Remember: Always walk in the light. And if you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the light. – Roberta Flack
This week, Amy’s beautiful challenge inspires us to explore natural light. In photography, light is everything. And for this week’s challenge, I’m offering you a gallery of images with some of my favourite natural lights. No sunrises and no sunsets though…
Light in Nature creates the movement of colors. – Robert Delaunay
After a short walk by the sea, the late evening clouds opened up for a dramatic sky. An autumn evening. Driving home, I noticed the colourful sky behind me, stopped and made it stay with me for ever.A similar sky, but much warmer, with the clouds mimicking the dunes. Compare the two of them, and you will see the hues are completely different.I love backlit, and light shining through petals, clouds or cloth. This piece of art reminded me of my camping days.Soon the beloved wood anemonies will be here…carpeting our forest floor.Backlit berries in my garden – in the middle of the day.Magical light through heavy clouds – a favourite catch.And right now, I would love to just sail away on a soft, warm night…and into the sunset…
I hope you’ll join Amy and the rest of us this week as we explore natural light. I’m looking forward to your posts and your inspiration!
Last week my LAPC#137: Soft challenge gave us the chance to see all your diverse, fun, and beautiful interpretations – and there were many smiles and much loveliness. Thank you!
Next week, Tina will lead the challenge, so please stop by Travels and Trifles and join the fun on Saturday, March 13th at noon.
Have a strong mind and a soft heart. – Anthony J. D’Angelo
In fact I consider being soft a virtue and an asset. Maybe not always…but almost always!
Now, after all the incredibly creative S’s from you for Patti’s alphabet challenge… we’ll continue with another S – Soft. (Hopefully you haven’t run out of images on Soft for Patti…) So many things are Soft…to look at, to touch, to listen to… we even have software for our technical devices. This challenge is all about how you want to interpret Soft – we are looking forward to seeing your choices! Please link to my post and add the Lens-Artists tag.
I just have to start with Snow – as we have had so much of it this year. Snow envelops you in a soft and silent world. It was many years since I did some serious skiing, but I am not afraid of falling in the soft and fluffy snow.
Soft, almost creamy snow on the old ship setting from the Viking Age.Soft landscape with clouds, hills and autumn trees. A favourite dogwalk.Have you ever touched a bumble bee? They ARE soft! Unless you get stung…
My Totti is very soft – and not only his fur. Soft are also the dandelions sailing away to sit on his nose in the soft evening light.
I also have a spring ”softie” on my table every year – acacia, or mimosa, as we call it. Its yellow flower balls always make me smile and walk into that room as often as possible… I wonder if acacia will be possible to grow in my glass house? I certainly will give it a try!
Finally – thank you again for inspiring us every week! Next week, March 6, Amy will be hosting Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #138 and as promised, we reveal the theme already: Natural Light. Be sure to pay her a visit and hopefully join in. In the meantime, have a lovely, creative week! And… please stay safe.
There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky. ― Dejan Stojanovic
So, let’s start with a Summerhouse Sunset…and then travel South for some more S’s…before coming Safely back again.
Sandy Sahara panoramaSunny Sea in SpainSnowy Steps in SwedenSpider web in my Summer gardenSerene
Now, this week we invite you to share images that feature a subject starting with the letter S. Or, capture an image that illustrates a concept with the letter S, such as serene, somber or silent. In your post, include a link to Patti’s original post and use the Lens-Artists tag so that everyone can find your post in the WP Reader.
Last week, we were inspired by Sheetal’s marvelous challenge, ” Glimpse into Your World” Starting in India, your posts took us all around the world. Thank you for sharing the places, people, and things that make you happy – and made us happy too.
Next week, I, Ann-Christine, will be hosting Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #137, so be sure to pay me a visit and hopefully join in. In the meantime, have a lovely, creative week and please – stay safe and warm!
Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. – Anne Frank
This week, we welcome Sheetal as our special guest host, with the theme A Glimpse into your world. ”Show us the things you love that makes your world spin or things about your world that make you delirious with joy.” Sheetal tells an interesting story of music and travel – and of The Beatles!
Many things in life fill me with joy, but few things make me ”delirious” anymore. I guess that comes with age…but I always strive to keep my eyes and mind fresh and open. My most enchanted moments are always with Nature and all its living creatures, with Flowers and Light. Together they make my world complete and whole. I must live close to nature and just like Monet, “I must have flowers, always, and always.” And Light. With these few images from my Nordic home, I want to show some of the moments when I felt totally immersed in the beauty and wonder of our planet.
Secret gardens16000 cranes arriving at Hornborgasjön, early morning, 3 am
One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands out and throws one’s head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one’s heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun–which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so. ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
Nordic Light – Sweden
Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself. – Annie Leibovitz
Nordic Light – Norway
Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself. – Desiderius Erasmus
Nordic Light – Denmark
I really just want to be warm yellow light that pours over everyone I love. – Conor Oberst
Nordic Light – Iceland
By almost any measure, Iceland is one of the world’s most unique lands. – Roger K. Sandness
And the Nordic Light – is purely Natural.
Remember: Always walk in the light. And if you feel like you’re not walking in it, go find it. Love the light. – Roberta Flack
Thank you for last week’s fun challenge from Tina – and thank you All for showing us more useful tricks to enhance forgettable pictures! Very creative. As always, please remember to link your responses to Sheetal’s original post, and to use the Lens-artists tag to help us find you. Until next week, stay warm, well – and even a bit delirious with joy? We are looking forward to seeing what makes Your world spin!
