Around the island . . .

A few months ago I went over to Fort Casey to continue with my ongoing project of photographing the buildings, concentrating (obviously) on the smaller details, the textured walls, the signs of weathering and age. These are three iPhone images I particularly like.

Pictures ©Copyright 2020 Carol Leigh

 

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.

Morning coffee . . . and the eclipse

I actually had a plan for the eclipse. My plan was not to photograph the actual eclipse, but rather what the light and shadows would do to the surrounding landscape.

We had checked out the area around the lighthouse at Fort Casey for possibilities and yes, that would be a good spot. I was going to photograph the coastline sweep looking north. Maybe some long-exposure shots of waves on the beach below.

Figuring the place would be packed and we might not be able to get a parking spot close to the lighthouse, we arrived at 8 a.m. Ha! We were the only ones there!

It was really, really foggy. So I photographed my coffee sitting on the dashboard. The dark "cloud" above it is steam on the windshield. Nice iPhone shot.

We came prepared to wait for the fog to break, with a thermos of coffee, a box of chocolate-covered mini-donuts, and a newspaper. In a nice warm car. Ahhhhhh.

I kept checking the coastline. Nope. Couldn't see much at all, but then this "fog-bow" showed up. Very cool to see the sun shining down onto the fog below to create what I've learned is a pretty common phenomenon. But I first thought, "Wow! Eclipse-related and unusual!" Alas, no. But it's still kind of cool.

As eclipse time arrived and went, it was obvious it would be a bust at our location. And it was also obvious that 90% obscurity just isn't enough for real drama. The light just dulled down a little bit. No darkness. No eerie light.

So I worked the lighthouse a bit, taking a few high-key, highly-minimalistic shots of architectural detail.

A couple of our friends joined us. I met another local photographer. We laughed. We talked. We had a good time. And I took a few weird lighthouse shots. Life is pretty darned good.

©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.

Look at the difference

Here's an example of an image I made at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. I liked the texture of the wall, the combination/contrast of curved lines and straight ones, and the shadowing.

The focal point is the iron ring. That's where I want your eye to go first. But, if you're like me, your eye probably went first to the green patch of paint on the left.

If my photo is all about texture, curves, lines, and shadows, what does GREEN PAINT SPLOTCH have to do with anything? Nothing. And that's the beauty of black and white photography.

Black and white images take away the distraction of color and enable your viewers to see and appreciate what drew you to an image in the first place. In the black and white picture, your eye probably went immediately to the iron ring, maybe back and forth along the strong horizontal line, and slid lazily down the curve bottom right.

Notice how the smooth patch in the black and white shot is no longer the distraction it was as a big green rectangular shape in the color version.

It's often the case that we see in color, but we notice the artistry in black and white. (And ooh, didn't that sound terrific? You can quote me on that!)

©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. Thank you!

Lines and curves

As I continue to work on my black and white series of military fort details, I'm seeing how much easier it is to see line and design when not being distracted by color.

Color can seduce you into a photo, but composition, line, and design keep you interested.

Ooh, that sounded good, didn't it? (I was going to elaborate, relating it to bad relationships and life, but I won't go there. And aren't you glad?!)

In the first shot, I liked the contrast of the textured background behind the smooth railing. I also like the diagonal bits. And finally, I like the little rounded knob on the railing against all those incredibly straight lines.

Same thing in the second photograph. In this case I like the curve in the lower right, the curves of the round ring, both contrasting with the bold black horizontal line.

Then in the bottom photo, all we have are straight lines. The sharp edges of the steps, precisely cut, diagonating across the frame. I purposely let a bit of warmth come through in the background just to set off the steps a bit.

Gotta say, I'm enjoying this black and white work. And it's fun to go back through years of photos I've taken in various forts and bunkers and look at them with new eyes and new skills. And a new attitude.

©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. Thank you!

A slightly different direction

When we moved here to Whidbey Island, one of my first goals was to photograph the military bunkers and gun emplacements on the island (and nearby). So I began doing that and, instead of creating color images, decided to work on toning them and/or creating black and white versions. They haven’t been successful in my opinion, so although the photography has been continuing, the processing has sort of gone by the wayside.

