Tankar

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #117 – A Photo Walk

/ Leya / 67 kommentarer

This week Amy is taking us on a walk – a photo walk. What a brilliant idea!

In order to distract myself and lift my spirits, we decided to go to Borås last Friday – a lovely little town we hadn’t visited for years.

They’d had a graffitti and mural festival some weeks ago, so a walk through this part of the town would be an interesting experience. And I must say I enjoyed it very much – despite the grey weather.
Leaving your garage to meet this charming lady might be a not so bad start of the day…
Alfred Nobel – I heard today that the Nobel Prize for medicine went to three scientists: Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice, who discovered the virus giving hepatitis C – and making it a curable disease.
A discovery of great importance – we need more of those.
This mural was painted on a school building – It surely makes the school days brighter!
Back on the parking after an enjoyable tour – Autumn had left its mark.

The whole day I had been on the lookout for the Swan and the Fox, but it seemed nowhere to be found. I had found it on the Internet plan and was eager to see it with my own eyes too. In fact, after two hours I had given up on it by the time we were approaching the end of the walk. But, on turning right into the last street before the car park, I caught a glimpse of it in the corner of my left eye – there it was! Sitting on our left hand side, it obviously was impossible to find on our way out. So, now you too can see it, in the header. It was my favorite on this Friday walk.

As always, thank you all for your creative responses to last week’s Symmetry challenge. We enjoyed your interesting and thoughtful images for the concept. I am sorry to be a bit absent from commenting – I lost my mother in September and my mind is focused on everything connected to that. But I will be back. I am sure Patti, Tina and Amy will support you even more.

Now we look forward to seeing your results from this week’s Photo Walk. Please remember to link them to Amy’s original post here, and to Tag them Lens-Artists to be included in our reader section. Last but not least, we hope you’ll join us next week when our special guest host, Biasini, Anne Leueen’s clever horse, hosts our next challenge on her always-interesting blog Horse Addict.

Until then, stay safe and creative.

Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word

/ Leya / 24 kommentarer
THURSDAY’S SPECIAL: PICK A WORD – 2020-2

Time to join Paula again – if you haven’t tried this challenge before, give it a chance!

LUNAR – Galapagos Islands

VOLTE FACE – Stettin in the opener

SOARING – Iceland

REPOSING – Italy somewhere…

and

IMPREGNABLE – Spain

Thursday Thoughts – Feeling Blue

/ Leya / 21 kommentarer

What’s in a word? “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” says Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

I have never questioned blue or the phrase ”feeling blue” before. The connection just feels …right. But, when I look it up in various dictionaries, the association has got many explanations. Here are some:

In Greek mythology, blue is associated with rain. When Zeus was sad or crying, he would make it rain. Thus, the connection between the colour and the feeling.

The use of blue to mean “sad” dates from the late 1300s

Geoffrey Chaucer used ‘blewe’ in his poem ”The Complaint of Mars”. He writes: ”Wyth teres blewe and with a wounded herte.”

Which basically translates to: ”With tears blue and with a wounded heart”.

A naval explanation might be the old custom followed by deepwater sailing ships – If the ship lost the captain or any of the officers during its voyage, she would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her entire hull when returning to home port.

A scientific explanation is the proximity of dark blue to black on the colour scale, and the results of two studies indicating that feeling sadness may actually change how we perceive colour.

But blue is beautiful. It is the colour of our planet Earth. The Blue Planet.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #116 – Symmetry

/ Leya / 85 kommentarer

Patti is our host this week, and we are asked to think about symmetry. As she explains in her instructive and beautiful post, symmetry is, and have always been, pleasing to the human eye.

The header, as well as most of these images, are from Spain. Art and architecture here has its origin from many cultures including the Moorish. A fantastic blend.

A warm Barcelona night – we stumbled upon a motorcycle gathering
More Spain – Gaudí of course! A small church or chapel, not that well known.
Nature then? I cannot have a post without being natural in some way… Bilateral symmetry, (in biology) – ”a basic body plan in which the left and right sides of the organism can be divided into approximate mirror images of each other along the midline.”
Back in Spain again – A silent monastery walk
Cervantes looking down at his heroes, Don Quixote och Sancho Panza
Finishing off with one of my favorite floors – a wooden floor found in Copenhagen – man-made. Diagonal symmetry? Or I just made that up maybe… but, symmetry can also exist in many ways in the same object, work of art or image. I like the combinatory possibilities.

Thanks to all of you in our creative community for your support, enthusiasm, and creativity.  Let’s keep inspiring each other !  Next challenge, LAPC #117 will be hosted by Amy instead of me, October 3, 2020, so don’t forget to stop by her site and join the fun.

Until then, I wish you all a wonderful, creative week – and stay safe.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #115 – Inspiration

/ Leya / 74 kommentarer

This week, Tina’s challenge is all about inspiration. What inspires you in life? Go to Tina’s fabulous post for more inspiration – and I am sure you will be lingering there for a while…

I am a nature person and an animal person. I prefer walking in nature and being together with animals instead of people. Nature is all inspiring and the foundation of my thoughts and choices in life. Nature is real, animals are honest and straight forward. Humans can seldom measure up to that.

When I was a child there were always cats in my home. As an adult, always dogs. They listen, they do not judge you, and they are faithfully loving till the end. I believe it is essential for a child to grow up with animals around, to watch them and to learn from them how life and death works. They teach you how you should treat everything living. Furthermore – it is a scientific truth that people feel more calm and stable with animals around. In Sweden we have specially trained dogs to go visit elderly people regularly. Some homes for the elderly have a ”house cat”.

I have met some fabulous dogs and cats over the years – here are two of my favorites.
Nature is my greatest inspiration. From glorious landscapes to its tiniest and most intricate elements.
My Swedish summer landscape, and then something from my windows – size, 7-10 mm.
Art in all its forms is inspiring – religious art, street art, everyday art… Antoni Gaudí was always inspired by nature, in my book he is the number one architect of our times.
Abstract trees and flowers in Sagrada Família. Remember that Gaudí found Nature inspiration through walks and talks with his mother.
“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

To me, reading and books always mean inspiration, film and photography as well. There are so many things to be inspired of…what is inspiring for you?

Thank you as always for your support of, and commitment to, our challenge. We hope you’ll join us next week when Patti brings us challenge #116 on her Pilotfish blog.

Thursday Thoughts – Thank You

/ Leya / 32 kommentarer

Since last Thursday, life has changed, the world has changed and will never be quite the same again.

Last Wednesday I walked by the sea, contemplating the beautiful sunset.

I stopped for some minutes at the boat house and found another soul, sitting alone in the still of the evening…

And the sun went down, for the last time in my quiet and ordinary life.

I want to thank you from the depth of my heart, from every vibrating fibre, for all your warm greetings, your sincere condolences and your concern. I will keep them in my heart – Thank You. This is a truly magical community… In the header is a magical bouquet of flowers sent to me all the way from Australia. I cannot thank you enough – no one mentioned no one forgotten. I Love You All.