LENS-ARTISTS

Favourite Images of 2025

/ Leya / 36 kommentarer

I hope you all had some Happy Holidays and are now ready for posting your favourites of 2025! As has become our custom, we are asking our followers to select their favorite images of the last year – whether they’ve been included in previous posts or not. This week, no single host will present the challenge. The entire team will share the challenge topic.

Here are mine – difficult to choose, and, of course I could have chosen other ones. But, with some for the beauty, some for the fun, some for the surprise and some for Love – I hope you will find something for yourself too!

This picture is my absolute favourite of the year – an endemic chaffinch sitting in a young girl’s hand in the forest in Madeira. A moment of peace and total connection with Nature. It fills my heart with gratefulness just looking at it.

I think I wrote in another post, that this year I didn’t do much photography – because I have started painting again. That is why one of my paintings is here in the gallery too.

Spring is the starter of Life – and everything…also my joy in photography. But it must be Spring at home, in Sweden.

In June we returned to Madeira, our hiking paradise for many years in the 70’s and 80’s. It was a joy to come back to the lush and beautiful nature there, but in the city so much had changed that I hardly recognized it. Despite the changes of time though, the country feeling remains – suddenly close-up cows in the middle of the road. Loved it!

Back home to Autumn, Winter and bird feeding in the moonlight. I do love my sweet sheep meetings every day on my dog walks – Milo believes they are his cousins.

Finally, a trip to the ice festival in Midieval Poznan, Poland. This is Restaurant Ratuszova with its amazing paintings in the cellar vaults.

We thank all of our followers for continued support and look forward to seeing the images you choose as YOUR favorites of 2025. Please remember to link your post to any or all of the Lens-Artists team members. Also, remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

We offer our best wishes for a New Year filled with peace, happiness, love and friendship. Anne will lead us next week on her lovely Slow Shutter Speed blog. Until then, stay safe, be kind and and find joy in the simple things.

Lens-Artists Challenge 378 – # Last Chance

/ Leya / 41 kommentarer

I love these end of the year opportunities to post some pictures that didn’t quite make the cut or didn’t quite fit in to our challenges. This year was no photography year for me – not much traveling either – rather a painting year. But here they are, my last chances!

The opener/header shows a Madeira interior from one of our hikes in June. There were fewer traveling days than usual this year, let’s see what the new year has in store for us.

Little ones – Vedema frog and babies. A favourite day out in April.

My garden in flower. A moss lover I am, a tiny worlds lover. I found these photos in a folder from August 2025. They were untouched – so, a perfect fit!

I will end with a frosty Autumn picture from the lake and the last one from my forest, when the beeches were already fading. I love that colour though, and miss it now when all leaves are gone and everything is grey and dull.

We want to announce that this is our last post of the year as Lens-Artists will be taking the final 2 weeks of December off and will return on January 3.

THANK YOU for all your Holiday Fun posts! Now it is time for the 2025 fun too! Thank you all for making this year, 2025, brighter and more hopeful – I believe that is one of the best reasons to keep a blog, to connect and communicate. For me, it’s a vital source to constantly revive faith in mankind. So, until we see you again – stay safe, be kind and enjoy the Holiday Season.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and may the New Year be Happy and Healthy for us all!

Ann-Christine

Lens-Artists Challenge #377 – Holiday Fun

/ Leya / 123 kommentarer

The Holiday Season is approaching and many of us celebrate at the end of December. But there are many different holidays over a year, and celebrations don’t look the same anywhere. This week we invite you to share some Holiday memories with us! Shared joy is double joy – as we say in Sweden.

Pick any fun and/or happy memories from holidays you enjoyed – your own or others´, at home or abroad – I know they are hiding in your archives! If not – new pictures would be great! You can concentrate on one holiday or on a couple of them. I have chosen Christmas, as it will soon be on our doorstep.

Christmas is one of our major holidays in Sweden, where we engage in our families, play boardgames, bake and eat together, dance and give each other a present or two. In our family, we make rhymes to every parcel. Then, on Christmas Day, some people attend early morning mass.

Here are some family memories:

Making buns for Lucia, December 13, is a must. Before our children moved out, we used to gather family and friends to join in the baking. This is the starting point for the Holiday Season.

It is a common tradition in the south of Sweden to visit our neighbouring city, Copenhagen, to have fun for a day or two around Christmas. They have Tivoli, an amusement park with everything you could wish for! Or we pop over the waters southwards to Poland, where the winter markets often are spectacular, but you can also find small and cozy ones. If we are lucky enough to have snow – so much more fun!

Winter fairs and markets are everywhere, where artists and farmers can sell their work and produce. Most people in Sweden have their winter holiday between December 22 and January 6.

Ever since I was a child, we have made ginger breads – a traditional, fun baking for the whole family. The small children though, tend to eat half of their dough before it reaches the oven…

This year, Myra was old enough to really enjoy baking and decorating them. (And eating them…) Laughter and music, candle light and Holiday Fun together!