I was inspired to return to it for two reasons. Fay Henexson showed me some intriguing black and white photos that she had taken. (Here’s a link to her blog, but I couldn’t find the black and white images:  http://henexson.zenfolio.com/blog/2016/4/abstracts-and-other-pleasures.) And I also have begun playing with Nik filters this past week.

I believe I’ve come up with a satisfactory way of making my images into black and white, which involves not only using the Nik filters, but a lot of other techniques as well. We shall see. It’s all an experiment.

Since I continue shooting and I also have a large backlog of photos taken over the years, I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’ll post some here from time to time as I move through. You know how excited I get about photographing in boatyards? Well, military bunkers do exactly the same thing. It’s all about texture, line, and design. Woo hoo!

©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. Thank you!

Around the island . . .

Over at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island there’s a big searchlight, and next to it is an old generator that has the most glorious peeling paint and lettering on it. I’m sure EVERY photographer visiting the area has shot that generator, or at least CONSIDERED shooting that generator. I was no exception the other day as we were doing some exploring.

©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. Thank you!

Lines and shadows

When it's sunny, seek out the shadows. Photographed at Fort Casey, Whidbey Island.

 ©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. Thank you!

Industrial art

Maybe this should be called "military art." The bunkers at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island consist of multiple elevations. I liked how the cement steps lead up to an "intersection." Turn left to get to the guns, turn right to go up to the observation tower. I emphasized their starkness by opting for black and white.

©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. Thank you!

Bunker art . . .

A huge percentage of photographers love to be out there in nature, photographing extraordinary sunsets, reflections in lakes, herds of zebras, etc.

But give me old army bunker walls and I'm like a kid at Disneyland!

The textures, to me, are just amazing. The sensual curves of railings in interesting juxtaposition with all the hard edges of a military structure. And yet the hard edges can come together cleanly and simply (and appealingly) as you see in the last photograph.

This is my project for the upcoming year: to create a series of interesting, provocative, and mysterious photos of these structures that were built to protect the coast in the Pacific northwest.

What's made it especially fun is that Fay from southern California was in the area recently -- just as passionate about these buildings as I. And then Craig, too, here from Bend, Oregon, got into the madness the other day as we oohed and ahhed over shades of gold colors, drippy things that looked like jellyfish tentacles, and iron rings set into concrete, cameras repeatedly firing.

Maybe you have to be really weird to get excited about all this grunge. Luckily, I know a lot of weird people!

P.S. Looking at this particular post on various other devices, the photos appear really dark, especially the last one. Do they look unusually dark on whatever monitor you're seeing them on, too? Let me know. Thanks.

©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. Thank you!

Around the island . . .

We had a lot of business errands to take care of yesterday, but in between we managed to do a little exploring. And yeah, these are all with my iPhone app du jour, Camera Awesome, with the Lone Star effect.

The view of the wharf from Front Street is always a favorite of mine, this one taken from above Mosquito Fleet Chili Restaurant.

We also meandered a bit around Fort Casey, where I found a terrific "Dangerous Drop Off" sign to shoot, along with a couple shots of the lighthouse.

I've purposely been leaving the DSLR at home, forcing myself to shoot with the iPhone, but I'm missing the big camera. Never thought I'd say it, but I miss not setting up the tripod, carefully composing, changing f/stops, over- and underexposing, all the fussy things one does with a 35mm camera.

Of course, I can be fussy with the iPhone as well, but, probably because I don't know it as well, I don't find it as satisfying as the 35mm. And since there are things that I want to photograph and create a series, a "serious" series, the iPhone right now just doesn't cut it.

It's fun, though! And I'm taking some satisfying shots, perhaps an eventual series will emerge, but I want the quality and the ability to enlarge that my Canon gear gives me, rather than the small, limiting size of the cellphone.

So until someone invents an inexpensive, lightweight, pocket-sized, huge-sensored camera that shoots RAW, with an 18-600mm f/1.4 zoom lens, I've resigned myself to once again begin carrying the DSLR and all its attendant gear as well as the iPhone . . . sigh.

©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. Thank you!