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Lens-Artists Challenge # 342 – It’s a Wild Life

/ Leya / 40 kommentarer

The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

– Charles Darwin

Egidio’s challenge this week is all about wildlife. My choices have to be mostly wild landscapes, and Iceland is one of them. Today I read about a new volcanic eruption near Grindavik – again. But people are used to it – being rather ”wild” themselves.

Another wild landscape is the jungle – in the Amazon there are still a multitude of creatures – even if human intrusions and atrocities are escalating. We should be very very anxious to keep these forests alive – if we want this planet to survive.

The Amazon was one of my greatest adventures. And the night walks were spectacular. The big spiders are not for me…to love, but it was a fantastic experience to see them too in real life. Clearly going by canoe is the perfect way to get close to the wildlife here.

The landscapes of the Galapagos islands are wild in another sense, there is almost no vegetation, but a multitude of animal species. Many of them are endemic, and if your read Darwin’s works you will realise that this is a veritable Paradise, where the animals have few enemies and you can come very close to many of them. I found the iguanas very interesting, both land iguanas and marine iguanas.

The land iguanas love the Opuntia cactus ( known as the prickly pear cactus), and eat it with relish. In the Galapagos islands it can grow up to 12 meters and the iguanas up to 1.30 meters length.

In Sweden, and in the other Nordic countries, the wildlife is of course different from that of a jungle…the biodiversity is not as big, but we do have big predators like bears, wolves and wolverines. The nearest wolf habitat is a forest only a kilometer away from my home.

I guess Sweden’s nature is most famous for Carl von Linne’ and his categorizing of it. So, here is his own wild flower – the tiny, delicate Linnaea borealis.

I would say one of the things carachterizing the wild life, is its resiliense and adaptability. But surely there is a limit… This bee sat frozen on a flower in my garden – representing my closest ”wild life”. It came alive again and started foraging with the warming sunlight.

It’s a wild life, Egidio says…and with dogs, at least my dogs – it really is!

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

– Mahatma Gandhi

This past week, Tina’s challenge brought out many personal favorites. So beautiful responses! For this week, we’ll look forward to seeing what your wild imagination will focus on. Don’t forget to use the “lens-artists” hashtag for your post so we can easily find it in the Reader.

The first challenge for April will come from me, Leya/Ann-Christine. 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 and its history.

Lens-Artists Challenge #341 – Personal Favourites

/ Leya / 56 kommentarer

You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.
– Joan Miro

Tina has set the most difficult challenge ever… at least if you are a nature lover like me. Which five to choose from more than 100 000 pictures in Lightroom? Now I have chosen five pictures I often come back to – so I guess they are personal favourites. I was inspired by Tina to pick most of them from my own surroundings at home. That way I was automatically limited too.

So, this week our challenge is to choose no more than 5 images as our all-time personal favorites!

Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory. — Unknown

My favourite dog breed is Lagotto, and these two guys were my first ones. Always together, always playing or sleeping or eating together. This photo shows their different characters perfectly well. Mille is the brown and wild one, while Totti is the ”monitor” and supervisor. He was very laid back too.

We were fortunate to have them in our lives for 12 years each, and they will always stay close to my heart.

Only photograph what you love. – Tim Walker

The land of my dreams is Iceland, and we have visited several times – never disappointed in our favourite destination. Some years ago we went in winter instead of summer – the hot spring baths are at their best when there is snow and ice. One evening we went to the black beach in the south of Iceland to see the sunset. And like everything else in Iceland – it was magical.

Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like. — David Alan Harvey

In 2020 we went to an art exhibition some 20 kilometers from my home – which ended in me mostly taking photos of the entrance windows instead of the art…The window was overgrown with vines and an enigmatic golden light shining through.

I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed. – Annie Leibovitz

I think many of you know how much I love winter and snow, and how climate change has deprived us of this in later years. Some days still have the old glory, and this photo was taken on such a day, when the light was perfect and the air crisp and clear. Bitter sweet memories.

Photography is a love affair with life. — Burk Uzzle

This aster I photographed in my garden, an autumn some years ago. I woke up to frost and a clear sky, and as I looked out of my bedroom window, I knew there would be a short photo option not to be missed.

The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed.
– Anne Geddes

Thank you, Tina, for another challenging challenge!

So now it’s your turn. Share with us your five favorite images making sure to link them to Tina’s post and to use the Lens-Artists Tag. We so look forward to seeing your choices! Last week Ritva challenged us to focus on portraiture. As usual your responses were terrific. Many of us wondered how to manage such a challenge, but ended up more satisfied than expected! Finally, we hope you’ll join us next week at noon EST when Egidio once again leads us on his Through Brazilian Eyes post. Until then, be kind and enjoy the adventure.

Thursday Thoughts on a Friday in March

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Spring beauties at home! Nature is waking up – and so are we. The vernal equinox was yesterday – so, now every day gets a bit brighter. Breathe!

The Hazel looks glorious, shining in the sun.

Blue anemonies are peeping out from their winter rest.

Hawfinch and Eurasian Siskin seen through my window. Feeding will continue some more weeks. We still have our nights below zero.

Wishing you a great weekend!

Lens-Artists Challenge #340 – Portraits

/ Leya / 52 kommentarer

Ritva really makes us work hard this week – Portraits! I don’t do portraits, I’m not comfortable with it… but after scrolling for half an hour to find something to post, I remembered my old students. I used to make portraits of them their last term. So, I’m using a couple of those taken so many years ago that they hardly will recognize themselves should they happen to read my blog. (I know they don’t…)

The art of freezing moments…and yes, I was so proud over my students that day!

