What's it made of?

A lot of people ask me, when I make a photomontage, what's in it? Where do you get the stuff and how do you use it?

Well, this morning I was poking around in my "Astoria, Oregon" photos, not looking for anything in particular, and saw a big "S" that was painted on a wooden sign.

It's a good-looking "S," and you can see the original in the second photo.

I didn't like the monochromatic look, so, still in the "Astoria" files, I saw a photo I'd taken of a cement wall that had been painted red, and the paint was beginning to chip and peel. (See the third photo.)

The wall gave me the texture and the grunge and the color that I needed. But I wanted something more.

Still in that "Astoria" file, I found a photo I'd taken of a piece of metal that had holes punched in it. So I used a part of that to create a "base" of sorts to the "S." See the white space below the "S" in the second shot? Too plain and boring. Hence the weird metal.

Look at the very top of the first photo and you can see where I added a bit of the metal up there as well.

And there you have it. An "S" with good bones, tricked out a bit with color and texture. And it's RED! Good way to start the day. (If you're weird, that is!)

©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.

This was supposed to be a photo of fishing nets

Yesterday morning it was drizzly and overcast, perfect for photographing colorful fishing nets. But wouldn't you know it? I stepped out of the car and three minutes later it was bright and sunny and no way was this conducive to the types of photos I had in mind. So I bypassed the nets, instead looking for texture and abstract patterns on metal containers, on fishing boat equipment, etc. Ten minutes later I was done.

Looking at my resulting photos, there was one in particular of paint and shadows on galvanized aluminum with a sort of subliminal "N" in the design. So I looked at my collection of letters and selected an "N" I'd photographed on the side of a truck a number of years ago. That's all I need sometimes, a background and a letter or number, and I'm off, adding colors, other photos of scratches, peeling paint, ink stains, and more until I'm finally done. It's not a quick process (most of the time). I worked on this a couple of hours yesterday and then got up at 2 this morning to finish it off. It's now 4 a.m. The photo has been uploaded to Fine Art America, is here in this blog, and it's also a part of my Flickr site, where I've got a small gallery of letters that you can see here if you wish: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80859324@N00/sets/72157629024525949/

And now, maybe I should go back to bed . . .

©Carol Leigh

Latest work: "Red C Squares"

My photo of a child's block forms the basis of this piece, to which I added additional photos I've taken of handpainted paper, cement, scratched metal, handwriting, and more. ©Carol Leigh

Latest letters du jour

The big "C" is something I created this morning, combining photos of walls with a "C" I photographed on the side of a railroad car a few weeks ago. The red "F" comes from a fishing boat (I believe — I'm finding it more and more difficult to remember where some of these images come from because I'm shooting all the time). And then the "R" is something I isolated from an overall graffiti pattern on a railroad car in Santa Fe.

The "C" was uploaded to my Fine Art America site this morning. I hope a "letterophile" will like it and want to bring it home! ©Carol Leigh

Cellphone letters . . .

 San Diego. A sign in front of an architectural salvage store. Me with no camera except my phone. These were nothing shots, so I glammed them up a bit with arrows, dots, a few other things, and now they're ready for their close-up ... ©Carol Leigh

Letters du jour

A grouping of "S" photos is my offering for today. The first is a photomontage of the "S" on the fishing vessel "Master Chris," which I combined with texture from a boat hull.

The second is an "S" photographed in Astoria, Oregon, on a textured wall.

The third "S" was recently sold to a textbook publishing company, where it will appear on the cover.

And the fourth "S?" Well, it's totally weird and I'm probably going to throw it out, but it's something I created in Photoshop. Why keep it? Because it took forever to do! It'll eventually hit the wastebasket, but I'm keeping it for now.

Happy weekend, everybody.

©Carol Leigh, back from a quick trip to northern California where she took some of the most boring photos of her life . . .

