My hobby is black and white photography and I have photographers block.
So post any ideas that are good themes for me to photograph.
The best 5 themes will be subject to further photographic elaboration and will be listed in a new thread, later on
the gallery of 5 photographs will be seen on my simple homepage.
Prize: the poster of each of the 5 selected ideas will get a handmade and signed copy of the picture he suggested (18x24mm print) if he is willing to send his snail-mail adress.
In my previous life as a student of b/w photography, I was always drawn to the seashore for inspiration - I found the combination of the contrasting textures of rocks, pebbles and sand, the opportunities to use the motion of the water in various ways and the weathered flotsam/jetsam that can be available, irresistable. Alternatively, forests are also good for working with different textures (which to my mind at least is the strength of b/w photographs)…
Or do you want more restrictive suggestions?
Grim
I hope that is a typo 
otherwise my suggestion is a series of extreme macro shots of nature textures (underside of a mushroom, lichen on brick, etc).
Yup typo: should read 18x24cm 
Good suggestion anyway.
I just went out to fill the birdfeeder and was taken by the animal track prints on the snow – cats, squirrels, birds. (I live in the city, so nothing terribly exotic.) I love the patterns discernible in the randomness.
Traveling can be a good way to get inspired…like landscapes??? Go somewhere different for a change of scenery…live on the coast?? go to Death Valley, the Southwest for a little trip
People photography can be the hardest thing to find inspiration for…do you know anyone who needs fotos for a book or portfolio??? do some shots for them. Someone Iknow neede promo shots to go with a emo cd and I shot them.
…or make a website you can keep updated with new fotos, mine is
www.nakedtraveler.net
GOODLUCK!!
Some themes I’ve wanted to do in BW:
Old farm houses (kinda been done to death around here)
Industrial/farm equipment (hard to get into the really cool places)
Street people (I’m a little afraid of them)
Spiders/webs (creepy and cool)
mom and pop diners (getting hard to find)
boobies (always a favorite) 
Macro shots of body parts. Pick up on the differences in skin textures by photographing babies, women, men, very old, people. The shots should be so close up as to make it impossible to tell what it is exactly.
I’m not up to the skill level of those who have allready answered. But when I was mucking about with b&w photography a few years back I found the following two ideas to be interesting.
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Create yourself a pinhole camera. With an old body cap for your SLR drill a hole in the middle of the cap. Cut a piece of aluminium out larger than the hole and using the finest needle available to you make a single hole in the aluminum. Carefully glue the alluminum to the body cap ensuring the seal is light tight. Using a pinhole cammera can create excellent effects on architecture, especially as the very long exposure times has the effect of removing people/trafic from the scene (they blur into non existance. Remember to block the eyepiece when shooting and use a tripod.
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Think of things for which color seems extremely important, and photograph them in black and white (especially in macro) such as flowers, fruit, baloons (though maybe not in macro),… you gain new insight into highly colored objects when seen in black and white, especially from an odd angle or macro.
If you’re a city-dweller, do architecture. Glass, concrete, straight lines, angles.
Black and white accentuates the stark.
And the better you are, the less depressing the results will be.
Trust me!
I shoot pictures constantly; I don’t know anything about your personal style, but I like to look for the mundane image that’s always just waiting for the right light, the right angle, the right eye to suddenly become something special. Here is one of my favorites; the color and texture and shadow leapt out at me.
Good luck getting unstuck; we’ve all been there at one time or another.
I recently read – and was very inspired by – this book by Twyla Tharp in which she talks about creativity. She talks quite specifically about getting unstuck.
[list=a]
[li]Change the point of view: bug’s eye, bird’s eye…[/li][li]Naked bodies (people tend to be afraid to do this subject) with or without boobies.[/li][li]Motion.[/li][li]Pick an emotion.[/li][li]Just go for a walk with your camera and don’t go home until you’ve finished the film.[/li][/list]
With b&w, I’ve always liked and had good results with sunlight rays filtering through trees/clouds/whatever. It can be cliche but you have to find a way to make it unique somehow.
I’ve seen some old posters of people captured in the movement of dancing. That always struck me as interesting. Seeing an impossible leap or jump caught in mid-motion is cool to me, maybe boring to others, don’t know. Also, has anyone ever done some great photos of tattoos? Not talking the quality of tat mags (smudgy and bad color), I mean great pictures. Black tats on skin, nothing colored in life then b&w in film. Probably boring as well, I’m no photographer.
I wished I was the time I got to visit the cemetery in Paris where Jim Morrison was buried (can’t spell the name of it). All those crypts and tombs, it was GORGEOUS!!! Winding paths and amazing carved headstones, talk about beautiful if not a wee bit morbid. I took my cheap-looking “postcard” photos and left f-a-s-t due to a security guard screaming at us late stragglers in French and shooing us out. It was cool though…
Take a picture of something that isn’t there.
I am certainly not a professional, but I love b&w film for most pictures I take (especially of any important events).
I love taking pictures of my daughter in various settings with b&w. I took one of me holding her chubby, infant hand that turned out great.
Also, similar to what someone above suggested, I got some unexpectedly neat pics at my sister-in-law’s wedding. My daughter was walking with my brother-in-law through the rose garden. In life the colors were fabulous, but the pic was stunning due to the absence of all that color. It all became a pattern that emphasized the outlines of the subjects.
I also suggest abandoned sites. I saw a series of photos of an abandoned coal tipple that were quite striking and rather beautiful.
Hi there,
When I was a art school, one of the profs showed us a series he did and we had to guess what the “theme” was.
Turns out the theme was that he took one frame a day for 24 days (he used a 24 shot roll of film). His rules were that he had to shoot a well composed image. The resulting group of photos were fascinating.
One of my favorite projects was a “Mom in front of the monument” series. I dragged my Mom all over and photographed her in front of various monuments. She was wearing the exact same clothes in every picture. It was great.
One thing I have always wanted to do but have never gotten around to is to take pictures of fortune tellers’ signs (you know, the ones with the palm), with the fortune teller her/himself next to the sign.
Another project a fellow student did was to take a series of pictures with part of a well known landmark in every frame (he used the Washington Monument). The presence of the monument was very subtle. It was a real buzz for the viewer if the figured out what he was doing.
Have fun!
Doris
Poker game – It would have to be with friends who wouldn’t mind you snapping a bunch of shots. You’ll get lots of different facial expressions and stuff. For inspiration, read Caro’s Book of Poker Tells and see how many tells you can capture.
Despite your O.P., I’m hesitant to offer up concrete suggestions. I’m a B&W photographer and I too run in dry spells sometimes.
I also sculpt. I tried forcing a sculpture once a few years ago. I worked for hours on it, but when I went back to it the next day, I detested it and threw it against the glacial boulders behind my house, demolishing it.
To me, anything creative must come forth of its own accord. It can’t be forced at all. Perhaps you will find that you are suddenly flooded with neat ideas- some of which are being offered here, by the by- and your drought will end. Good luck !!
Cartooniverse