Lens Artists Photo Challenge #14: Windows +

6 oktober, 20185 oktober, 2018 / 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!

2 oktober, 20183 oktober, 2018 / 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

22 september, 2018 / 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

15 september, 2018 / 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!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #10: Fences

8 september, 20188 september, 2018 / 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.

Missed our initial Lens-Artists challenge announcement? Click here for details.

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

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #9: Action

1 september, 201831 juli, 2019 / Leya / 45 kommentarer

This week Patti wants some Action – and my contribution is a mix of kites, children, students and animals… And action is taken for different reasons, as always.

The kites and their owners were in constant action in Fanö this June – creativity just for fun. For the sake of Art. For the sake of feeling the air lifting your device – and your soul.

There are many memories with this photo – taken at the skate park in Malmoe several years ago. My son is a skater since his early teens, and still skating at 26. Young people act out of necessity and have to be on the move. They are growing and want to test their limits, strengthening their bodies for future challenges.

I also love to follow one of my students jousting – in fact he is the number one champion in Sweden. Here is the wonder of cooperation between man and animal – which has been a necessity for thousands of years. Where would mankind have been today without this co-work?

Action is also necessary to protect your domains, to get the partner you want or the food you need. These Swallow Tailed Gulls of Galapagos are doing just that.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting Milo’s little sister at our summer place in Blekinge. Not a dull moment in those two days…Action for them means just the same as for us humans – testing body and mind for later, grown-up challenges.

But of course much of the action is just for fun…Some rain and some water wrestling to cool down afterwards is a treat for everyone involved.

Being a grown-up, and a (more than) middle aged woman, I sometimes wish I still had some of all that explosive energy…

So, what does Action mean to you?

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #8: Colorful

26 augusti, 201826 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 33 kommentarer

Tina asks us to be colourful – and that feels good after a summer with no flowers, no natural colours here in Skåne, Sweden, except yellow and brown.

First, I would like to present an ordinary summer’s typical Swedish summer house…

…and then a sparkling Japanese Camellia. Flowers are inevitable photo objects when it comes to colour!

Two family members are celebrating colourful birthdays during summer.

And not that seldom we all go to enjoy Neil’s Yard in London, where walking in colours always makes my spirit jump with joy. Possible even when flowers are out of season…

Finally, I wish you a colourful and inspiring weekend!

Just a few reminders about the Lens-Artist Photo Challenges:

We hope you will join the challenge this week! When you do, include a link to Tina’s post.
Use the tag “Lens-Artists” in order to make other bloggers find your post in the Reader. so keep in mind that you should use fewer than 15 tags for your post or it won’t appear in the Reader. For more information on how to tag, click here.
The next challenge (#9) will be posted by Patti, on Saturday, September 1.
Missed our initial Lens-Artists challenge announcement? Click here for details.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #7: Everyday Moments

19 augusti, 201819 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 56 kommentarer

Everyday moments – maybe it is easy to forget how important they are, because (I) we seldom succeed in living as mindful as we should… Thank you, Amy, for the opportunity of highlighting some of those precious moments.

Everyday I have to care for my best friends, Totti and Milo. Following their lives is a gift.

Even if I see to their daily needs, sometimes a professional grooming is necessary – especially if you want to win next competition!

Not yet….are they best friends, but it is coming. Milo is slowly learning what he can do… or not…Totti has an angel’s patience – he is really too kind and considerate for his own good.

So, I try to walk Totti alone, just him and me, once a day. Picking berries, finding wild animals – and apple trees – in the forest and meadows.

Some days we go to our summer house, or just to the sea, to relax, and only – exist…

…which is so important…Life is short – someone will soon grow out of those sandals.

Taking a boat to one of the small islands in the archipelago is always a treat.

Driving home to our ordinary house again, the farmers are usually busy in the fields, but this year there is not much left to harvest. The drought has taken its toll.

Every month – not every day – we usually visit some interesting exhibitions. It could be about almost anything. Here a fashion and theater theme by designer Camilla Thulin.

This summer there was no rain – but all the other summers there usually are everyday moments with umbrellas!

During summer, spring or autumn – or all of them – we sometimes get a bit tired of everyday life, and decide to hop on the train/ferry to our neighbor country, Denmark.

Somehow I love train stations…

…and ferries. Some guys are very, very tired of the everyday thing…but there is always room for a ferry feet stretching!

Strolling the streets of Copenhagen is always a treat. To us, Denmark means good food, fantastic exhibitions, lovely people and yellow houses with cosy corners!

To see how others interpreted the challenge, visit our Lens-Artists reader section, or click on Amy’s challenge here.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Patterns

11 augusti, 201814 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 196 kommentarer

This spring, I visited Bhutan, and met so many fantastic people and a landscape so different from ours in Scandinavia. Harmony – this is the word describing it best.

I eagerly noticed all the patterns in people’s lives – in clothes, buildings, decorations, religious paintings and habits…as well as patterns in Nature herself. Like the pattern in the header – the mules and horses trotting in a row – while the lines of the landscape, the roads, paths and fences, create natural frames.

I often try to find and capture the less obvious patterns, noticing that colours are not that important to make you see the pattern or structure itself.

But in most cases colours make an obvious difference, natural colours as well as man made ones.

Either you can find patterns in a sweeping landscape or cityscape or you can look at the little details. Any way, you will find that almost everything consists of just – patterns. Moreover, in our human society, they often have a ritual or symbolic meaning.

Among the most interesting patterns must be languages. When a language is written in beautiful pictures or letters – their special patterns will give them yet another meaning. Magical, isn’t it?

Life is beautiful in so many ways – and patterns are a big part of it. So, for this week’s challenge, share your interpretation of patterns— open your eyes and find new ones! In you own home, outdoors, man made or natural… Use your curiosity and creativity!

In your post, include a link to this challenge.
Use the tag “Lens-Artists” in your post. If you use a different tag, other bloggers won’t find your post in the Reader! Also keep in mind that you should use fewer than 15 tags for your post to appear in the Reader. For more information on how to tag, click here.
Amy will post the next challenge on Saturday, August 18th.
Missed our initial Lens-Artists challenge announcement? Click here for details.

Have you seen these?

Great diversity, from Abrie Joubert of Abrie Dink Hardop

Henry Lee of Fotoeins Fotografie

Storm coming in from the sea, from Suzanne of Being in Nature

Thank you for joining the challenge and have an inspiring week!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Blue

4 augusti, 20184 augusti, 2018 / Leya / 37 kommentarer

This week’s Lens-Artists host is Patti, and she challenges us to share our interpretation of blue—the color, the mood, or the time of day.”

My choices are from Kosta Boda Art Hotel in Sweden and in the header, the village Å in Lofoten, Norway.

Last year we spent a night here at the SPA-hotel, and marveled at the world famous artworks in every room. All of them for sale. No doubt my favorite was the glass bar, where Kjell Engman has designed and finished everything in blue glass.