Sand blizzard

There was a break in the storm late yesterday afternoon so we went down to lower Bayshore to check out the houses, which invariably become engulfed in the blown sand. The homeowners' association had been removing sand all day, which was great for the homeowners, but not so great for photography. (Click photos to enlarge.)

A few years ago I put together a series of photos showing the results of these storms, which you can see here: http://carolleigh.net/Bayshore%20Sandstorm/index.html

And just this past February, the houses were covered again: http://carolleigh.blogspot.com/2011/02/sand-blizzard.html

If people were to disappear from Earth, I'm sure these houses would melt into the sea and sand within just a couple years.

©Carol Leigh, happy to be on the east side of the coast highway and up a few hundred feet.

Postcard from Oregon

A big storm has been pounding the coast the past few days with lots of rain and LOTS of wind. (Those of you who have been here for my annual Oregon coast workshop are familiar with the Alsea Bay Bridge, well, a truck and its trailer tipped over onto its side due to heavy wind yesterday afternoon, blocking traffic for a bit.) Rumor has it we may experience a few hours of sun this weekend . . .

Chris and I both wish you a happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful you keep checking in here, leaving your comments, making me feel part of a creative village (if not the village idiot!). ©Carol Leigh

Paper 12

Photomontage consisting of photos of boat reflections, rivets, a torn piece of Japanese paper, photos of hand-painted papers, a "12" from a sign on the docks, and hand-drawn arcs and rectangles.

I'll teach you how to do this in my beginning photomontage online class that starts January 9th, 2012. For more information, click onto my 2012 class schedule at http://www.carolleigh.net/classes.htm.

©Carol Leigh, who is bracing for a big storm to hit us here on the Oregon coast today

Rule of Thirds?

Weird photo, no? A small boat up at the docks is covered with a white tarp to protect ongoing repairs. Holding down the tarp are three plastic partially filled jugs, floating in the water, holding the tarp in place.  And it must work really well, because I believe those jugs have been floating there for at least a year! Click to enlarge.

©Carol Leigh, who has projects in her garage she hasn't finished in NINE years!

Raven, Santa Fe #1 (original collage)

"Raven, Santa Fe #1"
I made this collage using blue, black, and warm brown mulberry papers, rice paper, calligraphy from an 1880s Japanese book on philosophy, acrylic paint, and a raven photomontage that I printed on Japanese rice paper. (See below for a close-up photo of part of the collage.) What's especially fun for me is incorporating my photography into the collage. Hope you enjoy seeing what I'm doing!

 

Size: 6½" x 4½" in an 11" x 14" mat, ready to pop into an 11" x 14" frame (not included). Price: $80, which includes First Class Mail shipping. To order, please visit my online store:  http://shop.carolleigh.net

©Carol Leigh, overwhelmed by the possibilities!

As seen on TV . . .

This is just an experiment... I photographed images on my television, purposely taking them out of focus, blurred them a bit more in post-processing, and added texture. Not sure what I think yet, but it was a fun little experiment. ©Carol Leigh, who apparently is more comfortable photographing people on TV rather than in person!

Possibilities

Combination of my photographs of a bird nest, a page from an old Japanese book, a painted piece of paper, and some cement. ©Carol Leigh, who is conducting a beginning photomontage online class next year and who can't get enough of this stuff...

Gridwork

As I work more with creating physical collages, I'm noticing the concept of using a grid as a compositional "structure." The way I tear and place papers tends to have a grid background. And so it is with these photographs, composed of squares and rectangles that also form an overall grid pattern. Just as I select papers and choose their placement, my photographic eye selects lines and shapes and isolates them to create a (to me) pleasing composition.

The strong vertical lines of a building in Salem, Oregon are "punctured" with smaller, more varied, more colorful little rectangular windows.

The side of an old building in Reedsport, Oregon always catches my eye with its square windows set above equally square non-windows. The texture, the sign, and the broken panes relieve the uniformity of the squares.

In the third photo, a large rectangular shape at the bottom holds up the lighter, smaller rectangular elements above it. And to make it more interesting, there are squares and rectangles within larger ones.

The way books were arranged in an antique store caught my eye. I purposely cropped the scene to form a square to emphasize the squarishness of everything within it.

And finally, the red-painted wood and all the vertical/horizontal lines on a building in Colorado turns into another grid of squares and rectangles.

Strong patterns, vertical and horizontal lines, squares and rectangles within more squares and rectangles . . . these are good compositional elements for us to be looking for as we're out and about.

©Carol Leigh, thinking it's hip to be square . . .

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

The power of backgrounds

In addition to the various drives contained within my computers, I also have 10 external drives — all containing photos. It's getting out of hand, to say the least. I'm in the process of consolidating, moving photos around, and as a result, I'm coming across pictures I'd forgotten about, such as these three.

I took the photos to illustrate what a difference a background can make. I set the pushpin on top of a glass brick. In the first shot, I used holographic shiny paper as my background. Why? Because the pin and the glass are translucent/transparent. I wanted a colorful and "light-encrusted" background to echo the lightness of the pin and the brick.

In the second photo, I put an American flag behind the setup, just to see what it would look like. I LOVE how the stripes look through the pushpin, but the background itself is kind of blah.

