Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #67 – Candid

12 oktober, 20196 mars, 2020 / Leya / 229 kommentarer

What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.
– Karl Lagerfeld

Taking photos of people or animals when they have no idea that you’re doing it is called candid photography. One of the beautiful things with photography is being able to catch someone in the act. It adds natural life to your pictures. Even if my choices here are mostly in B&W, of course feel free to use what you find most suitable for your shots!

So, this week I thought we would go for candid photos of people or animals – Have fun with the challenge, and we are looking forward to seeing your candid finds!

It is always about keeping your eyes open and be prepared when an opportunity comes up – have your camera ready and just shoot.

Remember to take many photos…the digital cameras give us unique chances to choose which photos to keep or not:

Your first 1,000 photographs are your worst. – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Sometimes it might feel a bit difficult to photograph people – at least if you are a shy person, like me. A great help can be if you have a longer lens that gives you the possibility to ”hide” behind it and still get close. With a little luck, and practice, you sometimes get one of those lovely smiles – or two.

If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.

– Robert Capa

But, sometimes maybe you should not get too close – catching the moment is also catching your own feeling of what is in front of you…

Photography is a love affair with life. – Burk Uzzle

My photos were made in Bhutan, Morocco, Denmark and Georgia (Tbilisi).

Thank you for all the wonderful frames filled for Patti last week! If you haven’t seen her beautiful post yet – please pay her a visit!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #66 – Fill the Frame

5 oktober, 201920 februari, 2020 / Leya / 57 kommentarer

Filling the frame offers a sense of completeness, clarity, inclusion, and comfort. We essentially “dive in” and experience the true essence of what the subject has to offer.

– Lucas Martin

Last week Tina challenged us to share images of a special place or country. This week Patti is hosting, and she is asking us to fill the frame – what will You be filling Yours with?

Here are some of My filled frames, a variety of choices.

Wooden steps

An umbrella

A quarter of a stone circle

gdynia-gdansk-och-sopot-2014-178_copy-e1569485343478.jpg

Garlic

Leaves

A poppy

Princess of the Night

Lens-Artists Challenge #65 – Pick a Place and Catch its Spirit

30 september, 201924 februari, 2020 / Leya / 52 kommentarer

Last week Amy challenged us to share images of the countryside and/or a small town. This week Tina is hosting, and she is ”…asking you to look a bit farther afield. Each of us at some point has visited a place that holds special memories. It may have been a small town, a big city, or even better, an entire country. We’d like you to capture the spirit of a place that is vivid in your memory. What was it that drew you in and why did it capture YOUR heart?”

I guess many of you already know where my heart lies – Iceland. I have been returning to this country again and again, for more than 30 years now. There is no end to the fascination. This is my attempt to find out Why.

The vast, open landscapes

The mountains and glaciers

The fresh air

The volcanoes and geology

The flora

And maybe most of all – the Light

– morning

– evening

– and night

There is so much more of Iceland to love – horses, waterfalls, lava landscapes, hot springs… and beautiful Reykjavik with Hallgrímskirkja of course.

Hopefully you are all inspired by now – Patti, Tina, Amy and I are looking forward to seeing your special places!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #64 – Countryside – That is Where I Belong

22 september, 201924 februari, 2020 / Leya / 81 kommentarer

To me, Magical goes well with Countryside – I am a country girl. Even if I love to visit big cities, I know where I belong. This week, Amy is our host, and as I often post about my own countryside, you will get some pieces of Icelandic countryside instead. Iceland is a bit more harsh and rough, and we remember – once Iceland was only for the tough guys.

I consider it the best part of an education to have been born and brought up in the country. – Amos Bronson Alcott

The country is lyric, the town dramatic. When mingled, they make the perfect musical drama. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I long for the countryside. That’s where I get my calm and tranquility – from being able to come and find a spot of green. – Emilia Clarke

I really feel that my body craves to be in the mountains or by the ocean or in the countryside. – Miranda Kerr

I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. – Albert Einstein

The country life is to be preferred, for there we see the works of God, but in cities little else but the works of men. And the one makes a better subject for contemplation than the other. – William Penn

Thank you for all your Magical posts last week – they made every day into pure Magic!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #63 – Magical – My Magical Garden

14 september, 201924 februari, 2020 / Leya / 259 kommentarer

Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden – in all the places.
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

I read The Secret Garden as a young woman, and over the years it has occupied an enchanted and magical place in my heart. Now Autumn has arrived here, where I live in Sweden, and that means There’s a magical tie to the land of our home, which the heart cannot break, though the footsteps may roam. – Eliza Cook.

But Magical can mean so many different things to everyone of us – At Lens-Artists, we have already had Magical Light as a theme, (last year) but this time it is all up to you! What is Magical to you? People, places, things, nature, adventures, moments… – this week we are looking forward to having some of Your magic!

As usual – click on the images to enlarge.

The magical, supernatural force that is with us every second is time. We can’t even comprehend it. It’s such an illusion, it’s such a strange thing. – Anthony Hopkins

Picking plums today – waiting for the lovely Comma to finish basking on my ladder…

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

An oil painting can, maybe, make the magic last forever…

Garden as though you will live forever. – William Kent

Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it – Rumi

Poetry is a fresh morning spider-web telling a story of moonlit hours of weaving and waiting during a night. – Carl Sandburg

I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? – Douglas Adams

– But there are, Fairies dancing in my garden. Contemplate the lovely writer Roald Dahl’s words: Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.

Thank you for all the wonderful silhouettes for Patti last week! If you haven’t seen her beautiful post yet – please pay her a visit!

Have you seen these:

A lovely first time, Welcome Carolyn – of Carollynnlife.wordpress.com – by the waterside

Smruti gives us a true silhouetted philosopher

Oneletterup is ever so mysterious this week…

And a first time Welcome, for Pam of i choose this, with beautiful beach shots

As always, Amy, Tina, Patti and I hope you will join us.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #62 Silhouettes

7 september, 201924 februari, 2020 / Leya / 59 kommentarer

This week Patti is our host, and she challenges us to find silhouettes. If you look for them – they are there, everywhere!

My recent visit to Szczecin, Poland, brought some really good opportunities for silhouettes as well. The harbour trip was one of them. I also fell in love with an Angel…

Finally, we had to say goodbye to Swedish summer last week – until next year!

Thank you, Tina, for the lovely Precious Pets challenge. And thank you all participants for gorgeous – and sometimes quite hilarious – entries!

As always, Tina, Patti, Amy, and I hope you will join us.

Lens-Artists Challenge #61 – Precious Pets

31 augusti, 201924 februari, 2020 / Leya / 65 kommentarer

In the header, Mille (no longer with us) and Totti – dearly loved by my mother too. She still walks with me and the dogs every day. My last three dogs have all been of the breed Lagotto Romagnolo.

This week Tina is our host, and she has chosen a theme very accurate for many of us – Precious Pets. I have had many pets in my life, but I will post only my favorite choices. Otherwise I would fill your week!

If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are

better off than a lot of humans – James Herriot

In Homer’s Odyssey (c. 8th century BC), upon Odysseus’ return after 20 years, his beloved dog Argos is the only individual to recognize him.

Milo

Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life – James Cromwell

A lovely young man and his dog, Westmannaeyar, Iceland

”Man’s best friend” is a common phrase about domestic dogs, referring to their millennia-long history of close relations, loyalty, and companionship with humans. The first recorded use of a related phrase is by Frederick the Great of Prussia, 18th century.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read – Groucho Marx

Old Mr Marx might have a good point though…not everyone can have a dog…but there are alternatives!

