Letter "Y"

Boat bits . . . Found at a boatyard in Port Townsend, Washington. Don't know why I find letters, color, and general wear and tear so appealing. But I do!

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.

A couple letters . . .

The "R" I found painted on a fence in Washington's Skagit Valley last month, and the "K" came from a metal container in a boatyard in Port Townsend, Washington.

My affinity for photographing letters (and numbers) hasn't abated over the past decades, much to the puzzlement of many of my viewers!

©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.

The power of wonkiness

These letters look cool together. The top one, I believe, was on the side of a fishing boat, and the lower one was on the side of a shipping container in a salvage yard in Washington.

The rusting metal, the overall texture, and how they each have similar colors is what I find appealing. And their wonkiness gives them more energy, more life, than if they'd been perfectly level.

©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.

What's it made of?

A lot of people ask me, when I make a photomontage, what's in it? Where do you get the stuff and how do you use it?

Well, this morning I was poking around in my "Astoria, Oregon" photos, not looking for anything in particular, and saw a big "S" that was painted on a wooden sign.

It's a good-looking "S," and you can see the original in the second photo.

I didn't like the monochromatic look, so, still in the "Astoria" files, I saw a photo I'd taken of a cement wall that had been painted red, and the paint was beginning to chip and peel. (See the third photo.)

The wall gave me the texture and the grunge and the color that I needed. But I wanted something more.

Still in that "Astoria" file, I found a photo I'd taken of a piece of metal that had holes punched in it. So I used a part of that to create a "base" of sorts to the "S." See the white space below the "S" in the second shot? Too plain and boring. Hence the weird metal.

Look at the very top of the first photo and you can see where I added a bit of the metal up there as well.

And there you have it. An "S" with good bones, tricked out a bit with color and texture. And it's RED! Good way to start the day. (If you're weird, that is!)

©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: "Three Zees"

Handpainted papers, a hand-sanded letter “Z,” and a few other elements come into play in this piece. I know it’s a bit strange, and won’t appeal to everyone, but I’m fond of the weirdness, love the muted blue, brown, beige, and sepia colors, and am always drawn to diagonal lines.

 ©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!

Latest Work: "Letter C on Wall"

You know what's cool about living here? In about six minutes we can be at the Keystone ferry terminal, can walk aboard, ride about 35 minutes across the passage to Port Townsend, a touristy yet historic town with a nautical vibe that has all sorts of things to shoot. And aside from the short trip to the ferry terminal, no cars are involved.

As we wandered around one day, I found a wall where a poster had been glued and then, later, partially torn off. Perfect. I also found a big "C" painted on another wall. Perfect again.

So this morning I was riffling through my photos, tweaked both the poster photo and the picture of the "C," added a few pieces of torn paper of my own, waved my magic wand, and created this heavily textured and grungy letter "C."

I'm drawn lately to a palette of blue and brown, warm and cold, and like how this photomontage combines my alphabetical predilections, grunge-o-philia, and my color palette du jour.

©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!

Being thankful . . .

We had a good afternoon the other day up at the docks. Lots of walking, lots of looking, lots of (really bad) photos taken, a tasty lunch. We have so much to be thankful for . . .

At one point this lone crow (hello, Laura!) walked along a heavy rope, something unidentifiable in his mouth. I was shooting straight into the sunlight and look at how the sparkles on the water turned into a lovely bokeh. (Pronounced with the stress on both syllables "bo-keh." The out-of-focus circles.) It was so pretty I added a few more sparkles down at the bottom using Photoshop. Not so many as to be really obvious and gimmicky, but enough to repeat the pattern and to keep your eye moving up and down in the frame as well as horizontally along the rope, following the crow.

Next is a simple shot of the door to a boat's cabin. I liked the dark triangular shadow lower left and how it echoes the dark glass of the window upper right. But the cool part was the patina on the lock/doorknob.

And finally, Chris snickered when we walked past a dumpster and I said, "Ooh, great paint drip! You scoff now, but I will use that!" "I know you will," was his response. "And you'll use it well!" So here it is combined with lettering on the side of a fishing boat. A very messy "S."

In this season of giving thanks, of being especially aware of gratitude, I thank you all for being here, for taking the time to stop by my blog, and, every now and then, taking the time to comment. May we all never take any of this for granted.

©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "L in the Water"

This morning I realized I hadn't done any numbers or letters lately, so I selected this "L" I had photographed on a fishing boat named "Lady Kathy." (My sister's name is Kathy and her husband remarked, "That's no lady! That's my wife!" Yes, weird humor tends to run in the family...) So then I began adding, subtracting, modifying the image until it turned into this, which I like. I like the blue color, the touches of rust, and the grey and white scratchy stuff. A good way to begin my day. May your day start just as creatively! ©Carol Leigh

This was supposed to be a photo of fishing nets

Yesterday morning it was drizzly and overcast, perfect for photographing colorful fishing nets. But wouldn't you know it? I stepped out of the car and three minutes later it was bright and sunny and no way was this conducive to the types of photos I had in mind. So I bypassed the nets, instead looking for texture and abstract patterns on metal containers, on fishing boat equipment, etc. Ten minutes later I was done.

