Lens-Artists Challenge #265 – Black and White and Monochrome

3 september, 20233 september, 2023 / Leya / 55 kommentarer

Although humans see reality in colour, for me, black and white has always been connected to the image’s deeper truth, to its most hidden meaning.

– Peter Lindbergh

I have come to love monochrome almost as much as colour. I think mostly because you are more free to create another mood in the picture and to enhance features you would like to dominate. Thank you, Anne, for this interesting theme.

I believe details become clearer, and you can easier rest your eyes on a monochrome image.

There is of course another difference if and how you frame your picture…

…and if you go closer or keep a distance to your object.

You decide, depending on what your goal is with your image.

Some images I just love to have fun with in B&W – making them into abstracts…

– here are some favourites from the kite festival at Fanö, Denmark.

I use NIK Silver Efex for my B&W and monochromes. The option ”yellowed” in NIK is a favourite of mine. So is this crow, contemplating the waves, sitting on an abandoned jetty.

I don’t see the world completely in black and white. Sometimes I do.

– Benicio Del Toro

Sincere thank you to Sofia for her colourful challenge last week and for all your photos using amazing primary colours.

Thank you again to Anne for hosting this week, hope you are feeling better now, resting from the accident! I invite you to visit Anne’s amazing site and join us this week. Please tag Lens-Artists and link back to her original post.

Next week, Donna will be our host and that promises to be a treat so, please visit her beautiful site for more information. Keep well!

Thursday Thoughts – Peter Lindbergh

17 augusti, 202314 augusti, 2023 / Leya / 13 kommentarer

Peter Lindbergh

Lightness of Being

Above are: Estelle Lefébure, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz & Christy Turlington, Santa Monica, California, 1988. © Peter Lindbergh. Courtesy Peter Lindbergh Foundation, Paris

Peter Lindbergh’s iconic pictures now at Fotografiska, Stockholm. Lightness of Being consists of more than one hundred works by the man who is known to have redefined fashion photography.

Lindberg preferred B&W to bring out the best of his models.

Lindbergh wrote the following:

”If photographers are responsible for creating or reflecting an image of women in society…then, I must say, there is only one way for the future, and this is to define women as strong and independent. This should be the responsibility of photographers today: to free women, and finally everyone, from the terror of youth and perfection.”

He must have had a favourite model…I guess it could be

Kate Moss

Lens-Artists Challenge #262 – Frame Your Photos

15 augusti, 202314 augusti, 2023 / Leya / 42 kommentarer

Amy has chosen a fun challenge this week, we’ll explore Framing our Photos. She states that the purpose of framing a photo naturally is to create a pleasing composition, so we can direct the viewer’s attention to the subject of our photo.

You can frame a moment. But you can´t frame life.
― Armin Houman

In the opener, St George (Göran) and the Dragon are framed by the vaults in the cathedral. Some of my favourite ways to frame are:

Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
― G.K. Chesterton

– buildings, tunnels, vaults and gates

– windows and doors

All images made from the trip to Stockholm.

Like creating a masterpiece, quitting is an art: you have to decide what to keep within the frame and what to keep out.
― Richie Norton

But, the absolute best thing for me is searching for the natural frames – trees, hedges, stones etc.

There are endless ways to frame your photos, and we hope to learn some new ones from this challenge! Please link to Amy’s original post and tag Lens-Artists, so we can find you in the reader. Many thanks for all of your creative Works in Progress and your beautiful photos. You are always inspiring us!

Next week, John (Journeys with Johnbo) will be our host, be sure to visit his site. Until then, stay creative and be kind.

Lens-Artists Challenge #261 – Work in Progress

5 augusti, 20234 augusti, 2023 / Leya / 189 kommentarer

If you think about it, everything is a work in progress, isn’t it? So, this should be a challenge open to endless possibilities – I can’t wait to see what YOU think when you hear this phrase. Here are some things I came to think of – hopefully they will help refreshing your thinking cap…

Everybody’s a work in progress. I’m a work in progress. I mean, I’ve never arrived. I’m still learning all the time. – Renée Fleming

A work in progress…often we think we know the outcome – and other times we really have no idea. But, that is part of the fun. Planning, longing, guessing, following the project. I know though, that the work in progress in the opener/header, is one of my homegrown cucumbers.

