Reflections

Lens-Artists Challenge #354 Reflections

/ Leya / 46 kommentarer

Anne is making us reflect…and our different reflections will be remarkable, I am sure! This is a much loved theme for photographers. There are so many ways to show reflections, and these are only some of my own favourites. Looking forward to seeing Yours!

My number one favourite was captured in Switzerland – the Fluela Pass. I have told the story many times…but here it is again: We drove out to a tiny little village, knowing we would pass this beautiful pass (!). We could not find the view along the road though, even if we had seen it in the guide books. Finally, on our way home, the sun stood in the right position and we stopped, overwhelmed, to take it all in. I can still feel it every time I look at this photo.

Water turning into ice is also a possibility for reflections. This is Totti walking on thin ice at Vedema. I still don’t know how he dared to…being just as afraid of water as a cat! Luckily he didn’t walk through the ice.

Buildings – I love those opportunities for reflections and possible fun distortions. This is in London, and I even got a red double decker in the picture.

Canoeing a silent morning at our summerhouse – the river doesn’t stop over there…it turns right beyond the trees. Herons usually fly up along the growing reed.

An old reflection of our first lagotto, Mille. He was patiently waiting indoors when we returned late from the sea.

A Yayoi Kusama exhibition in Copenhagen with multiple mirrors and holes to peep in through. My camera in the upper right corner!

A standing mirror in a dark room in a Danish castle.

At Vanås architecture park, you can walk on mirrors in one of the barns. Exhilarating – but some people just cannot do it…even I had to brace myself.

An installation of mirrors in Copenhagen. (Really, one of me is quite enough…)

Another old favourite of mine, taken in Beijing many years ago. I photographed a lantern in the street – and the result turned out like this.

In the opener is a whole block of houses covered in fragments of glass. Tough to look at in sunlight, but very special. Finally a favourite from a botanical garden with giant waterlily pads.

Many thanks to Anne for giving us an opportunity to enjoy the most lovely reflections. Be sure to visit her original challenge post here, and to use the Lens-Artists Tag in your response to help us find you. Thanks also to Beth for her first challenge as a Lens-Artists team member, and to all those who responded with amazing, stormy scenes. Finally, I hope you’ll join us next week when I, Leya/Ann-Christine, will lead – this time with a new Lens-Artists ”look-back” which we’ll be using again from time to time. Until then as always please stay safe, be kind and enjoy the good things in life!

Interested in joining our challenge? Click here .

LAPC#207 – Seeing Double

/ Leya / 60 kommentarer

Welcome Jez, our guest host this week – and the theme is all about reflections. Please go to his site for marvelous inspiration – and Lensy of course…

I love reflections too, and when I looted my reservoir of memories, I found this one from a travel to Tibet. We had to go by train from Beijing, and when walking the city centre, a lovely lantern caught my eye.

The first thing I thought about, was reflections from the Amazon basin. Our canoeing through the djungle every day, searching for anacondas, cajmans, lizards, sloths, monkeys and birds. The silence and the dense forest with all its sounds (!) was an unforgettable experience.

Autumn in Sweden also makes for canoeing and colourful experiences. Sometimes so intense for short glimpses, that you just have to photograph it even if you don’t have a managable angle. Incredible light.

Then again, days of mist make beautiful, dreamy images. I used to pass this old mill every day on my way to work – but often I stopped to walk for some minutes, contemplating the beauty of this worn building. I know she is an old lady, ageing beautifully and admiring her reflection in the water.

Somewhere in Spain – and there is a red car driving on the bridge…

Art is of course a great possibility for seeing double – a contemplating man and…

Yayoi Kusama in Denmark

More of Denmark – a new complex built with different reflections…even the sky fits in.

In Denmark some years ago, celebrating my birthday. Mirror fun.

Seeing double is all about reflections – easily made into a photographic obsession. Jez wants any reflections we come across; landscapes, cityscapes or chance ones in a puddle. We are looking forward to seeing all your entries!

