Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Capitalizing on one's strengths


When it comes to photography, since I've been doing it for so long, I pretty much know my strengths and my weaknesses. And my temperament.

My technical side is sufficient to get me by, and I continue to learn.

What I'm particularly good at is seeing. I can find cool stuff in the weirdest places and can create something I think is artistically satisfying.

So wandering around in a boatyard a few days ago (giddy as an eight-year-old visiting Disneyland for the first time), I found a few bits of rusty, scratched, weathered, sanded, abraded, painted, and faded boat hulls, railings, doors,  and dumpsters to zoom in on.

I hereby inflict my bizarre proclivities upon you.

"Blue Boulders, Red Sea" is something I found on a railing. I don't know what made the rounded forms, but mine is not to question why . . . All I knew was that it was colorful, weird, and that I should keep my horizon line low.

And then I especially liked the rakish angle of the gouged metal in "Sail on a Rusty Sea." Again, low horizon line, very strong diagonality going on, and the look and feel of a sailboat heeling over.

Texture as metaphor. Texture that perhaps looks like something else. That conjures up images that are one thing, yet maybe another. Just another way of seeing. And thinking.

 ©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh.