What's It Made Of? "Eclipse"

This is a photomontage I created that makes me feel l'm looking at a Pacific Northwest headland that extends out into the ocean with a huge moon or planet or some sort of celestial object in the sky.

Here are the elements I used:

A photo I took of some metal embedded in a sidewalk in La Jolla creates the "headland." Weathered metal on the side of a fishing boat creates the little rolling waves on the "ocean." Up at the fishing boat docks, someone had spraypainted something white. The overspray looked to me like a glow or a halo, creating the "eclipse" look. And then finally, some trees I photographed at sunset in Humboldt County appear to be growing out of the top of the "headland."

My composition was originally a rectangle, but I decided to squarify it because it made the "planet" look bigger and just condensed everything into a tidier package.

I like the "ocean waves" at the bottom, which create an anchor or base for the picture. And I also like how the overspray and the texture of the dock come together to create a Milky Way effect in the "sky."

My purpose in showing you the components is not to teach you how to make a photomontage, but rather to show you my thought process, why I shoot the things I do when I'm out and about, and how I end up putting them together to create something completely new and completely different.

©Carol Leigh, encouraging you to look at your photography a little differently