I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille ...

I wanted to check out an art gallery showing in Newport today and afterward I walked over to the ocean overlook where invariably there are lots of gulls, all looking for handouts. If my lens had focused closer than four feet, I could have gotten even closer to this guy -- he was fearless. ©Carol Leigh

A good morning on the beach

I've been really sick. And I'm sick of being sick. So today I pretended I was well and went to the beach to photograph. I think it worked. I faked myself out and am now ready to roll.

The bluffs that I photograph are incredibly colorful. Even more so when they're in the shade, which is when I do most of my shooting there. My "technique" is to walk along the shade of the bluffs on the first half of my walk and then move out into the sun on my way back to see what else I can find. That is, if it's a sunny day. But look at what I see in the shade! Look at the blue and orange colors. Is this not cool, or what? And wait until you see what I've done with all these various rock photos I've taken. It's astounding, if I do say so myself. And I do.

I found a feather -- a very good-looking one -- and photographed it on a rock, then stuck it in my hat to take home to shoot again. I checked my shadow on the sand from time to time to make sure it was still there, still sticking up, making me look like some homely, decidedly un-Disney-esque Pocahontas.

As I was about to leave the beach, I took a moment to photograph some of the what I call "agateers," folks out in droves slowly walking the beach, agate scoopers in hand, hunched over, bent over, eyes glued to the sand, looking for that glint of shiny translucence that is an agate. This was a good day for them, lots of sand had washed away, leaving a gravel-like surface that's a treasure trove for agate-seekers (of which I used to be one, until one day I wondered what the hell am I going to do with all these agates and have I officially turned into a beach geek? Will a metal detector be the next step for me?).

And so you see here a frizzy-haired woman with a stick, peering intently at the sand, looking like I will probably look when I'm REALLY old (like next month). And do you see the fishing boat just off the coast? It's a beautiful day here today. I'm giddy with the sun. And now back to doing critiques in my current online class . . . ©Carol Leigh

Photo surprises

I like to be surprised, and while riding as a passenger in a car, shooting through the window, I've got nothing BUT surprises! We had an appointment inland this morning and en route I photographed (1) the pink and blue colors of sunrise at Ona Beach, (2) the soft pastel pink, purple, and green colors of trees in the distance, and then (3) bright sunlight coming through a line of trees.

This is easy photography (well, sorta). I use a 70-200mm L lens most of the time, setting my camera on shutter priority, using a shutter speed of maybe 1/5 second, and an ISO of 100. For these photos I also had a polarizing filter on the lens. I'm shooting primarily through the windshield, although sometimes through a side window. It was a good morning today. ©Carol Leigh

Home again

My flight home from San Diego didn't arrive until late afternoon on Thursday and it was pouring rain, so we elected to stay in a motel and drive home today instead. (It's a 3.5-hour drive from the airport to our house and it encompasses one of the most dangerous roads in Oregon. In the dark, in the rain, and when we're tired isn't the best time to be traveling.) So this morning we set out before sunrise and, en route, decided to take a few detours to see something different. The lighting was exquisite. Beautiful clouds, no rain, little patches of fog here and there, and then the coast was crystal clear, with the ocean looking a rather tropical blue and green with big waves coming in from the south.

In the first photo, I liked the strong shape of the tree and how the road leads my right up to it. The second photo is especially appealing to me because of how the tops of the trees seem to echo the tops of the hills in the distance.

The third photo shows how sometimes loggers will leave one sentinel tree remaining on a hillside, and this one really stood out way up there. And then I took a drive-by shot of trees lining a golf course. The grass of the course was in blue shadow, so it appears quite aqueous in the picture. And then finally the Oregon coast, from a vantage point just up the road from our house.

