Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Yesterday's trip to Port Townsend




A few pictures from yesterday's trip over to Port Townsend to photograph whatever happened to catch my eye.

This gull was incredibly happy about taking a ferry ride! Well, who wouldn't be? Who doesn't love a harbor cruise?

A bright blue boat was quite dark in the shade, but the sun hitting the brass propeller was perfectly placed to make it show up beautifully. Two minutes later and part of the propeller was in shadow.

The next shot shows the sunny side of the boat, zeroing in on the peeling paint.

And then a brief respite at Nifty Fifties Diner on the main street. Alas, the juke box on the table wasn't working...

A good day, walked a lot, saw a lot, and then back home to collapse. Wonder if this gull goes cruising every day?!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Daily Photo 20190129: Early morning, Keystone Landing

This is a good photo for the day -- taken this morning as we were waiting for the ferry to arrive at Keystone Landing on Whidbey Island. It was a cold, clear, frosty morning, and the only thing we could hear was the chatter of a kingfisher as he moved from piling to piling.

A good beginning to a good day.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo 20190128: Dried rose

I've purposely been drying some roses, but I did it all wrong. I just left them in the vase over time, and the flowers all slumped over, doing a huge U-turn at the top of the stem, and ended up facing downward.

I should have removed them from the vase when they were still viable, and hung them upside-down.

These flowers look all squished together and face the wrong way. I tried de-squishing the centers, but that wasn't successful, either.

I ended up photographing an individual rose "face" using my cellphone, then tweaked it in Snapseed, and this is as good as I could get.

Lesson learned. I shall get more roses and do things "right" next time. Heavy sigh.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Daily Photo 20190127: Work in progress

This is a close-up of part of an image I'm working on -- a photomontage containing pictures taken in Anacortes. I like where it's heading right now, but it's definitely not done. Just something I'm working on today, good for my "photo a day" project.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Daily Photo 20190126: Barred owl feather

I've worked on this image way too long today. Am still not sure about it, but it's good enough for my "Daily Photo" project; I just need to think about it some more and perhaps experiment with a few other things.

It's a lovely feather that fell from a barred owl as I was watching/photographing him in the rain. As soon as he flew off, I ran over to see what it was he'd dropped. And naturally saved it.

Small joys that loom large.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo: 20190125 Pottery bowl with treasures

The light this morning was soft and pretty, evenly overcast, so I took two things out onto the deck, set them on the table.

One was this pottery bowl that my friend June gave to me years ago. Whenever I find something interesting, I put it in the bowl. It gets full and I remove a few items and continue on.

It always contains the three barnacle-covered rocks found here on Whidbey, the rock I wrapped in Japanese paper and then added a metal button to, and some agates we found on the Oregon coast. The other items come and go.

It's always out. It's one of my prized possessions. As is my friendship with June.

The other item I photographed was an old bottle. I wasn't pleased with the results, so the bowl won out! Another day for the bottle . . .

P.S. I'm a morning person, not a night owl. So my Daily Photo often doesn't get processed/uploaded until the following morning. That explains why very often the "daily photo" date is yesterday and the posting date is today. Not that you really care . . .

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Daily photo: 20190124 Moon Phases (1 and 2)


Because I work as a collage artist as well as a photographer, sometimes the two combine. That’s the case here, where I’ve mixed a collaged book page with a piece of textured paper and created something completely different. Because of all the stir about the recent full moon/lunar eclipse, moons have been on my mind. This is the result -- two different versions, which I began this morning, had breakfast, then finished them up, uploaded them to Fine Art America. My day can now officially begin.

Sometimes it's worth getting up early!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.


Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Daily Photo: 20190123 Golden Leaf on Red Paper

I began this picture this morning and it's taken me most of the day to finish it. Man, oh, man. Sometimes they come together so quickly, other times, well, not so much.

I collected and dried a number of these leaves last fall, put them in a heavy book, then took them out today. Most of them broke -- so delicate.

I combined the leaf with some bright red paper, added a hand-scribbled Enso circle, and a Japanese signature from an antique book I got in Kyoto.

It's done. It's uploaded to Fine Art America, and it's my Daily Photo. I do believe it may be time for a Cuba Libre!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo: 20190122 Mushrooms still appearing . . .

Except for a couple days of freezing temperatures, we've had a very moderate winter, and mushrooms keep popping up here and there.

