Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #79 – A Window With a View

11 januari, 202011 januari, 2020 / Leya / 62 kommentarer

Keep creating new windows from which to look at your world. Never accept your current view of the world as the only view. Let new awareness help you to alter your view and motivate you to be the force of change in your life. – Don Shapiro

A window can stand for so many things… and windows are attractive to any photographer. This time, Amy’s inspirational choice is A Window With a View. My windows offer very different ideas of a window view – depending on the perspective, who you are, where you are and maybe how you are.

Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.

– Edith Wharton

Library of Water – Roni Horn

You are your state of mind. Your state of mind creates your view,

Windows hold a different dream for each of us.
― Anthony T. Hincks

If you want the people to understand you, invite them to your life and let them see the world from your window!

– Mehmet Murat ildan

You have the nicest window, you know? None of the others can even compete. It´s not flashy like the others, or bleary, your window gives of this nice, quiet light.

– Banana Yoshimoto

Open the window of your mind. Allow the fresh air, new lights and new truths to enter.

– Amit Ray

These windows were found in Italy (Rome), Georgia (Tbilisi), Iceland, Poland, Sweden, Bhutan and Scotland. (My own old favorite, is in the header here. )

Thank you for sharing so many, very special spots last week! We hope you join us this week for Amy’s inspiring “A Window With a View” challenge. Just add your link to her post. (Links from the Reader are not working correctly.) Use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you.

As always, Patti, Amy, Tina and I thank you for your continued support. Hope to see you again next week when Tina is our host for challenge #80!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Portal

7 januari, 20207 januari, 2020 / Leya / 31 kommentarer

Impossible to resist this one for Frank…

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #78 – Special Spot Shots

4 januari, 20205 januari, 2020 / Leya / 195 kommentarer

Having delighted in all your favorite photos from 2019, We would love to invite you to some Special Spot Shots!

In November 1979 the historic city of Split, Croatia, built around the Diocletian Palace, was included in the UNESCO register of World Cultural Heritage. Today, the palace is well preserved with all the most important historical buildings. It is so well hidden behind new facades and modern stores, that If you don’t know where the southern gate to the palace is – you will not find your way in!

Somewhere behind those palm trees, lies the entrance to the palace’s cellars – let’s enter – My Special Spot!

Diocletian’s Palace was built for the Roman emperor Diocletian at the turn of the fourth century AD, which today forms about half the old town of Split, Croatia. It is referred to as a ”palace”, but the term is rather misleading as the structure is massive and more resembles a large fortress: about half of it was for Diocletian’s personal use, and the rest housed the military garrison.

The construction of Diocletian’s palace is assumed to have begun around 295, and the ground plan of the palace is an irregular rectangle measuring east: 214.97 m, north: 174.74 m, south: 181.65 m

There is a legend, probably from the 10th century, telling how Croatian king Držislav (named King Solomon), captured by the Venetians, played a chess match to gain his freedom. He won all three parties and was set free, and in some versions, he also got power over the Dalmatian cities. Thus, the chessboard ended up in the Croatian flag.

The northern gate is one of the four principal Roman gates into the Palace – originally the Main gate (the Golden Gate) from which the Emperor entered the complex. The gate is on the road to the north, towards Salona, the then capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia and Diocletian’s birthplace.

The second most important gate was the Silver Gate – here seen from the monumental central square, the Peristyle, inside the palace.

The Palace was built of white local limestone and marble of high quality, most of which was from the Brač marble quarries on the island of Brač, of tuff taken from the nearby river beds, and of brick made in Salonitan and other factories. The stones we walked are the original ones – which gives you quite the feeling and perspective!

As the world’s most complete remains of a Roman palace, it holds an outstanding place in Mediterranean, European, and world heritage. Diocletian’s Palace was also used as a location for filming the fourth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones.

The old city is very much alive – not a museum.

The Mausoleum of the Roman Emperor Diocletian

– now a church.

Narrow streets…

…and open spaces close to…

…the eastern gate.

The Palace was decorated with numerous 3500-year-old granite sphinxes, possibly originating from the site of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. Only three have survived the centuries. One is still on the Peristyle – as seen above.

After some hours of breathtakingly being transported through history, we left by the same gate we entered, the southern gate, where the emperor used to arrive by boat. As we already had noticed, today’s modern sphinxes rule the city – the cats. This sphinx sitting on the left hand side – watching you arrive and watching you leave.

Surely he has got the true sphinx look !

Now we are looking forward to seeing Your very special spot shots – maybe a room in your home, a garden, a mountain, a city, an exhibition, a lovely café…a place that is special to you!

