Weekly Challenge

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #99 – Old and New

/ Leya / 50 kommentarer

Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

First of all I would like to thank you for all your gloriously delicate colours from last week – so creative and so interesting – and so many!

This week, Amy is challenging us to look for “Old and New”, and now we’re looking forward to your interpretation.

In the opener, Hovdala Castle, Sweden, a place to remember the old and celebrate in new ways. But Old and New can be the contrast of architecture, fashion, collections, treasures… in one photo or multiple photos. Please visit Amy for beautiful views and inspiration!

I have consulted the archives, and these all represent moments where I really was stricken by the perspective of Old and New.

Tbilisi, Georgia – is a very old city that is being totally rebuilt. Sometimes the combinations are not that great, but old and new is always very striking.

Everywhere in Europe, you will find Old and New together.

Some combinations hurt more than others – This beautiful old building was combined with a new hotel – Umeå, Sweden.

Tbilisi again – the old fortress looking down on the new city.

In fact, when I think of old and new – two cities come to mind directly – and here they are. And, there is a reason to why one of them is called ”The Eternal City”…

I hope you will enjoy the challenge, and we are looking forward to interesting posts!

Stay tuned for Tina’s (Travels and Trifles) LAPC #100 on June 6th.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge#98 – Delicate Colours

/ Leya / 306 kommentarer

Many thanks to our lovely guest host, Sue (Mac’s Girl) of The Nature of Things  for a creative challenge where we could all be inspired to try new (and old) pastimes. Be sure to have a look if you haven’t already paid her a visit!

As many countries are opening up a bit from lock-down, and I was inspired by the soft glory of spring nature in my part of the world, I thought we would indulge in some Delicate Colours! They are everywhere in nature, but also to be found anywhere you look, in for example fashion, art and architecture.

For this challenge, I took a walk around my garden, and also a walk in one of my neighboring forests. In fact I was looking for orchids in the wetlands there, but they had not yet woken up… In the opener is the evening sky seen from my house, yesterday late.

My garden lilacs – a joy in the evenings when their delightful scent fills the air.

In the forests now, Solomon’s seal is ruling. One of my favorites, so elegant and delicate both in colour and grace.

Water avens and common dandelion are both greatly loved by insects – and by me! In Sweden we call water avens ”humleblomster” – bumblebee flower in direct translation. If you take a look inside, it looks like the bumblebee is already there…

In my garden forget-me-not grow abundantly. I love their shy little faces hiding in the shadows. Have you ever noticed them in late evenings? You will see that they almost outshine the brightest yellow flowers.

Brown shades are delicate as well, even if they maybe are a bit overlooked. This big snail was slowly sailing over the shady path, with the soft light falling down through the canopy, landing on his house. A delightful meeting – even if snails are not really my cup of tea…

Have you seen these:

At John’s Space, you will find a beautiful jigsaw puzzle

Bend Branches – Rocks! And how to decorate your garden with them

TCast – shows us a beautiful study in stillness

TiongHan’s blog – on how to handle boredom…

 

Thank you again for your fantastic support of our challenge, welcome again, and please use the tag Lens-Artists and link to my original page – not through the reader.

Also, stay safe and well, and tuned for May 30: #99  Amy of The World is a Book

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #97 – Pastime

/ Leya / 101 kommentarer

Thank you all for sharing your interesting photo crops for Patti’s challenge last week – so many good pieces of advice! As usual we can learn much from each other. Now we are happy to welcome our guest host this week – Sue (Mac’s Girl) of The Nature of Things.

Sue inspires us to post about our pastimes, old or new. ”Pastimes. It could be something that you are trying for the first time or a hobby or interest that you have enjoyed for many years.” Please visit her site for more inspiration!

Leaving my jigsaw puzzle for some hours, I have chosen to post my newly found (some weeks ago…) pastime, sparkled by ”Swirls and Twirls” at the World according to Dina.

These are some of my first attempts. I started with the little house (in the header) from a spring walk for Thursday Thoughts. Find the house here.

After making a couple of images, I realized that roads were good starters, leading straight into the swirl. This one is from Iceland, original photo here.

A lonely house on a hill, a cold, cold evening in Jämtland, Sweden. Windows are helpful to get the feeling of ”wind and light” running through.

The cherry blossom path. See the original photo here. As usual, click to enlarge.

Finally, this colourful library in Warsaw, where the original photo can be found here.

 

What did I learn from some hours of fun creating? Some things that felt right for me, were:

  • Colourful photos (rather vibrant) worked best – monochrome worked well too.
  • Roads and paths were good choices for a start.
  • Buildings – doors and windows were helpful to make the swirling go”live”.
  • Animals and people will need more practice…(Dina was very successful in her post!)

Another thing is how much time flies when you get absorbed in this – but that was of course part of the intention. If you want to try it, for guidelines, please go to Dina’s site (Link above), and/or to Youtube.

We look forward to seeing your interpretation of the Pastime theme. Please be sure to link your response to Sues post (use the original post link, NOT the one from the WP reader) and use the Lens-Artists TAG so we can all find you.

On May 23, challenge #98, we will be back on schedule, and I (Leya) will be your host. Until then – take care and stay well.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #96 – Cropping the Shot

/ Leya / 48 kommentarer

Patti challenges us to show how we crop our shots and why. See her own great examples of how to do here.

There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph.

– Robert Heinecken

There are different ways to enhance a photo, and I am quite sure many of us use some kind of software to help deliver the feeling we want to shine through to the viewer. One of the easiest ways to change a photo considerably is by cropping it.

