Landscape

Looking Back at LAPC #373, #31 – Landscapes

/ Leya / 54 kommentarer

Landscapes – chosen by Egidio, needs no presentation. And, his choice was no surprise to me. He is a fantastic photographer and his landscapes are always extraordinary. Be sure to visit his beautiful site for inspiration!

How to choose photos…well, I have chosen from some of the places that had and still has the greatest impact on me. (I didn’t choose any of those from my entry #31.) I am not really a landscape photographer, so, there is not a multitude to choose from either. I guess you have seen some of these before, but I hope you will enjoy them anyway.

My first landscape is the Sahara desert dunes – I was not prepared for the love that immediately struck me. The stillness, the silence, the beauty. The surprise at how many creatures actually live here in the dunes. We saw scarabs, a gerbil and a fox the same day. And camels of course…

The desert had the same colours as an Autumn day in the forest in Sweden. In fact, the rest of my pictures are from ”home” – Scandinavia. This photo was taken yesterday in ”my” forest. I hope a forest counts as a landscape…

In my own garden I find different landscapes too. Lying on the ground, they become tiny dreamscapes through my lens.

In norhternmost Denmark there is a spot where two oceans meet (Skagerrak and Kattegatt). The sky is incredibly beautiful at Skagen. This is the place where famous painters go to catch that special Nordic light. In the 19th century the Skagen Painters resided here.

Iceland is a country with very different and rugged landscapes. You who follow me know it is my favourite place to go. Only once we were there during the winter season – but it was magnificent. And cold. This is the frozen Gullfoss waterfall.

Finally, the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen, are all in Lofoten, Norway. Wherever we went, they just took my breath away. I have never before, or after, taken so many photos in so short a time. Not many were discarded…

”Can you select only a few of your best landscape photographs?” Please choose no more than six images for your post. It should be a challenge… And, don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag so everyone can find your post in the reader.

Thank you for your beautiful responses to Tina’s Ephemeral challenge. There were so many wonderful images, and some I never would have thought of! Next week, it’s John’s turn to give us a new challenge. It will go live at noon EST in the USA. Tune in to find out more about the challenge then. Please see this page to learn more about the Lens-Artists Challenge.

Thursday Thoughts – Frosty Nights

/ Leya / 16 kommentarer

They are here – the frosty nights and glorious days. Usually they will last for a couple of days only, if it doesn’t start raining or gets windy. Enjoying it to the full!

I go visit my favourite spots and I go alone…

Sometimes you find new places, new paths, but I always start where I know what I can find. Time is short before the sun – and the temperature – rises too high.

No wind, only the clear sky and the beautiful sun trying its best to melt the frosty stems and restore the colours.

The magic of cold and warm colours together!

Lens-Artists Challenge #346 – Cinematic

/ Leya / 30 kommentarer

Sofia leads this week, and we’re exploring the close relationship between photography and cinematography and how we can emulate in a single shot what movies do.

There are a few things that give a photo that cinematic feel: camera angles, bold and high-contrast colours, light, locations, just to name a few. The main objective is to take a shot that is part of a story, there’s mood and a sense of location; our image is but a snapshot of a much wider situation.

I have consentrated mostly on horror and mystery movies…where B&W plays a big part of the feeling. In fact I was surprised how many pictures I have got on that theme… But, there are some other examples too of course.

This first picture is from the Tutanchamon Immersive – loved the feeling in this one – and the colours are familiar.

Maybe not a horror movie – but the bridges and bicycles of Amsterdam is very cinematic. Audrey Hepburn? Greta Garbo? I can feel their prescence.

Did I say horror? This ominous image from some years ago, could have been used in any such movie. The following two were photographed in Whitby, where Bram Stoker lived for a while to write Dracula. The perfect place for inspiration!

This graveyard in Whitby started falling down to the sand (to the left here), with old bones spreading along the beach.

Then steam and mist are also favourites to make a photo more interesting – and cinematic. These are hot springs in New Zealand.


More scary again…this Great Frigatebird, in the Galapagos Islands, is sitting on the roof, waiting for the right moment…to steal food from another bird. Everything about this species makes it a star in any horror story.

Vast landscapes also feel cinematic – this is in Tibet. My son down by the lake – how far away is that? It’s always tricky to decide.

This is an old favourite of mine – a motor cycle gathering in Barcelona. I guess it is the spotlights behind the building that makes it cinematic to me.

What is more cinematic than a romantic dinner in Morocco?

And, of course there must be a blurry train – someone must be coming or going…

Thank you, Sofia for this energizing theme! Last week we visited the most wonderful places with John’s challenge. I’d love to visit as they were unknown to me. Next week it’s Ritva’s turn to lead us, Saturday, May 3. Until then, take care and be kind.

Thursday Thoughts -The Road to Tibet III

/ Leya / 8 kommentarer

An early wake up again on the train – the last part before Lhasa. The Tanggula pass is more than 5000 meters above sea level, but we were well taken care of with oxygen in our compartments.

