LENS-ARTISTS

Lens-Artists Challenge # 388 – Your Journey in 5-10 images

/ Leya / 92 kommentarer

So, we have traveled by train through Zimbabwe and South Africa – I had only been to the northern parts, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco before. And, honestly, I never thought I would go on a trip like this one…to the heart of the continent. But, some of my L-A friends have truly inspired me to make this journey. And I don’t regret it. One of the novels that’s made the greatest impression on me, is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. (If you haven’t read this masterpiece, please give it a try – or see the prize winning movie with Marlon Brando.) It’s an intriguing continent, Africa.

These kind of varied trips are difficult to describe, and it can easily be a bit too much for both friends and readers. It might be a good idea to try a reasonably short version. What were the highlights, what are the memories that will stay with me forever? Maybe the big surprises? The animals, the people, the culture, the landscapes? This week it will be interesting to see how you choose to present a short or long trip (maximum 10 images), what will be your main points and why?

We flew from Copenhagen to the Victoria Falls Hotel in Zimbabwe to start our main journey from there. This Colonial style hotel has a magical view towards the falls. Not to mention its Victorian atmosphere – down to the smallest detail with dress code and grand piano.

Walking the whole stretch of the majestic falls made us both filled with awe – and soaking wet! ”Mosi-oa-Tunya” – means ”the smoke that thunders.” And the sound was indeed deafening.

As this was a once in a lifetime experience… we decided to do the helicopter flight over the falls. We were visiting during the high water season, when this is the world’s largest curtain of falling water. 1700m wide and 108m deep. ”Discovered” and named by David Livingstone in 1855.

The Zambezi River, above the falls, made for a sundown trip with crocodiles (look closely and there are two of them in the picture), hippos and bee-eaters among other things. In the background you see the Victoria Falls sending up steam and clouds.

After some astonishing days, it was time to board the famous Rovos Rail train – a new adventure! A South African man, named Rohan Vos, buys old trains, wagons and engines and restores them to their former glory. It felt like treading into an Agatha Christie movie. Dress code here too, and the local food served was extremely delicious. Breakfast and 5 courses twice a day. My sincere compliments to the chef (we saw the incredibly tiny kitchen they had to work in…).

The Diner cars were gorgeous, old time beauties. After three days on the train, stuffed and without the Milo excercise I am used to do every day, we finally reached the end station in Pretoria. (I promise – I rolled off that train…) From there, we went by bus and jeep to a private game reserve.

The wild life was wonderful of course. One of my favourites (from Tina’s treasures) is the Lilac breasted Roller. What a joy to see it with my own eyes!

One of the main highlights was the opportunity to see the big cats. On our first day at the camp, we came across two relaxing Cheetahs. I was overwhelmed, realising this was what I had been waiting for all along. Our camp was not fenced in, so the animals could walk freely through it – and they did every night. We saw footprints of antelopes, lions, monkeys and more every morning. After dark we had to rely on a ranger following us to our tent. He told us they see lions there at least twice a week .

Then, after some days with antelopes, ”Pumbas”, giraffes, zebras and birds, we met five beautiful, peacefully relaxing lions. I love this picture of one of the males who heard us coming and slowly turned his head to take a look at us.

Big cats are very special, and I chose to close with these wonderful creatures. So powerful, but somehow still looking gentle. I always had cats when I grew up, and there are many similarities between big and small. You never really know when, or if, they will strike…

There are many more stories to tell, but that will have to wait for another day. I haven’t even looked at all the pictures yet…

Thank you, John, for a lovely challenge, and thank you all for the great variety of answers! If you participate, please remember to use the Lens-Artists tag and link to my original post.

Next week, Anne will be our host – be sure to visit her beautiful site for more inspiration. Until then, stay safe and enjoy your precious time.

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Lens-Artists Challenge #387 – Shadowed

/ Leya / 38 kommentarer

As twilight’s gentle fall descends, where shadows and wind play hide and seek, as day surrenders, the mountains whisper tales.

– David Passarelli

This week, John wants us to consider how shadows shape our photos. ”You can take a literal approach and photograph an actual shadow, or lean into contrast and mood—shapes, silhouettes, or scenes where darkness adds depth and character to your subject.” Please visit John’s site for brilliant examples.

All my pictures in this post are from Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls Hotel, the Zambesi River and a small village without name) and South Africa.

Well, shadow is the first thing I seek when it is hot – just like these beautiful kudus did. But I suspect they were hiding from predators as well.

There are two primary types of shadows: form shadows and cast shadows. Form shadows are the darker, shadowed side of a three-dimensional object itself (not receiving direct light), while cast shadows are the shapes projected onto another surface by an object blocking the light source.

For this challenge I will stick to John’s examples. In these two pictures I tried to show shadows looking from the outside of a house and in, and the reverse. In the third one, below, there are both ways.

Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides.

– Junichiro Tanizaki

Find the light of beauty even in the shadows of darkness.

– Christina Casinom

All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

– Leo Tolstoy

All shadows whisper of the sun.

– Emanuel Carnevali

Now, time to go to bed after a thorough help with the details…

Many thanks to Patti, Ritva and Beth for the last weeks’ inspiration. Unfortunately I could not participate due to travels in the wilderness without wifi – but now I am back on track. March is here, and next Saturday it’s my turn to host the challenge – hope to see you then!

To participate, simply create your own post responding to this week’s theme and include a link to the original post by John. Be sure to add the Lens‑Artists tag so your post appears in the WordPress Reader.

Lens-Artists #383, Looking back at #174 – Shapes and Designs

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

Design is an opportunity to continue telling the story, not just to sum everything up.

― Tate Linden

Tina leads the challenge this week and she looks for shapes and designs. I believe the most common and the most used designs and shapes all originate from the natural world. If we manage well to copy them or be inspired by them, the results might be harmonious shapes and useful, beautiful designs.

Who hasn’t walked along a beach collecting beautiful shells? We admire their shape and structure and marvel at the power of nature.

This colourful tangle is intricate galls made by a gall wasp for its larvae – and Seattle offered a Chihuly version!

The urge for good design is the same as the urge to go on living.

– Harry Bertoia

Lotus and water lilies are important symbols and loved shapes in art ever since ancient times –

– here in the modern, immersive exhibition of Tutanchamon.

Be like a lotus. Let the beauty of your heart speak. Be grateful to the mud, water, air, and the light.

– Amit Ray

The structures beneath belongs to the very much used and loved ones in everyday life – originally designed by a spider. If you have walked into a spider web once, you know how incredibly strong it is.

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

– Albert Schweitzer

Wonderful, isn’t it? Mother Nature will always be our master; for beauty, for harmony, and for the durability of construction. Many great artists declare they are deeply influenced by Nature, and one of them is Gaudí – my favourite. In my book, I believe every artist owe his or her skills to the natural world.

Design is not for philosophy it’s for life.

– Issey Miyake

Thank you for a great challenge, Tina, and many thanks to those who joined us last week in response to Egidio’s “Rejected” challenge. Wonderful! Finally, we hope to see you next week when Beth will lead us once again on her Wandering Dawgs site. Until then, please stay safe, be kind and enjoy every new day. We look forward to seeing your responses, and remember to link to Tina’s post and to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

Lens-Artists Challenge #382 – Rejected

/ Leya / 31 kommentarer

Egidio‘s challenge this week is all about rejected photos. A bad photo can sometimes be “rescued” and made more presentable. Take a look again at a few of your ”rejected” photos and see what you can do to bring them out of the archives.

Honestly, I find it difficult to throw away most ”bad” photos, but I try… I just have too many photos. From our trip to Poland, I have chosen four photos, and let’s see what I did with them.

This fish had a wonderful pattern and the surrounding structures were great – the colours were striking. And when it emerged from of its cave, the contrasts looked great. I clicked, but at home I didn’t recognize the picture in my head. Shooting through glass is almost never a hit, and this glass was not very clean either…

I removed the shadow fish with AI, reduced the blur and hightened the contrast. It didn’t get absolutely clear, but still – here it looks more like I remember it.

I love the jungle, and I have created some of my own at home. I think you know I always visit the botanical garden and the palm house wherever I go, and Poznan was no exception. However, there were spotlights and strong light in some places, so I was not happy with the water in this picture. I photograph in RAW, but didn’t really manage to make this one presentable.

I started with cropping on top, and then using AI again – to take away parts of the water and the blue, disturbing net. I think it turned out quite OK in the end, even if I would have wanted the whole picture.

They had a marvellous cafe’ in the midst of the greenery. That is the way I want my home to look! I am not there yet, but on my way… Reviewing these pictures at home, I found the colour of the chairs took away some of the feeling because of their bright hue.

I cropped the picture on the left, muted the colours and let the lady shine. This reduced some of the busyness and enhanced the jungle cosiness and harmony.

My last choice is a big elkhorn fern, from the same palm house. I have always found them fascinating, and once owned a plant for many years. Unfortunately it outgrowed the room and I had to leave it.

This one seems a big dark blob though, because of the angle of the shot, should I keep it?

Well, my first love for this plant was all about its structure and the hint of ancient dinosaurs…So, I focused on structure and the unique form, left the green for monochrome and my old fascination. I think I still love this plant!

My sincere thanks to Egidio who challenged us to show some of the work it takes to create an image we’re willing to share. Be sure to visit his original here, and to use the Lens-Artist tag in your response to help us find you.

