The last day of summer

Wednesday was the last day of summer. "Let's go walk around Langley!"

Our first stop was the Whidbey Art Gallery, which always has unique art and at affordable prices. I asked the man manning the desk which art was his. He's John Kloecke, a potter and does a lot of raku firing. I made sure we saw his work, and one piece in particular stood out -- a very elegant pot, a rich blue color, and a unique glaze that he said had glass in it, which melts to a lovely sheen. We bought it -- to be photographed soon.

This pink hydrangea flower is one of the last bloomers of the season, and looked good against a still-green leafy background.

And then down to the marina to see what we could see. Lots of crows, gulls, and pigeons, as well as dramatic clouds off in the distance.

I rescued a large starfish a gull had pulled off a piling and then left on the sidewalk. I grabbed an arm, gave a tug, and gently put him back in the water, watching him slowly, slowly sink down to the bottom.

Had an enjoyable conversation with the dockmaster, who showed us a photo he'd taken that morning of a bright orange (and huge) jellyfish. "That's Sandy Point. See that house with the sun on it? That's my parents' house. They've been there 45 years. Sometimes I call them and say, 'I can see what you're doing!' And they never fail to laugh."

A fine little exploration and an excellent way to celebrate the beginning of fall.

Wishing you all small celebrations such as this.

©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.

Now and then. 2016 versus 2003.

I bought my first digital SLR in 2003. A Canon D60. Six megapixel sensor. I was clueless about the processing, the various settings within the camera, everything. The camera itself was similar to my Canon film cameras regarding ISO, shutter speeds, apertures, all that. So using the camera didn’t involve much of a learning curve. It was the dpi settings, the JPG vs. RAW, the downloading, the post-processing software, etc. that I had to deal with.

I shoot RAW for everything today; this was a simple JPG image.

I liked this shot in 2003. I still like it today. The “bones” are good. But when I compare my most recent version to my original, I see how far I’ve come. What’s better today?

What’s good about the old photo is the composition. I like the movement I created, directing your eye from left to right in a large arc. It’s the fallen petal on the right that really helps, kind of like a period at the end of a sentence. The flowers are pretty. And the light, mid-afternoon light coming in from windows, is also pretty.

What I don’t like is the darkness in the background, the green wall, the texture in the wall, nor the heavy line of demarcation between the furniture and the wall. For light-colored, delicate flowers, I was too heavy-handed with the rest.

What did I do to change my original picture? I used a variety of Topaz filters and effects as well as Photoshop techniques to soften the image, to tone the image, to create a lighter and brighter overall look. The furniture the vase is sitting on is now lighter and it glows. The wall is no longer green. And look at where the furniture meets the wall — the “horizon line” — see how softly those two elements meet? I find that much more appealing.

The reddish/cinnamon-colored vase has been toned way down. The flowers still have color, but they, too, have been toned so that they have a more unified look. The focus is softer, but the flower centers still come through relatively sharply. The look is painterly, yet with a definite “photograph” vibe.

From a pretty photograph taken in 2003 with a more professional, more appealing look in 2016, this 13-year difference proves just one thing: I’m obviously a very slow learner!

©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.

Something old, something new (part 3)

Photographed in 2010, re-worked in 2016. I'm liking this look!

©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.

Just playing . . .

Trying to find my way at the moment. I've not been photographing anything particularly wonderful. The studio is not finished at all, so I'm a bit limited there.

But things have to be made, work needs to be done, and so I'm playing around with my photos, trying this, trying that, with no expectations.

Yesterday I revisited photos I'd taken in the fall in Half Moon Bay. Could I muck about with them and perhaps come up with something different?

I found a photo of a bright pink cosmos and began with that. What if I add a texture to it? What If I remove a lot of detail from the flower, desaturate the image, then add an effect from Topaz? The flower's stem disappeared somewhere in the middle of all this and so I had to make one.

I kind of like this photo. Could I apply this series of steps to a different flower and get a different yet similar effect?

So I tried the same thing with the sunflower shot. I'm not so pleased with this one. But why?

I like the fluffy etherealness of the cosmos image, the soft gauzy look emanating away from the center. The sunflower doesn't have that same soft "feminine" feel to it. It's just too tough of a flower for this treatment.

Do you see what I've done? I have turned on the computer, felt completely uninspired, yet stuck with it, simply playing. Just playing. And in the process I discovered a certain "look" that is different from anything else I've created. And now I have a path, a road, an idea . . . something I can pursue with a bit more discipline, aiming toward a goal of sorts.

And if it doesn't work out? I've at least learned something. Tried something. Played with something. Experimented with something. You can make art or you can make excuses. I'm hoping this will be art.

©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!