No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying. – Tony Robbins,

The artist here is sculpting with a chainsaw and other, smaller electric tools.

The secret of making progress is to get started. – Mark Twain

Ladies making Churchkhela candy in the streets of Tblisi, Georgia. Smashingly tasty, I promise!

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection. – Mark Twain

– Or?

The construction site in Barcelona as it looked in 2011. This famous project started in 1882, but Antoni Gaudí died in a tram accident before he could finish Sagrada Família. It is said to stand finished in 2026 – a rather long work in progress. We plan to visit then, or when…

Then I must add some examples of budding life – fascinating works in progress.

Failure is success in progress. – Albert Einstein

A new puppy means working on – becoming a sociable dog and hopefully a lifelong companion.

Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. – C.S. Lewis

A newlywed couple with their young daughter. Maybe one of the longest and most important works in progress we can embark upon – growing a harmonious family.

– Gaudi knew…

So, now it is your turn! A work in progress can be almost anything…can’t it? Looking forward to seeing your ideas and images! Don’t forget to link to this post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

Finally, sincerely thanks to Janet and her creative theme Overlooked – which it indeed wasn’t (overlooked) ! And thank you to all our fantastic guest hosts this July – we hope you enjoyed it just as much as we and the readers did! Now we are back to the ordinary hosting, and next week it is Amy’s turn to lead us. Until then, stay calm and be kind – also to yourself.

Oh, and one last, wise quote for all of us to remember:

Allow yourself to be proud of yourself and all the progress you’ve made. Especially the progress that no one else can see.– Anonymous

Wordless Wednesday

26 juli, 2023 / Leya / 10 kommentarer

Lens-Artists Challenge #259 – Unbound

25 juli, 202313 augusti, 2023 / Leya / 53 kommentarer

We welcome Dan as our host this week, and the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this time is to capture moments that break the boundaries of our everyday life.

Today I have chosen to write about a Swedish prince who broke free from his life as a royal and from the conventions and norms he was expected to follow. To feel Unbound. I hope this twist is OK with you, Dan!

Prince Eugen of Sweden was the son of King Oscar II and Sophia of Nassau.

Showing early artistic promise, he studied in Paris, and went on to become one of Sweden’s most prominent landscape painters.

We visited his home in Stockholm, at the beautiful Waldemarsudde.

After finishing high school, Prince Eugen studied art history at Uppsala University. He did not make the decision to pursue a career in painting easily, not least because of his royal status.

Prince Eugen was very open-minded and never married, in an era when royal princes almost always found princesses to wed. His homosexual orientation was unknown to the general public.

In this gallery, we see the prince painting, and next to him another famous Swedish painter, Carl Larsson. His home Waldemarsudde, and pieces from his collections. The last painting was my favourite of his own paintings, The Blue Villa.

Prins Eugen loved Norway, and was also a prince of Norway before the union was dissolved in 1905. He loved flowers, and one of his famous designs is a flower pot – Waldemarsuddekrukan.

Throughout his life Prince Eugen was an art collector, a designer and a supporter of fellow artists. He was also involved in many cultural organisations and committees. He bequeathed his villa Waldemarsudde at Djurgården in Stockholm, and its collections, to the nation. It is now one of Sweden’s most popular museums.

Sincere thanks to Dan for this interesting challenge, “unbound”. Please be sure to visit and link to his amazing post here, and remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag. Thanks also to Dawn for last week’s Fences challenge, and to you for the incredible variety of responses. Finally, we hope you’ll join us next week when Janet of This, That and The Other Thing will join us as our final Guest Host of the month. Until then, please stay safe, be kind and enjoy the journey.

