Frank Lloyd Wright with a Japanese Vibe

One photograph, two different versions. My first (and so far only) visit to Kyoto was overwhelming. Everything new yet familiar, but mostly new. My photography style was definitely familiar, as I moved past the big scenes and instead concentrated on the more intimate views.

Walking past a building, I was struck by the strong, linear look of the facade. Horizontal bits were supported and connected with sturdy vertical elements. Those straight lines were softened somewhat by the wave-like designs on the overhangs.

So when I was processing this picture, I was struck by how it had a Frank Lloyd Wright “prairie style” feel — all those long horizontal lines.

Then I wondered how the picture would look if I “squarified” it, reduced it down to its bare bones by cropping out what might be the non-essential elements.

Well, hello. When I look at the square version, and soften my gaze, the image brings to mind torii gates, which seems appropriate given that the building is Japanese after all.

Which one do I like more? It’s a toss-up. In a way, the horizontal picture brings to mind tatami mat floors, looking down on them from above. And the right-left movement is languid and serene, which can be considered a Japanese vibe.

The square picture is much more straightforward, no room to dally here, but definitely has a Japanese torii gate feel to it, structured yet elegant.

So there you go. Japanese/prairie fusion.

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.

Eight years of February blog photos . . .

It's fun to look over the pictures I've posted here over time, and this morning I decided to look at my February photos since 2009 and selected one from each February for the past eight years.

in 2009 I was doing a lot of "drive-by" shooting, taking photos through the car window as we were out driving around. I particularly like these trees, taken at Ona Beach on the Oregon coast. There's a lively, whimsical feeling to them that I find appealing.

In 2010 Chris and I were down in San Diego, visiting relatives and Rich and CJ. We stopped in Encinitas to check out the sunset. The sea was glassy smooth, a pewter look that echoed the color of the clouds. I like all the horizontal layers, beginning with a dark strip of beach at the very bottom, the incoming waves and foam, the silvery smooth section farther out, the peachy glow of the sunset, and then a strip of ominously grey clouds at the top.

The folks in lower Bayshore, Waldport, Oregon, certainly remember February of 2011, where, after a night of heavy winds and rain, they awoke to find their yards, driveways, and streets covered in huge, wet sand dunes. The homes are built on a spit, right on the ocean, and Oregon weather such as this can wreak havoc. Unlike snow, which shoveled and it eventually melts, these dunes (some so heavily pressing on garages that the doors collapsed inward) do not melt. A company is contracted to come in, load up all the sand, and take it elsewhere. I've heard of homeowners removing the plates off electrical outlets inside their homes and having sand come pouring out. It gets in everywhere.

In February of 2012, I was thinking about giving my online photo students an assignment to take pictures of jewelry, and so I photographed a silver charm on my mother's bracelet, part of a series of charms she got while we were living in Japan in the early 1960s. It's a lovely image and brings up warm memories.

Always a sucker for shooting letters and grunge, the two came together beautifully in February of 2013, where I was in Toledo, Oregon shooting whatever I could find on train cars.

A big wet snow in February of 2014 was fun to see, and I went out into our back yard where we had an old mailbox (given to me by my neighbor Juanita when she moved away) draped in buoys. Wore my wellies to get out there and tromp around, taking pictures.

In February of 2015 I processed a few photos I'd taken in Kyoto the previous fall, and this one I particularly liked, taken inside a temple.

And then finally last February of 2016, our first winter on Whidbey Island, I took advantage of good weather and went out photographing the military bunkers here on the island. I was drawn to the wall texture, the black and white look, the shadows, and the combination of straight lines and the circle. Fun, abstract stuff!

And now we are on the cusp of March. The rhodies are just beginning to bloom; what might be crocuses are showing their leaves, soon to be eaten down by deer; the owls are remarkably quiet, probably nesting; but the towhees, juncos, and varied thrushes are out in force, gobbling up the seed we scatter for them. The ruby-crowned kinglets have come and gone. But I think I heard a chickadee the other day. Spring is about to spring!

©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.

Latest work: "Japanese Paperbound Books Photomontage"

There’s nothing like the soft, worn feel of an ancient Japanese paper-bound book. I was lucky enough to go to Kyoto and amazingly a number of these old books followed me home. Torn, wrinkled, folded, soft, tattered pages are a delight to hold, lovely to see. I hope I’ve captured their textural quality here in this photomontage, which I uploaded to Fine Art America this morning.

©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. 

Three glimpses of Kyoto

Every once in awhile I go back to the photos I took in Kyoto and pick out one to work on. Although I loved the trip, the experience, I am disappointed with my photos, so I tend to tiptoe around them, cautiously open a file, see what's there, select one, then quickly close the file again so I can't see what a mess I made of things.

I'm exaggerating a bit, but the core of what I said is true. My photos are noisy, taken in haste, and often do not stand up to close inspection. And that's okay. I did what I could at the time and loved every minute of it.

I was experimenting with using shallow depth of field (f/1.8) on the trees, and in this first photo felt that the color was too much, but I liked the shapes of the leaves. So I converted the image to black and white to remove color and to emphasize leaf shape.

