Nature

Lens-Artists Challenge #375 – Mysterious

/ Leya / 33 kommentarer

Patti, welcome back and thanks for an interesting theme! I have gathered some different ”mysteries” here. Hope they will fit the bill. Shadows, darkness, mist, tunnels, abandoned places, artworks…and unexpected items in unexpected places. Often also a limited colour sphere – or a fireworks of colour! adds to the feeling.

First out, a levada in Madeira – in the middle of nowhere and roadless land. Suddenly we passed a resting place – for tired hikers?…How did a car seat end up here?

Natural mysteries – Last time I visited this pond, there really was a pond – now only a mysterious, dead piece of land with stumps sticking up. Quite eerie.

In this park in Copenhagen, the trees reached out their spooky fingers to touch the grey sky.

A late evening walk with ominous skies – natural mysteries are the best!

Abandoned houses, streets and cars have their own kind of mystery…

Every kind of Art can be mysterious. And it doesn’t have to be dark…

I love trying to figure out why/how – but also love it if I find a note from the artist on what the original intention was.

This is Prague and a hanging umbrella man by the famous Michal Trpák.

The yearly Light Move festival in Lodz, Poland. Very Mysterious and beautifully made by a talented group of artists.

A special thanks to John Steiner for leading the challenge On the Move last week – a joy to see all your posts! Next week, it’s Beth’s turn. So, be sure to visit her site, Wandering Dawgs, Saturday, November 29th at noon ET for more.

Until then, I hope you can spend time with your loved ones and enjoy doing things together. Take care and be kind.

To find out more about the Lens-Artists Challenges, click here.

Thursday Thoughts – Mushroom and moss days

/ Leya / 34 kommentarer

It’s snowing outside now. Soft white flakes sailing through the air. These beauties below will be covered tomorrow and gone – so, one last look at the little world that surrounds us. I feel there is something special with mushrooms – they sparkle fairy tales, and knowing how important they are to the trees and the forest, we must send them our love –

through this gallery. Maybe only white pictures next!

Thursday Thoughts – Autumn Roads

/ Leya / 26 kommentarer

There is something special with autumn roads. Wet, colourful and misty. And the larch trees are the last ones to keep their colours intact.

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 – Autumn Meetings

/ Leya / 15 kommentarer

The sheep are still out –

and the geese are gathering.

Robins are roaming my garden, the forests and parks. I hear their clicking sound where ever I walk. It is very comforting to have them around.

Many fields are still green – today we have 14 degrees C. Normally it should have been around 5.

Strange times, strange climate, strange world. I do not recognize it anymore. I cling to the beauty still there.

Lens-Artists Challenge #372 – Ephemeral

/ Leya / 47 kommentarer

Tina‘s theme for the week is Ephemeral – “lasting for a very short time“. A wonderful challenge, so, please visit her beautiful site and get inspired!

Beauty consists of its own passing, just as we reach for it. It’s the ephemeral configuration of things in the moment, when you see both their beauty and their death.
— Muriel Barbery

Autumn is the season with ephemeral written all over it. We are reminded every day, every hour every minute – Of Life and Death, and the short moments of beauty, joy and sorrow.

Mother Nature is the gentle reminder of how short our time here is. She speaks to us in every detail, telling us we should treasure every moment we get.

Something as simple as a frosty day – I love those days – but when the sun reaches that first frosty straw, its white crystals will be gone within minutes. Before our very eyes.

A misty Autumn morning and its special light doesn’t last more than minutes. I still want to capture that moment, but it gets harder as I age and no longer spring that happily out of bed early mornings.

We all need Beauty – but beauty is always ephemeral, so we portray it with our cameras, pencils and paint. Nature, sunsets and sunrises…the serenity. Futile, but still, that is what little we can do to make it stay, make it last, make us remember.

Finally, a butterfly – the epitome of ephemeral. In Sweden we say guldvinge – golden wing. This beauty was captured in the Pyrenees some 15 years ago when hiking a dewy morning in the mountain valleys.

Thank you, Tina – and be sure to link your post to Tina’s original post and to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you. Many thanks to Ritva and to all of her respondents for last week’s Street Details challenge. A fun theme that I really liked! Finally we hope you’ll join us next week when Egidio will lead us once again on his Through Brazilian Eyes site. Until then, as always please stay safe, be kind and enjoy the moment.

Thursday Thoughts on a Friday…

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Noticed that this wasn’t posted as I had forgotten to schedule it – hopefully you will enjoy an early morning walk among the birds in the wetlands! I have a moderate lens length only, but still ok.