Many, many thanks to those who responded to last week’s B&W/Minimalism challenge hosted by the eminent Ritva. It was an amazing display of the power of simplicity. Finally, we hope you’ll join us next week when Tina will be our host from her beautiful Travels and Trifles. Until then, please stay safe, hope you managed the snow storm ok, and may life be good to you this week.

Lens-Artists Challenge #381 – Minimalism in B&W Photography

/ Leya / 47 kommentarer

Thank you, Anne, for letting us in on all these interesting neighborhoods! And for having us check out our own too… We get so used to it, that we really stop looking.

Ritva is our lovely guide this week, and she has chosen another interesting challenge – a combination of minimalism and B&W. Please visit her beautiful site for more inspiration.

I would rather own a little and see the world, than own the world and see a little.

– Alexander Sattler

A well-used minimum suffices for everything.
― Jules Verne

Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.

– Elliott Erwitt

Color is everything, black and white is more.

– Dominic Rouse

Look at that sea girls… all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn’t enjoy it more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.”

– Anne of Green Gables

The world needs more people who celebrate the little things in life and find life in every little thing.
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

All the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

– Leo Tolstoy⁠

Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive. – Elliott Erwitt

There’s something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery.

– Stefan Kanfer

Black and white creates a strange dreamscape that color never can

– Jack Antonoff

Yes, Iceland is minimalistic in essence.

Thank you, Ritva for a beautiful challenge – and I am so looking forward to seeing what you all have chosen to show us! Please link to Ritvas original post and tag Lens-Artists. Next week Egidio will be hosting – until then, stay well and be kind.

Lens-Artists Challenge # 380 – What’s Around the Corner?

/ Leya / 50 kommentarer

First – a big Thank you for treating us all with your wonderful favourites for 2025 – maybe the best challenge every year!

Now Anne is asking us to take a walk according to the theory ”…there is always something to photograph.” A theory I certainly agree with! Please visit her lovely site for more inspiration! Well, I did as she said – took the block less traveled. Here are some of my findings:

I started out at my favourite house – then took some roads where I never walk my dog.

Next I found these covered trees. Almost ghostly appearances. I wouldn’t want to meet them in the dark…

Yes, Winter has arrived and in many places we have very cold weather and huge amounts of snow. Schools are closed, there are no buses and the trains are standing still. And more snow is coming. There are red warnings telling us to stay at home!

Here is a neat group of stones to be set in a yard next year(?). Many people started renovating and building new when we had covid. Some never got finished.

Round the last corner before walking back home, I found a beautiful winter tree with reddish branches and snow powdered twigs. A gorgeous dominant in this garden.

Lastly some rusty and broken details – and a fallen out door from the old silo.

When I reviewed my post, I saw that much of our architecture and many trees have that red touch during winter (even the details!) – I like it. It gives the overall impression of a red and white world. These are also the colours of most Swedish houses from the old days.

Thank you, Anne, for a fun way to find out what our neighbourhood looks like today! Now we are looking forward to seeing what’s on Your block! Don’t forget the Lens-Artists tag and to add your post to Anne’s original one.

Next week it is Ritva leading – please visit her beautiful site for inspiration. Until then, stay safe and be kind.

Favourite Images of 2025

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

I hope you all had some Happy Holidays and are now ready for posting your favourites of 2025! As has become our custom, we are asking our followers to select their favorite images of the last year – whether they’ve been included in previous posts or not. This week, no single host will present the challenge. The entire team will share the challenge topic.

Here are mine – difficult to choose, and, of course I could have chosen other ones. But, with some for the beauty, some for the fun, some for the surprise and some for Love – I hope you will find something for yourself too!

This picture is my absolute favourite of the year – an endemic chaffinch sitting in a young girl’s hand in the forest in Madeira. A moment of peace and total connection with Nature. It fills my heart with gratefulness just looking at it.

I think I wrote in another post, that this year I didn’t do much photography – because I have started painting again. That is why one of my paintings is here in the gallery too.

Spring is the starter of Life – and everything…also my joy in photography. But it must be Spring at home, in Sweden.

In June we returned to Madeira, our hiking paradise for many years in the 70’s and 80’s. It was a joy to come back to the lush and beautiful nature there, but in the city so much had changed that I hardly recognized it. Despite the changes of time though, the country feeling remains – suddenly close-up cows in the middle of the road. Loved it!

Back home to Autumn, Winter and bird feeding in the moonlight. I do love my sweet sheep meetings every day on my dog walks – Milo believes they are his cousins.

Finally, a trip to the ice festival in Midieval Poznan, Poland. This is Restaurant Ratuszova with its amazing paintings in the cellar vaults.

We thank all of our followers for continued support and look forward to seeing the images you choose as YOUR favorites of 2025. Please remember to link your post to any or all of the Lens-Artists team members. Also, remember to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you.