Over on the wood pile, rather protected by tall pines, these delicate little guys were growing up between a couple of logs, nicely placed at eye level for my photographing pleasure. iPhone 8+ image.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Daily Photo: 20190121 Abby, then and now . . .


On this day back in 2009 I photographed our cat Abby. She was five years old.

Fast forward to today, where she's 15. And she LOVES this box! We'd gotten something from Amazon.com and put the box on the floor. Well, as you know, every self-respecting cat loves an empty box, and this one seems to be just the right size for her.

She generally tires of a box after about a week or 10 days. Not this one.

What's particularly strange is how much time she spends in it, just staring straight ahead. For maybe 10-15 minutes at a stretch.

Why? Is she thinking deep thoughts? Is she pondering the nature of the universe? The meaning of life? Where can she find a squirrel?

I doubt it, but then who really knows?

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo 20190120 Kitchen art . . .

We have a stainless steel teapot that has a sleek, rounded look to it. Rather than concentrate on that, I decided to hover over it with my iPhone (that's me in the sort of salmon-colored area holding the phone) just to see . . .

Well, I must say I never looked better!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

It's "Penguin Awareness Day!"

Celebrate as you see fit! Where's your tuxedo?

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.





Saturday, January 19, 2019

Daily Photo 20190119 Little beach house . . .

Chris and I walked out on the dock at Langley Marina this morning where, looking back, I noticed this little beach house sitting almost at water's edge.

Overcast, dark-ish lighting made the house gleam, especially that bit of red on the front, and also the very light-colored tree trunks and branches.

A bluff rises up right behind the house, almost four times its height -- most impressive, and just a bit scary. I kept the horizon line low to emphasize the height of the background bluff.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Friday, January 18, 2019

Daily Photo 20190118 What I'm working on . . .

Detail of a larger collage that's part of an artist's book I'm making.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo 20190117

I recently got word that my photo of a mosaic bear was purchased as a tote bag from Fine Art America.

It's always cool for me to see how my photos look when they appear on other items (rather than as prints).

Although I don't offer my photos on a LOT of non-print surfaces, for a variety of reasons, the tote bags from FAA are high quality and sturdy. I've bought maybe five of them, and am always pleased.

This is not a sales pitch. In fact, YOU could set up a free account with them, add some of your own pictures, and then buy them yourself -- not only as prints, but as tote bags such as this.

I've included a link to this picture at Fine Art America, so you can see the details better.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Daily Photo 20190116 Scraped Walls


Wednesday's "Daily Photo" is two photos, pictures I worked on a good part of Tuesday and then uploaded yesterday to Fine Art America.

They actually began a couple of years ago. I was riffling through my photo files, specifically the file called "works in progress," looking for inspiration.

I selected a piece I thought at the time was going nowhere. But this year it looked different and so I gave it a go.

This is what happened. Two different but similar pieces that don't necessarily go together on a wall, but individually look pretty good.

The green one is soft, serene, and calming. And I really love the background.

The red/turquoise picture is bold and flamboyant, exciting, not calming. And yes, the colors really grab me.

So there you have it. Two pictures as my January 16 "Daily Photo."

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Daily Photo 20190115 Seine fishing nets and buoys

A visit to the dentist is made more palatable when it's a) not raining and b) when there's fishing gear laying about nearby.

And that's what happened this afternoon. We had about 15 minutes, which gave me time to shoot a few bits of boats and a pile of this very fine, aqua-colored fish netting.

My daily photo: done! And now to watch a Golden State Warriors basketball game. Life is good!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Monday, January 14, 2019

Daily Photo 20190114 View from Fort Casey


A very quiet Monday morning and we are up at Fort Casey near the lighthouse, sitting and admiring the view.

A large tanker heads out to sea and a herd (6) deer graze on the lawn. One comes right up to me, I mean, right UP to me, and leaves only when it's obvious I've no treats to offer her.

We see this same deer approach a couple, and their TWO (leashed) DOGS. The dogs are barking, but the deer doesn't even flinch. The dogs lose interest, the deer moves in closer. "Anyone got snacks?" Apparently not. The doe moves on.

But what kind of deer isn't wary of a) people, b) people with dogs; and c) people with dogs that BARK?

We go back home. Where the deer are wary. The way they SHOULD be!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Daily Photo 20190113 Work in progress

A bit of detail from the "Japanese" artist books I'm making. Lots of time spent in the studio today, experimenting with plaster, dyes, inks, and new papers. A fun/frustrating day. But not nearly as frustrating as the Los Angeles Chargers felt...

