Crabbing season has begun

Crabbers can begin setting out their pots today, but can't begin pulling in crabs until (if I recall correctly) December 3rd. So after midnight last night they were out there, little lights bobbing on the horizon, doing their thing. I walked out to the middle of the Yaquina Bay Bridge this morning, hoping to photograph a few stragglers heading out, boats loaded down with pots, but the only boats I saw were the ones coming in, having dropped their pots and perhaps coming back for a second load.

Here you see the Delma Ann coming back into port and then the Golden Dolphin (not a crabber) heading out. Hate to say it, but the guy at the stern of the Delma Ann looks suspiciously like he's taking a leak . . . But nope, my telephoto lens as the boat got closer indicated nothing flashing as the boat "whizzed" past . . . ©Carol Leigh

On the docks again . . .

Thursdays are sort of our "errand" day and as we venture out, I try to always visit the fishing boats, even if it's just for 15 minutes or so. (I'd be foolish not to, right?) We had great clouds today, so I took a few overviews as well as taking my usual abstract weird stuff. Rain's expected this weekend, so a "sun fix" today was definitely in order. ©Carol Leigh

On the docks . . .

Last Thursday, while running errands in Newport, we stopped (naturally) at the fishing boats to see if there were any "new" boats in town and to check out the light. There are a lot of boats in from California right now, and the lighting was interesting but challenging.

I returned home with a lot of woefully underexposed images. This is the best I could do with what I got. I used a bit of Topaz Adjust and some dodging and burning to bring out what I could. Way too much post-processing work. Should have spent more time on-scene analyzing what I was doing. Hmmmm . . . guess I'm going to have to go back! ©Carol Leigh

This is running errands?

During a trip to Staples we took a slight detour so I could walk among the fishing boats for a few minutes. Always a worthwhile stop. ©Carol Leigh

Newport, Oregon

A trip to Newport to run errands and, since it wasn't raining, a quick detour to spend half an hour among the fishing boats. A lot of what I photograph there consists of paint splatters on the docks, rust patterns, paint dribbles down the sides of boats, etc. All of this is fodder for my photomontages, and elicits a lot of strange looks and humorous remarks from the local fishermen. "You certainly have an unusual hobby," was today's comment. ©Carol Leigh

No rain!

Our first rain-free day in what seems like forever, so we headed up to Newport to run some errands and enjoy the day. The "Kylie Lynn" fishing vessel heads out of the harbor and the shady side of a colorful building in Nye Beach looks particularly good. ©Carol Leigh

Gulls at Yaquina Bay

Sunshine, no rain, so I headed up to Newport to check out the fishing boats. With such bright sunlight coming from the right, I decided to turn this shot into a silhouette. I exposed for the bright water, not caring if everything else went black. Yup, more photos of gulls! At least I'm putting them in context, however, showing you where they live, what they're doing, what their environment looks like. Not just another bird-on-a-stick shot . . . ©Carol Leigh