I'll be prepping and posting some of the photos from my San Diego trip once I get them off my laptop and into my "real" computer. ©Carol Leigh

Two more from Waldport

Two more from yesterday's little walk around Waldport. A colorful door on one side of the street, and a colorful little shop n the other. And this is about as much color as we've got around here! Most things are weathered silver, grey, and green, and oh, yeah, there's rust ... ©Carol Leigh

Thirty minutes in "town"

We had a horrendous wind/rain/lightning/thunder storm last night. Abby spent the night under the bed in the guest room and I felt like joining her! I read that the rains are supposed to begin again oh, right about now, so earlier I went into town to see what I could find to shoot.

I liked the nautical decor on this bayside home. And then I found a mural painted on the side of a small building.

In my current online class, students have been working on an assignment called "Extreme Colors," and I'm hearing some whining from the Californians ... "It's dark and gloomy here and I can't find ANYTHING to shoot." Weenies. I found a colorful door on the main street of our town, and then on my way back to the car created a sort of weird composition of the corner of a house. Pretty good colors. And I live in OREGON, you California wimps!  :-)

When you come to the fork in the road . . .

Attributed to Yogi Berra: "When you come to the fork in the road, take it." We had to go inland today in the middle of a miserable wind- and rainstorm. I shot through the windshield, as usual. I manipulated this picture in Photoshop to create something kind of whimsical.

And what did we learn? A Trader Joe's is opening next month just 1½ hours away! Woo hoo! ©Carol Leigh

Nye Beach miscellanea

After lunch we took a walk around Nye Beach, a place that Sir James would call a "target-rich environment." I found a nautical-looking door, a leather purse inside a store window, some colorful architectural detail, and some funky texture. Every time I walk around this town I find something new and different and cool to photograph.

We headed home, but at Seal Rock we had to make one more stop . . . ©Carol Leigh

Wait, wait, wait!

Finished with the sea lions, we were back in the car and I spotted this. Do we just drive away, or is it worth getting the camera out again? "I'll hate myself if I don't take this." Chris is so patient. Thank goodness. What makes the scene for me is the lone crab pot buoy leaning up against the building. And no, I don't carry one around in the car to carefully put in place before shooting! (Although hmmm . . . not a bad idea . . .) ©Carol Leigh

Tourists from San Francisco

After we walked around the fishing boats, we decided to check out the sea lions at Port Dock 1. Earlier we'd seen a TV news crew there and so figured there were probably lots of sea lions about. Well, there were maybe 12 . . . But over on the jetty there were lots of them hauled out plus a big raft of them just floating around with their flippers sticking up out of the water. My lens was too wimpy for distance shots, so I concentrated on shooting straight down on them as they dozed on the docks. In the second picture, doesn't it look sort of like a sheep? ©Carol Leigh

A good day for photography

We went north to run some errands and I had a great time photographing all along the way. From the passenger seat I photographed this guy in a cherry picker working on electric lines and power poles. I used a 70-200mm lens set at 0.3 seconds to create plenty of blur.

Next I used a fisheye lens to shoot an overview of the docks. Not good at all, but definitely different.

And then walking along the docks, still with the @#$% fisheye lens on the camera, this fisherman leaped up and said, "Here I am!" So naturally I had to take a shot. See how the brown pole on the right is curving inward? Fisheye lens. We stopped to talk, asking what the barrels were for, what are they catching? "Liquid gold, liquid gold." Actually, what they're catching are slimey eels, also known as hagfish. (Don't look them up, they're disgusting.) The eels crawl into the openings and can't get out. The catch is then sent to Korea, where they're used for wallets and as an aphrodisiac. Apparently they sell for $20/pound over there.

More to follow . . . although "slimey eels" is a hard act to follow. ©Carol Leigh

Um, Pier 39? We've found your sea lions . . .

If you're wondering where your 1,700 sea lions went who used to live at Pier 39 in San Francisco, well, we've got 'em. They're slowly drifting north and will probably be just off the coast of Depoe Bay this evening if you'd like to retrieve them.