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo 20190112 Contrails

Yesterday we played tourist -- walked aboard the ferry and traveled over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

The weather was postcard-perfect, which meant, for me, boring! But the first thing I noticed were these contrails, swirling and softening in the sky. Remarkable! And so it becomes Saturday's Daily Photo.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Daily Photo 20190111 Yard debris mandala

I'm taking an online class where the first assignment is to make a mandala. I'm waiting for certain supplies to arrive before I begin making mine, but in the meantime . . .

I have mandalas on my brain.

I walked around the yard this morning. We've had some pretty strong winds, so there's debris on the ground -- leaves, twigs, branches, pine cones, lichens, etc.

Hmmm . . . mandalas . . . I began gathering bits and pieces, organizing them on the ground, including a couple of little mushrooms that had popped up out of the moss.

It's more like a wreath than a mandala, methinks, so I'm going to try making some more. Fair warning! You're gonna see more of this stuff!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Daily Photo 20190110 Chandelier lights

Sometimes, when I realize it's later than I think, I zoom around the house in search of SOMETHING/ANYTHING to shoot for the daily photo, I come up with things like this -- a close-up of some lights in a chandelier. I consider this a success, however, because it's something I wouldn't otherwise have thought of photographing.

And that's the point of this daily photo project.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Daily photo 20190109 "Burnt Orange Collage"

I made this collage to be included in a handmade Japanese(ish) book I’m making. I used torn papers, gel prints, and, on the far left, faded and folded paper (used to hold chopsticks) that I found in my father’s dresser drawer after he died.

I also cropped this to a square version, and uploaded both to Fine Art America this morning.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Daily photo 20190108 Tulips!

To those of you who THOUGHT you saw a picture of trees here, well, you very well may have. It was so awful I felt uncomfortable leaving it there. So I replaced it with this photograph, which I took a few minutes ago.

Our house guests sent us an extremely floriferous flower arrangement that was so big, so full of flowers, that we couldn’t get our fingers into it to see if they needed water.

So I took all the flowers out and put them into four different vases. The tulips went into this vase (which was the original vase the florist used). There are now 10 more roses, a half-dozen alstroemeria stems, and a bunch of sunflowers and gerbera daisies to photograph! And we now have these flowers all over the house.

How DID the florist manage to get all those flowers into this vase? I mean, the tulips fill it perfectly. So here you see them on the coffee table. I purposely overexposed them to enhance the sunny(ish) look at the window.

C. and S., thank you again.

And thank you Coupeville Florist for packing the vase so full of flowers! This has been fun!

Before I took the arrangement apart:

Monday, January 7, 2019

Daily Photo 20190107 Sculpture detail

Chris and I headed off to the Chittenden Locks in Seattle today and found so much to see that we just now got home. I prepped this one shot of a sculpture detail as my "daily photo," but this is all I have time for at the moment. The sculpture is called "Salmon Waves" by Paul Sorey. And the whole thing is amazing.

There is SO much to photograph in and around the area, that we're going to have to go back again SOON. It's been a very good day. I hope yours was as well.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Daily photo 20190106 The beat goes on . . .

I’m so slow at this. I’m creating pages for a series of three handmade books, all with an aged and sort of raggedy/soft Japanese look.  I need to make at least 60 pages. And it’s taking me forever.

Right now I’m working on 16 of the pages, tearing papers, making small collages, integrating everything on all 16 at once, which means they will never be finished until all 60 pages are created and can contain no more elements. Then I will organize the pages, dividing them up into three completed books.

So I look at these pages daily, adding something here, something there, painting over something there, something here. What you’re seeing in this shot are the pages all spread out, overlapping one another, some stacked together.

But I’m also working on small handmade artist books — no text, just painted papers containing interesting shapes, forms, and colors.

I admire and envy other artists who seem to quickly make and show their books, their creations, while I slog through the process. Perhaps it's because I’ve devoted so much time to photography rather than making handmade books, and I’m learning as I go along. Okay, that sounds good! I’ll stick with that explanation!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Daily Photo 20190105 Beach walk this morning

Very pretty morning, so we headed out to Ebey's Landing and walked the beach -- what there was of it as the tide was coming in.