And finally I used (if I recall correctly) the holographic paper AND some translucent, gauzy purple fabric, which I waved around during the exposure so that it would blur out.

And now if you'll excuse me, I have a bazillion more images to move around!

©Carol Leigh, who will soon be announcing a new, "Mini-Macro" online class for next year . . .

Autumn

Fern frond and a page from the New York Times in Braille. ©Carol Leigh

Pursue some path...

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." —Henry David Thoreau

Cuervo de Colores

Don't know what the fascination is, but I'm drawn to the Corvid family! This photo of a Santa Fe bird was combined with a photo I took of the side of a fishing boat here in Oregon. Love the subtle colors. ©Carol Leigh

Coockoo

I'm not sure about this one. The components are a leather jacket photographed in Santa Fe, an old carpet shot on the docks in Newport, Oregon, and a matchbox label (thank you, Kathleen A.) from Poland (vintage 1965 or thereabouts).

©Carol Leigh, who is teaching a beginning online photomontage class beginning January 9, 2012.

Boo !

Happy Halloween, whatever costume you may or may not be wearing! ©Carol Leigh

Pelicans!

Yesterday we drove up the coast and, passing Seal Rock, noticed all the pelicans on the rocks. But what really caught my eye were the pelicans down on the beach, something we don't see all that often. Pelicans and gulls were clustered around the mouth of a little creek, preening, resting, seeing what they could find to eat.

Two people climbed down to the beach and began walking south, keeping their distance from the birds (yay), but the pelicans were especially wary, and slowly began taking off. A shutter speed of 1/25 second enabled me to capture the motion of their wings.

Driving back home, late in the day, all the pelicans were gone, and a big storm was coming in. Wonder where they went to ride out the storm? ©Carol Leigh

Fall feathers

About eleven years ago one of my students, Ingrid K., gave me a pheasant "pelt." I don't know if "pelt" is the correct term, but it was part of a bird's skin with all the feathers intact. My plan yesterday was to photograph Indian corn, but when I saw the pheasant, I changed my mind. Aren't the colors lovely?

May your fall be filled with colors like these. ©Carol Leigh

Count your blessings

Tacked to the bulletin board at the fishing docks. ©Carol Leigh

After the dentist visit . . .

After this morning's dentist appointment, in lieu of a lollipop, I treated myself to a walk around the fishing boats in Newport. First off, I was drawn to the turnbuckles, and anyone who has been with me here at my Oregon Coast photo workshop will recognize these, especially you, Janet G.! Their high-tech forms and repeating patterns make them a photographic natural. I commented on Janet's turnbuckle photo just yesterday, so it was fresh in my mind and made me think of her as I shot.

Next is a reflection in the water of a rusty fishing boat. Love the zig-zag pattern and the rich brown/orange colors. The pattern of the reflection sort of moves down the frame in a quasi-diagonal way, thus catching my attention.

The next shot of the drips of water, rust, paint, and general weathering on the stern of a fishing boat is something I'll probably use in a photomontage sometime, somewhere, somehow.

The bright orange float hanging down off the blue boat (and its accompanying reflection) is a good example of complementary colors, and maybe something I'll use to illustrate the concept. Plus the colors were just outrageous and pixels are free.

Below the buoy photo is a shot I took of flags flying from the mast of a fishing boat. The colors are what caught my eye, plus the sky was a lovely blue, something we don't see too often here on the coast. We're close to Halloween, so a photo of a pirate flag seemed like a natural.

The kind of blah brown, white, and black photo is (once again) something I will use down the road in a photomontage. I took a number of versions of this image because, well, you just never know when you'll need something like this.

And finally, a shot of gouges in the metal side of a fishing boat. They were up so high I just held my camera over my head and pointed. What I like is how the scratches look kind of like Asian calligraphy, and that's always useful for a lot of the photomontages I make.

I also took images of cormorants with their wings spread, overviews of the boats in general, more reflections in the water, a bunch of overexposed seagull photos that NO ONE will EVER see, and shots of ropes, cleats, buoys, etc. 

So there you have it, kind of a typical shoot for me after a dentist appointment. Or jury duty. Or after an office supply run to Staples. Or if it's a Thursday. Or . . . ©Carol Leigh (who is conducting yet another Oregon Coast Photo Exploration September 9-12, 2012)

Note: Blogger has been doing some strange things lately. If you click the image to make it larger, often a panel will come up and all three images will be at the bottom, so you can click one after another. But if you click the back arrow to return to the blog, the blog often disappears. Instead, click the "x" in the upper right corner of the panel. The photo panel will disappear and you'll be back in the blog. I'm sure somebody thought this was an improvement... 

Another day, another leaf

I found a leaf, quite pretty. I placed it on top of a piece of paper I had painted. I stretched the photo and cropped out the edges of the notebook that the paper was in. And then (in the last photo) I tweaked it (as is my wont of late). Fall. Sometimes all you need is a leaf, a piece of paper, and some paint. ©Carol Leigh

Note: Blogger has been doing some strange things lately. If you click the image to make it larger, often a panel will come up and all three images will be at the bottom, so you can click one after another. But if you click the back arrow to return to the blog, the blog often disappears. Instead, click the "x" in the upper right corner of the panel. The photo panel will disappear and you'll be back in the blog. I'm sure somebody thought this was an improvement...