My Colorful Expressions

May 26, 2022

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #200 Every Little Thing

“Perfect happiness is a beautiful sunset, the giggle of a grandchild, the first snowfall. It’s the little things that make happy moments, not the grand events. Joy comes in sips, not gulps.” – unknown We are invited to share little things that makes us smile and hopefully you will also. The header shot is a white Hydrangea flower. Interestingly, this large single flower is made up of many clusters of small flowers. These beautiful flowers are quite popular and come in several colors. They have a wonderful way of bringing happiness and warmth in someone home. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius When looking at this…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Flowers, Food, Photography, Quotes

May 20, 2022

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #199 Mechanical/Industrial

John, of photobyjohnbo, wants us to “consider subjects reflecting industry or items that are mechanical in nature…. There are signs of the old ways and the new way of doing things, wherever you look.” My first example is the wind turbines, shown in the header. Wind turns the blades which are connected to a drive shaft which is attached to an electric generator, and electricity is produce. These turbines replaced wind mills which were used many years ago. Another mechanical example below is this vintage fire engine (pumper truck) located in Ogunquit Maine. Compare this to a much newer model truck in Charleston, South Carolina. The Southern Railway 385 Steam…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Landscape, Photography

May 12, 2022

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #198 Light and Shadow

“Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.” – Leonardo da Vinci Light and Shadow: Patti suggests we feature a few pictures showing how well they play together to create beauty, drama, serenity or a smile. “I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical.” – Trent Parke “Don’t be afraid of the shadows, it only means there’s a light nearby,” – Amy Lee In this particular picture, shadows are something to be afraid of! This once beautiful 19th century home in Maryland is purported to be haunted. 😥 “A luminous body will appear more brilliant in proportion as it is surrounded by deeper shadow.”…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Flowers, Landscape, Photography

May 7, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #197 Rule of Thirds

What is the Rule of Thirds? It’s a compositional technique that divides your frame into an equal, three-by-three grid with two horizontal lines and two vertical lines intersecting at four points. When placing main subject(s) on one or more of these focal points the image more pleasing to the eye and helps to create a balanced or visually interesting image. If you are not familiar with this rule, it is easy to experiment to see if you think it makes a difference. Some cameras can display the superimposed grid over the image in addition most editing software programs offer it when cropping. Although like most rules, it is ok to…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Fine Art Photography

April 26, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #196 Humor

This week our Photo Word Challenge is led by John Holmes, better known as JohnRH of John’s Space. He suggested we dig into our photo archieves and I found a few humorous pictures to share. Hope a few of these photos made you smile! (Double clicking each picture will enlarge it.) A big Thank You goes to John for encouraging us to find some humor and share with others! Be sure to see his post by clicking here. Remember to stay safe and healthy and be kind to others.

written by Sylvia - Posted in Photography

April 10, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #194 Bokeh

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” – Destin Sparks Bokeh, what is it and how can you create it with your camera? Since this is such an interesting subject and fun to do, Sofia has challenged us to feature a few of our favorites this week. Bokeh is the out-of-focus background in a photograph which is lovely to look at. It is created when background objects are softly blended together, displaying an array of beautiful colors, while the subject is in focus and sharp. Good Bokeh does not have hard edges or sharpness and sometimes there are round, smooth circles of light visible. So, how can…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Bokeh, LENS-ARTISTS, Photography

April 3, 2022

Cellpic Sunday 03 April 2022 Maple Tree in Spring

A few weeks ago my husband and I drove to Virginia Beach, VA for a few days. Naturally an eight road trip requires a few quick stops along the way. Not long after crossing the South Carolina state line on the way home, I saw this beautiful Maple tree covered with bright red samaras against the deep blue sky. Since maple trees are deciduous, they are not very attractive over the winter months. Although, with the advent of spring they produce double-winged samaras or seeds (commonly known as “helicopters,” or “whirlers”). Once they have fallen to the ground large beautiful leaves quickly appear. About the photo: taken with the iPhone…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Nature, Photography, Trees

April 2, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #192 Earth Story

“Look deep into nature and you will understand everything better.” – Einstein This week Amy selected Earth Story as our photo challenge theme. She says, “The natural world has many stories to tell. They are written on the ground, in the mountains and rivers, and on rocks and trees. Let’s share their stories through our lenses.” I decided to feature a few pictures which show different segments of the earth and our natural world and each with its own story to tell. Each picture can be enlarged by double clicking it. The header picture is flowers from a large orange tree in our yard. Right now the tree is…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Earth Story Photos, Landscape, Nature, Photography, Travel

March 27, 2022

Cellpic Sunday 27 March 2022 Golf Course

Kiawah Island Golf Course Many people enjoy playing golf when visiting Kiawah Island in SC. Except for hot humid summers, the weather is otherwise delightful. There is rarely any snow and the courses here are open year-round. After a round of golf, my husband and I were having lunch on the back deck of Cougar Point club house looking down the 18th hole. This is a beautiful course, as are all the courses on Kiawah, with an abundance of water hazards and sand dunes to distract even the best golfers! About the photo: taken with the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Basic editing in Camera Raw/Photoshop – adjusted exposure, contrast, highlights….

written by Sylvia - Posted in Cellpic Sunday Photo, Golf Courses, Kiawah Island SC, Photography

March 24, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #191 Curves

“In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.” – Edward Bulwer-Lytton Curves seem to be everywhere, especially in nature! When outside have you ever looked around to see how many curvy objects you can see? A few days ago I spent some time with my camera on the eastern end of the beach on Kiawah Island. Most everything in sight was curvy. The header image shows curved dune grasses bent by the blowing breeze. Sand dunes also tend to be curvy; their shape is constantly changed by the wind. The full picture is shown at the end of this post. The picture below shows the length and curvature…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Flowers, Kiawah Island SC, Landscape, LENS-ARTISTS, Nature, Photography

Several years ago, a talented group of four ladies started a blog log called Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Each week one of them selects a topic and the challenge for all LA blog followers is to post their pictures and text relative to the topic. By the way, anyone is welcome to join this international group of photographers.

Participating in this continues to be quite rewarding. It has trained my eye to be more aware of people and things to photograph in addition to making new blogging friends all over the world.

Photography has always been a big part of my life and traveling offers many wonderful photo opportunities. I live on Kiawah Island in South Carolina and spend summers in southern Maine. Hope you like seeing my posts as much as I enjoy creating it!

“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” ∼ Ansel Adams