A rustic screen made of reeds covers a window in the second photo. I like the monochromatic look, the stark composition, the repeating forms of the reeds, and the textures.

And finally I offer you a photo of a temple, beautifully carved and painted and gilded. I found Kyoto to be an exciting mix of heavily detailed and refined architecture contrasted with sparer, simpler, and more rustic elements. 

And I will go back again. At a slower pace. A more contemplative pace. And along a more solitary path.

©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!

What I'm Working On: Still Processing Kyoto

One of my (many) weirdnesses is that, returning from a trip, I take a quick overview of my photos and I think they're all crap. And so I let them marinate for awhile. And then I revisit them. Slower this time.

And gradually I realize that they're not all crap. There are a few good ones hidden in there.

Yet, I still don't do much with the images. I may process a few, put them online, but then I retreat. And then come back just a little. Then retreat.

This has been the case since what? 1980? I admire those who get all excited about their results, can choose the best and finest, make a photo book right away, and voila! Great trip! Great photos! Here, take a look! And the work is terrific, I must say. The resulting photo books are just lovely. And I feel like such a slacker.

I'm coming to grips with my "slacker-ness," however, and have resigned myself to my strange way of working. I'm more comfortable with the slowness, with the quiet calm. In addition, since I am easily overwhelmed, this is my way of picking away at the sheer volume of photos without going insane(er).

These four photos are from our first day in Kyoto last November. The interior of a temple (which is my favorite of these four), then a couple of abstract images of temple shadows and forms. And then a lone bicycle in the rain at the park across the street from the hotel.

Bicycles are a big part of Kyoto, and this solitary bike in the rain spoke to me. I purposely chose an aperture of f/1.8 for very shallow depth of field, converted the image to black and white to emphasize the silvery glow of the fenders and handlebars and to remove the distraction of color. I did, however, let the red glow of the reflector come through. I'm reminded of Nathan Lane's line in the film "Birdcage," "Well, one does want a hint of color!"

©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!

What I'm Working On: Meandering through Kyoto

I'm just not a "big picture" sort of person. It's a blessing and a curse. I'm glad that I can find interesting details to photograph, but it's ridiculous to go somewhere and not be able to depict where I was! And I was even really trying this time . . .

So as I'm s-l-o-w-l-y going through my Japan pictures, I see that once again the ones I particularly like are the ones of little details, such as the row of red paper lanterns hanging at the front of a little temple, or a woman in traditional garb walking down the street in front of me, roof detail on a temple, a monk's hat sitting outside the entrance to another temple, and a box that I believe holds brochures, a box that seemed to gleam out at me from a darkened doorway. The woman in kimono is about as "big picture" as I can find in this set of photos.

 You'll just have to take my word that right across the street from where I shot these, the Imperial Palace Gardens spread out before me. Heavy 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!

It's a good day to . . .

. . . reminisce.

I'm working very slowly through my Kyoto photographs. The trip itself was life-changing. My photographs? I'm not thrilled. But that's okay. Because I keep going back to the term "life-changing." Or maybe it should be "perspective-changing."

Our culture, compared to the little I saw in Kyoto, is so loud, brash, overbearing.

An example: I was checking in at Asiana Airlines in Osaka to return home. It's a foreign airport. I was traveling alone. I was hoping that I would end up in the right spot. At the head of the line was a "greeter" of sorts. He spoke English and I said I was a little nervous. He said "don't be nervous" and he disappeared for a moment, only to come back and say, "I found you a new best friend! This woman is going to Seattle, too!" I looked and saw an obviously American woman named Nancy and so we chit-chatted a bit, went through all the procedures, spent a bit of time in the waiting area, and all was well.

Sure, I could have done this fine all by myself. But the fact that there was someone who cared, who saw another American and put the two of us together so we might not feel so alone, was a gift.

It was this sense of caring, of recognition, of helpfulness that impressed me during my trip to Japan. Everywhere I went, everyone I interacted with, was kind and gentle. I return to the United States and it's as though a switch has been clicked on. Or off. Waiting in line at customs and an airport official striding back and forth ordering "No cellphones! No cellphones!" with a determined and stern look on his face.

Or watching an elderly Chinese couple trying to go through security and the agent being sarcastic, demanding, and patronizing to these foreigners who obviously didn't speak English and weren't exactly frequent flyers. (It's tough enough as an experienced American citizen to go smoothly through security.)

This is an extreme thing to say, but these officials, these "welcome to America" employees, came across as Nazis. "Stand in line. Take off your belt. No, don't put your watch there (sigh), put it in the bowl. No! In the bowl! (eye-roll)." It was embarrassing.

The Japanese emphasis on small bits, an appreciation for simple things, for a prettily wrapped gift, the way a dish is placed in front of you and then turned so that you see its best side. Small wonders. And even a slight, oh-so-slight forward bow when passing me on the street (and my delight in slightly bowing in return) was a gift. I obviously stood out as decidedly not-Japanese. Trudy, a fellow photographer on this trip, commented on this recognition, describing it as an "I see you, you see me" sort of thing. And that phrase will remain with me the rest of my life.

