We’re humans, so we’re imperfect, so why should we expect our photography to be any different? Imperfections are what make photography such a magnificent art form.

Shooting in black and white forces you to look for different subjects and aspects to shoot. When looking for a black and white photo, you look for textures, contrasting light and shapes. It was the latter that I was on the hunt for that day. I wanted to make the perfect silhouette against the dramatic sky.

The sun was setting, the waves were crashing, and I didn’t have a tripod to capture the moment. On top of that, all I had with me was a black and white camera. Who shoots coastal sunsets in black and white? The answer: I do.

And the light. Oh, my, the light. There was a tall clump of trees off to the left and their shadow fell around the area except for a swath of sunlight that illuminated the tree and the rocks directly in front.

While contests like these don’t really mean much, I still thought it would be fun to enter them just to see what happened. I doubt I will enter any pay-to-play contests in 2022. Photography is such a subjective art that winning in one of these contests shouldn’t blow your ego up anymore than not winning should tear it down. Just go out and shoot and have fun.

I woke up Sunday morning to an email congratulating me on one of my photographs receiving an honorable mention. It was from the ND Awards, a photography contest that I had entered earlier in the year.

A brand new magazine for creatives called Lots has just issued its inaugural issue. I’m excited to be featured in their Street Photography section.

As the owner of a Leica Monochrom, you will know that there is no color information available with the .dng files from the camera. Since the color filter array has been removed from the sensor, there will be no way to manipulate the different “colors” of grayscale like when you convert a color photo by setting the Treatment to Black and White in Lightroom.