A big thank you to Beth for last week’s Wings – a theme that made us come up with lots of beautiful pictures and new creative solutions. Now we are looking forward to learning more about your traditions and Holiday Fun! Please link to my original post and remember the Lens-Artist tag so we can find you in the reader.

Hope to see your joyful posts soon, and until then – stay well and be kind.

Next week, on Saturday, December 13th, we’ll host our annual Last Chance Challenge, inviting you to share any photos you took in 2025 that haven’t been part of our earlier challenges!

Lens-Artists Challenge #376 – Wings

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

Beth is our host this week, and she has chosen a wonderful theme – Wings. So many possibilities and a great variety of posts is expected! Please visit her lovely site for more inspiration.

My first thought is of course birds – and bats, and what would I choose if I hadn’t visited the Galapagos Islands? Here are some favourites, and among them is the albatros – with the largest wingspan of all flying cretures. The wandering albatros can reach a wingspan of 12feet!

Back in Europe and at home, butterflies and other insects dominate – at least my garden.

Birds again – big birds at home, in Ireland – and of course the silver birds. In churchyards we find beautiful angels watching, and art in general has always depicted angels. Nike is a beauty.

Last week you showed us some really creative images in your responses to Patti’s challenge Mysterious. I must say I enjoyed them immensely. Now we are looking forward to seeing your responses this week, and be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to Beth’s original post.

Please check in on Saturday, December 6 at noon eastern time when it is my turn, Ann-Christine/Leya, to host the challenge.

Until then, I hope you will find time to relax, to be kind and take care of each other.

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.

Lens-Artists Challenge #341 – On the Move

/ Leya / 45 kommentarer

John is leading us this week – and as he’s constantly on the move, he wants us to talk about how we travel.

Traveling has been an essential part of my life since I was 16 and my boyfriend and I took his car through Europe for two summers. Looking back, I guess traveling by plane is the the most frequent way for us as we often travel far from Sweden with no other roads to take across the oceans.

I generally love to fly, but hate the whole procedure before and after. And the journey is not over there either, because…then we have to take a car, a tram, a train, a bus or a bike to keep moving between different places. The views are always much nicer using one of the latter means of transport!

Hiking with a backpack used to be our favourite way to be on the move. But, as we age, the backpack has to get lighter and our days in rough terrain with a tent are over. But, we still enjoy hiking. For us, it is the ”real thing”. We still walk from early morning to dinner time every day on our destinations. With some nice stops for a coffee or beer with a sandwich or a piece of cake.

For many years, the car was almost our ”home”, but this has also more or less faded away. Pollution and environmental awareness says we shouldn’t. And today we seldom do.

Train is a very relaxing way to move from one spot to another, and you see a lot of the landscape and people´s daily life through the windows.

The train to Tibet from Beijing treated us with stunning views every day.

I don’t much enjoy cruising, but canoeing has always been a favourite. The quietness in nature close up, with birds, insects and fishes, trees and fresh air.

So, what way do I prefer most? Well, something like this: A minibus with few people, a skilled driver and a knowledgeable guide. You can stop when you want a photo and you have someone to answer all your questions. (And preferably an electric car!)

Share photos of your favorite ways to be “On the Move!” You can also share pictures of the places you’ve discovered or the snapshots of the journey itself. Be sure to link your response to John’s post or leave your link in the comment section. Also, use the “lens-artists” tag to help people find you in the Reader. To find out more about responding to Lens-Artists Challenges, check here.

Thanks to Egidio for taking us back to Lens-Artists Challenge #31. His “Looking Back” theme allowed us to share some great landscape photos for us all to enjoy! Next week, it’s Patti’s turn to host the challenge, which will go live on Saturday, November 22, at noon Eastern time. Be sure to follow her Pilotfish Blog so you don’t miss her challenge post.

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.

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.

Lens-Artists Challenge # 371-Street Details

/ Leya / 44 kommentarer

This week, Ritva wants us to reveal the often-hidden, magical world, of the details we never take the time to notice anymore. I knew I didn’t have that many small details – but some bigger ones…

A surprising detail on a church in Spain…

More of Spain – Toledo if I remember it right! He really frightened me…

I did not see the cat at first, but loved it as it blended in perfectly among the stones in the wall.

What station is this in London? Of course it had to be London! Love British humour.

Sitting under a parasol somewhere in the world – this little visitor decided to pause on top. I could follow him jumping around – a bird trampoline!

New Zealand street – of course! They are very aware of environmental issues, trying their best to convey important messages to us all.

Turn Right…in Lodz.

Loved this gate – somewhere in the Mediterranian. The vine was a perfect match.

An old hand painted gem seen in Switzerland.

Somewhere in Madeira on a seaside road.

Thank you for this great challenge, Ritva! Last week, Sofia took us around the world on a journey to ancient sites, as she explored the details of architectural marvels and let us all join in the fun.

Next week is Tina’s turn to host, please go and visit her lovely blog Saturday 1st November. Hope you will join us again. Until then, keep smiling and stay positive.

Important; link your post to Ritva’s original post and Remember to tag Lens-Artists so we can all easily find you.

If you’d like to know more about the Lens-Artists Challenge, please click here.