Unintentional art . . . corrugated metal

"Unintentional art" generally refers to anything that was created with no real artistry in mind, something functional, ordinary, accidental, but, from the standpoint of an artist looking at it, is amazingly, accidentally artistic. I find this sort of thing all the time and take exceptional delight in it.

Here's an example. While walking down a street in Kyoto, I came upon an old rusty metal wall. Most people wouldn't take a second look. Except me.

There's so much to love about this little scene. The weathered metal, the wavy corrugations that give the metal depth, the gorgeous color of the rust, the complementary colors of blue and orange, the mysterious door with no handle, no doorknob, the soft light which creates a lovely glow.

Teaching photographers to see is a huge challenge for an instructor. I've always said, "You can't shoot it if you don't see it." Awareness is everything. So this bit of unintentional art, accidental art, commonplace materials, if you are aware, jumps out and just begs to be photographed. Or painted. Or simply admired. A wonderful gift to those who really look.

©2019 Carol Leigh

The blues in Leadville, Colorado

In 2007 I apparently was in Leadville, Colorado. I say "apparently" because I have no concept of time. It could have been 2004 or 2009 for all I know, but the digital file says 2007, so I'm sticking with that.

The town contains an interesting combination of buildings, and of course this one, painted bright blue and in some stage of restoration, seduced me.

I'd like to see the place now, to see what they did to the building. Frankly, I hope it still looks sorta like this.

(Hello to Shirley. You guys should go there!)

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.

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.

Abstracts anywhere . . .

There is such beauty and such simplicity in the spiral form but I think we tend to not notice it. So here are two that I did notice . . .

I was tearing waxed paper and loved how bits of it curled into elegant spirals. And through a macro lens, we can see the fuzzy edges along the torn sides. A fuzzy spiral. Who knew?

The blue spiral below was part of something I found at an architectural salvage store in Oregon. In this case, it conjures up (for me) visions of curling ocean waves making their way to shore.

Spirals. They are everywhere if we just slow down enough to notice.

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.

Blue great blue herons

 Great blue heron rookeries, where they build their nests and raise their chicks, are loud, noisy, crowded places. Five-foot-tall birds with five- and 6-foot wingspans all vying for space.

Which may account for why we often see them alone, gazing outward, (or inward), standing quietly in the shallows, or atop a piling, motionless.

Solitary, quiet, and momentarily free from all responsibility.

©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: "Port Townsend Pilings"

One of the cool things about living here is that in seven minutes we can be at the Keystone Landing, then walk aboard the ferry, travel across the Passage (perhaps spotting some orcas in the distance), and walk off in Port Townsend.

We stopped to watch a couple men beach their kayaks as a third set off in a lovely wooden rowboat. But it was a line-up of pilings, calm blue water, a sailboat in the distance, and a couple gulls that appealed to me most.

I did photograph the boaters, but ended up tossing those pictures. It was this scene that made me feel calm and relaxed and quiet.

©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: "Blue Eclipse"

This is the other image that came together for me early yesterday morning. It's a montage of waxed paper, kraft paper, ink-stained papers, and a locker tag.

I like how the ink seeped upward along the "tree line," making the image look like a landscape of sorts.

©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.

Take your time . . .

"The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art." --Junot Diaz, Dominican American writer.

Photographed 2004 in Bandon, Oregon with my first digital SLR. Processed June 4, 2017. Finally!


©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.

Daily bit of creativity, #019: Faux Cyanotype Weeds

Just playing around a bit with some weeds that I scanned and then placed on paper I'd stained with ink. I kind of like how the brown paper and its stains look sort of like a blue sky and strange clouds.

Nothing ultra-spectacular, just a bit of experimentation to keep me from doing what I really should be doing!

©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: "Harvest Moon"

A big Harvest Moon rises behind pine trees with a blue sky behind and a luminous, mysterious patch of blue below. I used a variety of photographs to create this, including trees that I photographed at sunset near Mendocino, California, a stained piece of old paper, and the moon is a photo I took of a metal locker tag. I love how everything came together, creating an eerie, yet calming moonrise.

 ©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.

Nautical bits . . .

I recently finished re-reading The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. Each chapter begins with some sort of nautical/maritime information, and is how and where I learned that these coils of boat lines are called "Flemish coils" or "Flemish flakes."

I always thought they were simply aesthetically cool (which they are), but they're actually a practical way to keep lines neat and tidy and flat (hence the "flake") so that people can easily walk on them and not trip.

And how interesting is it that the main character in the book is named "Quoyle?"

Wishing you a day free of tripping hazards . . .

 ©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.

Industrial art

Blue ladders with brassy hinges on display at the local hardware store. IPhone shot.

