No parking . . .

Lines in a local parking lot. Who says you have to go far to create interesting photographs? ©Carol Leigh

Recycled art

We found ourselves yesterday behind a recycling truck -- packed with flattened-down cardboard. While we were stopped at a traffic light, I photographed this through the windshield of our car. Total grunge!

Two more from yesterday's walk . . .

See what I love about these beaches? The rock colors are amazing, especially on these overcast days.

Geological detail

From yesterday's walk on the "secret" beach. I'm enjoying the colors, the jagged cracks, and the texture. The rocks are all wet, so even in overcast light they have a shine to them that a polarizing filter doesn't cut through entirely. The solution? Don't photograph smooth surfaces; look for the texture. Must make a note to return in July when things might be drier. ©Carol Leigh

Harsh sun + wet rocks = major challenge

When walking the beaches here we need to be aware of what the tides are doing. Pay no attention and you may end up trapped, wet, and cold against the bluffs. Alas, low tides don't always occur when the light is right, and yesterday was a perfect example. Low tide was at 1 p.m. We were there around noon. And it was a glaringly bright, sunny day. Ick.

In addition, the rock faces are quite wet, as recent rains come seeping out from the soil above, dripping down the sides of the cliffs. Bright sun. Wet rocks. The challenge is huge.

What was really exciting is that this is a new beach for me, with different types of rock formations, striations, permutations -- all of which create hyperventilations!

Here are a few shots that came out fairly well. Can't wait for the next overcast day at low tide when I can take some better photos. I am working on a montage concept involving these rock pictures which I'll present sometime next year. I've created 44 so far, but don't really know what I'm doing yet -- not that I ever do . . . ©Carol Leigh

Scarf detail

A lovely present from some wonderful friends. Thank you! ©Carol Leigh

Fishing boat abstracts

Christmas Day and most of the fishing boats are in port, lots of them weighed down in the water with loads of crabs, waiting to offload after the holiday. Bright sunshine created pretty reflections and dark shadows, which are fun to work with. The same bright sunlight made our beach exploration tough for photography, but it's a brand-new beach and it's PACKED with photo potential. Next overcast day that's where I'll be. There's even a little waterfall there.

What you see here is a spliced rope in front of a bright blue and black reflection. Then the aft section of an orange fishing boat reflected in the water. And finally a plain old white-prowed boat. Love the shadow on the right. Very stark image, and it's my favorite of these three. All taken with a Canon 70-200mm "L" lens and a polarizing filter.

Wonderful day. Hope yours was, too. ©Carol Leigh

The sum of the parts . . .

While photographing the bridge, I was attracted to a wall that looked like it had been painted — paint to cover up graffiti. I liked the texture, the subtle shades of grey, beige, taupe, black, etc. So I created a number of individual images from this wall, and finally, in the last photo, I show you what the wall looked like when I first saw it. Cool stuff, no? ©Carol Leigh

The art of seeing -- 091130

My time on the beach yesterday was spent mainly dodging incoming waves. Although the tide was past its height and on the way out, it wasn't going out as quickly as I had anticipated. My room for error was just a few feet between the waves and the bluffs, and I had to jump up onto some rocks from time to time, so I took a few shots and then left. Here's what I made, and then you can see what I saw. Wish I knew more about geology. ©Carol Leigh

Abstract reflections

During my last few forays up to the fishing boats, I notice that I've come back each time with a couple of reflection shots -- pretty patterns in the water. Why? Because of the time of day. When we're out there shooting early and shooting late, the waters may be calmer (more reflective) and the directional light on the boats creates more intense colors and reflections in the water. So if I were to think of putting together a series of photographs, a photo essay of sorts, the concept of "reflections" might be a possibility. Here are a few I shot in the past couple of days. ©Carol Leigh

The art of seeing - 091125

There's a beach down the road (maybe a half-mile to a mile away) that's accessible only at low tide. So yesterday morning I followed the tide out, seeing what I could find. I seem to be on a roll with all this beach stuff, and each beach is different, offering different photo possibilities. Once crabbing season begins (on the 28th), I've got a different beach project in mind that I'll share with you when the time comes, but in the meantime, I'm photographing rocks and sand.

Marianne Jensen has been finding faces in rocks and posting them over at her blog, so I thought of her when I found this "parrot." Here's the shot, and then here's how it looked as I walked past. See? It takes a weird mindset to notice little things like faces in rocks . . . and I know I'm not insulting Marianne when I say that!


A photo that looks sort of mountainous is actually part of a sandy cliff, where the sand has dripped and slumped downward. You can see the photo and then how the scene actually looked.

And finally, yet another rock abstract, something that I extract from a wall of rock -- all at eye level. I took about five different photographs from this one section of the bluff face.

Half a mile from home. And it's taken me what, about 8 years to discover it? Sheesh. ©Carol Leigh

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The art of seeing - 091124

Here's the overall scene and here's what I made out of it. And I KNOW there are a lot of you thinking, "I'm finding the overviews much more interesting than the abstracts!" Yeah, I know . . . I'm weird. ©Carol Leigh

Grasses

While running errands, we stopped to look at a new community college that's being built in Newport. Trees have been removed and grasses planted to prevent soil erosion. Next to the bike path I was struck by the various layers of color and texture. ©Carol Leigh

Astoria, Oregon abstract color

It's fun creating little bits and pieces of color. Here I photographed a railroad sign, an old bakery truck, and an arrow pointing to the door of an antique store that's no longer open. ©Carol Leigh

Colored glass abstract

This morning I set a water glass on my kitchen counter and came up with this pretty cool abstract shot. I used a 100mm macro lens and a 1.4X teleconverter -- the first time I've tried using a teleconverter and a macro lens together. It works great! ©Carol Leigh

Rule of Thirds . . .

A sanitation truck sported these three colorful hoses against a textured metal background and I had to shoot them. Much to the amusement of the truck driver. ©Carol Leigh

Morning walk . . .

I walked a couple of miles on my favorite beach today and found subject matter ranging from subtle to very colorful. I plan on going back (next time using a tripod) and concentrate on creating sand studies as well as colorful abstracts of some interesting rock formations I found. Good exercise. Good photography. ©Carol Leigh

Reflect on this . . .

Gorgeous sunny day today, so it was up the road to Newport to check out the fishing boats. Most were out, well, fishing, but this one was still in port and reflected beautifully in the water. Sunny skies, sea lions, kingfishers, buffleheads, and gulls were the order of the day. ©Carol Leigh