Looking at my resulting photos, there was one in particular of paint and shadows on galvanized aluminum with a sort of subliminal "N" in the design. So I looked at my collection of letters and selected an "N" I'd photographed on the side of a truck a number of years ago. That's all I need sometimes, a background and a letter or number, and I'm off, adding colors, other photos of scratches, peeling paint, ink stains, and more until I'm finally done. It's not a quick process (most of the time). I worked on this a couple of hours yesterday and then got up at 2 this morning to finish it off. It's now 4 a.m. The photo has been uploaded to Fine Art America, is here in this blog, and it's also a part of my Flickr site, where I've got a small gallery of letters that you can see here if you wish: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80859324@N00/sets/72157629024525949/

And now, maybe I should go back to bed . . .

©Carol Leigh

Circus 3

Maybe it's the little stripey things top and bottom, but when I created this photomontage (from photos of a metal "3," ink, and rust), I got a sort of circus vibe from it. And I don't even like circuses! (Too many creepy clowns.) ©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Red C Squares"

My photo of a child's block forms the basis of this piece, to which I added additional photos I've taken of handpainted paper, cement, scratched metal, handwriting, and more. ©Carol Leigh

Latest letters du jour

The big "C" is something I created this morning, combining photos of walls with a "C" I photographed on the side of a railroad car a few weeks ago. The red "F" comes from a fishing boat (I believe — I'm finding it more and more difficult to remember where some of these images come from because I'm shooting all the time). And then the "R" is something I isolated from an overall graffiti pattern on a railroad car in Santa Fe.

The "C" was uploaded to my Fine Art America site this morning. I hope a "letterophile" will like it and want to bring it home! ©Carol Leigh

Cellphone letters . . .

 San Diego. A sign in front of an architectural salvage store. Me with no camera except my phone. These were nothing shots, so I glammed them up a bit with arrows, dots, a few other things, and now they're ready for their close-up ... ©Carol Leigh

Salvage Art

I just posted about 10 "salvage art" photos to my Flickr site, with this descriptive paragraph:

I'm the only one I know who, when traveling, marks on maps where there are salvage yards so that, if there's no time to stop today, I know where I can go back someday. Just the thought of visiting and photographing at a salvage yard makes my adrenaline rush and my heart race.

Hello. My name is Carol and I'm really weird.

©Carol Leigh

Letters du jour

A grouping of "S" photos is my offering for today. The first is a photomontage of the "S" on the fishing vessel "Master Chris," which I combined with texture from a boat hull.

The second is an "S" photographed in Astoria, Oregon, on a textured wall.

The third "S" was recently sold to a textbook publishing company, where it will appear on the cover.

And the fourth "S?" Well, it's totally weird and I'm probably going to throw it out, but it's something I created in Photoshop. Why keep it? Because it took forever to do! It'll eventually hit the wastebasket, but I'm keeping it for now.

Happy weekend, everybody.

©Carol Leigh, back from a quick trip to northern California where she took some of the most boring photos of her life . . .

"M" is for "Monday"

Monday was a day of actual sunshine, so, not unlike prairie dogs popping out of burrows, we hustled outside just to be outside. Walking along the docks at the fishing boats, I noticed the letters on the bow of the fishing vessel "Ms. Law." A voice behind me said, "Why are you photographing that boat when this one is so much better?" I looked over and the "Tana C" was, indeed, quite handsome. "But your boat doesn't have these cool letters!" He looked, smiled, and agreed.

Not content to leave my "M" photo well enough alone, I added some metal, some paper texture, some scratched paint from another boat down in Charleston, and came up with this. It has a kind of Monet-ish look to it (the colors, the reflective "glints," etc.) that I find appealing.

©Carol Leigh, remembering a Monday morning "M"

More letters ...

Letters are always on my mind, and here are a few I've created during the past couple weeks. I love the outrageous colors in the big pink "N," the sort of white-washed and faded look of the "A" (originally photographed on a burlap sack in San Diego), the hard-edged boldness of the "C," and the weathered "G," originally shot in Goldfield, Nevada years ago. ©Carol Leigh

The "26 in 26" project begins today ...

My new "26 letters in 26 weeks" photo project begins today, and everybody is working right now on the letter "A."

As the photos begin coming in, I'll be posting some of them (and their stories) in a blog I've set up for the project. If you'd like to follow along, see what people are creating, perhaps gain some inspiration, here's the link to the blog.

And if you, too, would like to be part of the fun, part of the challenge, the registration fee is $62, and you can register here.

Wishing you a healthy, wealthy, happy, and creative 2011! This year, as every year, may your photos exceed your expectations! ©Carol Leigh