©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: "Soft Blue Enso Circle"

The yellow bits, to me, make this image more interesting. They're the result of handpainted stripes added to the mix.

©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.

Bold bits of color

Remember slides and light tables? Such a great way to see an overview of one's work, to immediately spot images that work well together, and to quickly pick out the keepers and the losers.

That's sort of what using Bridge in Photoshop does for me now with my digital images. So when I was thinking about today's blog post, and went to the potpourri of images I have in my "May" directory, these two stood out immediately because their blue and red colors were remarkably similar.

A blue buoy looks great against a bright red fishing boat in Anacortes, Washington. And a red-rimmed taillight echoes that blue/red color scheme on a vehicle here in Coupeville.

What's my point? I don't have one, really, except to show you the nice little surprises you might find in your own stash of photos once you become more aware of colors and color combinations.

©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!

Something from 2009, something from 2016

Rather than relying on previously-created "3's" to post for my "daily 3" project, I'm creating new ones as well. Otherwise, what's the point, really? I'm trying to experiment, to learn.

Apparently I've not learned to put my "3" anywhere but lower right, lower center, or completely centered. Hmmmm... must work on that.

This is a "3" I photographed on my birthday back in 2009. (Some gals want to be taken to dinner but not me! It's my day and I'll spend it among fishing boats if I want!) The three was orange against a dark blue hull.

I added peeling paint and metal texture I'd shot at Fort Casey here a few weeks ago. Added a few more rivets, and it's done. And only five more days to go until this project is done!

©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!

Double three

It was a terrific day in Port Townsend yesterday. Good shooting at the boat yard. Got the copper nails I needed. Had lunch at Doc's Marina Grill. Then we had a decision to make: where to go next? The bunkers? The library? We had maybe an hour or so before our ferry reservation. So it was back to the boat yard! The lighting was different, my eye was different, but the shooting (for me) was still great.

Here's the roofline of building #3. At the corner of "3" and "3." Blue building, blue sky, bright red "3's," what's not to like?

Wishing you blue buildings, blue skies, and bright red accents.

©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!

Experimenting . . .

Altered vintage photographs where I played around with painterly effects as well as toning. Fun stuff!
©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!

ROYGBIV: BLUE!

Blue's pretty much a universally beloved color and it's always easy for me to find examples that incorporate blue. Not so easy, however, for me to find photomontages I've made with blue as the main color, but here are three I particularly like.

Scratched metal forms the basis of the first picture, undoubtedly photographed while I was wandering around the fishing boats on the Oregon coast. And I like the feeling of movement I created by using the red blobs, which seem to drift from left to right.

We move from movement to still life in the next shot of the pear, to which I added dripping paint and texture from the ubiquitous fishing boat. I like how the golden brown color of the pear works with the complementary blue surround.

And then lastly is a photomontage that yes, contains photos of fishing boat textures. The square boxy thing? I believe that came from a piece of paper I photographed, paper I'd used to clean a brayer after painting something.

I used to be able to identify every item in my photomontages, "Oh, yes, that's a part of my grandmother's earring I mixed with a photo of the bottom of an oil can and a picture of a blender lid." I've now made so many that sometimes I don't even recognize my own work. "I made THAT? When? Darned if I remember how I did it. But it's cool, isn't it?"

Ha!

It's now Monday and I pray that my Internet access via my desktop computer is up and running. Tough to do this on a cellphone. It's still Wednesday the 17th as I write, but I'm optimistic.

©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!

ROYGBIV: BLUE!

A peaceful, relaxing color, blue is universally loved. Ask anybody what's their favorite color and invariably it'll be blue. Rarely do you hear someone say "aubergine" or "chartreuse."

I found these blues first of all on Route 66, then in a boatyard on the Oregon coast, and then at a car show I photographed just half a car, copied it, flipped it, pasted it together again to create a cute little "bumper car" sort of creature.

Wishing you blue skies today!

©Carol Leigh

P.S. Just what color IS aubergine anyway? Think "eggplant." And chartreuse? Think light, bright yellowish-green. . .

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!

Quick way to intensify color in Photoshop

Let's say you took a photo and it looks really blah. There are a lot of ways to make your photo pop, but here's a really fast and easy way to do it.

In Photoshop, make a duplicate layer of your photograph. With the duplicate layer active and on top, change the blending mode to "Multiply." That's it!

Here, let me show you an example. I took a photo of a row of blue mailboxes in Santa Fe. As you can see in the original untouched photo, the photo has no depth, no oomph, no drama. So I brought it into Photoshop, made a duplicate of the original. Then changed the blending mode to "Multiply."

I might have toned down the "Multiply" effect a little bit by using the opacity slider, but that's it. Huge difference, no?

©Carol Leigh