There should be a selfie too I guess, Ritva sent one – but as I don’t do selfies either, this photo was taken by one of my students. And it’s a side portrait! The real side portraits though, all reside in ancient Egypt. (Last immersive visit in the header)


Knobbed hornbill – indeed an interesting side portrait!

In fact, my first thought reading the challenge was to use some of the bird portraits I have, or maybe my dogs? Ritva is the master of portraits, so I really had to try. Fortunately I found some more people, and in B&W, as I believe portraits are best made there.

This elderly man was sitting at the other end of my coffee table, (I remember him, but I no longer remember where it was…) reading about a Welcome into this world. I believe we all need more of this every day since this world is becoming less welcoming by the minute.

So, here comes some students I know wouldn’t mind me posting. They belonged to two of my most lovely classes from the science program. Then the distinguished, but very humourous, father of an old friend of mine when he turned 90. And, the last one – a colourful lady I met in Lodz – I have posted this photo a couple of times before.

Some years ago, I attended a gathering at a restaurant where I met this old biker that I totally loved! His white beard and expressive face just convinced me to ask for a photo – which he gladly let me take. The other biker posing with his vehicle was a happy guy, so for his portrait the bike itself was essential. These bikers were very easily approached and I felt at ease asking them – a big step forward for a shy person like me.

Every portrait tells a story...

The only person I really have some portraits of is my daughter. She always let me take her photo and loves posing for me. The left three of these were taken at Stora Hotellet in Umeå, when she graduated as a dentist. The first one through a very special mirror which made the portrait almost look broken. The right one was taken in my garden when Emma was going to one of the many masquerades she attended in her late teens.

Turning moments into eternal memories...

I am so glad I found more portraits than I knew I had, but I am afraid I haven’t followed one of Ritva’s main tips – concentrating on the eyes. I will better myself as soon as I get another opportunity! Thank you again for a great and challenging challenge!

Thank you also to Anne for Life’s Changes, that really let us know a great deal more about each other. Next week, Tina is back to host with a new inspiration. Go to her beautiful site to find another exciting challenge.

Please link your post to Ritva’s original post, and add the “lens-artists” hashtag so we can easily find you in the Reader. Until then – stay kind and creative.

Thursday Thoughts – Tutanchamon

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Last time we visited Malmoe, we went to see the immersive exhibition. As we went to Egypt in 1981 and saw his tomb, and the mummy and golden artefacts at the Egyptian museum, I did not expect much from this visit. But, it was a nice outing and another experience. And again I felt so sorry for this young, sickly boy, whose fate was to be farao.

I’m sharing some of the pictures – I had fun taking them.

Lens-Artists Challenge #…Life’s Changes

/ Leya / 47 kommentarer

Anne is our lovely guide this week, and she really made me think…a long time before deciding.

Let’s begin with the beginning…My grandmother is the person I owe maybe most of my interests to, and I loved her dearly. She worked hard on the land all her life, and she taught me everything about making things grow, and how to handle geraniums to make them thrive. I still have all her geraniums in my house, since 1988 when she left us. She loved everything living and loved to see me loving it too. I still miss her.

Anne made me think about the many things that have enriched my life. Nature, students, children, travel, art, painting, dogs and cats – and of course photography. Photography and blogging that have brought me so many friends from all over the world. You.

I could have picked any of these… but, what is here with me every day, making my life shine, making me useful? My plants!

Many of them comes from cuttings and seeds taken home and abroad, plants from faraway countries, from friends – living or long since gone. That is an important thing to me. Every time I water them or prune them or just look at them – I remember the friend who gave that plant to me. My plants are living memories keeping their former owner alive.

They are also my ”children” and I love watching them grow. It is about the same feeling with real children and students – making them thrive and grow makes me feel good. And whole.

My garden project is to make it a haven for flowers (especially wild flowers), plants, pollinators and birds. And my little hedgehog… Never is my smile bigger than when I see him walking around at dusk, drinking some water or poking his nose in the ground for a caterpillar or two.

These garden pictures are of course from another season, but I decided to take all the indoor photos yesterday – which means there are none of grandmothers’ geraniums as they are not flowering until April, May. But there are many others. (Text in the photos.)

Indoors I have more than 200 plants, and it takes a week every year to repot them. I usually do that in February – so they will make a good start when the sun goes higher in the sky.

I used to grow a lot of orchids, but have turned more into other species of interest, like Begonias, Hoya, Hibiscus and cacti. The ”bubbly” Begonia (begonia masoniana river) below the white Camellia is my newest and most rare one. Keeping flowers for their patterns is fun, dried flowers too. Of course I love to grow edible sprouts for the winter as well! And my granddaughter loves to see them grow that fast…

Upstairs is crammed with plants during winter when they have to reside indoors. I use special lamps to give them more hours of daylight, but I haven´t always used any extra light. I was surprised to see the difference though, and from now on my plants will have a better start the next Spring.

What has enriched and/or changed your life? That is your challenge this week. Please share with us your joys and passion of a hobby or life experience that helped you find your life’s passion! Remember to tag with Lens-Artists at Anne’s original post.

We really enjoyed your posts in response to John’s Pick A Word challenge last week. What a variety! Next week Ritva will present the challenge, so look for her post.

In the meantime, stay safe and live in gratitude!