the short periods between the rains.
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Judging by the number of photographs, I must have spent an hour or two in the woods not far from the town of Svetvinchenat.
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I visited the town as well, obviously. I mean, you can see the town in some of these pictures, so ...
The woods are amazing. The trees aren't anything special, but ...
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... but you can sometimes find surprisingly lovely footwear there.
A sneaker like this can look like a mushroom from a distance. Do you like mushrooms? Becouse, you know ...
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... I photographed some mushrooms that day.
Small mushrooms, mostly.
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Some were even smaller than small, more like tiny. Tiny and gracile.
Here you can see a mushroom peeking from the leaf litter.
The same mushroom, only from a different angle.
Here you can see some fluffy stuff atached to a fallen leaf. A gall of sorts, probably.
Dead leaves usually decay in a visually appealing way.
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First, they display lovely autumnal colors...
... and then you can admire the intricate lace of their exposed veins.
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This is a scene from Svetvinchenat, the town I mentioned earlier in the post.
It's a cool litlle town ...
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... with a cool historic fortress in its center.
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Here I caught the shadow of one of the lanterns in Svetvinchenat.
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This is the facade of an old building, one of the historic buildings that surround the main square.
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Here I zoomed in on one of its windows. In the following photograph ...
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... I zoomed in even more.
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Here you can take a peek through the rusted bars of that broken window. Just like the window, the interior has surely seen better days.
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This inscrutable window belongs to the same house.
This detail belongs to the woods. The photograph shows the leaves of a wild rose.
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This is yet another small mushroom. The mushroom in the following photograph ...
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... is partially covered with dry leaves fallen from an oak tree.
This mushroom is barely visible among the dead foliage.
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I decided to end this first segment of today's post with a bit of color.
ON A CLOUDY SUMMER DAY
At first glance, it looks very much like today ...
... but it was a much warmer, summer day ...
... in the small port, a few kilometers from my house ...
... a photogenic place ...
... with many interesting details.
I inverted this clam in Photoshop to see how it looks ... and I liked what I saw ... so this picture is part of the post now.
There is a beach near the fishing port ... and this Baywatch tower looks pretty cool ... in my opinion ...
... especially on a day like this ... I like this white and blue coloration in combination with the sky & sea on a cloudy day ...
... all this area is designed in white and blue ... I like that ...
... some boats are also nicely blue ... in the same kind of blue ... I apologize for this colored section of the black & white post ... but I felt the urge to include these photographs as well.
Some crabs were rotting on the rocks ... they were accidentally caught in the nets, I suppose.
A man was working on his boat ... or someone else's boat, I don't know for sure ...
... it was a nice opportunity ...
... to take a few paparazzi shots.
The sun appeared for a moment, but ended up in a pool of water, before my feet.
The car was parked near the water ...
... and a cat was enjoying the day from that shiny, elevated place.
The car tire from another machine ended up in the shallows ...
... not far from some stranded boats.
These are the last shots ...
... soon I was home.
As always in these monochromatic (well, mostly) excursions on HIVE ...
... the photographs are my work.
THE ASTROCAT
She landed in suburbia ... a couple of years ago ...
... and now she's sharing the house with a friend of mine.
Although this extraterrestrial cat can breathe quite good here on earth ... she likes to wear her old space helmet ...
... especially in front of the guests.
Here you can see Pepitza, that's her earthly name, without the helmet ...
... posing on some fine shoes and elegant boots.
Some people from that suburban neighborhood don't believe in Pepitza's extraterrestrial origin. They have another theory. Something about a secret North Korean space program ... that never reached the orbit ... but somehow ended up here ... on the earth again.
As always in these local Science Fiction reports, the photographs are my work ... MEOW MEOW (which means THE END in Pepitza's native language)
A MONOCHROME JOURNEY THROUGH THE WOODS
When I walk around the woods, a thing that I do quite often, the seasonal colors, the greens in spring and summer, the warm palette of the autumn and the winter's dark, washed out browns are always present as the main ingredient of that quiet but intense experience.
It's hard ... or better, practically impossible for me even to imagine the monochrome version of the colored world around me while observing it.
I mean, yes I can vaguely see from experience what subject and composition could look good in black & white, depending on the interplay between colors and lighting, I notice this stuff while photographing, it's not that I just go randomly shooting around hoping that something will turn into acceptable monochromatic post material :D ... but ...