”This week’s challenge is a chance to explore a photo editing technique and the benefits of cropping the shot.  Show us how cropping helped to improve an image and create a desired effect.  Include the shot “before” and “after” so we can see the difference.”

 

I cannot say I am an avid ”cropper”, but often I do some minor cropping. I am fully aware of the photo losing quality if I crop it too much.

Today I tried to find photos where I could easily show how I think. In the header/opener is a photo from my garden and the magnolia in late evening light. Even if I like that photo, I was not happy about my house showing as a blue ”shadow” in the background. There was also a flare on the upper left hand side. I made a rather tough cropping and the result is only the brightest flower in focus. I still like that first image, but a close-up was my final choice.

A boat trip in Holland last spring went to an outdoor museum, and this is where we landed. I loved the orange and blue together, but the old factory was the main building,

so I cropped out everything on the right side of the photo. This also made the content more substantial. In the first photo, I found the ”division in two parts” disturbing, even if the skies were much more alive and the photo had a lovely ”painterly” feeling.

A final example is from a misty morning walk, where the path is a much loved one, but the image is in more harmony when its focus is far away to the upper right.

This was my final choice. The light green moving towards a darker nuance, instead of being a dividing part in the middle of the photo with darker green in beginning and end.

All in all, it is a good idea to put yourself the question Why should I crop? Because, there should always be a reason. And you always lose something in order to win something else. The goal is to make the first image the final image, but at least for me, it seldom is. I have noticed one thing though – I should trust my first thought/shot. Often I go back to it again – to find it wasn’t that bad…

Next week, we’re delighted to announce that Sue of Mac’s Girl will be our guest host for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #97 on Saturday, May 16th.  Please be sure to stop by her site and join the fun.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #95 – All Wet

/ Leya / 65 kommentarer

Tina’s challenge this week is a wet one. See her fantastic bear shots at Travels and Trifles!

My first thought for All Wet, was of Galapagos and its many water living animals. So, two of them are playing in the opener.

These are some of my favorite ”wets” – all from the archives.

A wet forest in Sweden

A hot hot day (42 degrees C) in Bilbao, Spain

A disappearing building in Barcelona

Autumn rain in my garden

I like girls who like the countryside, put on walking boots and can bend with the wind a bit. If you’re going to live with me, you need to be able to embrace the countryside and wet dogs.

 – Jay Kay

And I will end this short, wet story with my favorite dog, my first lagotto romagnolo – the legendary Mille. Why ”legendary”? Well, for eleven summers in a row, he was standing, running or walking in the sea, at our summer house, from early morning until late evening. Chasing bubbles. This was his kingdom. (From the beginning these dogs were water dogs in Romagna, Italy, but the area was drained and the dogs were taught to dig for truffles instead.) Every man and woman in our little village knew him, every tourist, every child patted him and played with him.

We lost Mille in 2014, but people out there still (2019) remember him, and tell their own memories of him. My children planned to make a statue to sit on ”his” beach, so he would forever be watching the sea. But that dream was not realized. I have had many dogs and cats in my life – but nothing and no one compares to him. Also, he was always All Wet.

Thank you for last week’s peeks at Amy’s At home – a challenged I think more than I enjoyed very much. Hope to see you next week again, for Patti’s Challenge #96.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge#94 – At Home

/ Leya / 60 kommentarer

This week, Amy invites us to share photos taken at home. But, I will start by thanking all of you who so generously shared your mornings with us last week – they truly brightened my days. So many sunrises and mugs of coffee or tea – no problems getting up early then!

Home is the nicest word there is.
― Laura Ingalls Wilder

Staying at home is what we all do now, and for me this is not difficult – on the contrary, I love my house and I am also fortunate enough to have a garden. And all the living things here…

are precious to me. Now, a visit at my place means you will have to share with my dogs. Milo always wants to follow me Everywhere, which sometimes may be inconvenient …

My home is a ”jungle”, according to my husband, and I have lost a pot or two over the years when he is vacuum cleaning… Too many plants everywhere. I used to count how many once a year, but not anymore. They were 144 some 5-6 years ago.

If you look closely, you will encounter several critters and creatures hiding here too…

Spring has arrived, and I’d love you to take a walk in my garden – to find more living things! They are everywhere now, bees, bumble bees, spiders, lady bugs, butterflies, birds…and I love watching them buzzing around searching for food, bathing or mating. It is good to know that Life still goes on out there – This year it seems we have starlings as well – they haven’t resided here for many years, because I had to take down their home. The magpies would not let their fledglings alone – so weeks of parenting chores were all in vain. I could not stand watching the parents lose their young every year.

I love the seemingly clumsy bumble bees landing
For every child we planted a tree – this is my son’s plum tree
Bird-cherry trees are favorites with me – oh, that lovely scent!

The fourth insect hotel is now in place, waiting for guests flying in. They will soon arrive, I hope –

Nature is Life, and sometimes we can help animals and plants to regain some of their old and rightful place in life. As we humans have destroyed many of their habitats, it is our duty to try and restore what we can. We will be greatly rewarded in the end.

 

Be sure to link your post to Amy’s here, (use the original post link NOT the one from the WP Reader) and add the Lens-Artists TAG so that we can easily find you. We’re looking forward to your Home contributions – keep up your creativity!

Next week is Tina’s (Travels and Trifles) , #95 on May 2nd.