Landscape

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.

Thursday Thoughts – Skagway and The White Pass Railway

/ Leya / 35 kommentarer

A lovely adventure – but tough taking pictures from the train. I had my camera ready for landscapes, but around one of the first bends – I saw a blackbear roaming the colourful grasses! We who were sitting on the right (right!) side of the train had a brief glimpse, but my camera was not ready for this. So, the black blob over there…is a bear. Believe it or not.

I enjoyed the wilderness and the colours, the fog and the random glimpses of blue sky.

The rivers and small pools of water brightened the views and so did the mountains with newly fallen snow.

Now and then beautiful gorges opened up – you had to have your camera well prepared…

And the old train picked up hikers along the trail too. A great service!

Luckily we were not supposed to cross this one…

…but it made for a couple of nice photos.

So, we arrived back in Skagway in one piece. The guide told us she had never seen a bear on this railroad trip before – so she was just as happy as her passengers were.

An amazingly beautiful and colourful trip, and an insight into the hardships of those times – the old path from the goldrush was still visible in some places.

Thank you for coming along on the train! So grateful for that black bear … it was the only Alaskan bear saw.

Lens-Artists Challenge #268 – Tell us Why – II

/ Leya / 23 kommentarer

”Tina asks us to choose 5 images or fewer,” should have been 10 or fewer… I was on the road/ship for some weeks, and now, having seen so many glorious posts from you, I feel I should also post some oldies and goodies – I did not realize I could do that. (Risking you would tire of them, because I have posted them several times before.) So, here are some old, true favourites for you!

I went to an art exhibition some years ago – and this window, with vines growing outside, ended up being my favourite work of art that day. Ethereal, glowing and living lace. The grid makes it even more special. I still remember the amazing feeling seeing the window from inside the building. A favourite ever since.

A lovely winter morning many years ago, at the local lake. The graceful swans floated by in the morning fog, standing out in the thin, cold rays of sun. It makes for an almost otherworldly feeling.

Iceland – I could have chosen so many of my images from this paradise. But, a late winter evening on the beach, brought this golden shine with diamond crested waves. There were diamonds in the black sand as well. (We had snow, but who could imagine that?) The combination made the very special feeling.

One of my all time favourites, maybe the greatest? The Fluela Pass in Switzerland. We drove there two times that day. In the morning, it was nothing, just an ordinary pass – but returning to our hotel that evening, the reflections were stunning. Also the people in the image makes for understanding the shere size of it, giving it perspective.

Finally – at home, a road often travelled with my dog. One warm summer evening, many years ago, the light was soft and yellow, there was no wind and the gravel road looked like a dream. The stretch of the road, curves and structures were enhanced by the light and shadows. I have never seen the road like this since then.

Thank you again, Tina, for a wonderful challenge – hopefully it is OK to do another post!

Lens-Artists Challenge #257 – Simplicity

/ Leya / 78 kommentarer

Mr Philo of Philosophy Through Photography is our most welcome guest host this week, and he calls for Simplicity:

”I considered selecting simplicity since the modern world is so stressful and chaotic that we are losing the fundamental clarity and simplicity that allow us to concentrate on what is really important.” Please visit his site for more inspiration!

Hopefully this post will tell you why I too believe we need more simplicity.

As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.

— Albrecht Durer

Simplicity can be reflected in so many ways…here are a few:

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

— Lao Tzu

Nature is pleased with simplicity.

— Isaac Newton

Enjoy the little things,

– for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

— Robert Brault

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.

– Plato

Everything is both simpler than we can imagine, and more complicated that we can conceive.

– Goethe

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

– Confucius

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

— Leonardo da Vinci

We are looking forward to seeing your Simplicity posts, and remember to link to Philo’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag.

Sincere thanks to Ritva Sillanmäki for hosting last week’s Inspiration Found In The Kitchen, a challenge with immensely creative answers! Thank you for sharing your talent and passion with us.

Next week, Dawn Miller of The Day After will be hosting LAPC # – 258 Fences. And, if you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists challenge, click here for more information.

Thursday Thoughts – The Best Time of the Year

/ Leya / 27 kommentarer

Thursday again, time flies, and faster in the warmer seasons. There is much to do in my garden, but forest baths are essential. I try to take good care of the best season here up north. Life is short, I try not to waste it – but it is difficult to live in the moment…I wonder how many of us succeed in really doing that.

Spring colours in Skane. So longed for and so needed. But a cold spring and early summer. Everything is late. There are few insects and pollinators as the cold and windy days have taken their toll. Still – I hope you will enjoy a piece of our late spring too!

A forest bath is never wrong. Healing and uplifting…if I could I would fly out over the treetops, savouring everything green. I know you would fly with me.

Lens-Artists Challenge #247 – Backlit

/ Leya / 188 kommentarer

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 #241 – Spring

/ Leya / 25 kommentarer

This week Sofia invites us to show what Spring means to us. As winter refuses to let go of its grip this year, I will give you my feeling of ”vårvinter” or ”spring winter”. These are our days between winter and spring, and they belong to March in Sweden and Finland. Sometimes it is called ”the fifth season”.

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.

– Henry Van Dyke

This means that ice is melting during the day, but the cold night brings it back again. Mist often occurs.

The first cranes arrive – not many yet, only about 1000 at Hornborgasjön this week. And faraway they were from the view point…but I managed to find some of them.

More birds arriving to the lake, and in a couple of weeks there will be around 20000 cranes and thousands of other birds.

Spring winter brings a very special, magical light – a light filled with promise.

There is a faint chiming in the air, and bird calls, soft ones and strong ones. When all cranes have arrived, you cannot even hear your own thoughts…

But until then, the stillness over the landscape rules, peaceful, powerful.

Back home again, spring is even more in the air. Soon, soon the anemonies, the daffodils and all colours will arrive and once again we will be swept away by the miracle of spring.

New beginnings, Nature reborn or a new chance to go and enjoy the outdoors? For me, spring means all of this. We look forward to seeing what spring images you will come up with, so remember to link back to Sofia’s original post and to tag Lens-Artists.

Last week John took us on a journey through most often travelled roads, where our photography is most comfortable. It was fascinating to see the differences, but also how they all lead to the same destination. Next week it is Anne’s turn to host so please visit her beautiful site and join us if you can. Until then, take care and be kind.

For more information on the Lens-Artists Challenge, please click here.