Two from early spring . . .

A wander through Washington's Skagit Valley in March with no real destination in mind. My favorite kind of day.

This barn was just the best! I've since returned and have taken more photos so that I can do a series.

And then a pretty tree, beyond which some daffodil fields were in full bloom. The original version was rather boring, so I turned it into something akin to a Polaroid image.

A good day. A couple good photos. And the company was good as well.

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Now on Flickr . . .

I'm finding Flickr to be a convenient way of creating little galleries of my work and so far I've got 9 "sets" of photos up: Buoys, Car Art, Train Art, High Key, Urban Abstracts, Polaroid, Route 66, and Numbers. Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80859324@N00/

It took a little time to understand the format, but basically the photos show up in a stream as you post them, most recent first, but off to the right you can see the different sets, which makes it easier. When I visit someone else's Flickr site, I now just automatically glance at the most recent images and then look over to see what sets or galleries the photographer has created.

Looking for a source of inspiration? Flickr's a good place to peruse and to charge your visual batteries.

©Carol Leigh, being pulled, kicking and screaming, into Flckr, Facebook, Google+, and who now needs even MORE time in the day...

Polaroid Part Three . . . of Three

Last of the Polaroid emulsion transfer prints. All four of these were taken back in the mid-1980s at a mask festival on the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles. I was working for Polaroid at the time and testing out their new Spectra camera, but also took some 35mm slides of the masks as well, which are what I used to create these. The Spectra was a terrific camera. My framed original prints from that camera still look good after all those years. Wish I did! ©Carol Leigh

Polaroid Part Two . . .

I had forgotten how much fun it was to create these Polaroid emulsion transfers. And a lot of the fun came from the fact that each one is unique. Each time the emulsion was placed onto the watercolor paper, different wrinkles and degrees of wonkiness would appear. The cat (isn't the backlit fuzziness cool?) was photographed in New Zealand; the surfers stand along the shore at The Wedge in Newport Beach, California; and the tulips bloomed in a cemetery in Oakland, California.

Does anyone know if this can be done with our digital images some way? I don't mean using a Photoshop faux Polaroid border, but a physical way of getting an already-taken digital image onto a piece of Polaroid film and then running it through the standard emulsion-transfer-float-it-off-in-warm-water process? Guess it's one more thing for me to research, but if anyone has a quick answer, please let me know. Thanks! ©Carol Leigh

Polaroid revisited . . .

Years ago I created Polaroid emulsion transfers, using a PolaPrinter, which exposed my 35mm slide onto Polaroid print film. The resulting print went into warm water where the emulsion, looking like a floating silk scarf, was gently lifted out and placed onto watercolor paper.

I was cleaning out some files today and came upon a number of these original prints, so I photographed them using a 35mm digital camera. I still love the look and can't wait to perhaps incorporate these images into some of my montages. We shall see. This is a shot of the Huntington Beach Pier, originally photographed using a Canon A1 film camera. I combined the image with a photograph of metal, which created the "stars" in the sky. ©Carol Leigh