The Tibetan Plateau is breathtakingly beautiful – I still have tears in my eyes when I look at the old photos-

– and again we were glued to the window. The whole journey is almost 2000 kilometers and today it takes some 40-45 hours. I guess hour train ride took a bit longer 16 years ago.

We passed by majestic rivers, lakes, mountains in every kind of weather – but I think above all we loved the magical cloudscapes over the vast open spaces.

I remember we didn’t sleep much…as we didn’t want to leave the magic outside that train window. In fact we were earlier up than ever. We rose with the first light shining in.

The colours were beautifully contrasting between warm and cold, and the numerous jaks and sheep were grazing everywhere. We also saw a wolf, but weren’t quick enough to photograph it.

The clouds created a moving palette on the ground – with shadows and light playing. Sometimes we felt the clouds were sailing so low we could have touched them had we been able to get off the train for a minute!

As we approached Lhasa, we came closer to the mountains and the valleys –

which we hadn’t done before. There were some people too out there – but very few and not easily spotted. If you can see them, they speak of the vastness and grandeur of the landscape.

Time stood still during the train ride, so we couldn’t imagine we would soon be there – at our final destination Lhasa, Tibet. A destination longed for since I was a child, but I never could have dreamed of such an amazing journey to get there!

A couple of minutes left, and then – a new adventure would unfold. Tibet. We were sad to leave the Plateau behind, because we knew we would fly back to Beijing in a couple of weeks, never to see it again.

Thank you for taking the Quinghai train with me – at least a bit easier than staying glued to a train window!

Thursday Thoughts – Colours Still Lingering Here

/ Leya / 39 kommentarer

With Milo as good as new after his makeover, we drove homewards, but made a stop at the beautiful waters I always passed by when I was still working.

The old mill is still standing, but this time the light was wrong for a photo. Instead we walked along the river banks, listening to the silence.

Milo was completely happy, and so was I.

The Autumn air was crisp and cool – and I never tire of watching the colourful leaves falling, floating, making beautiful patterns.

A couple of Mallards came swimming, hoping for food, but disappeared quickly when they saw the dog.

On our way back again, the sun gracefully spread its golden rays, and my old love for Autumn was kindled once more. Thank you for walking with me and Milo!

Thursday Thoughts – Autumn Colours

/ Leya / 36 kommentarer

This morning I had an appointment for Milo – his annual big haircut, bath and spa (if I can call it that…). He has a love/hate thing with it. He rushes to his beloved Mia – and doesn’t want to have an ordinary walk before the ordeal. But after suffering a couple of hours at her hands, he then emerges as a RENEWED DOG.

While he is there, I take a long walk in my old surroundings, where I worked for about 20 years. This walk was always a pleasure, and now, with some colours still lingering – it’s a treat.

Please walk with me even if it is damp and foggy in the morning –

– it will get brighter when the sun has soaked up the mist.

And it’s on its way now…

I can feel it!

The forest is silent and the air crisp and clear. Autumn at its best.

Now when Milo was his loveliest self again, he happily jumped into the car to go home. But first another walk where I always used to stop after work – The Old Mill. See you there next time!

Lens-Artists Challenge #320 – Looking Back

/ Leya / 58 kommentarer

Sofia makes us look back. It can be both good and bad – but we always learn something in the end. I wish the world leaders would learn from looking back too.

Sofia has shared some very special experiences from her looks back in time – please visit her lovely site for more inspiration!

I did not know where to go with this challenge at first, but as I have been scanning old slides and right now Nepal and Peru, I have tried to find some of those overwhelming experiences I had as a young woman never been outside of Europe before.

In my home we had many grand picture books from travels near and far, and during winter time my nose was deeply buried in them. I read and savoured everything about interesting places, and two of my major dreams were to see the Himalayas and the Andes. All the treasures hidden, Machu Pichu, Annapurna, Mount Everest…Shang-ri-La from the old novel by James Hilton…

In 1986 we flew to Kathmandu in Nepal. Here are some important ”looking back moments” from that journey. Moments of beauty and moments of pain and sadness. I certainly grew up some and learned much from these experiences.

After some days in Katmandhu and biking in the Kathmandu Valley, we decided to go to Dakshinkali. D is an important Hindu temple in Nepal where they sacrifice animals to the fierce goddess Kali. Not a place for the weak hearted – like me. But I went. This was a place that truly made me understand the difference between reading facts and seeing them in real life.

There were endless queues with people holding flowers or leading goats to their last minutes. The stairs down to the temple was crowded with holy men and disabled people.

This woman suffered from leprosy and hade neither fingers nor toes. I could not bear to look at her closely. This day was a day of tears only.

Today I do not regret I went, but that very day, and for some weeks after, I really did. Leprosy was in my mind something fearsome from the Bible, and I automatically kept the distance to this poor woman.

Fishtail Mountain – or Machapuchare (6993 m) – is the majestic mountain close to Pokhara, where we stayed for some days at a Ghurka lodge. I knew about the British Brigade of Ghurkas, they were considered among the bravest and most feared soldiers in the world.

