Nature

LENS ARTIST CHALLENGE # 415 – MOVE YOUR BODY

/ Leya / 40 kommentarer

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!

Lens-Artists…Best ever

/ Leya / 46 kommentarer

A massive thank you to Steve for guest hosting the Lens-Artists Challenge this week. Please visit Steve’s brilliant site where you can find his best ever photos and so much more. I find his photography both unique and impressive, and extremely inspiring. We look forward to seeing your choices. Please remember to link to Steve’s original here and to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

Well, I honestly cannot choose ”best ever” photos from my own archives, so I guess if you asked me next month, they would not be the same. The best I can do (!) is to choose some of my own favourites that I love, and try to tell you why. I am a very emotional person, so, first of all they must touch my heart.

Easy criteria would be prize-winning photos – as this one. But, this is the only picture that I have ever entered into a competition – and in fact – won. It was about very special trees in our life, and this old beech tree that stands in ”my forest” was not already in the book of trees. So, I was the one who filed it in the national site for old trees. I walk past it often and I report if anything has happened to it – like a storm making old branches fall. I do love it.

About the photo: Autumn is the most beautiful time up here, and as this beech is very big, I could see the smaller trees behind it from an interesting angle. Irresistible opportunity.

This caravan spotted in Morocco several years ago was exotic to me at that moment, but what more makes the photo one of my favourites are the lovely memories of that trip and everything about it. The food, the people, the desert itself and its animals.

About the photo: Sheer luck to be in the right place at the right time. This also goes for the next one.

How can I not choose this big yawn? I love cheetahs and had the camera ready when this happened – not a perfect shot, but such a beautiful animal and a fun surprise!

Greenland offered an abundance of spectacular moments and I came back with thousands of photos. The midnight sun among the icebergs was an unforgettable experience, and picking only one photo has been almost impossible. Finally I decided for this special iceberg, not because it is the best photo, but because it took me awhile to figure out that the brownish part on top of the ice must come from a frozen kayak that probably once was lost on the glacier. When? Amazing.

About the photo: I had seen this iceberg when we headed out in the late evening, and kept thinking about it the whole trip. Finally I took some photos because of its mysterious and intriguing history.

Finally, posted a couple of times – but still a favourite – is this family in Bhutan, sitting on the stone wall, looking at a cell phone. I am not sure who is the most fascinated one here, but clearly the thing was not new to them.

About the photo: I seldom take photos of people, but this family was so preoccupied by the phone, that I clicked without asking…

Last week, Egídio asked us for over-the-top photos, and I loved them all. It was great to see such variety and thinking outside the box. We hope you’ll join us next week when Ritva leads us once again. Until then, as always please stay safe, be kind and enjoy the adventure.

Thursday Thoughts – Contemplating the Beauty of Our World

/ Leya / 23 kommentarer

”Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.”

— Rachel Carson

“I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.”

– Anne Frank

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”

– Gary Snyder

Lens-Artists Challenge #398 – Choose a Colour

/ Leya / 48 kommentarer

I want to paint the rest of my days with the best colors.

― Debasish Mridha

Ritva asks us to select one color (excluding black and white), and share a maximum of 6 photos where our chosen color is the prominent hue, or alternatively, you may share one photo featuring each of the following captivating colors in their various shades: red, blue, green, purple, orange, and yellow.

I am cheating…I hope Ritva forgives me for choosing my favourite colours only – but in 6 photos!

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.

– Pedro Calderón de la Barca

There is no doubt that green is my favourite colour. To me, spring brings life back to us, revitalising, we are bathing in Mother Nature’s lush greenery. I am surrounded by green in my garden, in my home, in my daily forest walks.

In fact, I am beginning to wonder how I will survive a move to a place without a garden…Hopefully in the far future.

”How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.”

– Vincent van Gogh

Yellow and orange are lively and uplifting colours. If I tweak it a bit, there is a hint of red here as well. This yellow foxtail lily shines intensely in the shadow of a tree.

A certain blue enters your soul

– Henri Matisse

We have blue all around us on this planet Earth…every season has its own shade or tint. Ice on my glass house windows shows spectacular patterns.

All the other colors are just colors, but purple seems to have a soul—when you look at it, it’s looking back at you.

— Uniek Swain

Purple – irresistible Wisteria! Our visit to Japan made me plant four new Wisterias in my garden.

A big thank you to Anne for the Texture challenge last week! The diversity in your posts provided us with both inspiration and awe – I felt like going out with my camera for even more textures… Next week, it will be Egídio’s turn to lead us, so be sure to visit his beautiful site for more creative ideas.

Until then – stay well and be kind.