Thursday Thoughts – A Precious Meeting!

/ Leya / 29 kommentarer

Look who I met in Malmö! Margaret ( of From Pyrenees to Pennines) and her husband Malcolm. So grateful for seeing you for a couple of hours – strolling, chatting, and of course we enjoyed a Swedish Fika! So sorry for my lack of knowledge of the city – but at least we saw the castle and Turning Torso…and, you brought sunshine to this constantly windy and rainy city. I’ll have to rethink my opinion of Malmö…

Dear Margaret and Malcolm, I wish you a wonderful stay in Sweden and a good piece of Midsummer celebrations!

Ann-Christine

Lens-Artists Challenge #401 – More Tips on How to Focus on the Subject

/ Leya / 31 kommentarer

Patti is back with a new Challenge! Please visit her beautiful site for more inspiration and joy!

As the wedding cake was the star, I had to Get in closer!

In the dark forest, I used Selective focus to make these buttercups shine. And some negative space…

Leading lines is a trick to use whenever possible. This is a Japanese garden in Sweden.

We invite you to join us this week as we explore more tips for creating engaging and memorable photos. Here are the guidelines from Patti:

Select 2 or 3 tips and compose your photos. Try to limit them to 4. Identify what tip you used.

Looking back…last week, Tina explored the rule of threes and how our minds linger longer on an odd number of objects. Fascinating! Next week it will be Sofia’s turn to challenge us, so stay tuned for her great post on Saturday, June 13th. In the meantime, stay curious, be nice, and find beauty in unexpected places!

Thursday Thoughts and Wordless too…

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

My calendar is full these days – and I guess it’s the same with you… I have great difficulties in keeping up with everything.

Babysitting, and going with my son and the grandchildren to see a puppet theatre…

…then to a nunnery and castle for a great exhibition of Ukrainian quilt art.

As I have close contacts with Ukrainian friends, I admire their art, their resilience and ingenuity.

We had three major birthdays too in May!

I also met an Alien…

…and realized how much I love stripes…

…and beautiful skies!

You get the idea? My mind is reeling with thousands of things. We also have guests living here for some days. Even if I love having all these events around, deep down I am a person who loves silence and being on my own, doing my own things. I could easily live alone in a cottage – with a dog or cat.

Could you?

Lens-Artists Challenge #400 – The Rule of Three

/ Leya / 35 kommentarer

Tina reminds us this week of the rule of thirds, and points out another ”rule” to try, the rule of 3. Please visit her beautiful site for more inspiration! I decided to give my morning dogwalk the first try. And three beautiful birch trees were my choice – but, they were impossible to catch in only one photo! Here they are, three in two – top to bottom.

The magic number is three

At noon, we went for a visit to one of our nearby castles, Bosjökloster, where we found several exhibitions giving possibilities within the rule: here some beautiful straw vases and straw bags.

Straw craft reminds us that true beauty is grown from the earth and shaped by patient hands.

— Anonymous

Close to the playground, there were some colourful hens walking. I waited a while to see if they would come together for a photo, but this was the closest they got to each other. I could not resist a photo anyway.

We’re not just friends, we’re family

“Three things are needed
For humanity to co-exist:
Truth, peace and basic needs.
Everything else –
Is irrelevant.”

― Suzy Kassem

Another exhibition at the castle featuring Ukrainian artists’ quilting (Ukrainian Quilters Association) – was totally fascinating. Their skills, the motifs honouring damaged cities and villages – and some places that don’t even exist anymore.

They are a strong people, Ukrainians, and they will never be defeated. Even the war pieces breathed of hope and a peaceful future. They are also assembling quilt patches from more than 36 countries over the world, making a1.1 km long quilt to be rolled out on Kyivs main street, Khreshchatyk, when the war is over.

Thank you, Tina, for another interesting challenge! I hope you’ll join in exploring the concept of 3 in photography. If you cannot find examples in your own work, maybe head out like I did, to see how many 3’s you can find once you start looking! Please remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag in your response and to link to Tina’s original post to help us find you. Many thanks to Egidio and to his respondents for last week’s beautiful explorations of being “stuck in place”. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope you did too. Finally, we hope you’ll join us next week when Patti leads us once again on her P.A. Moed site. Until then, please stay safe and be kind.