You need to look at these photos. The 167 entries in this week’s “Monotone” Shooting Challenge are of a completely humbling, professional quality.

Lead Shot

“My Bokeh and Blue painting… This is actually just a macro shot of some left over paint from this weekend’s home improvement episode. I used 1 SB800 and 1 SB600 at +1 EV in TTL bouncing off ceiling which helped create the bokeh and shadows.”
Camera: Nikon D300
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
– Patrick Tully

Most Resourceful

“The subject here is some hand soap shot with a Canon Rebel XTI with a 60mm macro lens at f/5 , 1/125s and 100 ISO.”
– Sebastien Grobelny

Most Inventive

“A cardboard box with the head of the lamp facing up.
A red piece of paper was then used to cover the lamp to make the light red.
A clear folder with white paper inserted was placed on top of the box to diffuse the light as much as possible.
A glass plate was then placed on top of the folder, the plate was then filled with Schweppes Raspberry Flavour soda and two tablespoons of liquid detergent.
A small straw was then used to blow bubbles.”
Camera Used: Canon 450D
Lens: Canon 16-35mm f2.8 L I USM
ISO: 100
Exposure time : 1/125 sec
– David Juhn

This Was Taken on a CELLPHONE

“This photo was shot around 4:30 PM just before my plane dropped below the clouds into SeaTac Int’l airport. It was shot with my iPhone 3GS at f/2.8 at 1/2500 of a second with an ISO of 70 and a focal length of 3.9mm. In Photoshop CS2 I did a color balance adjustment layer to get the bronze appearance. Although shot in color, the original had an appearance of mostly grayscale. I did have a Canon G9 with me, but was in the process of shutting things down when I saw this view and decided to capture it with what was in my hand.”
– Steve Everist

I Just Liked It

“Used a canon powershot digital camera with 8 megapixels.ISO 800. no flash.”
– Chrissy McAlpin

I Just Liked It, Part II

“Setup: These are Chinese porcelain figurines about six inches high, sitting in a white Ikea Billy bookcase. The “sun” behind them is a spherical globe lamp with an orange CFL bulb in it. “
Camera: Nothing special. It’s a 10mp Fuji Finepix s5700 set to “super macro” mode. ISO 64 2.3″ F 4.5.
– Phillip Gullett

Winner

“Taken with my D40 and the kit 18-55mm lens. The blue sky, and blue water was beautiful, and the clouds and water on the rocks just made me take this shot.”
[Ed note: It’s not one color, but the limited, specific palette is striking. It’s also one of a relative handful of entries that ventured into a wide shot rather than macro.]
– Leigh McCulloch

Note: There are three galleries this week since we had so many entries. Wonderful!

Thanks again for all the participants of this week’s Shooting Challenge. Stay tuned for the next challenge, which will be announced Wednesday.

And for those of you looking for your next wallpaper, we’ll attempt to get these uploaded in full rez by tomorrow. Intern Kevin Lee assembled these galleries, and as you might expect, it’s a lot of work.