Caught in Amber

I like how the daisy stem seems to be emerging from a piece of amber, one of my own painted textures. ©Carol Leigh

Colorful days

Despite a bit of rain and overcast skies, I've found good color the past couple of days. I like the complementary blue and orange colors of the fishnet floats and the way the yellow and turquoise colors of the nets emphasize their sensuous folds. (And when's the last time you saw the words "sensuous" and "fishing nets" used together?)

A pink opium poppy in the back yard mist this morning caught my eye, the way the petal acts as a little umbrella, keeping the pollen dry.

And then in Florence this afternoon we slammed on the brakes when we saw a bunch of antique cars in a restaurant parking lot. The fortuitous combination of a brilliant blue sky reflected in the chrome as well as the reflections from a nearby red car really punched up the orange colors on this old Chevy truck. (A car show's scheduled for this Sunday — woo hoo, more color potential!)

All photos were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera; the first one with a Canon 24-85mm lens, the poppy with a Canon 100mm macro lens, and the Chevy with a Canon 70-200mm L lens. I've got issues with the 24-85mm lens: it's not as sharp as I'd like and I'm hoping it's something as simple as an iffy polarizing filter. Testing is in order.

©Carol Leigh, wishing you equally colorful days this week

Spring is here!

Spring is officially here. Can you feel it in the air? Well, maybe when it stops raining you will! ©Carol Leigh

Definitely the last of the summer color

The rain has begun in earnest here on the Oregon coast and will be here for the foreseeable week. It's raining in New England right now, so I hear. A bit of colorful brightness is in order, so I present the very last of these vibrant flowers. ©Carol Leigh

Things that have come into the house lately

A few things made their way into the house last week. Fun gifts from friends, fun photography for me. First is the box of rusty washers and coins from Elena, who knows the way to this girl's heart! And the box they came in? She created the coolest texture on the lid, which I photographed close-up and which will undoubtedly find its way into some of my photomontages.

And then a close-up of a daisy plucked from a bouquet from Janet and Ira. This flower is no bigger than a half-inch across, so I used a macro lens and a couple of extension tubes to fill my frame with it. A blue scarf creates a natural-looking "sky" behind it.

A bouquet of bright orange Chinese lanterns (Physalis alkekengi) is now hanging upside-down to dry, but not before I photographed part of this stem. The pods are so colorfully saturated that I took an opposite tack and toned them to a bluish-grey color. (The opposite of what Janet, the color maven, would have done!)

Chris, while our group photographed fishing nets last week, picked up a couple pieces of rust, thinking I could do something cool with them. So you see a photo of the two pieces he found, and then my close-up macro shot of one of them, looking remarkably like some rocky landscape. He's got a good eye for this sort of thing, doesn't he?

The rusty washers and coins will make their way into photomontages and collages. The textures? Same thing. The flowers? Always in my heart. The wine, bread, biscotti, and other goodies people brought have, unfortunately, made their way into my stomach! ©Carol Leigh

Deer-proof

We have three little bushes of these guys in the back yard and they've bloomed beautifully all summer. Amazingly, the deer (who have given my fuchsia bush a very bad haircut) don't eat them. I used to know what these were and now, wouldn't you know, the only "safe" plants to grow out back and I'm clueless.

From a photo-geek standpoint, see the beautiful out-of-focus background? I shot these with a 50mm lens and an extension tube. The aperture was f/1.8, a super-wide-open aperture, which caused the background to go really, really soft. And I find it really, really pretty! ©Carol Leigh

Last of the summer colors

Summer's at its peak here on the coast, but you can feel it sort of winding down. ©Carol Leigh

More summer colors

It's sunny here, windows are wide open, cool breezes — perfect for summer colors such as these. ©Carol Leigh

Linaria

Linaria, or toadflax, is blooming in my back yard. The lighting was high overcast this afternoon, so I took a 50mm lens and a 12mm extension tube, set the aperture at f/1.8, and proceeded to shoot. I was purposely going for extremely shallow depth of field, and it worked, but it sure made focusing difficult as the flowers swayed gently in the breeze. The look is soft, and I find it very appealing. So there you go. Something "normal" from me. Click to enlarge. ©Carol Leigh

Summer Color

The opium poppies come and go so quickly, which makes them even more precious. Click to enlarge. ©Carol Leigh

Viola "Starry Night"

I've just begun teaching my online macro/close-up photography class, so I have macro on my mind these days. I bought these violas at the local garden center and set them on my kitchen counter to photograph. Not sure which version I prefer, but I do like them both. ©Carol Leigh

The colors of summer: two more

I am enjoying this process so much! Here are two more and then I'll hold back for awhile as I continue experimenting. But don't you just love the colors? The texture? The painterly look? Just when I think I'm going nowhere with my work, things like this appear. ©Carol Leigh

The colors of summer

Kind of a new look for me. Am loving the colors. ©Carol Leigh