A small Anacortes exploration . . .

I knew it was a long shot when I began, but I have discontinued my "Photo a Day" project. It's something that has served me well in the past, but it's not "sparking joy" for me right now, has become a small pressure, a responsibility, and is forcing me to spend even more time at the computer, which is not good.

And since I make art every day anyway, it's rather redundant. I don't need to post it all the time.

Big relief! And you know? It's kind of like the pressure I used to feel about reading books. If the book seemed to be going nowhere, and I wasn't enjoying it, I felt compelled to finish it, to honor my commitment to it. Those days are gone. Life is short and is getting shorter. Fill it with what you love, not what you feel you need to do, no matter what toll it may take on your mind and your body.

So these are some pictures I took in an Anacortes exploration the other day. Boats, boats, boats, silvery water, overcast skies, and I'm a happy photographer.

The fishing boat at the bottom is the F/V Oregon, out of Lopez Island, here in the San Juans. And above that is a view of what I believe is a fish processing plant. And the top photo? Pleasure boats moored at the Cap Sante Marina.

A good day. No pressure.

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.

Daily Photo 20190129: Early morning, Keystone Landing

This is a good photo for the day -- taken this morning as we were waiting for the ferry to arrive at Keystone Landing on Whidbey Island. It was a cold, clear, frosty morning, and the only thing we could hear was the chatter of a kingfisher as he moved from piling to piling.

A good beginning to a good day.

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.

Daily Photo 20190128: Dried rose

I've purposely been drying some roses, but I did it all wrong. I just left them in the vase over time, and the flowers all slumped over, doing a huge U-turn at the top of the stem, and ended up facing downward.

I should have removed them from the vase when they were still viable, and hung them upside-down.

These flowers look all squished together and face the wrong way. I tried de-squishing the centers, but that wasn't successful, either.

I ended up photographing an individual rose "face" using my cellphone, then tweaked it in Snapseed, and this is as good as I could get.

Lesson learned. I shall get more roses and do things "right" next time. Heavy sigh.

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.

Daily Photo 20190127: Work in progress

This is a close-up of part of an image I'm working on -- a photomontage containing pictures taken in Anacortes. I like where it's heading right now, but it's definitely not done. Just something I'm working on today, good for my "photo a day" project.

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.

Daily Photo 20190126: Barred owl feather

I've worked on this image way too long today. Am still not sure about it, but it's good enough for my "Daily Photo" project; I just need to think about it some more and perhaps experiment with a few other things.

It's a lovely feather that fell from a barred owl as I was watching/photographing him in the rain. As soon as he flew off, I ran over to see what it was he'd dropped. And naturally saved it.

Small joys that loom large.

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.

Daily Photo: 20190125 Pottery bowl with treasures

The light this morning was soft and pretty, evenly overcast, so I took two things out onto the deck, set them on the table.

One was this pottery bowl that my friend June gave to me years ago. Whenever I find something interesting, I put it in the bowl. It gets full and I remove a few items and continue on.

It always contains the three barnacle-covered rocks found here on Whidbey, the rock I wrapped in Japanese paper and then added a metal button to, and some agates we found on the Oregon coast. The other items come and go.

It's always out. It's one of my prized possessions. As is my friendship with June.

The other item I photographed was an old bottle. I wasn't pleased with the results, so the bowl won out! Another day for the bottle . . .

P.S. I'm a morning person, not a night owl. So my Daily Photo often doesn't get processed/uploaded until the following morning. That explains why very often the "daily photo" date is yesterday and the posting date is today. Not that you really care . . .

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.

Daily Photo: 20190122 Mushrooms still appearing . . .

Except for a couple days of freezing temperatures, we've had a very moderate winter, and mushrooms keep popping up here and there.

Over on the wood pile, rather protected by tall pines, these delicate little guys were growing up between a couple of logs, nicely placed at eye level for my photographing pleasure. iPhone 8+ image.

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.

Daily Photo: 20190121 Abby, then and now . . .

On this day back in 2009 I photographed our cat Abby. She was five years old.

Fast forward to today, where she's 15. And she LOVES this box! We'd gotten something from Amazon.com and put the box on the floor. Well, as you know, every self-respecting cat loves an empty box, and this one seems to be just the right size for her.

She generally tires of a box after about a week or 10 days. Not this one.

What's particularly strange is how much time she spends in it, just staring straight ahead. For maybe 10-15 minutes at a stretch.

Why? Is she thinking deep thoughts? Is she pondering the nature of the universe? The meaning of life? Where can she find a squirrel?

I doubt it, but then who really knows?

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.

Daily Photo 20190120 Kitchen art . . .

We have a stainless steel teapot that has a sleek, rounded look to it. Rather than concentrate on that, I decided to hover over it with my iPhone (that's me in the sort of salmon-colored area holding the phone) just to see . . .

Well, I must say I never looked better!

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.

Daily Photo 20190119 Little beach house . . .