We had a lovely stay, and planned an Annapurna hike some day in the future. (But this never came true.) Our last day here, a big monitor lizard walked by our breakfast table, something I very clearly remember as I was home alone…

Back in Kathmandu again, we went to Nagarkot in the early morning to walk towards the best point for the sunrise over Mount Everest – Sagarmāthā (himmelens huvud). A sensation never forgotten. Was I really here?

We also wanted to go to Chitwan to see wildlife from a bit closer up. (It’s us two in the photo, taken by someone I no longer remember.) While we passed through the river in an oxcart, the owner asked us if we came from Sweden – we said we did. ”I’m sorry about Olof Palme”, the man said. That was both surprising and heartwarming – so overwhelming to sit in an oxcart in the middle of nowhere and people knew that our prime minister had been shot less than a week ago.

The next long journey was in 1987, and went to Peru and the Andes.

Machu Pichu needs no introduction. This photo was taken when we first arrived at the top and could see the old city. The moment I went through the opening in the stone wall, is one of my best moments ever. And certainly when it comes to travel. No picture in the world can show the feelings I had there and then.

I had read a great deal about the Nazca lines too. They cover an area of 500m2 in southern Peru. They were made 500BC -500 AC, and there is still no answer to why or what for. Only theories.

We soon realised that our plane was very small and only took 6 passengers. OK, smaller planes are said to be safer… but when I looked out of the window and saw them pumping up the tires by hand…I had my doubts.

We survived of course, and had a great flight seeing signs that Von Däniken had proposed coming from outer space.

This is one of the animals in the Nazca lines – The Condor

We went by train over the great plain to Cuzco. A wonderful tour with llamas, vicunjas and the majestic mountains. The trust and confidence these happy women showed! They threw up their handmade carpets to us in the train and expected them to either be bought or to come back again! And it never failed.

The Uros are an indigenous people of Bolivia and Peru. They live on floating islands in lake Titicaca near Puno. I guess they still are – and I had seen them in my books. They used Totora reeds to make reed boats and the islands they live on. On the islands they grew different vegetables and potatoes and they had pigs too. An island lasts for about 25 years.

I hope you could follow my thoughts, and maybe understand something of how much I learned during those two journeys. Travel is one of the best teachers.

Before finishing off with the volcano Misti at Arequipa, I want to thank you so much for Setting a Mood in every post last week! Incredible variety on how we can create moods and how we can feel differently about them too.

Next week Anne’s challenge will be on Intentional Camera Movement, ICM. You can learn all about it by checking out the various online tutorials or wait for instructions from Anne. She says it’s all about having fun and there’s no wrong way to do it! Hope to see you then – and before that, stay nice and curious.

Lens-Artists Challenge #277 – Empty Spaces

/ Leya / 74 kommentarer

Our life is full of empty space. – Umberto Eco


Who doesn’t love open, empty spaces? Unless you are hunted by wild dogs of course.

Patti urges us to look for empty space in our photography – please visit her beautiful examples to get more inspiration! In this post, I think I might have some negative space images as well – or some that can fit both descriptions.

Empty space help us to find the object easier, and it gives us room to move and breathe. My daughter and son in the speaking tunnel In Umeå.

The two of them again, but, how often do you find the metro tunnels empty? In fact I had to wait for quite a while for this shot.

An empty space like this one, in one of Porto’s wineries, makes me want to put on a pair of nice socks and go sock skating on that shiny floor. Hopefully without breaking anything… but no – I am Not too old for this!

Open land and empty space outdoors lifts your eyes and your soul – you soar over the landscape. At least I always wish I could. I was waiting for the cranes at Hornbogasjön, but it was too early in the year. No real subject or object, but I was happy to get the empty space anyway.

Seascapes are much loved empty spaces, and you never get tired of the views. Open sea at the inside passage, Alaska. Our eyes are drawn to the ship first, and then further on to the mountains.

Other examples of empty spaces are for example this lawn in front of the castle…where everything in the picture leads you up to the steps and the castle entrance.

The water on both sides of the birds……and the sky over and below the bridge. These use empty space to define the object we wanted to photograph.

Maybe my favourites are roads and animals in empty spaces. Often because I realise the vastness of these, and how small and insignificant we humans are.

Walking alone in the desert – but in good company.

A beach is of course a wonderful choice. For anyone! Visit in the off-season and you can enjoy this view outside Edinburgh. Emptiness at its best.

A mountain plateau in Iceland with a peak at the far end means empty space and slopes leading the eye further on.

I guess an empty space like this one, in Sofia, can mark out who is the leader – at least before the next cat arrives…

Then there are us, humans, in empty spaces in Denmark in the opener.

Patti points out that empty space can highlight and define the subject, create a more dramatic scene, and can convey a mood to our viewers. Hope to see Your choices this week! You can explore empty spaces close to home or from your archives. Any space is possible.

Include a link to Patti’s original post and be sure to use the Lens-Artists tag so we all can enjoy your photos. A special thanks to James for guest hosting last week, with a wonderful challenge inspiring us to experiment with perspective. Next week, it’s Amy’s turn to lead us. Her theme will be “Unique.”

If you’re new to Lens-Artists and would like to join, follow this link for more information.