White Teapot on black stove
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: #BLACK and/or BLACK & WHITE

Halloween is just around the corner, and the northern hemisphere is staring Autumn in the face. Now that leaves are falling, colors are fading, and darkness is closing in with each passing day, I thought the monthly color challenge “BLACK” fit the mood nicely.

Not that I’m complaining…I love each season. I welcome Autumn with its cooler, shorter days, a feeling of coziness, and the idea that families are looking forward to various holidays and events.

The Color Black in Home Décor

When we were contemplating our home’s style and color scheme in 2019 and 2020, the industrial look was popular and still is, as shown below in this A-I-generated image. I’ve seen many homes mixing rustic wood tones with black and white.

Rustic home in black and white
A-I generated Rustic home in black and white

Black, as a strong neutral, adds complexity to home décor. I prefer black in smaller doses as an accent to seasonal décor.

My dining table and other areas of my home boast seasonal decor.

Harvest decor
Wood block Halloween decor

“Black is always elegant. It is the most complete color in the whole world, made of all the colors in the palette.” – Ricardo Tisci

We added black accents in one room of our home.

media room update 2023

This seasonal vase stands in the bottom right corner.

black seasonal decor

Black Light Switch Plate

I collected ceramic light-switch plates over the years.

I created this image of the front of our home by playing with color (or lack thereof) and filters. Our house is dark blue, but the desaturated filter adds something special.

BW home

“There’s something about black. You feel hidden away in it.” – Georgia O’Keeffe

In addition to your images showing the color black or in black and white, you can also share monochrome and desaturated images. Creative filters used to achieve these effects are also encouraged.

The Color Black on the Road

Last weekend, we took a road trip to the North Cascades of Washington State to attend a family wedding. We stayed in a beautiful KOA campground in Winthrop, located in the Methow River Valley.

We strolled through our campground, taking in nature’s beauty,

filtered Yellow Norway Maples

We spent a few hours in the quaint town of Winthrop,

Mule Deer
Inquistive Mule Deer walk the town
Rustic Cabins
Rustic Cabins Sporting Black

And on the afternoon of the wedding, we enjoyed the views of the small lake behind the Inn.

autumn colors at Freestone Inn

In the low light, the lake cast black reflections of the trees.

“Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness.” – Amy Grant

A Sky Full of Wonders

If you follow me on Facebook or read my previous post, you know the Northern Lights put on an incredible show Thursday night (Oct 10). I’m sharing this “image comparison” to give you an idea of what the aurora looks like to the naked eye. Because Winthrop is located a bit further north than our town near Spokane and is located in the mountains, the lights looked much more intense.

northern lightsnorthern lights in color
Northern Lights

Using your phone or camera lens to shoot in night mode will allow you to see the colors of the northern lights in their colorful glory in each image. These lights were so intense that even seeing them in shades of white and gray was plainly visible. Not only that, but the lights pulsed and coalesced, something I hadn’t seen during the light show in May. My black-and-white image gives you a good idea of their appearance.

The half-moon was also quite beautiful, shot in its natural monochrome (no editing needed).

Half Moon
Half Moon

Back at home this week, I drove through town and enjoyed what is probably our Autumn peak color. The black really pops against the vivid colors.

Rustic Building
Rustic Building
Fallen Yellow Leaves
Fallen Leaves
Rural Autumn Path
Rural Autumn Path

I like to try my hand at shooting in color, monochrome, or black and white. I converted this image of Yosemite Valley from my trip in August.

Yosemite Valley
Yosemite Valley

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” ― Ansel Adams

gray swatch

Sharing for Cee’s FOTD, Dawn’s Festival of Leaves, and Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

I can’t wait to see how you interpret the various shades of BLACK (and/or black-and-white) this week! You can also share monochrome and desaturated images, and creative filters are encouraged.

dark brown dog
Black or Brown? Brodie says, “Brauf!”

Please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me next week as we explore EERIE.

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96 comments

  2. Terri,

    Your home and the black accents are very well done, and add a nice touch to the room. I also love the Rustic Barn–I’m a big fan of old barns. Hard to believe that your temps are dipping into the 20’s. Where did Fall go? As for me, I wear a lot of black–it’s very slimming (LOL). A few weeks ago, I slipped off into our mountains and came upon a Black Bear. I am posting it here as my contribution. Enjoy your weekend! Joe

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  3. Your decorations always look so cute. We haven’t been home much this fall to decorate. The colors are not here yet, especially in Scottsdale where the temps were still in the 100s last week when this came out.

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    • Thank you, Marsha! I dialed back this year, but I go a bit overboard with autumn decor. Since we’re visiting AZ before Christmas, I’m not doing much decor, if any for Christmas. I’ll have to take down all the fall stuff. I saw the valley temps, ugh! Dale said the temps are dropping there. You may get snow in Prescott when we get snow here!

