Way Up, Way Down...Wide Open

I'm posting these images for the daily #MonoMad photo contest created by @brumest and curated by @monochromes. I took a walk this week between rain showers, and kept my eyes and camera aperture wide open which, for the lens I used, is f/1.8. This is the only lens I own that didn't come in the kit when I brought my camera. It's a 50 mm prime lens, so no zooming allowed. These images are some of the results...more to come next week in color:

_{Original photographs by @kunschj. All rights reserved}