Wordless Wednesday

12 juli, 202311 juli, 2023 / Leya / 15 kommentarer

Lens-Artists Challenge # 249 – Art in the Park

16 maj, 202316 maj, 2023 / Leya / 48 kommentarer

John gives us a chance to feature almost any public art we have met – please visit his inspirational site for more!

First in my post must be an all time favourite of mine – although I don’t remember either artist or name of the work. The rain made it even more unforgettable. I still find her fascinating – and so much alive.

This oversized, strong worker portrayed walking, and the fragile woman walking beside him – I loved the contrast. Look at their hands, and their feet, putting the same foot first.

This is a Prague cavalcade. You will recognize Kafka – and the Lennon Wall I guess. So much to see, so much to take in, so much to love. In the end, it had to be The Dancing House and Charles Bridge, for the goodbye.

Tančící dům

Karlu̇v Most

”Art is where you find it.” John says, – where do you find yours? Your challenge response should include a link to his original post. We can find your post easily in the Reader if it includes the “Lens-Artists” tag. For more information on joining the challenge, click here.

Many thanks to Sofia for her wonderful mood theme. We have learned more about moods in photography from her and from your creative photos. Next week, it’s Amy’s turn to host the Lens-Artists Challenge. Until then, stay kind and well.

Lens-Artists Challenge #243 – It’s Tricky

2 april, 2023 / Leya / 48 kommentarer

This week Donna is our host – and yes, it is this tricky time of the year… she is so clever… but I have chosen tricky things that still are real and true…or most of them are.

Life is tricky – you never know what’s going to happen.

– Dito Montiel

My two dogs (both gone now) posing as ”The Town Musicians of Bremen” from the fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.

Life is really pretty tricky, and there’s a lot of loss, and the longer you stay alive, the more people you lose whom you actually couldn’t live without.

– Anne Lamott

And what is this? Tricky…but soon coming to us in the northern hemisphere…

That’s the tricky thing these days: being able to surprise people.

– Joseph Kosinski

…and so are these little wonders.

Ideas aren’t magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.

– Lynn Abbey

These two furry friends used to have a lot of fun together – and indeed we all had! Talking about all the tricks they played on us…

I think human beings are funny, tricky things.

– Amy Landecker (or Mille and Totti)

I have posted this image a couple of times before – but it is still truly tricky…which one is an animal and which one is a twig?

Double vision makes reading the prompter very tricky.

– Shannon Bream

Earthquake or…no, just modern architecture.

I find it tricky to make plans.

– Isabel Lucas

Time for a dog again…WANTED – dead or alive!

I just like having creative solutions to tricky situations.

– Simone Giertz

This is the fascinating remains of a basilica in Tblisi, Georgia. I walked past it and noticed you could touch the debris through the window, and see across the whole building to another window. Enigmatic.

Making peace with one’s choices is always a tricky feat to achieve.

– Sameera Reddy

As you may have understood, I am not the really tricky sort…so, I will borrow some of Erik Johansson‘s works. He is a Swedish artist based in Prague, who creates surreal images by combining images to what looks like a real photograph, but with logical inconsistencies. The trickiest guy I know… enjoy!

Thanks to Donna for this week’s tricky challenge. Be sure to check out her amazing post, and to link your responses to it here. Thanks also to Anne for last week’s New Experiences challenge. A fabulous trip to Australia, and many interesting responses and tips what you can do and where you can go.

Next week we’re excited to welcome Guest Host Siobhan of Bend Branches so be sure to check out her post at noon EST next Saturday. Until then, please remember to stay safe and be kind.

Thursday Thoughts – Banksy

23 mars, 202322 mars, 2023 / Leya / 35 kommentarer

Banksy in Malmoe! I have no idea how many of you are fans of Banksy, but for me he is an icon. The exhibition in Malmoe is very well presented, and whatever you think of the fact that they are not original works, it would never be possible to show his originals, would it? I believe his genius shines through anyway. Let’s go!

Bristol born Banksy has been wellknown to the world since the 1990’s, and the story of his Girl with Balloon tells us something of how his mind works.