Weekly Challenge

Tuesday Photo Challenge: Surprise

/ Leya / 8 kommentarer

Surprise is the least I can say about these examples! This weeks Tuesday challenge was easily filled….with lovely surprises from my past.

Walking in a park in Rome some years ago, I really had to look twice, or maybe four times…because these cats seemed to have special seats on exactly this bench. And they did not move even if I hauled out a camera…

Some days my Totti got a short visit from his daughter, Belezza. Totti is a very calm and considerate dog, but his face when Belezza performs some of her youthful tricks…

Then a fond memory from traveling with my students to Madrid…We visited a market, where things unseen and unheard of, never seen the likes of…turned up. One of my young girls just had to see and feel if this thing was real…

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #16: Big Can Be Beautiful Too!

/ Leya / 23 kommentarer

When Tina asks us to think Big, my first thoughts go to the Galapagos islands, Lonesome George and the beautiful Iguanas. Because I think they are beautiful creatures, I really do. So here are some of my favorites!

Colourful and pensive – or not –

Lazy or not –

In the header, Scotland’s impressive, 30 m high Kelpies, and lastly the lovely little terrier of Bilbao – size XXXXXL.

 

 

Thank you, Tina, for the Big opportunity this week to think Big!

For more information about our challenges click here.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Reflection

/ Leya / 9 kommentarer

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Reflection

Good morning! Reflections are hard to resist, so I was too tempted not to send an entry…from Łódź, Poland, and the Light Move Festival. Hope it is not too late to join in!

In the header picture, the Butterfly tree, standing in Piotrkowska Street, is reflected in the opposite window of an art and craft’s shop. People are reflected as well.

The second photo is a string art exhibition in the park at the end of the street (opposite Manufaktura), reflected in the little pond.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #15: Change and/or Changeable

/ Leya / 43 kommentarer

There is nothing permanent except change

Heraclitus

This week Amy is hosting our challenge, and she lets us all have the opportunity to change the world…or the world in photos at least!

As summer is changing into autumn, so the colours here in Sweden change our perception of nature. I love autumn for its earthy scent and for its colours – only lasting for a few days, but what beautiful days!

My walks in the foggy mornings at Hammarmölledamm (a pond in our forest) this week, showed the area in a new mood every day. Fog and mist too are great changers.

Changing the original picture into something like a painting is easily done with different software, and great fun. Here is a water colour…

…and here is an abstract version. For both pictures I have used FotoSketcher. Which one do you like most? And how much does the framing mean to the picture – and to you?

Thank you, Amy, for the opportunity to Change!

 

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #14: Windows +

/ Leya / 202 kommentarer

I guess you might be… one of those lovers of windows and doors? So many of us bloggers are fascinated by – doors and windows. But, not only the window itself is special and worthy of acknowledgement, I think also what/who is standing or sitting by or at the window is important. Maybe you find an interesting something standing or hanging in the window…or perhaps seen through the window!

For this week – Find a favorite window and show us your special choice!

 

For some years now, I have been fascinated by Poland, and I have found many interesting windows there – I guess they all have…that little story I am looking for:

We are all prisoners, but some of us are in cells with windows and some without.

Khalil Gibran

A breeze, a forgotten summer, a smile, all can fit into a storefront window.

Dejan Stojanovic

There is a window from one heart to another heart.     

Rumi

The windows of the houses, even if the house is ramshackle, are always beautiful because windows represent light!

Mehmet Murat ildan

It is not possible for a house to own a spirit without owning windows with flowers!

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

Enlarge your windows till you get a window where you can see the whole universe with one look!

Mehmet Murat ildan

 

And – HAVE YOU SEEN THESE?

There were many interesting responses to Patti’s challenge last week.  Thanks to all who participated!

Debbie of Travel with Intent shows us an interesting juxtaposition.

Ken of anevolvinscientist sent us a rare and giant flower, for which we really have to look up!

 Click This TAPG shares a dizzying shot making you definitely look up!

Amy will post the next challenge on Saturday, October 13th at noon.  For more information on how to join the Lens-Artists Photo Challenges, click here for details. Most importantly, remember to TAG your post “Lens-Artists ” so it appears in the Reader.

Wishing you all an inspiring week!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #13: Look Up!

