Horizontals and verticals

Photography brings joy on a number of levels: just being in a particular location, looking around, seeing something new, or seeing something old in a new way, and then processing the photo later, when you discover a few more things.

In this case, wandering around the Palouse in Washington, I liked the look of this building, how old and weathered it was, and I especially liked the ladder.

When processing the shot, I also realized that I had created a wonderful combination of a strong vertical element (the ladder) and a strong set of horizontal lines that lead your eye to the vertical element. And then, as though that weren't enough compositional candy, I liked the repeating pattern of the skinny vertical boards that lead your eye horizontally across the frame.

But there's more. There are two horizontal rows of nails that also lead eastward. And then, behind the ladder, there is a vertical grouping of wider boards, boards that lead your eye both vertically and then horizontally out of the frame.

If you squint, you see this is a very simply composed photograph. If you look closer, there's so much going on, so much for your eye to see, so much to lead your eye left, right, up, down, that I get dizzy just talking about it.

P.S. Good morning, C2, who was there with me when I shot this. Remember?

©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.

Train bits . . .

Photographed in Washington's Palouse region a number of years ago. I love checking out the graffiti, and found these two particularly pleasing.

Someone had spray-painted their hand on two different train cars, so I combined the two photos to make the shot a bit more interesting.

And the U.S. Marshall? I've seen this same piece of train art on a lot of train cars, the last one being in Oregon. The artist does get around!

©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.

Barn-O-Rama

When I prep my photos, I often put some of them in my blog "pending file" to be posted here later, usually when I see a theme developing. Well, this first barn has been in the pending file for a couple of years.

Chris and I were returning home from the airport and took a few side roads along the way. The weather was edgy and the clouds dramatic. We pulled over so I could shoot this barn, but the sound of shotguns in the distance (hunting season) made me edgy, so we moved on. I do like the photo, however.

The next two photos were taken in the Palouse in eastern Washington about nine years ago and I'm just now getting around to processing them. What a difference weather makes!

It's good to finally get these barn pictures out of the pending file and into the light of day. Or night. Hope you enjoyed taking a look.

©Carol Leigh

Texture Tuesday

The patina of age depicted in this photo of a mailbox found in the Palouse and on the top of a soft drink cooler found on Route 66 in Arizona. ©Carol Leigh

Barn in the Palouse

The two things I like about this photo, taken a couple of years ago in the Palouse, are:

1) How the upward-rising peak of the barn echoes the upward-rising cloud formation in the background; and

2) How the three light patches in the image create a triangle. There's the lightness on the roof of the barn, the lightness of the cloud rising upward, and the lightness on the ground just to the lower right corner of the barn. Those three light areas lead my eye around the frame and create a sense of movement. ©Carol Leigh