We can learn a lot from this culture, a culture that welcomed me as an obvious foreigner and did everything it could to make me feel I was not an imposition.

I realize that I was there for just a short time, that I didn't see everything, that maybe there's a lot of rudeness and impatience and officiousness that I wasn't aware of. And I know that there is a lot of compassion and helpfulness and kindness here in the United States. I know I'm generalizing.

But to return home, walk through the veil, and be assaulted by anger, sarcasm, and rudeness was so jarring, so like a slap in the face, that I can't help but compare.

So yes, my pictures from this trip do not represent my best work. But the interactions I had with everyone I met, what I learned about respect, what I learned about appreciation, about sitting up straight (!), far outshine my disappointing pictures. My photographs, even if they had been spectacular, aren't nearly as important as what I learned those ten life-changing days in Kyoto. 

So yes, indeed, it's a good day to reminisce . . .

©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!

Signs of life

Some signs are obvious, even when written in Japanese. For instance, "please take off your shoes." That's pretty clear.

And "Merry Christmas," in this primarily Shinto/Buddhist country, really grabs your attention (and I love the hat on the snowman). But the florist apparently had a lot of autumn items still around, creating a jarring effect. Nothing says "Christmas" quite like a big orange pumpkin!

And finally, the sign in the third photo (click to enlarge), clearly means keep your dog on a leash and don't leave dog poop on the ground. But when I initially glanced at it, my first thoughts were "don't poke dogs with a stick" and "watch out for radioactive doo-doo!"

Yup. The clueless and easily amused American visits Japan . . .

©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!

Squarification . . .

As I begin looking through and processing my images from Japan, I'm looking at them wondering how they would look squarified. Why? Because sometimes turning an image into a square changes the entire feel of a scene.

In these first two examples, you see my original photo and then the cropped, square version. In the first, I get a feeling of how immense and dense the foliage is in the Imperial Palace Gardens, making the group of tourists look rather small and insignificant.

By turning the photo into a square, I've now played down the immensity of the gardens and have made the tourists and their umbrellas a more important element in the frame.

#1 = big gardens, little people. #2 = people in a park.

Which one is better? Neither, really. It all depends on the feeling we wish to convey.

In the second pair of photos, you can see my original scene, the way I saw the trees in the park. I focused on the leaves and let everything else fall away softly. Because the tree trunks are so bold, they stand out nicely even though they're out of focus. The overall feeling, though, is trees in a park.

In the second, cropped version, the feeling is different, isn't it? Now it's more about the leaves, with the tree trunks a bit more secondary.

#1 = trees in a park. #2 = colorful leaves on trees in a park. The emphasis decidedly changes.

Am I recommending we all begin squarifying our photos? Of course not. I'm just suggesting we begin looking at our photos in a slightly different manner, noticing how the impact of a photograph, the meaning in a photograph, changes with the format.

So the next time you look at your pictures, just for the heck of it, try cropping them into square versions and see how the emphasis, the entire feeling of a photograph, can change in the blink of an eye.

©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!

Latest work: "Falling Leaves Crescent Moon"

Early evening I looked out my hotel window in Kyoto and saw a crescent moon. Directly below it was a single little fluffy cloud. As though the moon was going to "nest" into the cloud. Or the cloud was slowly rising up to support the moon. Either way I looked at it, it was magical.

I found this image in my "Works in Progress" file yesterday afternoon and it made me think of that moon, that cloud, the falling leaves in Japan. So I brought it up, tweaked some things, added some more things, and voila! Now I have an image that's reminiscent of Kyoto, autumn leaves, meticulously raked rock gardens, and more.

Unlike yesterday's image, this one definitely works. I love it. And isn't it a good story? ©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!

Almost packed . . .

I finished these two physical collages the other day and I'm appropriately posting them now because in a couple of days I'M GOING TO KYOTO, JAPAN! Hoo ha!

Toward the beginning of this year, I signed up for a photo workshop in Japan, and although I'm traveling solo (no, Chris isn't going, much to Abby's delight), I already know four others in the group (a small group of 12).

As you know, there's a definite Japanese vibe in a lot of the work I create, so this trip will feed my soul as well as my suitcase as I photograph AND collect interesting papers and other things for my artwork. It's almost funny how few clothes I'm taking so that I'll have plenty of room for whatever I find. I'm keeping the camera gear to a minimum as well, since my trusty sherpa won't be with me this trip.

When I registered for the workshop, November seemed so far in the future. Well, surprise! It's here and I am ready. The toughest part is going to be the long slog getting there. I fly from Portland to Seattle, then to South Korea, change planes and fly to Osaka, where I then take a shuttle 1.5 hours to Kyoto.

Kyoto is 17 hours ahead of Oregon, so even though I leave early in the morning on Thursday, I won't arrive at the hotel until nearly midnight on Friday. Yikes! More to follow . . .

©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!