Tina wants us to show how we can make a forgettable image into a favourite one. She demonstrates it beautifully with several examples. It is a joy seeing the process from start to results.
I will take this opportunity to show something I recently found in Photoshop – a possibility to change the skies in a photo with almost one single click.
The original photo
So, why would I want to change skies in my photo? Well, since I don’t photograph in RAW, it sometimes happens my sky is blown out in white light, which makes it impossible to normalize in any of my software.
I realised only two weeks ago, that Photoshop now had this simple feature, so I wouldn’t have to go a long and tricky way to make the change. Suddenly this seemed worth a try, and I knew just which photo from the Galápagos Islands would make a good model for it. I had always felt a bit sad about the miserable sky in this picture, but could not discard it because it showed so well the spectacular landscape of just that island.
Naturally I had to try even more spectacular skies…but watch out for the reflections – in this case I had to modify the colours in the water to fit the skies.
We hope you’re willing to share similar experiences demonstrating your use of editing to improve results. Please remember to link to Tina’s original post, and to use the Lens-Artists tag.
This last picture many of you might recognize, it was taken in Jämtland some years ago. Using the swirl it turned out rather a favourite!
We very much enjoyed your responses to Amy’s “Photography Journey” challenge last week. It was great fun to follow you from start to where you are today! We are also excited to announce that next week’s challenge will be hosted by Sheetal of Sheetal Thinks Aloud. Be sure to check out her interesting blog and watch for her post next Saturday. Until then, stay safe and be kind – to yourself as well.
My favourite landscapes – trying to understand the essence of this…leads me to Sweden, my home. The Spring forest and the open landscape with grazing cattle. My heart belongs here.
Amy writes beautifully about her photography journey, and asks us to say something about our own journey with The Camera. Personally, I started out some 50 years ago with a Kodak Instamatic. 24 photos possible, and expensive they were. I wasn’t hooked… being a school girl with no income of my own. I stayed with my binoculars and forest birds. But I kept dreaming of maybe some day…
A first try with a digital camera was in 2005, an OLYMPUS, for our second trip to China. It ATE batteries…and was only used for this trip.
When I met my husband to be, who was a keen photographer, he had a Canon, a ”real” camera with several lenses. And he made diapositives. When we started traveling more extensively, I thought it would be too expensive with double up of everything. So, I gave up photographing – something I have regretted many times…I have no photos from countries like Egypt, Nepal, Peru…
With the digital revolution, I started photographing again. My first Canon IXUS was a great companion on our Norway tour in 2008.Using the little IXUS, my orchids were often the target…here a favourite cattleya, Tropical Pointer
The other obvious targets were my two dogs, Mille and Totti. Mille was my first Lagotto. They all have their own special pages on my blog. My newest little one as well, Milo.
With the children came my first ”real” flirt with a camera. My husband bought a film camera, and I ended up with a Nikon D40. Second hand, but it worked well. (The whole New Zealand (LAPC #53) tour was photographed with the D40, and so were almost all of my students.) After some years, I upgraded to a D7000.
Today I also have a Fuji camera – much less weight to carry… My faithful Nikon is mostly left on the tripod for macros. I dearly loved the little Canon IXUS – slim pocket size and splendid sharpness. (Forwarded to my daughter now…) It was a ”dogwalk camera” – steady enough to work with one hand only. A phone must be handled with both hands – at least if you have two dogs. But remember – The best camera is the one you have with you.
The only course I have managed to squeeze in so far is ”Find your photographic voice” for Otto von Münchow. An online course where I learned more about both camera settings and how to ”think” and find my own style. I am not much into the tech part, so this theme was perfect for me. I would love to attend more courses, but with old parents, two dogs – and a grown man to ”take care of”… this is not easily managed.
Otto made me face photographing people – tough task for me!
When I try to sum up what has meant the most for my journey, I find it must be CHECKING OUT PHOTOS made by photographers all over the world. Learning from Your photos, experts’ photos, (Lens-) artists’ photos. I visit galleries, I use good books, I roam the Internet. And I love Lightroom and Photoshop to play around with. Lastly, I must not forget my husband, who patiently has been driving the car, walking the dogs, holding my things…
I am a bit envious of some of you, because I know you have friends to go out shooting with. I believe that must be wonderfully enriching – as feedback moves you forward and stretches your abilities. Otto and my son have been important in helping me do that. My son, David, is a very good photographer and graphic designer. Some of you know he has been a guest here two Thursdays with Chernobyl and Exploring the Unknown.
Finally I want to send many grateful thanks to all of you who contributed with such tremendous variety to Striped and Checked last week! – I never thought there could be so many different possibilities! So, this week we hope you will join us again, and we look forward to seeing your creative photos and reading about Your Photography Journey. Please link to Amy’s original post and don’t forget the Lens-Artists tag.
Next week Tina will present us with “Before and After” We’ll be asking you to share images that didn’t quite live up to your expectations together with your final versions after editing them. Until then – stay safe and be well. Stay close to Nature if you can, and communicate with mockingbirds – just like I do…because if something is promoting a photographic journey, it is love of what you are doing, and in my case – Love of Mother Nature.
Leya 
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