As I looked out onto the water this morning, I saw rocks offshore. Rocks that have never been there before. Looking again, nope, they're sea lions, with their flippers sticking up out of the water, just past the surf line. This is not a good shot since my lens was too wimpy (200mm). I've cropped it down and tried to smooth out the grain so you can see what I saw.

Having read this morning about the disappearance of sea lions from San Francisco and how large herds have been reported off the central Oregon coast, I figured I'd let SF know where "their" sea lions are currently hanging out. I'm sure they'll be heading home once the next storm comes through. But they seem to be enjoying our 58-degree temperatures at the moment. ©Carol Leigh

Nothing but net . . .

It was overcast but not raining this morning, which is perfect weather for me to photograph a place I call the "fishnet ranch." Big piles of colorful fishing nets are scattered about in a huge parking lot. For me, it's incredibly exciting, sort of like how I used to feel as a kid going to Disneyland.

Last month I was looking at some of my previous photos taken at this location and was thinking that they were all starting to look the same. Does this happen to you? You visit a place over and over and uh-oh, you're not doing anything new? This time, I really TRIED to come up with different stuff.

Something that caught my eye was how dark black the freshly surfaced parking lot looked — wet and clean from previous rains. I knew that by metering off the lighter-colored nets, the black would go even blacker, thus setting off the bright colors. Black + overcast light = jewel-like colors.

So, for me, this is something different. Instead of concentrating solely on patterns in the nets, I included the asphalt. It grounds the piles of nets and helps emphasize color.

Remember the old movie with Alan Alda — "The Four Seasons?" One of the characters was a photographer. And all she photographed was fruit. Finally she had a breakthrough, announcing she was no longer photographing fruit. She was going to photograph vegetables. Methinks this "radical shift" for me might be akin to forsaking fruit for vegetables . . . ©Carol Leigh

The last of yesterday's shots

As I ended my walk yesterday, the sun was getting lower, making the bluffs to the east look golden brown. They reflect in the wet sand left by the receding tide. Usually I'm walking just below those bluffs, looking for rock patterns, but this day I was way out, following the tide.

The second shot shows how the beach looks down to the south, down to the big formations known as Seal Rock. The top of the photo is where I begin my walk. Love how the clouds reflect in the wet sand.

We rarely get cloud formations such as this at sunset. Usually the sun sinks into an offshore marine layer, things turn grey, and it's over. This afternoon there was a bit of drama before things turned grey.

And finally, just because I could, I took the second photo, copied it, flipped it, and then turned it into an orb. I liked the surprise of the infinity symbol turning up. World without end. Amen. ©Carol Leigh

Minus tide

A big minus tide this afternoon and NO RAIN! Hoo ha! Scurried over to the beach to see what I could find.

I liked the clear, clean look of this footprint in the sand, and included part of a little "creeklet" of water at the bottom for a bit of interest. There are bowling ball-like rocks that show up at very low tides and the golden sunlight caught my eye. Metering is a challenge with such directional light and I find myself talking to myself, saying "meter here" (lock in the exposure), "focus here" (wherever that happens to be), "recompose, click." So repeat after me, "Meter here. Focus here. Recompose. Click." And in the third shot you can see the beach as I saw it on my way back to the car.

A good little walk. A bit of exercise. Away from the computer. And photos that I'm pleased with. Yowza! ©Carol Leigh

Outgoing tide

I spent about an hour this afternoon walking on my "secret" beach, managing to time my departure just before the rains began. Most of what I shot were rock abstracts taken along the bluffs, but I also liked this orange rock sitting on blue-black sand, with grasses swirling around it. The outgoing tide swept the grasses in one general direction and created gentle, photogenic curves. ©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

Final shot

As the light began to fade, I put the camera on a tripod and created this shot, a 2-second exposure at f/32 to soften the entire scene and to create a feeling of time and movement. Love the green glow in the wave -- a hint of color in an otherwise monochromatic image. ©Carol Leigh

Las olas de Yachats

More from yesterday's incredible wave action. Woo hoo! ©Carol Leigh