An afternoon in Anacortes . . .

Crabbing season began about 10 days ago -- always exciting!

Crabpots are stacked up, spiffed up, ready to be loaded onto fishing boats. Not the mass quantities and dramatic vistas we had in Oregon, but I take what I can get and am thankful.

Piles of fishing nets always provide good photo opportunities. "Want to buy them? They won't fit in my net shed." Sure. Five hundred pounds of fish nets. You haul.

It's hard to miss the bright red Arrow Launch/Marine Services boats in the harbor. And they look even better up close.

We walk down one of the docks where I photograph the aft section of a fishing boat from Kodiak, Alaska -- love the texture on this one.

When the weather is good, this is what we do -- get out and explore, wander around, and feel so lucky we can do this together.

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 December (part 1)

Blogs are sort of like scrapbooks, you know? Keep at them long enough and you have a visual record of your life.

"Remember when we went to Florida and encountered no-see-ums for the first time?" Or, "I miss Dungeness crab season on the Oregon coast and all that activity, don't you?"

So I looked at the pictures I've posted in my blogs each December, going back to 2009. I selected one photo for each year.

And in '09 there was a big freeze on the Oregon coast, where water oozing out of the bluffs next to the ocean turned into frozen waterfalls. It was magical! And COLD.

Sanibel Island in Florida was NOT cold in December of 2010. This couple was hunting for shells and I liked their silver hair, their matching jeans, new sneakers, and especially her vivid red sweater. I purposely used a slow shutter speed to blur them into unrecognizability yet capture their togetherness as they both bent forward a bit looking for beach treasures.

In 2011 I was making weird things, using photos of (in this case) ice and clock parts. The preoccupation with time remains with me, although I seem to have no concept of it in real life.

And finally, crabbing season about to begin in 2012. All the boats along the docks in Newport, packed with crab pots and colorful buoys... So much going on, so much color, so much activity, and so much at stake for these folks, where a successful haul means a good Christmas and a strong financial start for the coming year.

Four more photos coming up in the next post. Fair warning!

©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.

It's crabbing season!

In many ways it's great to be back home, back into a certain rhythm -- a rhythm in the seasons and a rhythm in the photography. We had some errands to run up in Newport this afternoon and, since it wasn't rainy and skies were overcast, it was a perfect time to wander around the fishing boats and all their various and sundry paraphernalia.

It's Thanksgiving, which means we're close to crabbing season. Buoys are all painted and prepped, ready to be loaded aboard their boats. Don't you just love the colors?

The white-painted F/V Miss Yvonne heads over to have all of her crab pots loaded on board, while the F/V My Lee, beautiful in blue against a background blue mural, patiently waits for Friday, when the boats are allowed out to begin soaking their pots. When do they pull them up? They begin December 1.

What this means is that when we look out our kitchen window in the evening, we'll see all sorts of bright lights out on the horizon, sometimes as many as 15-20 of them, as the crabbers get hard at work.

To celebrate, Chris and I shared a cracked Dungeness crab for dinner last night. Ahhhh! Heavenly.

The crabbers are receiving $3.10/pound for their catch this year, which is apparently a high price for them. The crab we bought yesterday (pre-season) at Fred Meyer was $5.99/pound. Any time we can get fresh crab for less than $6/pound around here, we consider ourselves lucky. You folks, who don't live in the area, probably pay less than we do, we who live in the "Dungeness Crab Capitol of the World." Most of the crabs harvested here are shipped out immediately. Heavy sigh . . .

It's crab season. It's almost Thanksgiving. I'm thankful you're here reading this, thankful I'm here writing this, and feeling quite crabby -- in a good way!

©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!

Crabbing season begins at last

Crabbing season began just after midnight this morning and I could see the lights of at least eight crabbing boats on the horizon when I looked out the kitchen window. It's good to see them finally out there. This season began a month later than usual because the crabs hadn't filled out enough by Thanksgiving. So Christmas for the fishing community is just now going to begin for these folks.

Yesterday we made a quick turn around the docks to see the boats all loaded up with crabpots. Deckhands were making sure the stacks of pots were completely secure, as you can see in the first photo. The F/V Norska sits patiently waiting for midnight, along with hundreds of other boats along the bayfront.

I liked the bright red color of one boat's hull and the contrast of smooth metal and the multi-textured crab pots above.

And then there's a guy looking for a deckhand job who posted a resume at the top of the gangplank leading down to the docks. He says, in part, "I am the man you want on your deck. I have been crewing for vessels big and small now for several years ... I am a simple family oriented man who is looking for a solid reliable local crab job so that I can start investing in the more important things opposed to being gone in Alaska for months at a time. I am all I say I am and nothing else. I am easy going ... but I won't abide working with slosh drunks, tweakers, or screaming fools. Just a good hand looking for a good boat and crew, to make the most of this years Season..."

