Daily photo 20190108 Tulips!

To those of you who THOUGHT you saw a picture of trees here, well, you very well may have. It was so awful I felt uncomfortable leaving it there. So I replaced it with this photograph, which I took a few minutes ago.

Our house guests sent us an extremely floriferous flower arrangement that was so big, so full of flowers, that we couldn’t get our fingers into it to see if they needed water.

So I took all the flowers out and put them into four different vases. The tulips went into this vase (which was the original vase the florist used). There are now 10 more roses, a half-dozen alstroemeria stems, and a bunch of sunflowers and gerbera daisies to photograph! And we now have these flowers all over the house.

How DID the florist manage to get all those flowers into this vase? I mean, the tulips fill it perfectly. So here you see them on the coffee table. I purposely overexposed them to enhance the sunny(ish) look at the window.

C. and S., thank you again.

And thank you Coupeville Florist for packing the vase so full of flowers! This has been fun!

Before I took the arrangement apart:

Agave teeth . . .

Over in my Facebook "Photomotivation" group, our assignment this month is "Shadowplay." Here's one of the photos I posted of a closeup of an agave frond.

A number of people found it (understandably) confusing, with one person seeing birds flying, not the sharp spines of an agave plant.

Not unlike an artichoke, agave plants consist of tightly wrapped fronds which, as they grow, gradually pull away from the plant and eventually splay out and away from the "core." The right third of the frame is the agave frond as it has just begun lifting away from plant's core immediately below it. The bright sunlight coming from my right creates a dark shadow on the rest of the plant. I purposely made this a high-key image to add to the scene's simplicity and to create a strong abstract.

What pleases me is its simplicity, the fact that the picture is divided into three strong elements, and the impact of negative space. 

Confusing? Confused? Yeah, me, too . . .

P.S. If you'd like to see what's going on over in the Photomotivation group and maybe join us, here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2141715679386032/  Since the group is a private one, you may not be able to see much. Join the group and all will be revealed. 

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 27

I bought these two mugs at the Dollar Store specifically to photograph and then gave them to someone else afterwards. I like the light, soft overall feel to this shot.

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 kindness.

A month of hearts: February 17

We were wandering around a mattress store and voila! I spotted this mattress that featured hearts as its pattern. Asked permission to take a picture -- "no problem," and happily added another heart to my ongoing and ever-growing collection. See? You just never know when you'll find something cool.

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.

A month of hearts: February 5

Back in 2006 I led a photo workshop in the Skagit Valley during tulip season.

As a bit of a break, we went over to Christianson's Nursery in Mt. Vernon to look around, shop, and perhaps shoot whatever might be in bloom over there (they always have beautiful plants and flowers, and their gift shop is wonderful).

There in the shop was a little plate with heart-shaped soaps on it -- all cream-colored except for one in pink. The background was cream-colored, the plate was white -- a study that called for dreamy bright softness.

I used a Lensbaby 2 to create this little scene, which still pleases me, twelve years later.

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.

High-key and not so much . . .

I've been enjoying taking high-key images, and when I found this white feather, I put it in front of a white background and shot away. At the end of the shoot, I held a pale blue scarf behind the feather and, during the exposure, waved the scarf around to create a clean blue background that has a bit of shadowing in it for interest.

Why not just use blue construction paper, or fill the background with blue in Photoshop? Sure, that would work fine, too. But I find that a flat background doesn't give me the feeling of depth (and naturalness) that I want.

Of course, what often happens is that during the waving-around part, I often knock over whatever it is I happen to be photographing! No problem when shooting a feather, but when shooting my husband's favorite cordial glass, well . . . that'll just be our little secret, won't it? ©Carol Leigh

Now on Flickr . . .

I'm finding Flickr to be a convenient way of creating little galleries of my work and so far I've got 9 "sets" of photos up: Buoys, Car Art, Train Art, High Key, Urban Abstracts, Polaroid, Route 66, and Numbers. Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80859324@N00/

It took a little time to understand the format, but basically the photos show up in a stream as you post them, most recent first, but off to the right you can see the different sets, which makes it easier. When I visit someone else's Flickr site, I now just automatically glance at the most recent images and then look over to see what sets or galleries the photographer has created.

Looking for a source of inspiration? Flickr's a good place to peruse and to charge your visual batteries.

©Carol Leigh, being pulled, kicking and screaming, into Flckr, Facebook, Google+, and who now needs even MORE time in the day...

Macro jewelry

One of the lessons coming up in my Mini-Macro online photo class is about photographing jewelry, exploring lighting and depth of field. I have this old silver and amethyst necklace in a glass jar on a shelf in my studio. I kept the necklace in the jar and shot through the glass, filling my frame with beads and silver. Weird? Yes. Cool? Yes. Fun? Yes.

©Carol Leigh, who is usually weird, infrequently cool, sometimes fun...

On the beach

A woman works with her horse on the beach near Newport. It was a very bright — glaringly bright — day and so I purposely overexposed the shot to wash out the waves and the sand while keeping the bold silhouette of horse and rider intact. ©Carol Leigh

High key effect

I've been playing around with purposely overexposing my photos, from one to two stops, just to see what happens. I've had this rattlesnake grass for years in a jar in the studio and thought it might look good against a white background. Next to the jar o' rattlesnake grass is a jar containing some of this year's poppy pod harvest. I selected two that had really wonky stems, put them against a white background, and overexposed by two stops. This way the curving forms are really exaggerated.

The overall look is clean and spare and, to me, quite appealing.