More from Barrio Logan . . .

A few more mural details from Barrio Logan in San Diego. Love this stuff!

Close-up of a heart on a shipping container, then the back of a shipping container, and a bird on a bridge abutment. The eye is cut in half because that was the end of the mural on that side; it continued on around to the right.

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.

Fun Photography in San Diego

We visited friends in San Diego last week and went wandering around Barrio Logan. I'm fond of seeking out small details within large murals, and came up with these two jaguar images, almost hidden within the surrounding swirls and sweeps of color. Amazing artwork and incredibly fun to shoot. Especially with friends.

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.

One photo, three possibilities . . .

When I was conducting online photo classes, one of the assignments I gave my students was called "squarification."

The objective was to encourage them to look at their images and/or subject matter to see if it could look good not only full-frame, but also as a square. A square image often has a completely different -- and appealing -- effect.

Here's what I mean:

The top photo show you my original composition of colorful graffiti I found on the side of a railroad car.

I liked the bit of red paint up toward the top that leads our eye down into the rest of the picture.

And then I began experimenting with a square format, as you see in the middle picture. Again we've got the red at the top. But we also have blue lines over at the left that lead our eye down to the bottom third of the square photo, where there's a patch of cool-looking rust.

And finally, in the third photo, I return to the top part of the picture and concentrate solely on that red section.

In this version we have the red line beginning upper left, then continuing diagonally down into the middle of the picture, where it makes an abrupt turn to our left before heading south again.

And, as a bonus, we have the blue lines on the left that also encourage our eye to move down to the bottom of the frame.

There you have it. One photo, three different possibilities. Ta da!

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 month of hearts: February 12

I found this chalk-drawn heart in a parking lot in Bellingham yesterday afternoon. It's not a picture I would normally take. Why? There's a black shadow moving through it. There's a painted white line at the top. The picture's wonky. It's messy. Normally I would throw out something like this.

Except. Except there's something about it I like. Maybe it's because I gave my students an assignment many years ago to find and photograph hearts. And once given that assignment, it sticks with one over the years.

Maybe it's because it's whimsical. Someone with two different colors of chalk quickly scribbled a heart on the street, added a smile and two eyes and moved on. It won't last long in the rainy Pacific Northwest, so maybe the fact that it's a short-lived bit of whimsy is what's appealing.

Or maybe in our divisive, angry, snarky political climate, it's a cute, simple, quickly scribbled spark of joy and happiness.

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.

City graffiti

A couple of fun things found on walls in Seattle earlier this month.

©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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yup, my iPhone camera no longer focuses. Taking it in next week to have it looked at/replaced. In the meantime, feeling grateful today for friends, love, and the fact that I have a couple DSLRs to turn to!

Thankful, too, that I saw this graffiti on a train years ago that I could pull up and use in this space.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

©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.

Recent works . . .

A bit of graffiti found in downtown Portland years ago, combined with a nearby blue wall. And then a photo of a collage I made on an envelope a couple of weeks ago.

Would you believe leaves are beginning to fall here on Whidbey? They began in earnest about 10 days ago. Looking forward to fall.

©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.

Train bits . . .

Photographed in Washington's Palouse region a number of years ago. I love checking out the graffiti, and found these two particularly pleasing.

Someone had spray-painted their hand on two different train cars, so I combined the two photos to make the shot a bit more interesting.

And the U.S. Marshall? I've seen this same piece of train art on a lot of train cars, the last one being in Oregon. The artist does get around!

©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.

Art from art . . .

Chris and I were in Orange and San Diego counties this past week, a delightful week spent visiting with loving and caring family and laid-back and low-key friends.

A place we visited in San Diego was Writerz Blok, where graffiti artists gather to create and to practice their work in a sanctioned yet free-spirited location.

It was fun wandering around, taking overviews as well as close-up details of colorful murals. The beauty of Writerz Blok is that the work constantly changes, so what we saw this week will likely be gone next week, replaced by something different, but probably just as vibrant and inventive.

Every morning this trip I got up early and walked one or two miles around the neighborhood, shooting whatever caught my eye as well as getting much-needed exercise. Lovely quiet mornings with overcast light, interesting doors, textures, flowers, and more. As I take a closer look at my photos, I'll be posting some of them here.

Wishing YOU quiet mornings filled with beauty.

©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Major Cool"

Wall art mash-up. I can't even begin to describe how I put this photomontage together. But it all began with a walk by the ocean on a sunny day... ©Carol Leigh

Portland. Keeping it Weird. Part 2.

More interesting graffiti from last weekend's shoot in a burned-out building.

