Wordless Wednesday
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Lens-Artists Challenge – Mood
Being a teacher for so many years, I know Vincent Nichols’ statement is right: we’re losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person’s mood, to read their body language, how to be patient until the moment is right to make or press a point. Too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanises what is a very, very important part of community life and living together.
Sofia leads us through different moods this week. A wonderful theme, very much needed in this world today. It will be interesting to see how we all react and feel – the same or differently?
The ups and downs in life, in a day, in an hour in a moment… I have tried to find some of those moods. they can change fast, we all know that. Some of them just happen…some of them we can create or change.
I love abandoned places. Walking there I often feel the place wants to tell me something. It is the same mood when I am walking in cemeteries – and in libraries. You feel the prescence of those who were there before you, the prescense of thoughts, words and lives.
What do these images tell you?
I hope they tell stories…
…of those who once lived there or worked there.
Then, let’s try some moods in the rollercoaster of life. Scary, frightening…the mood can sneak upon you when it is getting darker in the forest or in the streets on your way home. For some of us – it’s about monsters hiding under the bed or in the wardrobe.
Mood has to be controlled.
Otherwise, it’s your master.
― Toba Beta
Or, you can create a monochrome madness and play around with it – letting yourself go as dramatically as you want or dare to!
After all this tension, you will need some late evening bliss to calm you down.
But soon, back in the city’s frenzy… in order to survive, there is a need for slowing down again.
Over the years I have found that an artistic mood always makes me calm down and feel good…
… and a festive mood sometimes cheers me up – (but not too often…)
Feeling playful is a great mood for all creatures…
…and so is sheer happiness and love.
To join Sofia’s challenge this week, be sure to stop by her inspirational and beautiful Photographias site. In your own post, please include the lens-artists tag and link to her original post.
In my Backlit challenge last week you inspired me and many of us to use this type of photography more often. Thank you for opening our eyes to all creative possibilities! Next week, it’s John’s turn to lead us, so be sure to stop by Journeys with Johnbo next Saturday at noon EST for inspiration.
In the meantime, I’m hoping that your week is filled with light and creative inspiration. As spring has arrived here, there is much to do in my garden…
Lens-Artists Challenge #247 – Backlit
What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are time and light.
— John Berger
Backlighting is dramatic. It often creates silhouettes, yellow halos around the subject, and/or a brilliantly bright background.
Therefore, backlighting is great if you want to create stunning, eye-catching effects. Here are a handful of specific images you can make with backlighting: Street and portrait silhouettes, bird-in-flight silhouettes, portraits and macros with beautiful background bokeh, landscape silhouettes and sunset/sunrise landscapes.
One of my favourite subjects for backlit photography is flowers. Then I rely on the sun as the light source.
Essentially what photography is is life lit up.
— Sam Abell
However, the sun is not always shining…and some plants bloom only when it is dark, so this night blooming cactus was lit up from behind with a soft lamp.
Another favourite is autumn leaves and autumn scenery. Some years we have very little sun and/or little colours in the leaves, but when everything comes together – the results can be stunning.
Winter offers different possibilities when there is snow and ice. Light and shadow can show off for example fur, uneven ground and a shining layer of frost or snow on top.
If we look at things where backlighting is a must, we will find for example aquariums, various screens (phone, TV, computer, camera, etc…). Stained glass windows are perfect examples of how backlight always have been used. And they are still, today, eye-catching beauties.
The camera is much more than a recording apparatus, it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world.
— Orson Welles
Backlight is a versatile instrument in making pictures really come alive, even if they are only silhouettes or very dark. For landscapes it can be magical.
I am not interested in shooting new things – I am interested to see things new.
— Ernst Haas
My home and my garden are always in my lens – and often in backlight. If you photograph the same things every year, you must vary your approach!
Photography is a love affair with life.
— Burk Uzzle
Finally, I was presented with some lovely roses from my husband last week – I could not leave you without them! The sun is shining in through my windows, and on top of that, I made a double exposure.
Many thanks to Patti for having us try Still Life last week – a really challenging subject, but we all rose to the occation! So many interesting and unusual answers!
Now I hope to have given you a taste of backlit photography, and we are looking forward to seeing your images and posts. Tag with Lens-Artists and link to my original post. Hope to see you soon, but until then, please be as kind as ever to others – and to yourself.
Next week it is Sofia who is hosting on the theme Mood. Places, photography styles, situations or portraits where moods are recognisable.
Lens-Artists Challenge #243 – It’s Tricky
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 – Time is the most precious gift
Life is short – live it, love it, treasure every moment.
My father is 89, and unfortunately life did not grant us much time together. But I love him and always will. His stories and his laugh, his kind eyes and his wisdom.
Being a forest man and a hunter, he’s had many dogs over the years, but the last 15-20 years he did not want to have any more dogs. He said the goodbyes were too difficult.