Since I left home, more than 40 years ago, I have always had dogs, but when I grew up, we had cats. All of them were lost too soon, either run over by a car or just disappeared in the forest. The sorrow of losing them, and the fact that I wanted a companion on my walks, made me go for dogs instead. The two cats below both live in Heimaey, Vestmannaeyar. I believe their breed is Norwegian Forest cat.

Cats choose us; we don’t own them —Kristin Cast

Cats have it all – admiration, an endless sleep, and company only when they want it – Rod McKuen

A horse is a thing of beauty… none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor – Xenophon

As a teenager, I was a horse addict and spent much time at the stable. Nowadays I only ride horses when we visit Iceland.

The Icelandic is a ”five-gaited” breed, known for its sure-footedness and ability to cross rough terrain.

The first additional gait is a four-beat lateral ambling gait known as the tölt. The breed also performs a pace called a skeið, flugskeið or ”flying pace”. It is used in pacing races, and is fast and smooth, with some horses able to reach up to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h)

The Icelandic horse comes in a wide variety of colours as well, and the Icelandic language includes more than 100 names for various colours and colour patterns of their horses. I find them all very beautiful……but the combination in the last photo is My favorite.

Thank you for all your inspiring Frames last week! – and thank you, Amy, for all the fun with this challenge!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #60: Framing the Shot

25 augusti, 201923 februari, 2020 / Leya / 70 kommentarer

You don’t need a framework. You need a painting, not a frame. – Klaus Kinski

I guess most of us love things framed to help us follow lines and reveal the artist’s intentions with his/her work. At least if we put them on our wall at home or go to an exhibition. Now Amy challenges us to consider framing – and in my selection (from Stettin all except the header) I try to show some very different ones as well. An important thing to remember is, that a frame doesn’t have to look like a frame, and it does not have to apply to the whole picture either.

You don’t buy a Picasso because you love the frame – Joss Whedonm

Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts – Garry Winogrand

What counts isn’t the frame, it’s what you put in it – Otto Preminger

I’ve often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it’s inside a frame – Abbas Kiarostami

I have a European frame of mind and Europe is my home – Andrea Bocelli

Thank you for all your inspiring Angles last week! – and thank you, Amy, for a beautiful set of frames and for all the fun with this challenge!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #59 – Angles

17 augusti, 20196 mars, 2020 / Leya / 180 kommentarer

Last week Patti used a lovely old English rhyme for the challenge – this week we would love to see your interpretation of what difference angles can do… for our perception of the world.

I was a teacher for many years, and my classes often discussed today’s society, history or literature. For better understanding of other people’s opinions, I used to give a simple example using the numbers 6 and 9. Depending on where you sit or stand, it might be 9 or 6 that you see. If you are not wise enough to envision how the person sitting at the other side of the table might see it, you will always have some trouble understanding other people’s point of view. (The world today… and forever?)

The importance of different ways of seeing the same object, thing, person, happening…cannot be overestimated. And now I hope you will have some fun with it too!

Angles is the challenge!

If you find you have no time to photograph something new from different angles, I am sure you have pictures in your archives to use – because, I guess many camera people work just like I do… Every year I take pictures of the same house, the same people, the same forest… but maybe just not from the same angle!

My choices are two: One sand sculpture from the Denmark exhibition –

– and one sculpture from Stykkishólmur, Iceland.

The fascinating thing is that these two are totally different and so are their messages. But, both sculptures need you to walk around them to get the details, the picture, the whole story, the complete message. So, what would Your interpretation be?

We are looking forward to seeing all your fascinating Angles!

Thank you, Patti, for last week’s challenge, Something old, new, borrowed and blue that really got us thinking – So many creative posts from you all!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #58: Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue

14 augusti, 201923 februari, 2020 / Leya / 44 kommentarer

Patti’s challenge this week is for us to find Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue – or at least some of these. It is a very old saying, in Sweden as well, that worn on your wedding day, these will bring you luck and happiness in life.

So, I chose Nature for this challenge. To me, in winter clothes, she looks as pure as a bride on her wedding day.

The old oak tree all dressed in white…