Great work everyone and a well deserved first place for Steve. My thought on the entries are below. Don't hit me!
milou. It reminds me of a B&W film from the 1950s, The day the earth cought fire? Very moody and dramatic with a good sense of depth. It lacks life though, not sure if that's what I mean exactly.
McMav. A very difficult situation, the contrast difference between the sunlit and shadowed areas makes it difficult to bring out the shadow detail without blowing out the highlights, I don't know that I could have done better.
Steve Green. I'm not sure about this one, the newspaper is 'old' and it's black & white but it doesn't inspire me or say particularly "B&W"
Gary Bagshawe. This came close to getting points, a nice attempt at double meaning, black and white photo of a black athlete in a white shirt but as with the waterfall shot I think the extremes of contrast have meant too much shadow detail is lost.
Steve. My 1st place choice, a perfect statement of B&W, clean, simple, very well executed. Do you really have a spotless house or did you spend hours in PS cloning out all the dust motes??
Digital SPG. Once again this shot nearly made my points list. The lighthouse is a great subject and very well captured but the messy wires and foreground spoils it a bit.
dod. I like the way the stalks lead you into the picture and the texture of it too, not enough of interest in it to raise it to points level against some of the other shots here.
EosD. A different working of the hay bale theme, a nice landscape shot but it makes me feel a little queasy with the field sloping left and the horizon sloping right.
ChrisB. I think a tighter shot of the wooden gate and wall would have made a better picture here, as it is there's no real focal point and the background is too busy.
JBHammond. There's a similar section of drystone wall near where I live that I've been unsuccsessfully trying to capture for years, you almost made it with this shot. Less grass and more wall is needed I think. It seems a little over processed too, the slight glow along the top edge of the wall.
CT. This shot is well exposed, it certainly says black and white and fits the theme but it's just not got enough of interest for me as a photograph.
Adrian. I laughed when I first looked at this pic
Well shot, good subject but it didn't say black and white as loudly as some of the others.
Kenco1964. I'm a sucker for lonley building in landscape shots and this one is very nicely done, my 2nd place choice.
Marcel. Good interpretation of the theme I think but too much going, on my eye doesn't know where to settle if you know what I mean.
petemc. Another fine example of black and white from CyKey, I didn't vote for it only because I knew who had shot it, he having posted other examples of this shot on another forum
gandhi. My third place choice, the eye is led nicely into the image and it has a dark mood about it, I like it.
Joe T. Another very well shot image. The close up of the rose has not worked well though I think it has ended up looking dirty here where in colour it would probably have shone.