I hope he found a job.

©Carol Leigh

A quick trip to the fishing boats

While running errands yesterday, we made a quick stop at the docks to see what was going on. Boats sat low in the water, full of crabs waiting to be offloaded, such as this boat, F/V Last Straw (not to be confused with the much smaller F/V Last Dance over on the other dock). A young dog stands watch aboard the M/V Raven, and then a copper bell hangs over the the wheelhouse windows on the turquoise blue F/V Kristin Gail. (Obviously, clear visibility isn't all that important when you're moored in port!) ©Carol Leigh

First day of (relatively) little rain ...

A brief respite from the rain and I'm over at the docks to see what's going on. Most of the boats are out crabbing, but a few are coming in, weighed way down in the water, holds full of crabs. They're coming in to refuel, offload their catch at the processing plant, and then will head out again. Looks like it's going to be a good season for them.

In the first photo, one guy is teaching another how to tie a knot on a buoy line. "Then the rabbit comes out of the hole, goes around the tree, and jumps back in the hole ..."

Below that, two fishermen head toward the ramp and home for a brief nap before setting out again. And finally, the tools of the trade, sitting on the dock. More to come -- it was a GREAT morning for (a) lighting and (b) shooting. ©Carol Leigh

Back to the pot yard ...

To give you an idea of where I've been shooting the past week, here's an overview of the pot yard in Newport. There were fewer crab pots there today because a lot are now being loaded onto the boats. The games begin the day after Thanksgiving, when they head out to "soak" the pots. Wish I was going to be here to photograph as they head out to sea, but nope, will be on the road by then.

Look at the paintbrushes I found by the crab pots belonging to the F/V Wide West! Hoo ha! Great colors.

And then you see Randy Ripka, whose father owns the F/V Western Breeze, painted in colors of "Ripka Blue" and "Sunfire Yellow." That's the Ripka boat in the last photo, the boat with the lights illuminated on the mast.

Should we ever leave the Oregon coast, all of this is what I'm really going to miss. ©Carol Leigh

Crab pots! Buoys! Color! Hoo ha!

 As I wandered around the pot yard in Newport, it began raining harder and harder and so we left to go to the library. Then, during a brief break in the weather, we headed back again so I could shoot some more. Chris had plenty to read, and I had plenty to shoot — perfect combo. (And it doesn't hurt that Chris has plenty of patience!) The skies were fairly dark and the buoys just gleamed.

This time of year, as everyone's gearing up for crab season, is one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for color and repeating patterns, and there's no end to them here. I could visit every day for two weeks, finding something new each time.

And the final photo shows the F/V Timmy Boy, loaded up with pots (at least 300 of them), leaving the loading dock to go back and wait until it's time to set the pots. May it be a successful season for these hard-working folks. ©Carol Leigh

Dramatic weather

A brief window in the weather opened up and we headed north to run some errands. We stopped at Seal Rock, however, because the sky was turning BLACK! I scrambled up a little hill to take some shots and was almost blown over by strong winds, but oooh, a rainbow! Along the historic bayfront in Newport there were crab pots stacked up against a Moby Dick mural, so naturally had to shoot that. And then on to the pot yard, where I've never seen so many crab pots and piles of buoys -- everything ready for crab season that begins next week. Photos of the pot yard to follow. ©Carol Leigh

Three hours of no rain

We had a brief dry window yesterday between 9 and noon to run some errands so, as usual, I made a quick stop to photograph buoys and fishing paraphernalia in Newport. When the lighting is luscious like this, the colors really pop. I invariably get weird looks, but who cares? "If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong." —John Gierach  ©Carol Leigh

70 minutes at the crabpot staging area

Big decision this morning: walk on the beach or head elsewhere? I headed toward the beach, but ended up at the crabpot staging area. The lighting was so overcast, so wonderful, that I just needed some color. The height of the crabbing season is over (it's salmon now), so I knew there probably would be a lot of crabpots and colorful buoys stacked up, ready to be stripped and readied for the upcoming season. There was a row of these big containers, all filled with colorful buoys.

And the red ones! What photographer wouldn't salivate over these colors?

And then there were piles of ropes. Not overly colorful, but I liked the repeating patterns. To show you what I was seeing, there's an overview at the very end — not artistic, but just so you can see part of my environment.

This is going to be my personal project for my upcoming "Photo Essay" class, which begins July 1. The concept is for each student to create a visual "story" of an area, an event, a person, etc. in 10-15 photographs. For more information about this 30-day class, click http://www.photoexplorations.com/photoessay.htm. And if I don't decide to photograph the crabbing scene, I may just decide to shoot at the local farmers' market instead. Uh-oh. That will probably involve photographing people. Very scary. ©Carol Leigh