A fun day exploring

Yesterday we boarded the ferry, landed in Port Townsend, and then made our way around over to Port Angeles -- just to see what's there.

Well, the coolest things we found were a bunch of old, rusty cars, which kept me busy for a very long time.

But what has now also kept me busy is trying different effects in Photoshop to see how I can change -- radically or no -- the looks of some of these pictures.

The first photo is a shot of the "Salish" arriving at the Keystone ferry docks, which I changed rather radically.

And then here are two different versions of two different shots, the first one in each set being pretty much what the scene looked like, the second being an altered version.

I don't know what I like and what I don't, having spent now way too much time staring at the computer screen. So I'm going to walk away for awhile (more than a week, probably), and see how they look to me then.

These things have to marinate, don't you know?

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.

FOR SALE ...

FOR SALE: Liquid propane trailer, original owner, great condition (some scratches, a few dents), works great!

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.

Recent work . . .

Lovely rust colors on the side of a ship in drydock, being (sob!) repainted.

I also like the squarified version, which calls more attention to the "good stuff" in the picture.

©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.

Nautical bits . . .

Late afternoon light raking across a rusted ship, creating a beautiful shadow of the chain. Although I like the full-frame, vertical version of the image, I'm more drawn to the "squarified" version. But why?

There's more mystery in the top shot, but more information, more emphasis on the chain in the lower shot.

Either way, gotta love the warm glow of the light!

©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.

Rust ...

"Rust is my happy color." --Carol Leigh, Artist

I published this picture and this quote on my Facebook and Instagram sites today.

Because it made me happy to write it. Happy to say it.

And because when I visit boatyards, explore the industrial parts of cities, or head to the docks, I'm giddy with excitement.

Yup, a few rusty screws and a camera and I'm a happy camper!

©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.

Latest work: "Depth Gauge Five"

Not too sure about this one, so I'm letting it "steep" awhile.

I photographed a rusty metal tank, a number "5" on a weathered depth gauge, and an extremely grungy painted wall to create this mashup of color and texture.

Sometimes these things come together so quickly, so smoothly and they look great. Other times it takes hours, and I'm still not sure. Which is the case here. We shall see. . . 

©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.

Then and now . . .

Rummaging around in old photos (2003!) I came across this image of a painted/rusted chain on a fishing boat in Oregon. I loved this subject matter then, love it now 13 years later.

The camera was my very first DSLR, a Canon EOS D60, which had, I believe, a 6mp sensor.

I was shooting JPEGs, knowing nothing about shooting RAW. Think I'd had the camera maybe two weeks.

But I did use Photoshop (sort of), and so did some post-processing, as you can see in the first photo.

Times have changed and so has my skill level (sort of). And you can see the difference in the second photograph.

So what did I do in the second picture? I used Curves to create a bit of depth. I used the Clarity slider to add a bit more texture to the rust. I darkened the image, added a layer mask, inverted it, and then used a soft brush to reveal the darker area in the lower two thirds of the frame. I used Photoshop's saturation "sponge" to pump up the blue paint on the metal a bit. And then I used some software I bought yesterday -- Aurora 2017 -- to add a bit more grunge and brightness to the image.

The result is a picture where the colors are richer, where there's more depth, and where the blue paint really stands out better against the complementary rusty orange colors.

Not bad for a photograph that began its life as a 3mb JPEG.

©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.

It's a good day to . . .

. . . be oxymoronic with a photo of "new rust." ©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