Small House with a Bug Canvas Print

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This Victorian cottage in Pacific Grove, California is typical of the town's residential areas. I like the way the rounded shapes of the old Volkswagen contrast with the sharp angles on the house. I reduced the color saturation considerably for a more old-fashioned look, reminiscent of old hand-tinted black and white photographs. This one isn't so old, though, having been made in November 2008.

Photo Copyright James Toy.

In the fall of 1959, Mr. Toy entered this world at a place called Carmel on California's Monterey Peninsula. Nine years later his family pulled up stakes for the rain-soaked city of Salem, Oregon where he never quite fit in. When he was 12, he and his mother viewed an exhibit of photographs by a Salem newspaper photographer, which inspired him to take his first photography class. During his teenage years he gradually developed his eye for composition and his skills with light and exposure. Though he did not pursue photography as a career, he has continued to document his observations of the world on small frames of film. In 1984, Mr. Toy and his wife Heidi returned to the Monterey Peninsula where his heart belonged. In 1997, on a bit of...