We offer our best wishes for a New Year filled with peace, happiness, love and friendship. Anne will lead us next week on her lovely Slow Shutter Speed blog. Until then, stay safe, be kind and and find joy in the simple things.

Lens-Artists Challenge 378 – # Last Chance

/ Leya / 41 kommentarer

I love these end of the year opportunities to post some pictures that didn’t quite make the cut or didn’t quite fit in to our challenges. This year was no photography year for me – not much traveling either – rather a painting year. But here they are, my last chances!

The opener/header shows a Madeira interior from one of our hikes in June. There were fewer traveling days than usual this year, let’s see what the new year has in store for us.

Little ones – Vedema frog and babies. A favourite day out in April.

My garden in flower. A moss lover I am, a tiny worlds lover. I found these photos in a folder from August 2025. They were untouched – so, a perfect fit!

I will end with a frosty Autumn picture from the lake and the last one from my forest, when the beeches were already fading. I love that colour though, and miss it now when all leaves are gone and everything is grey and dull.

We want to announce that this is our last post of the year as Lens-Artists will be taking the final 2 weeks of December off and will return on January 3.

THANK YOU for all your Holiday Fun posts! Now it is time for the 2025 fun too! Thank you all for making this year, 2025, brighter and more hopeful – I believe that is one of the best reasons to keep a blog, to connect and communicate. For me, it’s a vital source to constantly revive faith in mankind. So, until we see you again – stay safe, be kind and enjoy the Holiday Season.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and may the New Year be Happy and Healthy for us all!

Ann-Christine

Lens-Artists Challenge #377 – Holiday Fun

/ Leya / 123 kommentarer

The Holiday Season is approaching and many of us celebrate at the end of December. But there are many different holidays over a year, and celebrations don’t look the same anywhere. This week we invite you to share some Holiday memories with us! Shared joy is double joy – as we say in Sweden.

Pick any fun and/or happy memories from holidays you enjoyed – your own or others´, at home or abroad – I know they are hiding in your archives! If not – new pictures would be great! You can concentrate on one holiday or on a couple of them. I have chosen Christmas, as it will soon be on our doorstep.

Christmas is one of our major holidays in Sweden, where we engage in our families, play boardgames, bake and eat together, dance and give each other a present or two. In our family, we make rhymes to every parcel. Then, on Christmas Day, some people attend early morning mass.

Here are some family memories:

Making buns for Lucia, December 13, is a must. Before our children moved out, we used to gather family and friends to join in the baking. This is the starting point for the Holiday Season.

It is a common tradition in the south of Sweden to visit our neighbouring city, Copenhagen, to have fun for a day or two around Christmas. They have Tivoli, an amusement park with everything you could wish for! Or we pop over the waters southwards to Poland, where the winter markets often are spectacular, but you can also find small and cozy ones. If we are lucky enough to have snow – so much more fun!

Winter fairs and markets are everywhere, where artists and farmers can sell their work and produce. Most people in Sweden have their winter holiday between December 22 and January 6.

Ever since I was a child, we have made ginger breads – a traditional, fun baking for the whole family. The small children though, tend to eat half of their dough before it reaches the oven…

This year, Myra was old enough to really enjoy baking and decorating them. (And eating them…) Laughter and music, candle light and Holiday Fun together!

A big thank you to Beth for last week’s Wings – a theme that made us come up with lots of beautiful pictures and new creative solutions. Now we are looking forward to learning more about your traditions and Holiday Fun! Please link to my original post and remember the Lens-Artist tag so we can find you in the reader.

Hope to see your joyful posts soon, and until then – stay well and be kind.

Next week, on Saturday, December 13th, we’ll host our annual Last Chance Challenge, inviting you to share any photos you took in 2025 that haven’t been part of our earlier challenges!

Lens-Artists Challenge #376 – Wings

/ Leya / 37 kommentarer

Beth is our host this week, and she has chosen a wonderful theme – Wings. So many possibilities and a great variety of posts is expected! Please visit her lovely site for more inspiration.

My first thought is of course birds – and bats, and what would I choose if I hadn’t visited the Galapagos Islands? Here are some favourites, and among them is the albatros – with the largest wingspan of all flying cretures. The wandering albatros can reach a wingspan of 12feet!

Back in Europe and at home, butterflies and other insects dominate – at least my garden.

Birds again – big birds at home, in Ireland – and of course the silver birds. In churchyards we find beautiful angels watching, and art in general has always depicted angels. Nike is a beauty.

Last week you showed us some really creative images in your responses to Patti’s challenge Mysterious. I must say I enjoyed them immensely. Now we are looking forward to seeing your responses this week, and be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to Beth’s original post.

Please check in on Saturday, December 6 at noon eastern time when it is my turn, Ann-Christine/Leya, to host the challenge.

Until then, I hope you will find time to relax, to be kind and take care of each other.