/ Leya / 34 kommentarer

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge: #13 Look Up

I have just returned from the Light Move Festival in Lodz, Poland – again. We were there last year, Viveka (My guilty pleasures) and I, and this year some of my best friends wanted to join me. Patty’s theme just seems meant for me – Look Up!

Piotrkowska Street

Lodz has a lot to offer visitors – even an enormous amount of art murals – outstandingly beautiful and worth walking for hours to see. Sometimes a lonely dog on a balcony as well…

 

Finally – Lodz has got some lovely parks to fill my lungs and eyes with as well! So, Look Up and you will be greatly rewarded!

Thank you, Patti, for a great challenge!

Lens Artists Challenge #12: Path

/ Leya / 49 kommentarer

Our host this week, Tina,  asks us to send paths her way. I have chosen some of my favorite paths walked in Sweden, the Azores and Switzerland. They all live in my memories and thoughts – because they still have something to tell me…every season of the year. And tomorrow, we celebrate the autumnal equinox.

“True morality consists not in following the beaten track, but in finding the true path for ourselves, and fearlessly following it.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“A beautiful path does not need to invite people; the beauty itself is already an open invitation!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

”I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.”
– Rosalia de Castro

“The path of light is the quest for knowledge.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“End? No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path. One that we all must take.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

“A path well traveled may still yield secrets that only one person may discover.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

”If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads”.
– Anatole France

“A beautiful mind is like a beautiful path! The more you travel with it, the more you find peace and happiness!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
― Gautama Buddha

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #11: Small is Beautiful

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

”Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, ”one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.”

Hans Christian Anderson

For Amy and the Lens-Artists Challenge, I have chosen a series of small beauties from a trip to the Pyrenées in 2011.

A hidden valley that has kept its biodiversity almost intact –

– and is renowned for its variety of butterflies

A couple of days hiking this valley, and I felt harmony restored

Serenity

And …

… I even managed to capture a Hummingbird Hawk moth – what joy!

CFFC: Reds

/ Leya / 22 kommentarer

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Red

There are so many kinds of reds…

…but my favorite ones are always natural

Of course the Swedish Falu red (made from copper) house is a must, and so is Christmas red! Wishing you all a lovely week!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #10: Fences

/ Leya / 185 kommentarer

The wide world is all about you, you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.     

J R R Tolkien

Where I grew up there were stone fences everywhere – even our garden had one, and we loved to climb and to play there. That stone fence was meticulously put together by my great grandfather and his family.

For centuries stones have been gathered from the ground to open up for grazing cattle or growing crops, and then laboriously made into beautiful stone fences stretching miles and miles over the landscape…

I guess this is the reason to why my favorite fences are made of stone. But there is a great variety of other fences in the world, both beautiful and practical.

If we travel up north in Sweden – these leaning beauties are frequent.

In Poland I found this perfect fence – creating total harmony with the surrounding nature.

In the Azores, especially in Faial, they use hydrangea to make natural fences for the cattle. The hedges can grow 3-5 meters high.

Which is quite different from Bhutan, where we encountered this most unnatural fence…But, in the rural areas they have to use whatever is at hand – and in the vicinity there was a working sawmill.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

Robert Frost

The marble fences in the Forbidden City, Beijing, create mazes between the buildings.

Fences and walls can be effective and even soothing, at least for those who build them.

Richard Engel

Somewhere in the Canary Islands I found this modern, somewhat sprawling fence. Only because of the palm tree, it still managed to create a certain harmony.

But, real craft work is making the harmony in this elaborate iron fence, in Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, Spain.

 

 If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.

William L. McKnight

At the great Carnival in Lund, people gather in thousands – and for students, there are no fences unclimbable… they believe, like Locke, that

The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.

John Locke

 

This week, the Lens-Artists challenge is to show us your favorite fence. Or, maybe you prefer fencelessness? Looking forward to your ideas and posts!

 

Have you seen these – from last week’s Action challenge?

Sue of WordsVisual plays with shutter speed for action feeling

Su Leslie of Zimmerbitch caught a precious moment

Ron Mayhew’s Blog with, to me as a Scandinavian, a very American action gallery

 

Here are a few reminders about the Lens-Artist Photo Challenges:

  • Welcome to join the challenge this week.
  • Use the tag “Lens-Artists” in your post.
  • Create a link to this post.
  • Amy will post the next challenge (#11) on Saturday, September 15th.

 

As always, thanks for joining the challenge and have an inspiring week!