Last week’s responses to Aletta, Now At Home, with her challenge of Treasures, were fantastic. So many amazing and varied examples. Next week it’ll be Andre of My Blog–Solaner, thinking about Summer Vibes, so make sure you get over to his site for inpiration.

The rest of July:

July 23 – Tracy, who posts at Reflections of an Untidy Mind, has chosen Surrealism.

July 30 – Sarah Wilkie, who hosts Travel with Me, asks you to share Three Favorite Images.

A new challenge prompt is posted each Saturday at noon EST. If you’re new to the challenge, click here for more info.

Please link to the original post and use the Lens-Artists tag. And, as always – stay safe and kind.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #88 – Chaos

/ Leya / 210 kommentarer

Outside, the sun is shining and the birds are singing – it is a beautiful morning in my garden. For this week, I had already chosen Chaos, not knowing how well this would apply to what many of us are living in right now. Thinking about it this early Spring morning… it all feels unreal. But, the world is still standing, and the sun is still shining.

First, we want to send our heartfelt wishes to blogger friends all over the world, those who are quarantined and those who are not yet there. May we soon see an end to the spreading of the Corona virus. In this fearful situation, we are all grateful for the contact and support made possible via internet and blogging.

If you need further help with handling your thoughts on this pandemic situation, please visit Cindy Knoke . She gives sensible and expert advice.

My life is organized chaos. – Kathleen Kennedy says. And maybe that is what Life really is – so, how do You look upon, and handle, Chaos?

The word Chaos originally refers to the void state preceding the creation of the universe or in the Greek creation myths. Chaos in modern use, in the sense of ”complete disorder or confusion”, first appears in Elizabethan Early Modern English.

Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos. – Mary Shelley

I always think that women are the chaos managers of life. – Teresa Heinz

– Something my own experiences tell me is – true!

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders on the chaos of memories. – Walter Benjamin

We will have a total chaos without books, literature, and library. – Anne Waldman

Using chaos as a creative force – might be a challenge. But, yesterday I watched the Swedish ”Culture News” program, where an Italian/Swedish author and an Iranian producer talked about the Corona situation in their countries. And yes, it was a heart warming program where I was really amazed at people’s creativity!

A video clip showed musicians and actors using their quarantine to paint, to learn another instrument or a new foreign language; to read books they otherwise wouldn’t have read. And some said they used this new ”free” time to spend it with their kids. Also interesting, was that Italians were allowed free use of internet on their cellphones.

Anything worth doing good takes a little chaos. – Flea

But I like the chaos. As long as it’s happy chaos.  – Ayda Field

 

Let us focus on the possibilities, staying on the right track. Maybe nothing will be quite the same again – but let’s hope this chaos is the beginning of something new and positive.  Maybe these quotes and images will release some more of your creativity for our journey together on this bumpy road…

Feel free to interpret Chaos any way you want – what it looks like, how you cope with it, how you work on it, what you will do when everything calms down, etc. We are looking forward to Your version of Chaos!

Many thanks to our guest host, Miriam of The Showers of Blessings, and her beautiful challenge – which gave us so many reflective reflections!

Have you seen these:

Elizabatz – clever and fun at the museum.

Klara – a very artistic post.

Rupali – amazing quotes too to go with her images.

Sandy – sandyjwhite – Puddle art.

 

As usual, Tina, Amy, Patti and I value your creative responses and thoughts. Thanks for joining us, and above all, Stay safe! On March 21, your host will be Amy of The World is A Book .

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #87 – Reflections

/ Leya / 68 kommentarer

We welcome another guest blogger this week, Miriam of The Showers of Blessings.  She suggests we find reflections to share.

Believe it or not, but I found myself in some of mine…even though I never do selfies.

Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
― Charles Dickens

Today, International Women’s Day, we might just change his quote a bit…and put in woman and women too.

Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?

― Charles Bukowski

Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you’re just a reflection of him?

