Hah, I´m baffled. Thanks for the boost of confidence!
Lloyd; What I really wanted was a Monochrom. That´s my dream camera, but I found that I really couldn´t spend that much money (got the M9 for half of what an MM would cost) on a camera. It´s just a passion, after all. The M8 was strongly considered due to the BW advantage, but I "needed" a 36x24 sensor, heh. I have no basis of comparison in Leica cameras, so I just found the M9 miles better than any of my other cameras in the BW conversion department. My 1D mk2 is very, very good, and I could produce better looking monochromatic files with that than with my 1Ds mk2. Why that was, I have no idea. Thank you for your kind words! I thought maybe I was going overboard with the BW conversions, but very glad to hear that´s not the case to some!
MBA is a lovely shot, I can see you like to use a less harsh approach to the BW conversion. I´m not as experienced as most on here, so I like to take things to the extremes, for better or worse, haha.
Jazz; love your lighting shots, and especially the last one. I think it is pretty abstract, and could be interpreted in a lot of ways due to the nature of the exposure (could also be my monitor that is out of whack, lol!), but I see a full moon. I must confess I´ve never really spent too much time considering artificial lighting, but had a small case of strobism for a while. Thank you, too, for your kind words. (And, for what it´s worth, I have a serious case of gear whoreitis, not as bad with photo gear, but heavy metal race ski bindings from the 90s are an obsession of mine. I plan to shoot my puny collection in the summer!)