... only when the pictures are brought from the camera into the PC, my favorite magic machine in the world ...
... only then, after a short editing work in Photoshop trying to find the right balance (I mean, right for me and my imagination, I'm not talking about some universal perfectionist value) of shades and contrast ... I can finally enter the strange and beautiful world of Black, White & some stuff in between ...
... that sometimes looks even more real ...
... or other times - just surreal ...
... but always, to me at least ... I don't know ... kind of more lucid ... more "to the point" than the colored version, seen unedited, directly through my own eyes.
And now :D after these slightly convoluted and vaguely artsy - philosophic lines ...
... is time to present Bepina, my companion on this walk.
As you can see, Bepina is a small dog ...
... that feels very comfortable in big woods ... always busy thoroughly, and quite competently, sniffing around.
There is one more thing I would like to tell you about my old friend Bepina, and I'll let the following picture do all the talking, there will be no usual text under the picture.
(....... the most complete silence ......)
Do you see now how the pictures can talk in a quite articulate manner ?
And with this I said all I was prepared to say in the post ... the rest will be pure improvisation ...
... a collection of monochromatic memories from deep within the forest of my perception, accompanied by stuff that I can remember about these shots ... or very simple and banal information about what is on the photograph.
Fairly funny stuff, like these small flowers that look exactly like a toothbrush ... some kind of misplaced bathroom mimicry aimed at human pollinators ...
... slightly creepy stuff, like this Carrion beetle (Phosphuga atrata) feeding on a dead cricket ...
... or seriously elegant stuff, like this small, translucent mushroom beauty.
You'll see also quite a few more generic shots ... like this one ...
... just wide views on trees and stuff ... yes, more trees than anything else, I admit. I'll try to regularly break the boring flow of this kind of pictures ...
... with the occasional flower ...
... or ...
... some others interesting natural architectures.
A look at the woods ...
... a look at some detail ...
... a look at the woods ...
... a look at some detail ...
... a look at the woods ...
... a look at some detail ...
... a look at the woods ...
... a look at some detail ...
... until this becomes a pattern ...
... a rhythm of this scroll.
As always in these posts on HIVE ...
... all the photographs are my work - THE END.
MONOCHROMATIC TRIP ON A WINDY DAY
I took these photographs about two weeks ago.
I was in the small port of the small village called Liznjan, and as sometimes happens in summer, a strong wind started to blow, pretty suddenly.
This port is situated in a large, shallow and very well sheltered lagoon, so although the wind was strong and very refreshing ...
... the waves weren't particularly big.
The sky was at first mostly clear and blue ... but there were some small sporadic clouds too ... and dark clouds faraway on the horizon so from time to time the intensity of light was shifting, creating some cool photogenic atmosphere.
He, he ... hope you don't mind this short colored interlude in between black & white shots. It's here only to accentuate the elegance and artsy qualities of the monochrome stuff.
There is this little park, with playground for children, near the fishing and fishermen stuff, and it has some kind of surreal and cinematic feel when no one is there.
Here is a monochrome look at the playground ... and on the following photograph ...
... a similar look at the quiet, resting angle of the park ... with the typical bench.
While sniffing around the port I found some dried out corals near the fishing nets.
A lovely structure that looks very good in black & white.
This angle with a large table among the storage shacks for various fishing and boat repairing equipment, was also pretty photogenic ... so I took a few shots there.
As the dark clouds were approaching from the horizon, the atmosphere got much darker and dramatic ... but then I had to go home, so I have only this one cloudy shot to show you here ... and with the following, closing shot ...
... with some color in it ... the post is ready to end - THE END.
As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work.
SUMMER MEADOWS IN BLACK & WHITE
The grass is tall and dry on the meadows near the sea ...
... and that dense intricate vegetation, besides providing food & shelter for many small arthropods ...
... is also able to provide some pretty cool shapes and textures for black & white photography.
I spend a lot of my free time in this habitat lately, taking photographs. Usually I publish them in colors, in the form of short documentary blogs ...
... but sometimes, some desaturation :) is what it takes to show the elegance of life on this planet.
And so, I put together this short, monochrome look at the coastal meadows.
As always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work.
A FOUR NOTES PHOTOGRAPHIC NOCTURNE FOR A SMALL COMPACT CAMERA IN THE COLD WINTER NIGHT
DO YOU SEE ME ? ... I mean right now ...