― Bill Watterson 

Bewilderment increases in the presence of the mirrors.
― Tarjei Vesaas,

When do I see a photograph, when a reflection?
― Philip K. Dick,

A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
― Henry David Thoreau,

 

These images were made in Iceland, Stettin, Copenhagen, Bilbao, Norway and Switzerland. As usual, click to enlarge.

For the rest of March, we will follow the usual schedule – and stay tuned for next Saturday when the host is me, Leya!

 

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

/ 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!

 

 

Another Masterpiece – Chernobyl

/ Leya / 21 kommentarer

“We are dealing with something that has never occurred on this planet”

My husband and son just returned from Chernobyl last week – very taken with the 2 day tour and all the haunting sights. We all watched this series together this week. If you have not seen it yet – please do.

Among my friends, I have one of the first men who detected and reported the heightened radiation level in Sweden. He still remembers the chills along his spine in that moment. And I remember well when we all got the information from media. (The reindeer up north were forbidden food for many years after…) In February the same year, Olof Palme was murdered…Was this the beginning of the end of the world?

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, Soviet Union suffered a massive explosion that released radioactive material across Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and as far as Scandinavia and western Europe. Chernobyl dramatizes the story of the 1986 accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, and the sacrifices made to save Europe from the unimaginable disaster.

The number of lives lost are estimated to somewhere between 4000 and 93000. The official number from Russia is 31.

 

It recieved  a total of 10 Emmy Awards. Brilliant acting and as we all know – reality is more chilling than fiction. You cannot stop watching…despite the horrible scenes.

Craig Mazin and Johan Renck have created a masterpiece, in large part on the recollections of Pripyat locals, as told by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich in her book Voices from Chernobyl. Material also from the scientist Valery Legasov (superbly played by Jared Harris), the deputy director of the Kuchatov Institute brought in to aid cleanup efforts.

Watch it.

Contemplate the future, and the cost of lies.

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Marken

/ Leya / 28 kommentarer

Welcome to Marken, a village in North Holland, the Netherlands. This 2000 – inhabitant – village makes up a peninsula that attracts thousands of tourists every year. Because of its originality as a former small fishing town, it was considered a relic of the traditional native culture that would disappear as the modernization of the Netherlands gained pace.

In fact, the town’s history has allowed it to form an identity that’s unique in all the Netherlands.

Until 1957, Marken was an island in the Zuiderzee. In isolation from the rest of the Netherlands, it developed an independent culture – its own architecture, dialect, dress and more – that it still maintains, despite the closure of the dike that once separated it from the mainland Netherlands. When passing these characteristic wooden houses, you will reach the harbour, but similar houses can be found everywhere in the village.

Walking out on the pier, I feel summers might get hectic with all the tourists… but, let us not think about that now…

Let’s keep strolling along in the sleepy, rural tranquility. Life seems to have a pace of its own here – and somehow, I know why there were so many Dutch master painters centuries back… Had I been a painter, I would have spent weeks out here – immersed in all the colours and the rural beauty with canals, birds and farm animals.

 

 

Thursday Thoughts – Trying to Photograph My Dogs…

/ Leya / 32 kommentarer

We set out in the early morning to enjoy the stillness and the bird song – I thought I might get some photos of the two boys together too…Totti hates the camera, but Milo tries to be

…complaisant. Not always succeeding, but, he helped checking out the bird houses …

…even if they were still empty, no guests arrived yet. A couple of weeks more is needed.

When spring arrives, they both need hair cuts often – but still get warm and thirsty.

Some advice from me – never turn your back on your motif…and never try to shoot without warning! Totti and Milo knocked me down and showed their best, wet and friendly approach…A very foggy lens emerged from this attack.

Here they are finally posing, after some hours of digging and running in muddy waters.

Well, which shot did you like best? My first favorite was the one of Milo alone – in the header. But after some hours…maybe the last one. After all, they are my sweeties!