Geese at dawn

Chris and I went out to breakfast early this morning and stopped at the little marina here in Waldport to check things out first. The light was beautiful, quite bright, and I like how these two Canada geese turned into striking silhouettes. I also like the spareness of this composition, with the two strong vertical elements on the far left and then the pole in the water coming out on the diagonal. And the geese reflections? Wonderful. A good start for the day. ©Carol Leigh

Winter Sunrise

The complementary blue and orange colors convey the chill of the season and the warmth of the rising sun, a cold winter morning in Oregon. ©Carol Leigh

Online photo class about to begin ...

My "Developing Your Creative Edge" online photo class begins May 1 and runs for two months. During that time, lessons/assignments will be about: 1) photographing doors, windows, and walls, 2) a walk around the block, 3) office art, 4) alphanumeric, 5) red, white, and blue, and, finally, 6) twos and threes. Here's a link to the class description: http://www.photoexplorations.com/edge/dyce05.htm
 

If you'd like to be a part of this crazy mix, I have a couple of spaces available. The best part of the class is seeing everybody's photos and my critiques (which usually run 2-4 pages in length). You learn not only from your own work but from the work of others. All this takes place in a gentle, encouraging, non-confrontational environment. No critique will begin with the phrase, "What the heck were you THINKING?"  :-)

Our first lesson is about doors, windows, and walls, and my three examples here are colorful doors on the Oregon coast, three windows in an old building in Colorado, and a leafless vine growing against a wall at the Getty Museum. ©Carol Leigh

Migration 2

I swear I have the attention span of a hummingbird ... As I was working on my photos of waxed paper, I began wondering what if I did this? What if I did that? And so I came up with this -- made with waxed paper, a piece of string, and some dots from Jan N.'s shirt. But now back to "real" work. ©Carol Leigh

Well, my heart was in the right place...

I went into the studio with the full intention of photographing waxed paper. (It's my self-assignment for my "Parts is Parts" class that's winding down right now.) But there was this wood. And some string. And a couple of old pen nibs sticking out of  a jar. I just couldn't help myself. This seemed a lot more fun than photographing waxed paper (although I must say, my waxed paper photos are rather cool!).

And this, my friends, is the delight and the curse of being self-employed. I have no one other than ME telling me what to do. Yes, I have critiques to do and questions to answer and videos to make and marketing to get around to and websites to update and people to placate who are so annoyed that I've discontinued the Wildflower Hotsheet, and and and . . . but when inspiration hits, I find I need to run with it, figuring yes, the other stuff WILL get done, but right now there's this string, see, and this wood, and and and . . . so I'll get back to the other stuff right away, and what I don't get done, well, at 4 a.m. tomorrow I'll be frantically trying to catch up.

And now if you'll excuse me, I need to go photograph some waxed paper. Work, work, work . . . ©Carol Leigh

The Gorge

Iron rails, offshore islands, ancient peoples, tall pines, and water moving, moving, moving: the Columbia River Gorge. I didn't start out thinking, "I'll make a montage depicting the Columbia River Gorge this morning." Nope, it all evolved, bit by bit, as I changed images from horizontals to verticals, added shadows, made paint into pine trees, turned a bit of iron into an island, and gently encouraged splatters to appear as petroglyphic figures moving upstream.

This piece has hard shapes and colors yet conveys a certain quiet and calm, which I find appealing. I like it so much that I've made (as usual) a print for myself and two to sell. They're 7" x 7" square, printed on 8½" x 11" paper. To purchase, and for more information, please click here. ©Carol Leigh

Nautique bleu

Three more examples of nautical blue. All the colors stand out especially well because of overcast (if not downright drizzly) skies. ©Carol Leigh

Listen

©Carol Leigh

Three Trees

©Carol Leigh

Gulls in Clouds

©Carol Leigh

Tangled up in blue

Into town to run errands. No rain = a few minutes spent checking out the fishing boats. [Angie, if you're reading this, looked for the Ms. Law but nope, must be out fishing for shrimp, right?] Anyway, I particularly liked how these blue fenders looked against the blue boat. ©Carol Leigh

Barriers

Comprised of images taken at the ocean and at a fire station, these pieces represent fire and water to me. Add metal rivets and each photo becomes rather impenetrable, a barrier between this and that. The red and black? Quite an aggressive color combination. ©Carol Leigh

Yachats Eagle

During a photo workshop here on the Oregon coast, we were watching as a bald eagle and an osprey competed for a particular piece of the sky. The bald eagle won, and became the focal point for this piece. Crashing waves, enigmatic swirls in the sky, and a richly textured background come together beautifully in this, my new favorite montage.

