LENS ARTIST CHALLENGE # 415 – MOVE YOUR BODY

Anne‘s challenge this week, is designed to make us move – not use our zoom lens, if we have one. So, your challenge this week is to move your body up, down, forward and back.

I decided for some of my Netherland photos, as I remembered how much I had to move and squat to get them. A first look at Paul Kubics’ The Temptation of Saint Antony at Keukenhof, and then walking closer to see all the details – and there were many! This is a truly fascinating work of art.

The last temptation was the most difficult one to photograph…

In Norway there are many tunnels for drying fish. It’s easy to walk them and then get up close to see what the fish really looks like. No squatting needed. (Sorry, not much excercise!)

I do think I prefer the long shot…

When we visited the dahlia festival in Holland, we could stand close to the passing trailers and different participants.

After the parade, we walked to their parking place and could get up really close to see the meticulous work with the flowers.

In September 2022 I had a beautiful visitor in my garden – a hummingbird hawkmoth. He was so absorbed with my salvia, that I could get close and watch him working from every angle. I had a great experience and will never forget those moments.

Every summer since, I have been waiting for him, and I plant his favourite flowers…

– but he hasn’t come back. Maybe next sumnmer?

I cannot leave out Greenland, can I?

Traveling through the ice you look ahead all the time, but close to the boat things happen as well. You hear it!

I went down to a lower deck and had a look – fascinating!

Our guide was fishing ice for the drink…

When you post your response to this challenge, please link it to Anne’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag. A huge thank you for your wonderful harmonies last week! My only wish is that they will stay with you too – they have surely stayed with me!

Next week, Ritva will be leading the challenge, so please visit her beautiful site and look out for her post. In the meantime, stay safe and be resilient!

Macro Monday – Golden Orb Spider

I admit it is elegant and beautiful… about 50mm body and at least 50mm legs.

The female is a giant and the male a dwarf in comparison. Several males can sit in the web, waiting for an opportunity to mate. If they move too fast though, they will be her prey instead of her lover.

Leaving a line of waste is done to protect the net from birds flying into it.

Spiders are not my favourite animals, but our ranger’s story made it fascinating. Their bite is harmless and comparable to a bee sting. Their webs are strong enough to stop small birds in mid-flight. The silk is as strong as Kevlar, which is the strongest known man made material.

Thursday Thoughts – A Fascinating Meeting

Every year I am eagerly looking for a little creature that I first met in France, and then – in September 2022 it visited my own garden!

The Hummingbird Hawkmoth. When I first saw it in that European garden many years ago, I thought it was a hummingbird – but knew it couldn’t be… So fast, so energetic and so beautiful.

Then a couple of these fasciating creatures visited my garden, 2022 and 2023. Nothing last year…I even planted this particular salvia to make them come back to me.

Then suddenly, last week, when we had a spell of summer again – I saw one of them in my Buddleia! The salvias were almost gone, so I really had given up hope for this year too. It was too dark for photos though – you have to make do with the old ones.

Little things – they make me happy. And – we should never give up hope, should we?