Flowers

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #49 – Favorite Things

/ Leya / 55 kommentarer

Our host this week, Patti, challenges us to show some of our own favorite things! They may be old or new – but all of us have favorites…

Many favorites have their own story, and some of my favorites are living things. In the header, a precious tulip I got from a collector, a friend of mine who sold his garden last year – he and his wife are now in their 80’s, and found it too hard to maintain it all.

Voltaire had Candide concluding, after all his travels around the world: Il faut cultiver notre jardin – ”We must cultivate our garden”.

And in my garden, I find the peace and magic I need when life gets too busy. I guess he was right, the old Voltaire…

Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. ― Anatole France

My best friends ( maybe not ”things”… but…) – Totti and Milo – belong to my family, and therefore they are also my favorites, together with my other children. I grew up with animals – so living without them would be impossible.

The orchid is Mother Nature’s masterpiece. – Robyn.

I have kept my grandmother’s geraniums for more than 30 years, and they are my favorites as well. I can see her loving smile whenever I tend to them. The same feeling is there for other flowers I once got from old friends and relatives, now gone. But the orchids are something extra when it comes to beauty – first and foremost this delicate Cattleya, which has lived here for quite some years now. A glorious treat when in flower, filling the rooms with a delicious scent.

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.
― Groucho Marx

Not to forget – books and pencils, of course… Favorites for reading, writing and sketching. Preferably outside of a dog…

 

Welcome to join in the fun! Remember to link your post here and tag it ”Lens-Artists” to help us find your post in the WP Reader.
Next week, it’s my, Ann Christine’s, turn to host the challenge, so be sure to visit!

 

 

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #48 – Wild

/ Leya / 44 kommentarer

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”  – Henry David Thoreau

Tina encourages us this week to go Wild! And, this time of the year I spend as much time as possible outdoors, in the wild, so my decision was easy – to go for my own neighborhood and use the most common meanings of the word Wild (according to Wikipedia) –

 

Wild animal – I met this lovely deer on my morning tour a couple of days ago. She noticed me of course, but waited patiently in the sunlit glade until I was gone.

Wilderness – a wild natural environment not significantly modified by human activity.

Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Represented in the header by a wild rose.

One of the most fascinating things in the wild is the metamorphosis of butterflies. Here some caterpillars of the small tortoiseshell, feeding on stinging nettles…

…but later developing into these beauties – Wild Wonders!

Finally, Wildness – the quality of being wild or untamed……easily recognizable even in domesticated animals – such as my dogs running and chasing each other like maniacs.

 

Would you like to go wild for a moment? Welcome to join in! Tag your entry ”Lens-Artists” so we can find you in the reader. And stay tuned for next week’s host, Patti, for challenge #49!

Lens-Artists Challenge # 44 – Harmony

/ Leya / 38 kommentarer

Tina challenges us this week to think Harmony – and in her splendid post, she encourages us to show our favorite harmonies. In short, Colour Harmonies are colors that look good together. If you have ever taken classes in painting, you should be familiar with the colour wheel. There are many different systems to create a color harmony. You will find a useful, free tool, for colour harmony here.

I guess colours are always a part of what makes up our inner concept of ”Harmony”, but there are also other types of harmonies. These are some of my favorites.

Art is a harmony parallel with nature – Paul Cezanne

Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece Sagrada Família.

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. The term ”organic architecture” was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), and Wright’s ”Fallingwater” is a very good example – but the concept can also be illustrated with an old Nordic cottage like this one.

 

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the Universe

– Marcus Aurelius

A life in harmony with nature, the love of truth and virtue, will purge the eyes to understanding her text –  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony – Mahatma Gandhi

Harmony is pure love, for love is a concerto ~ Lope de Vega

Even if some will always be playing out of tune…

…it still is a Concerto.

With love from the vast tulip fields in The Netherlands.

So, How do you reach colour harmony in your picture if it isn’t there from the start?

A simple and effective way to change its mood is to shift the white balance either towards the warmer or colder temperatures. This can often also push the image towards a colour harmony. One of the simplest yet also most effective ways to further tune your colour harmony is to use the Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity (HSL) panel in Lightroom.

Or, if you were a certain fashion icon: Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.

― Coco Chanel

 

Thank you to Amy for last week’s lovely ”Less is More” and we’d love you to join in with Tina’s ”Harmony”!

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #43 – Less is More

/ Leya / 47 kommentarer

Amy challenges us to think Less is More – and that, is always a challenge… In photography we often talk about simplicity, and a photo standing on its own. No need for words. Often Black and White is helping us to achieve that.

So, let us slow down…because “Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius

Less is More even when the ground is covered in spring flowers below a blue sky,

or when a lonely path strives to reach the mountain lake – because colours matter here –

The history of the phrase Less is More, is that it was adopted in 1947 by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohem. Since then, the aphorism is one of the most used (and abused) in design and architecture.

Originally though, this is a 19th century proverbial phrase, first found in print in Andrea del Sarto, 1855, a poem by Robert Browning. And it still is a phrase very much alive!

mera-vc3a5r-2012-066-e1556356786995.jpg

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”   – Leonardo da Vinci

 

Thank you for all your innovative and creative contributions to my hosted challenge Creativity last week!

 

 

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Flower Power

/ Leya / 16 kommentarer

Flower power was a slogan during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence. It started as an opposition movement to the Vietnam War. Originally, the expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles. Hippies dressed in clothes with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair.

Who, my age, didn’t love the musical Hair?

As you can see, the theme of this year’s Keukenhof flower festival was Flower Power.

And Flower Power there was – in abundance. The pictures in this post all come from only one of all the exhibition halls…

Tulips, orchids, roses, hyacinths, anthuriums – cars and clothes!

As you can guess…I could have stayed here forever. After an hour or two, my poor husband found a chair somewhere…But, admitted that this was a glorious feast to the eye. To see the whole exhibition area, or most of it, we spent the whole day. Unforgettable.