– and they are. But I feel all the love given over the years makes it worth the pain.
My father worked in this forest for 50 years, and these stones are what is left of the house he once lived in.
I sometimes miss what we could have had together, but I am very grateful for the moments we got. Only these last two or three years, we have come closer, and now it seems time is slowly running out.
I hope to have him with us a bit longer, and that there will be enough time left to give him another beautiful spring. I am not religious, but I pray.
LAPC #234 – Messages
Welcome Donna! Hosting this week with Messages.
Enjoy your search for messages in photography this week. The options are endless. ”Does the message from your last fortune cookie resonate with you? Clouds? Is there street art, neon signs, or store fronts that grab your attention? What about the underlying messages from marketing logos, or the message you want to portray in your photography. Just have fun”. And then, please link your post back to Donna and use the Lens-Artists tag so we can find you.
Ever since life started on earth, messages have been essential for our communication. Every living creature depends on the ability to communicate. Here are some different messages that I have found…mostly they speak for themselves.
Who left this place, seemingly only some seconds ago…? A dear friend who used to love lying in frosty grass. Happy to have captured his message now that he is gone since long.
I was here! Territorial messages can be marked in many ways.
I have never driven one of these, but many youngsters around here have one…Good message for the police to know what kind of car this is…
You don’t have to know the language if there is a message like this on the building. Pictures delivering messages are essential. This one represents one of our oldest theater forms, a craft almost forgotten in many countries.
One of my dear students is a Swedish champion in Jousting…
– taking a break maybe? Or, did he lose or win? I am sure he will return though, for his coat of arms, sword, armour and mask.
Play of words gives me great pleasure – here at the newest aquarium in Denmark – The Blue Planet. I will come back in a year or two with my grandchild.
Art almost always carry messages for us. With open eyes and senses we will understand. The problem is – will we learn?
A special thank you to Anne as she inspired us to take a One Lens Walk last week. Your interpretations to the challenge were creative and inspiring. Hearing more about what lenses people prefer was also interesting. Not surprisingly a zoom lens was very popular.
Now we are looking forward to your messages! Next week, Patti will lead with Shadows & Reflections in Monochrome. Make sure to visit her at Pilotfish for more inspiration.
Interested in joining the Lens-Artists Community Challenges? Click here for more information.
Thursday Thoughts – I Need Light and Colours!
I was happy to see that my cheering up post made more than me happier! So, my Thursday Thoughts will be all for cheering us up in gloomy January. Here we go!
And More!
This gallery was made up by pictures from 2011-2015, June and July. I just flicked through them, and picked those that went straight to my heart. Enjoy! Maybe you want to try the same remedy?
Wishing you all a bright and sunny January!
Wordless Wednesday
Lens-Artists Challenge #188 – A Special Place
Karina of Murtaghs Meadow is our lovely guest host this week, and she wants us to show something of our special place. She writes: ”Many of us have a special place; maybe it is a place you like to escape to when you need a break from the ups and downs of the everyday; or it may be just a place you enjoy spending time. Your special place may be a certain room in your house, it may be a place you like to visit, or it may be a building such as a library, museum, or church.”
Today I chose my own room – left to me when my daughter, Emma, moved out. I have all my hobby materials here, and the window is facing south, so it is always sunny and warm. A welcoming space!
More than me love this room, and last week we had Milo’s girlfriend, Esther, here. Both sweeties kept me company every day when they had got tired of playing outdoors. Reading was not easy though…as the young lady liked to sprawl her longlegged body all over my chair. I had to put a blanket there.
In this chair, I do my knitting and crocheting too, so that had to be paused for some days… I also keep my dried and pressed plants in this room , ready to be put into frames or fit into a card or a book.
The light makes it perfect for my scribbling, painting and doodling as well, as I try to find the old me again with watercolours, pencils and pens. In the yellow box to the right, new little plants find this sunny spot a nice place to start life, or restart it. I think we somehow share this feeling…
Finally, special thanks to Anne Sandler for her Water challenge. We all love water, and your variety of beautiful photographs and posts made the importance of water really shine!
We hope you will join us this week, and we look forward to seeing what makes a place special for you. Get inspired by visiting Karinas post from beautiful Ireland, and link to her original post with the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you.
Next week, Tina will lead LAPC #189, on the subject ”Odds and Ends”.
Thursday Thoughts and Thursday’s Special
Today, I have tried to leave the Christmas chores behind, and went for my favourite challenge – Thursday’s Special from
…. this time with the photos and the assigned words that celebrate children and the child in each and every one of us. Join in if you feel like visiting that child!
Hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying the Holiday Season. Good health, peace and joy to you all!
INTROSPECTIVE
BEFRIENDING
WISH
CHOICES
Leya 