Hm ... let's see ...
... if the title will end up to be longer than the actual post :D
He,he ... it had good chances, but I ended up slightly more talky than I thought I would be after a long day under the strong sun.
These obscure winter images gave me a nice counterbalance and a healthy dose of darkness, so I'm kind of renewed now ... and ready to prepare some longer, more elaborate, flora & fauna oriented post for tomorrow.
If I knew the English language better, maybe I will throw even some poetry attempt in this mix, because the grainy photographs look like an attempt at some kind of visual poetry and a bunch of elegant words could nicely complement the whole thing.
Interesting how the winter now looks like a distant memory, something that happened a few decades ago ... and maybe to someone else.
As always in these ramblings on HIVE, the photographs are my work.
A MONOCHROME DAY ON THE BEACH
It was a warm and exuberant day at the end of summer, filled with many wonders ...
... but lacking the colors.
I was rambling along the coastline ...
... from my hometown's port ... calm and sheltered in the large shallow bay ...
... to the rocky shore and great, open views near one of the neighboring smaller villages.
I stopped for an hour or so, to snorkel a bit ...
... in one of those inlets. Some trees were in bloom ...
... and the sea has deposited a tick layer of underwater vegetation ...
... complete with some elegant shells.
Later in the day ...
... I visited another little bay ...
... with few boats anchored there ...
... and the Black-headed gull swimming around. It's a pretty rare seagull species in this area, dominated by other type of seagulls.
After a bit of swimming I continued my barefoot walk, following the dusty narrow path near the sea ... and at one point ...
... I came across some house built with stones ... it looked like some small mythical or fairy tell humanoids will come out of there. This is actually a pretty precise replica of a traditional stone building used in this area since Neolithic, first as homes ... and in later periods, including pretty recent times up to the end of WW 2, were built as shelters from bad weather and for tool storage at the edge of the cultivated fields surrounded by stones picked from those fields to make place for relatively fertile and workable area. Someone did a pretty good job with this construction. When I was ready to go to my car and return home ...
... the colors somehow reappeared ... and I think, this is a good moment to end this monochromatic post.
As always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work.
THE AGRICULTURAL FASHION ART
There is a pretty big cabbage production, present in the coastal fields around the village called Liznjan, on the Istra peninsula at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea in Croatia, not far from the town that goes by the name of Medulin and in which I live. Besides the large cabbage fields there are vast areas covered with meadows and Mediterranean bush. I spend a lot of time there, photographing plants, insects, other small arthropods and the landscape in general ... generally concentrated on exploring the wilder parts of this place, avoiding the cultivated fields. But sometimes ...
... when I'm in good company willing to be photographed, I like to use those large fields, especially when they are just plowed and empty, to create a few shots in that slightly surreal atmosphere.
The emptiness of the setting ...
... the vagueness ...
... and scarcity ...
... of clear connotations ...
... makes it easier to turn the landscape into a dreamscape ... or some sort of metaphysical place.
And also ... without other distractions in the frame ... in that place that looks like something that you get if you give Salvador Dali a tractor and say :"c'mon man, make me some surrealism here, the world is the best of all canvases" ...
... the human figure ...
... always looks kind of epic ...
... even when is just fooling around with two fat bottles of Slovenian beer ...
... on its way to get drunk before the sunset :D
And now ... what else can I say?
I mean, really ... this is a serious question ... because I have some more pictures to show ... but ...
... I start to feel a heavy lack of words and ideas.
He, he ... but fortunately the end is near ...
... this unexpected little sock moment :D ...
... the enlargeable closing shot with the tractor crew planting the brand-new generation of cabbages ... and that's it. Hope you don't mind that I smuggled some color pictures in the Black and White community :) I did it only to emphasize the strengths and timeless look of the monochrome ones. As always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work.
DANDELION PORTRAITS
... three dandelion photographs ...
... In which I tried to portray the plant in three different ways ...
... hope you enjoy the pictures :) as always in these posts on Steemit, the photographs are made by me ...
Midnight transformation
I made this photograph few years ago, not exactly at midnight, more near dawn in the middle of summer but midnight is a nice, dramatic word for the title. A brand new cicada coming out of the old larval skin.
i made this photo few years ago at a small local fashion show. Some of the models where preparing,doing makeup.