Great spot for future photo explorations! People had made little stacked-stone towers, and forts constructed of driftwood. Long, kraken-ish strands of bull kelp littered the surfline.

So much to see, so much to shoot, such good reasons to keep going back -- and it's all just 10-12 minutes away.

This is an iPhone panorama shot looking north, with Admiralty Inlet and the Olympic Range to my left and the bluffs of Fort Casey off in the distance to the right. Loons, gulls, and an occasional sea lion flew, floated, and swam past. A Matson liner, creating vibrations that echoed off various cliffs, made its way toward Seattle.

A wonderful morning, a good lunch, a good day. May we all have such refreshing days like this. Hunkering down now for an allegedly heavy windstorm scheduled to be at its worst (or at its best?) around 4 tomorrow morning. We are ready!

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Friday, January 4, 2019

Daily Photo 20190104 What I'm Reading

After watching a documentary the other day called "Dear Mr. Watterson," I gained even more respect and admiration for the man who created the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes."

The comic strip was beautifully drawn, cute, clever, funny, often pithy, and intelligent.  When Bill Watterson decided to pull the plug in 1996, I felt I'd lost two -- no, three -- friends.

But at some point in the documentary there was mention of a boxed set of four books called "The Complete Calvin and Hobbes."

Every Calvin and Hobbes comic strip Watterson created. Every. One.

The boxed set begins in 1985 until he discontinued the strip in 1996. It weighs more than 14 pounds, and contains 3,000+ weekday and Sunday comic strips.

So, beginning today, this will be what I'm reading. No politics, no biased news articles, no snarky-ness. Just humorous, upbeat, uplifting stories about a little boy and his pet tiger. Ahhhhh.

And here's a trailer to the documentary that Netflix is featuring right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtmV7-f_j7Y

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

A good way to end the year . . .





We had house guests last week, people who were easy to be around, interesting, and interested. We had too much rain, but on this particular day we were out and about, exploring Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island.

Our first stop was this wharf, at the end of Penn Cove, home to Penn Cove Shellfish Farm. No wind, silvery water, blue light, and pretty clouds. Ahhhhhh . . .

Later in the day we explored a bit of Fidalgo Island, where I zoomed in on a very cool letter "R" on the large fishing boat "Traveler."

Outside the nearby net sheds we poked around the back sides of buildings to find and photograph piles of fishing nets and floats, including some buoys and coiled lines that looked brand-new.

And finally a drive around Washington Park where I photographed this unidentified bird hanging around with some towhees -- shot from the car window.

A fun day, a few decent photographs, and laughter with friends.

And now it's on to 2019 . . . may we have more of the same.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Daily Photo 20190103 Hanazuma Collage

I began this collage yesterday in the studio, moving bits of paper around.

This morning I brought yesterday's collage into the computer and added a few more things and now it's done.

I've uploaded it to Fine Art America, describing it as a "small collage consisting of red paper, handmade papers, antique Japanese paper, and ink. You can even see a bit of grass in the black paper on the left. The postage stamp, issued August 1, 2008, is called “Hanazuma of the Hyogoya House,” created by Kitagawa Utamaro between 1793-1794."

I always post low-res images online, but you can see a LOT of detail at the above link, if you wish.

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Daily Photo 20190102 Small Collage

This morning I went into the studio and made this small collage, which I'm planning to use on one of the pages in the Japanese books I'm making.

The collage consists of a used teabag, some papers that I stamped with a variety of hanko signature "chops," a scrap of mulberry mango leaf paper, and a strip from an envelope I made a few years ago.

Day #2 and I've not yet lost interest in my Daily Photo project! Just 363 days left . . .

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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Daily Photo 20190101 Happy New Year!

Oh, boy -- I must be insane! But today I'm beginning a "photo a day" project for 2019. It'll be somewhat easier than in previous years since I've got the cellphone so handy, but still -- it's a responsibility.

What I do like about the project is that it makes me think about photography all the time, and encourages to make something daily.

Another reason that this might be a bit easier than in the past is that I'm also making things in the studio, so little shots about what I'm making will always be my "go-to" subjects when I get desperate.

This is a page in a handmade book I made that sits open on a cabinet in my dining room. It's made from kraft paper, acrylic paint, and India ink. The little round jobbers? Made by dipping a wine cork into acrylic paint and then stamping the paper. Taken with an iPhone 8 Plus.

So here we go. Day one is done. Just 364 more to go. Wish me luck.


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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. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.