Thank you for so generously sharing your own 2019 with us! We have enjoyed so many interesting galleries – and it was so hard to pick just some of them, but…

Have you seen these:

Sue’s eclectic gallery

From Beyond the Window Box and Judith we get gardening and beautiful views of Berwick upon Tweed

Paulie of The Life in My Years shares some stunning memories – and life lessons – with us

Su Leslie sends a glorious gallery from New Zealand

Davide‘s gallery will surprise you

Be sure to link to my original post, (Links posted within the Reader are not working correctly) and to use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you. And, of course please visit Amy’s blog next week for Challenge #79!

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

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #77 – Favorite Photos of 2019

28 december, 201920 februari, 2020 / Leya / 99 kommentarer

For our last Lens-Artists Photo Challenge of 2019, Patti suggests we look back at our year in images. Here are my favorites, starting in January and finishing in December. Which ones are yours?

January, Sweden

February, my forest, Sweden

March, Umeå, Sweden

April, Holland, the flower exhibitions at Keukenhof

Hyacinths and tulips, Keukenhof

May, my garden, Magnolia

May, spring forest, Sweden

May, Söderto fortress, Sweden

July, The Sun Voyager, Iceland

Iceland

August, the Concert Hall, Stettin

September, My garden

December, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Neretva River and Stari Most

We hope you will join in this week for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #77: Favorite Photos of 2019. Just add a link to Patti’s post. (Links from the Reader are not working correctly.) Use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you.

As 2019 draws to a close, we hope you have enjoyed our photographic adventures together – and that you will continue enjoying it! You’ve helped us create a marvelous creative “space” here on Word Press. Patti, Amy, Tina, and I truly thank you for your support.

Wishing you and your loved ones a joyous, healthy, and happy new year! Stay tuned for my (Ann-Christine’s) first post in the new year (#78) on January 4th, 2020.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #76 – On Display

15 december, 201920 februari, 2020 / Leya / 73 kommentarer

What’s “On Display” this week for Amy’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #76? I know many of you have smashing Christmas displays, so I will not even try… My choices are from daily life, what I like to do and to see. But, In the header I just had to be a bit ”Christmassy” – if you look closely, I am on display in every single bulb….

Books have always been a big part of my life, and this is just a tiny fragment of the gigantic pillar of books I found in a shop – it went from floor to ceiling. I would guess maybe 4 meters high.

From a dusty market in Tibet – Yak bells! Christmas is coming… Our horses used to have bells when they were pulling the winter sleigh to church. When my mother was a child.

Chilies and peppers – a daily ingredient in my cooking. A great display is always crucial if you want to sell. This one would make me buy more than I could use…

Many of us love to walk the markets in foreign countries. I love seeing the farmers come to town to sell their products. Some of them only have a small garden, but they work hard to produce vegetables, fruits and berries to make a living.

This lovely old lady was pleased at my attention, but only body language was possible. There was a story, somewhere, I know. But we exchanged smiles, and I felt she still had a good life.

We hope you join us this week for Amy’s fun “On Display” challenge. Just add her link to your post. (Links from the Reader are not working correctly.) Use the Lens-Artists tag to help us find you.

As always, Patti, Amy, Tina and I thank you for your continued support of our photo challenge!

Lens – Artists Photo Challenge #75 – Nostalgic

7 december, 201920 februari, 2020 / Leya / 37 kommentarer

I prefer the mystic clouds of nostalgia to the real thing, to be honest. – Robert Wyatt

Tina is hosting this week, and she wants us to be Nostalgic. This is a feeling that easily comes to me, touches me, just like tears do. Nostalgia is such a unique phenomenon because it fuses both positive and negative experiences and emotions.

The word nostalgia is a Greek compound, meaning ”homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ”pain” or ”ache”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Today its meaning is a bit different. So, my Nostalgic will be entirely about my own life.

I don’t have any digital photos of my grandmother, but my childhood was so much about her. My nostalgic memories always take me to her garden and the flowering apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees, plum trees and …her sweet voice and contagious laughter.

I always make a distinction between nostalgia and sentimentality. Nostalgia is genuine – you mourn things that actually happened. – Pete Hamill

After my grandmother, my first Lagotto, Mille, evokes my nostalgic memories. He was such an impressive dog who hit all your senses already in the first blow. You did not stand a chance. He will be forever remembered by everyone who met him.