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  4. Haven’t figured out my photo for this prompt. So glad to see you captured color with your black. I particularly like the rustic cabins, and the photo of the trees reflected in the water. Funny the reflection of most of the trees is black but the reflection of that bright yellow tree is yellow. It is like a beacon.

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  10. Your theme may be ‘black’ but your autumn colours really pop! I love the rustic building and fallen leaves shots in particular. I also enjoy seeing how you and so many other US friends decorate the house for all the different seasons and holidays 🙂

    I’m double-dipping with the Monochrome Madness challenge and sharing a few shots from my recent California trip: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-seeing-san-francisco-in-black-and-white/

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    • Thank you, Sarah! Black is implied in many of my pics 😁 I don’t know when the decor craze began. Outdoor holiday decor has always been popular especially for Fall and Christmas. The seasonal indoor decor I blame on the craft stores! Great to see your post. Will be by shortly!

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  22. I love your decor and autumnal and Halloween decorations, Terri. But what I like the most is the ceramic light-switch plate. I’ve never seen anything like that before. Do you change them depending on the season, or just keep to the same ones? I guess you’d need an electrician to change them (well, I would) unless Hans is an electrician.

    Can you believe that I missed the Northern lights again? Despite being told there was a great chance to see them that night, I still forgot until it was too late. I heard that the rest of this year and next are good times to see them, though.

    It sounds like Autumn has finally gone into full swing in your part of the world. Enjoy the magic it brings as the days get shorter and shorter. In the UK, we set our clocks back one hour on Saturday night. But it means we’ll have lighter mornings again for a few weeks.

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    • Thanks so much, Hugh! Aren’t those switch plates cool? Years ago I spotted them at a rustic furniture store in the Sierra foothills and bought several. I collected 7 ceramic ones that I believe were hand made. They weren’t cheap so when we prepared to move from Sacramento I took them all with me. The good thing is they are super easy to install and change, no electrician needed, just a screwdriver. I keep them on but since we’ve moved into our current home, I collected a few more, 2 wooden ones and 2 from Amazon! You have to see which plates match your switches.

      I’m so sorry you missed the aurora! But you’re right, there should be several more opportunities. I haven’t been able to see the comet due to cloud cover!

      I’m not looking forward to 18 hours a day of darkness. We don’t change our clocks (why we are still doing this again?) until November 2. Errg. I have my light lamp ready to go 😒

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  27. I like black for its elegance, but mostly for its contrasts, Terri, and you have lots of those kinds of photos here, mostly set against autumn’s gorgeous color. Stunning. I also like B&W for how it shows off texture and the photos transform into a collection of shades of gray. Beautiful reflections. And Sadie’s “Brauf” made me laugh.

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  28. I enjoyed all your images but the moon is my favorite! What a gorgeous shot. I also .loved how you shared black in your color photos! Way to go!
    As you know I am a color girl but there really is something when a photo is turned to black and white. Sometimes more details come out then.
    It was great seeing your post after your break! Glad to have you back.

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  34. Terri, I do like the harvest décor, more than any other season. Like you, I welcome the cozy atmosphere that is Fall, especially after this Summer of dealing with heat and humidity – it’s not over yet for us as we will be 80 degrees tomorrow. I like your mule deer shot and the rustic cabins – very nice! Thank you for illustrating with photos the difference between seeing the Aurora with your naked eye versus using the camera. I have still not seen them so I hope I eventually get a chance. I understand a lot of people around here were trying to see the Comet A3 and confusing it with plane contrails. We have had great weather to see the comet, but the meteorologists say that the bright Harvest Moon is making too much light to be able to see the Comet in the dark sky.

    I did not do black and white as a them for my Sunday post, but will have a black-and-white photo for Wordless Wednesday.

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  42. Hi Terri there is so much beauty here! Views, wedding, autumn 🍁🍁 the blue vase with orange and black and white chech arrangement is delightful they all are, the black trees with glorious yellow leaves the sky wow I am overwhelmed 💜💜💜🍁🍁

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    • Thank you, Debbie! Brodie always steals the show. He’s more brown than black, but most of the Boykin Spaniel breed are more liver colored. Brodie’s espresso 🙂 We were so delighted to see autumn in this part of Washington. A memorable weekend,

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    • Happy Sunday to you, Colleen! I have fun decorating for Halloween, subtly, I suppose. When my daughters were young and went out trick-or-treating, I went all out on my Halloween porch decorations then. Sadly, after 9-11 we lost all the trick-or treaters in our neighborhood. Enjoy Halloween!

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      • Thanks, Terri. We live in a robust neighborhood filled with kids. I’m out there every Halloween handing out candy. I love the costumes! We’ll have to see how cold it is this year. Last year we had sleet and rain!

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  51. I love all your fall images. Although I’m partial to color images, I did a post today with monochrome photos. Next week, I’m back to color. I like how you showcased a combination on photos.

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