"M" is for "Monday"

Monday was a day of actual sunshine, so, not unlike prairie dogs popping out of burrows, we hustled outside just to be outside. Walking along the docks at the fishing boats, I noticed the letters on the bow of the fishing vessel "Ms. Law." A voice behind me said, "Why are you photographing that boat when this one is so much better?" I looked over and the "Tana C" was, indeed, quite handsome. "But your boat doesn't have these cool letters!" He looked, smiled, and agreed.

Not content to leave my "M" photo well enough alone, I added some metal, some paper texture, some scratched paint from another boat down in Charleston, and came up with this. It has a kind of Monet-ish look to it (the colors, the reflective "glints," etc.) that I find appealing.

©Carol Leigh, remembering a Monday morning "M"

"P" is for "PLAY"

A "P" found on a railroad car combines with a picture of a boat reflection, resulting in an extreeeeeeeeemly colorful photomontage. (Thinking of you, Janet G.)

This is an example of the alphabetical pictures I'll be continuing to create next year during my "26 in 26" alphabet class that begins January 1.

©Carol Leigh, who believes "P" is for "PLAY," which will be my word for 2012

To zee five

These three have been sitting around for awhile. Time to get them out of the folder and into the light.

The "2" is part of a collage I began but, dissatisfied with it, never completed. As I create physical collages, I photograph bits and pieces of them along the way because, well, because you never know...

The "Z" is a photo of a child's block and then combined with a photo I took of the texture on a wall.

And the "5" is a combo of a picture I took in a bunker in Astoria, Oregon and a 5/flag I photographed on a building in Williams, Arizona.

Happy weekend, everyone. ©Carol Leigh

Numbers and Letters

A letter "Y" from a fishing boat, a soft "4," and then a hard "4" are today's offerings. Thank you for stopping by. Click to enlarge. ©Carol Leigh

CommunicaTion

Yesterday's "S" and today's "T" are a couple of my more favorite letter montages of late. I found the raggedy corrugated "T" in a gutter in Tucumcari, New Mexico and had to bring it home to do something with it. A photo of an old telegram from Western Union as well as a photo of Braille detail on old paper were added to the mix. I. Love. This. Process. ©Carol Leigh

"S" is for "Shrimp"

The alphabet game continues with this very cool "S" I found on a building in Florida. Love the red/yellow color combo. ©Carol Leigh

P-Q-R

The alphabet game continues with these three montages, made from a variety of elements. ©Carol Leigh

Oh Boat

This one began with the letter "O" photographed on a fishing boat. Very cool texture there. Then I added a close-up of a dried leaf for additional texture. And finally even more texture from a different boat I photographed in a boat yard. As usual, various paint splats and splotches complete the look. What makes it for me? The diagonal line the dried leaf made. Doesn't take much to make me happy. ©Carol Leigh

L in Copper

I took a letter punch and pounded it on a weathered copper strip and it came out like this, photographed with a macro lens. Oh, man, this is so much fun! ©Carol Leigh

More letters ...

Letters are always on my mind, and here are a few I've created during the past couple weeks. I love the outrageous colors in the big pink "N," the sort of white-washed and faded look of the "A" (originally photographed on a burlap sack in San Diego), the hard-edged boldness of the "C," and the weathered "G," originally shot in Goldfield, Nevada years ago. ©Carol Leigh

Mmmmmmm

Just a clean, simple "M." As in, MMMMAYBE it will stop raining here sometime soon! It has rained every day but one this month. Every freakin' day. But I'm not cranky...nope, not mmmmmmeeeeeee. ©Carol Leigh

'Ello ...

A macro shot of an "L" from a 1935 issue of Boy Life newspaper combines with metal and a sign to create a new life for itself. ©Carol Leigh

Forty miles south of here ...

Last week we had to run some errands south of us and we stopped in the town of Florence, where I found a terrific "F" for my current online "26 in 26" class. The repeating vertical patterns of posts in an empty marina on the Siuslaw River caught my eye, as did a cool "Bill's Auto" sign on the side of a building. ©Carol Leigh

Money needs laundering ...

You don't see how dirty paper money is until you photograph it with a macro lens. Fortunately it spends readily, no matter how filthy! ©Carol Leigh