I love the lion head on the person's body. The meek and mild-looking posture and the quizzical look on the lion's face really caught my attention. And the rest? Well, I love the reflections in the puddles. And the final one sort of represents how I'm feeling lately regarding changing over from the PC to a Mac.

©Carol Leigh (who likes using just two keystrokes on the Mac to create the copyright symbol, versus the five keystrokes necessary on the PC)

Portland. Keeping it Weird.

You never know when a memorable moment is about to occur. You just have to be open, be ready, and go with the flow.

Chris and I spent the weekend in Portland, and one of the things I wanted to do on Sunday was revisit an industrial area that Linda H. showed us a few years ago.

But before shooting on Sunday, we had dinner with Linda and Hugh on Saturday night, and Linda told us about a building that had burned, leaving just the walls and a lot of charred beams.

Chris and I found the place the next morning. It was all fenced in, alas, but aha! We found an opening in the fence, and that’s when the madness began.

Oh, my. It was incredible. The roof was gone, the walls were braced to prevent them from falling in, and colorful graffiti covered everything. Here and there were very large puddles of water, perfect for reflections.

What immediately caught my eye was an old TV set, staring out from the middle of a huge puddle. The sight was startling, incongruous, and totally absurd. Sitting in the water next to the TV was a bright red fire extinguisher. Ridiculous. I took a few shots.

And then a couple of guys on motorcycles arrived. They saw the TV, the puddle, and immediately placed one bike next to the TV. They took a few photos with a little point-and-shoot camera. Then they brought in the second bike. Then they found part of a radio and leaned it against the TV. They embellished the scene with a black high-heeled shoe they fished out of the water. For reasons known only to them, they left the fire extinguisher in place throughout. Never touched it. 

Voila! Instant art, They took a few more photos and then were on their way. 

But while the biker guys were still assembling their art, Chris and I began talking to a man who was shooting, just as enthralled as we were with all this graffiti.

Turns out he’s been shooting at this spot for a long time, even at night with moonlight reflecting off the water. He recognized a lot of the graffiti art, told us who made it, gave us a lot of the backstory.

His occupation? He works for the graffiti abatement department in Portland! Ha! What a fascinating and fun guy to talk to.

But that’s not all.

While biker guys were still working, and while graffiti abatement guy was still talking to us, some people dressed as “Clockwork Orange” characters were conducting their own photography tableaus. So now and then we’d spot a woman brandishing a club, a guy posing moodily in a doorway, and another woman dressed in black wearing a clear plastic mask.

This was one of the strangest, most surreal events I’ve experienced in a long time. It was weird, interesting, bizarre, absurd, and so much fun!

I’ve not had time to really do any processing (it takes 3.5 hours for us to drive home from Portland), but wanted to get something quickly posted while the day remained fresh in my mind.

Portland. Classically weird. And proud of it!

©Carol Leigh

But is it art?

Despite indications to the contrary, these are photos, not paintings. However, they ARE photos of paint on trains. So they ARE paintings. Or were. Or something . . .

©Carol Leigh

It's a good day to . . .

. . . get a sense of direction. ©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Over My Head"

This picture combines my photos of train graffiti, the side of a building, various handpainted papers, signs, ink, and more. I like the weathered and textured look, the warm colors, and the subtle chalk-like arrows that point the way to the faded Coca-Cola sign on the right. (Click to enlarge.) ©Carol Leigh

It doesn't take much . . .

Chris and I had a good day yesterday, traveling inland to shop, have lunch, photograph some graffiti, and wander around in an antique store (where I found two of the cutest little oil cans to add to my collection). But the highlight was going into a bookstore. Does anyone NOT love the smell of a bookstore? Ahhhhh... And yes, bought a book! And a CD. And a toy which will give me some hours of photographic play . . . just you wait and see.

A good day. It doesn't take much. ©Carol Leigh

Hawaiian Eyez

Found in a back alley (and I really mean back alley) on Maui. ©Carol Leigh

Stars on trains

 I am addicted to photographing graffiti on train cars. With so many files to look at, I begin seeing patterns. And this is one: stars on trains. (Letters, numbers, faces, writings, arrows are some other patterns that are emerging. Fair warning.) Here are five examples of "stars."

Do you do the same thing? Do you find yourself returning to the same subject matter, finding new things in the familiar? Mailboxes is something we all seem to gravitate to. The color red. Reflections in windows. Reflections in water. Riffle through your own photographs and look for "collections" of subject matter. Ten good images built around one theme could become an interesting photo essay.

©Carol Leigh, currently awash in photographs, flotsam on a sea of pixels