I liked it enough to make a print for myself and two extras. If you're interested in purchasing a print, you can do so here. The print is 7" square, printed on 8½" x 11" paper. ©Carol Leigh

A plethora of pink

I was all set to go for a walk on the beach when it began softly raining, so I headed over to the Oregon Coast Garden Center instead. It's been a tough winter for them, with freezing temperatures lasting for more than a week in December and then lots of wind and rain earlier this year. But their place looks great, with lots of azaleas beginning to bloom. They're so kind to let me wander around shooting, and I found myself gravitating to the soft pink colors and striking forms of clematis flowers.

Spring has almost sprung and we're heading into two of the most beautiful months of the year in Oregon -- May and June. The goldfinches are turning a bright yellow. There are golden- and white-crowned sparrows in the back yard, and an evening grosbeak came to the feeder this afternoon. The ospreys are nesting -- one pair at the garden center and another pair up the road. Soon we'll see them flying overhead, fish in their talons, heading back to feed their young. And so it goes. ©Carol Leigh

Grungy Four

©Carol Leigh

The aging process . . .

The organic lines and shape of a  rhododendron leaf (weathered by wind and rain) contrasts nicely with the clean lines and grid of an equally weathered piece of metal. Each ages in its own way. ©Carol Leigh

Metallic Anemone

I love the look of this piece. I'm trying a few different things with my photomontages and this little surprise just delighted me. I made a print to see how it would look and suddenly realized how much fun making prints is! I printed one for me and two for sale, so if you're interested in a print of this, here's a link: http://www.carolleigh.net

This montage is made of scratched metal and a Japanese anemone flower. The texture in the resulting print almost looks like weathered plaster. ©Carol Leigh

48 minutes at the aquarium . . .

Final day of jury duty and now it is over. Darn! I was kind of enjoying being able to get out and shoot mid-day. I shared the aquarium with 673,841 grade school children, who probably got better pictures with their tiny cameras than I did with mine. I'm just not a very good fish photographer, and these are the best of my attempts today. ©Carol Leigh

Foulweather Crows

Crows on a wire, scratched and patinated metal, and I have something that's soft and (to me) soothing. ©Carol Leigh

This is jury duty?

We sat around from 9 a.m. to 10:30 when we were released until 2. Luckily, I had a camera and a pair of sneakers in the car, so I headed over to the fishnet repair facility, then had a nice lunch at Canyon Way (an appetizer consisting of spinach, polenta, some cheese, and a tomato marinara-ish sauce over the top. Yum!), and then I went over to the fishing boats.

I need to bring another lens with me tomorrow in case the same thing happens again. The 18-55mm is fine for these casual strolls, but the 70-200mm "L" lens is feeling slighted.

So anyway, if this is what jury duty is all about, I'm in! (And no, they haven't even called my name yet, so I may not end up being on this panel. Which would be great, although obviously it's going to cut into my photography time!) ©Carol Leigh

Square Six

©Carol Leigh

50 minutes at the aquarium

Returning home from jury duty today I spent 50 minutes at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. All I had with me was an 18-55mm lens, so I did what I could. I really like the anemone photo, especially the green/purple color combo. The puffin shot isn't good, but what it's good FOR is showing how close we can get to these guys. He was right below me, about 18" away. Those of you visiting the Oregon coast this year would do well to visit the aquarium to photograph the puffins, especially if you're lucky enough to be there on an overcast day so that the white tufts and faces don't blow out. Even here, I underexposed by a full stop to hold back the bright white part. And finally, the best shot I got of a shark during this visit occurred in the gift shop... Jury duty again tomorrow where, if selected, the case could go as long as 6 weeks... heavy sigh. ©Carol Leigh

Polaroid Part Three . . . of Three

Last of the Polaroid emulsion transfer prints. All four of these were taken back in the mid-1980s at a mask festival on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles. I was working for Polaroid at the time and testing out their new Spectra camera, but also took some 35mm slides of the masks as well, which are what I used to create these. The Spectra was a terrific camera. My framed original prints from that camera still look good after all those years. Wish I did! ©Carol Leigh

Two Crows

Crows, Japanese paper, hand-painted backgrounds, stitching on a friend's shirt, and more ended up in this montage. And as if my week couldn't get any better, I received this good news: "It is my utmost gratitude to inform you that you have been chosen as one of the lucky reciepients [sic] of the Federal Government of Nigeria compesation [sic] for Scam Victims." So if you'll excuse me, I've got to hustle over to their website and give them all of my banking information.  :-)  ©Carol Leigh

3 Square

Boat reflections, railroad car details, part of a building in the Palouse, a thread design I photographed on Jan N.'s shirt, and more show up in this montage. I. Love. Doing. These. ©Carol Leigh

On the move

Chris and I drove inland to Salem today to run some errands. As usual, I took a lot of drive-by shots, such as this highway worker all decked out in neon green. The red stop sign is a nice complementary color to the green. And then on the way back, we stopped near Oregon State University so I could photograph this row of trees -- this time NOT from a moving car! (What a concept.) ©Carol Leigh