Tropical Pointer

Can you feel nostalgic about one single flower? I can! Many years ago I had a fantastic favorite orchid – a Cattleya hybrid, ”Tropical Pointer”. I had it for several years and it came back again and again with a multitude of flowers. I think of it as a He – don’t know why. He just flowered himself to death (if you can say it that way…). And like everything else in this world, you can never get the same thing twice. I kept searching for a new Tropical Pointer, in every garden center, in every country I visited, but new hybrids come every year – and the old ones are forgotten…

Nostalgia is a very human trait. – Stephanie Coontz

My beloved apple tree – a bit of a warden tree for this house (about 100 years old). Nostalgia hits me when looking at it in its former glory. You who follow my blog know it is the same tree (but lying down, 2019) in the Creepy post.

Finally, we had some foreign guests in town when the children played in different orchestras, some 15 years ago. A big meeting with other European countries brought a couple of young guys our way. They stayed at our house for some nights while the festivities lasted. This young man was an avid accordion player – every time I look at the photo, I can feel his love for music and for his instrument warming my heart.

In the header, one of the very few photos of my whole family together. Nostalgia over all those years we still traveled together, and how excited we were over reaching our dream – Tibet.

Thank you, Tina, for hosting this week instead of me! And, as always, Amy, Tina, Patti and I thank you for your continued support of our photo challenge.

Lens- Artists Photo Challenge # 74 – Abstract

30 november, 201920 februari, 2020 / Leya / 75 kommentarer

It makes no difference whether a work is naturalistic or abstract; every visual expression follows the same fundamental laws. – Hans Hofmann

Patti is asking us to go Abstract – ”relating to or denoting art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but rather seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, colours, and textures.”

Over the last 30 years I have developed a taste for abstract art. But, something – ”that could have been painted by any child”, (said about a big blank canvas with a single red dot) as my mother would put it, will probably not hang on my wall. But I am sure it will hang on someone else’s wall instead! That is one of the reasons to why art is so interesting. Now we are looking forward to seeing Your ideas of Abstract!

In the header, a work by a favorite of mine, Antoni Gaudí.

Colourful from our exhibition park in Wanås, Sweden. Much of the art exhibited here, it is allowed to climb on or walk into. Do you think some art/art forms are ”more useful” than others?

Glass from Kosta-Boda Art Hotel – a material very much ”alive”

The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract. – Ellen Key

People like abstract art because it makes them feel clever. – James Acaster

The two images above are both examples of a mix of photographic art and architecture. The first one is a phone photo from Helsingborg trainstation, processed in several apps, and the second one was made by simply tilting the photo (and raindrops on the lens).

Finally, some of Nature’s own abstract art –

I used to wonder, How do artists think when they work with an abstract piece of art? Well, Pablo Picasso says that There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.

– Sounds perfectly right to me.

We send our heartfelt wishes to all our Australian blogger friends who have experienced weeks of devastating fires. May the rains come soon and bring an end to the terrible fears and destruction.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Peace

27 november, 201927 november, 2019 / Leya / 15 kommentarer

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Peace

Non-Violence is a bronze sculpture by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd of an oversized Colt Python.357 Magnum revolver with a knotted barrel and the muzzle pointing upwards. Carl R. made this sculpture after singer, songwriter and peace activist John Lennon was murdered.

There are currently 16 copies of the sculpture around the world. An original standing outside the United Nations headquarters in NY.

This photo is from Lund, where I studied at the University for several years.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #73 – Cold

23 november, 201920 februari, 2020 / Leya / 73 kommentarer

This week Tina is asking us for something Cold – and cold it is in Sweden now. But where I live it almost never gets below -20C. In recent years the climate has changed and our winters send us very little snow, and temperatures mostly around zero (+-0C). Gone are my childhood days when skiing was a winter joy.

For some real cold, I must go up north visiting friends or my daughter in Umeå. For many years we went to Dalarna to ski, but not anymore. So Tina, I will venture up north and to Iceland – for the real thing. In the header, Gullfoss, and I believe the coldest moment ever in my life.

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.

– John Steinbeck

My old apple tree and a Bullfinch. And yes, I do love winter – when it is Winter.

To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold.

– Aristotle

A warm house in a cold winter night is another name for paradise!
― Mehmet Murat ildan

It’s too cold outside for angels to fly.
― Ed Sheeran

Keeping the warmth

And last, of course, the beautiful Tännforsen, Jämtland, Sweden. Our highest fall, 37 meters and 60 meters wide.

Many thanks to those of you who responded to Amy’s “waiting” challenge. Our waiting was well rewarded…we so enjoyed your creativity! As always Amy, Patti, Tina and I greatly appreciate your support of our challenge.

Finally, for those who celebrate, we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by those you hold most dear. Next week it will be Patti’s challenge #74 – so stay tuned.