Chris and I walked out on the dock at Langley Marina this morning where, looking back, I noticed this little beach house sitting almost at water's edge.

Overcast, dark-ish lighting made the house gleam, especially that bit of red on the front, and also the very light-colored tree trunks and branches.

A bluff rises up right behind the house, almost four times its height -- most impressive, and just a bit scary. I kept the horizon line low to emphasize the height of the background bluff.

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.

Daily Photo 20190118 What I'm working on . . .

Detail of a larger collage that's part of an artist's book I'm making.

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.

Daily Photo 20190117

I recently got word that my photo of a mosaic bear was purchased as a tote bag from Fine Art America.

It's always cool for me to see how my photos look when they appear on other items (rather than as prints).

Although I don't offer my photos on a LOT of non-print surfaces, for a variety of reasons, the tote bags from FAA are high quality and sturdy. I've bought maybe five of them, and am always pleased.

This is not a sales pitch. In fact, YOU could set up a free account with them, add some of your own pictures, and then buy them yourself -- not only as prints, but as tote bags such as this.

I've included a link to this picture at Fine Art America, so you can see the details better.

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.

Daily Photo 20190116 Scraped Walls

Wednesday's "Daily Photo" is two photos, pictures I worked on a good part of Tuesday and then uploaded yesterday to Fine Art America.

They actually began a couple of years ago. I was riffling through my photo files, specifically the file called "works in progress," looking for inspiration.

I selected a piece I thought at the time was going nowhere. But this year it looked different and so I gave it a go.

This is what happened. Two different but similar pieces that don't necessarily go together on a wall, but individually look pretty good.

The green one is soft, serene, and calming. And I really love the background.

The red/turquoise picture is bold and flamboyant, exciting, not calming. And yes, the colors really grab me.

So there you have it. Two pictures as my January 16 "Daily Photo."

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.

Daily Photo 20190115 Seine fishing nets and buoys

A visit to the dentist is made more palatable when it's a) not raining and b) when there's fishing gear laying about nearby.

And that's what happened this afternoon. We had about 15 minutes, which gave me time to shoot a few bits of boats and a pile of this very fine, aqua-colored fish netting.

My daily photo: done! And now to watch a Golden State Warriors basketball game. Life is good!

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.

Daily Photo 20190114 View from Fort Casey

A very quiet Monday morning and we are up at Fort Casey near the lighthouse, sitting and admiring the view.

A large tanker heads out to sea and a herd (6) deer graze on the lawn. One comes right up to me, I mean, right UP to me, and leaves only when it's obvious I've no treats to offer her.

We see this same deer approach a couple, and their TWO (leashed) DOGS. The dogs are barking, but the deer doesn't even flinch. The dogs lose interest, the deer moves in closer. "Anyone got snacks?" Apparently not. The doe moves on.

But what kind of deer isn't wary of a) people, b) people with dogs; and c) people with dogs that BARK?

We go back home. Where the deer are wary. The way they SHOULD be!

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.

Daily Photo 20190113 Work in progress

A bit of detail from the "Japanese" artist books I'm making. Lots of time spent in the studio today, experimenting with plaster, dyes, inks, and new papers. A fun/frustrating day. But not nearly as frustrating as the Los Angeles Chargers felt...

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.

Daily Photo 20190112 Contrails

Yesterday we played tourist -- walked aboard the ferry and traveled over to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

The weather was postcard-perfect, which meant, for me, boring! But the first thing I noticed were these contrails, swirling and softening in the sky. Remarkable! And so it becomes Saturday's Daily Photo.

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.

Daily Photo 20190111 Yard debris mandala

I'm taking an online class where the first assignment is to make a mandala. I'm waiting for certain supplies to arrive before I begin making mine, but in the meantime . . .

I have mandalas on my brain.

I walked around the yard this morning. We've had some pretty strong winds, so there's debris on the ground -- leaves, twigs, branches, pine cones, lichens, etc.

Hmmm . . . mandalas . . . I began gathering bits and pieces, organizing them on the ground, including a couple of little mushrooms that had popped up out of the moss.

It's more like a wreath than a mandala, methinks, so I'm going to try making some more. Fair warning! You're gonna see more of this stuff!

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.

Daily Photo 20190110 Chandelier lights

Sometimes, when I realize it's later than I think, I zoom around the house in search of SOMETHING/ANYTHING to shoot for the daily photo, I come up with things like this -- a close-up of some lights in a chandelier. I consider this a success, however, because it's something I wouldn't otherwise have thought of photographing.

And that's the point of this daily photo project.

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.

Daily photo 20190109 "Burnt Orange Collage"

I made this collage to be included in a handmade Japanese(ish) book I’m making. I used torn papers, gel prints, and, on the far left, faded and folded paper (used to hold chopsticks) that I found in my father’s dresser drawer after he died.

I also cropped this to a square version, and uploaded both to Fine Art America this morning.

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.