Lens-Artists…Best ever

/ Leya / 5 kommentarer

A massive thank you to Steve for guest hosting the Lens-Artists Challenge this week. Please visit Steve’s brilliant site where you can find his best ever photos and so much more. I find his photography both unique and impressive, and extremely inspiring. We look forward to seeing your choices. Please remember to link to Steve’s original here and to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

Well, I honestly cannot choose ”best ever” photos from my own archives, so I guess if you asked me next month, they would not be the same. The best I can do (!) is to choose some of my own favourites that I love, and try to tell you why. I am a very emotional person, so, first of all they must touch my heart.

Easy criteria would be prize-winning photos – as this one. But, this is the only picture that I have ever entered into a competition – and in fact – won. It was about very special trees in our life, and this old beech tree that stands in ”my forest” was not already in the book of trees. So, I was the one who filed it in the national site for old trees. I walk past it often and I report if anything has happened to it – like a storm making old branches fall. I do love it.

About the photo: Autumn is the most beautiful time up here, and as this beech is very big, I could see the smaller trees behind it from an interesting angle. Irresistible opportunity.

This caravan spotted in Morocco several years ago was exotic to me at that moment, but what more makes the photo one of my favourites are the lovely memories of that trip and everything about it. The food, the people, the desert itself and its animals.

About the photo: Sheer luck to be in the right place at the right time. This also goes for the next one.

How can I not choose this big yawn? I love cheetahs and had the camera ready when this happened – not a perfect shot, but such a beautiful animal and a fun surprise!

Greenland offered an abundance of spectacular moments and I came back with thousands of photos. The midnight sun among the icebergs was an unforgettable experience, and picking only one photo has been almost impossible. Finally I decided for this special iceberg, not because it is the best photo, but because it took me awhile to figure out that the brownish part on top of the ice must come from a frozen kayak that probably once was lost on the glacier. When? Amazing.

About the photo: I had seen this iceberg when we headed out in the late evening, and kept thinking about it the whole trip. Finally I took some photos because of its mysterious and intriguing history.

Finally, posted a couple of times – but still a favourite – is this family in Bhutan, sitting on the stone wall, looking at a cell phone. I am not sure who is the most fascinated one here, but clearly the thing was not new to them.

About the photo: I seldom take photos of people, but this family was so preoccupied by the phone, that I clicked without asking…

Last week, Egídio asked us for over-the-top photos, and I loved them all. It was great to see such variety and thinking outside the box. We hope you’ll join us next week when Ritva leads us once again. Until then, as always please stay safe, be kind and enjoy the adventure.

Thursday Thoughts – Contemplating the Beauty of Our World

/ Leya / 11 kommentarer

”Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

— Rachel Carson

“I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.”

– Anne Frank

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”

– Gary Snyder

Lens-Artists Challenge #408 – Over the Top

/ Leya / 30 kommentarer

This week Egidio takes us over the top – please visit his site for more inspiration! I hope my examples will fit the bill…because I really had to think hard, and search even harder. I seldom take photos in this category and honestly thought I would not find anything to post.

Let’s start with a literally over-the-top picture – taken many years ago at home. I belong in this category of loving moderate and real things, unless it’s a novel like Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude. I love magical realism. And fantasy.

Here’s my try to go over the top:

Pimp up your car – maybe a bit too much? In New Zeeland they had a thing about this. Every day we saw cars with a special look, or a plate with a funny name. Lovely people with a special set of humour.

As much as I love Chihuly – sometimes maybe less is more. In Seattle we visited his gallery and were totally fascinated.

A tram car in Gdansk…how surprised I was to see this old lady inside! The intense shine was almost impossible to look at, and at home I had to turn down both light and highlight to even be able to see the outlines of the car in the photo.

This window in Riga hardly made me understand what was on display…still I somehow liked it, and stood outside for a long time – in fact I even walked inside. (I didn’t buy anything though…) One must admire people who can find such great variety. love it and somehow put it all neatly together.

If you look closely you will find matching lines and colours. The lavender blue and yellow/golden and the chequered parts. Splashes of red to top it up. Quite cleverly done.

Finally, I see that I have mostly chosen artworks in my post, and that is of course the easiest way to go about this theme. Art is judged in the eye of the beholder, so there will be many different thoughts on what is over the top.

I love Dali’s work, but even I believe he sometimes is a bit over the top! This is his house in Figueres, Spain.

A huge thank you to Patti for the Celebrations theme and for all your wonderful responses from around the world, and thank you, Egidio, for helping us over the top this week! A truly clever and interesting challenge.

Next week, we will feature a guest host. Steve Hyde (of Steve Hyde Photography Blog) will lead the challenge starting at noon EST in the USA. Be sure to tune in and visit his site for inspiration!

Thursday Thoughts – Houses and Colours

/ Leya / 16 kommentarer

One of the first things I noticed in Greenland were all the colourful houses. In this harsh landscape, they really stood out. And they made me happy!

This is a green gym to the left, and to the right a kindergarten. Every kindergarten we saw had these multicoloured fences.

This supermarket chain in Greenland can provide you with everything you want or need. This one in Kangerlussuaq.

We stayed here for some days, making excursions to glaciers and walks in the mountains. The first look into Greenlandic everyday life and joys. As you can see, letting their children out alone was nothing to worry about.

Everyone living here was somehow connected to the airport, and its buildings dominated the whole village.

There were loads of huge containers with everything needed for the aircraft – mostly fuel of course. And, even the containers were colourful…

On our tours out of the town, we saw ”summer houses” in the mountains. Very lonely – but not abandoned.

Next we stayed several days in Ilulissat, a charming town with a busy harbour and colourful houses and boats. It was a relaxing joy to walk there watching the boats come in and go out, loading and unloading their cargo.

Now, why all these bright colours? We learned that there were several reasons to this. One was that a certain colour meant the owner of the house had a special profession and the building was meant for a special thing. Red – churches, schools, Yellow – hospitals and doctors, Blue – maintainment and factories in the fishing industry, Green – post and telecommunication. Black – police stations.

It all started in the 18th century when there were no street names and no numbered houses. It was also easier to find what you were looking for when everything was lost in snow during winter.

Nowadays you can paint your house in whatever colour you want, but most churches are still red and hospitals are still yellow.

Old and new are mixed – as Greenland expand and get more tourists

– but all buildings and houses have their pipes on the ground because of the harsh winters. People also depend upon steps and stairs to reach their front doors…I can truly say I have never walked that many steps in two weeks before.

Close to our hotel we also found some super modern cabins overlooking the sea. Somehow the architects had managed to make them fit in with this very special landscape – both shape and the open glass solution seemed winning concepts.

Many houses were brought from Denmark or Scandinavia and put together in Greenland. They have no forests here – in fact the only thing I might have missed during these glorious two weeks!