Nature Archives - Page 3 of 8 - My Colorful Expressions

December 17, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #229 Perfect Patterns

“Some of nature’s most exquisite handiwork is on a miniature scale, as anyone knows who has applied a magnifying glass to a snowflake.” – Rachel Carson Nature has a way of creating Perfect Patterns, at least to My eyes the patterns are perfect! Fortunately, Ann-C mentioned this when suggesting our guidelines. She wrote, “Of course there is no such thing as a ”perfect” pattern…but it could be perfect in Your eyes, perfect for camouflage or perfect for its purpose…or simply radiating ”perfect”. To me flowers, butterfly’s wings and trees are just about perfect! “His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly’s…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, LENS-ARTISTS, Nature, Photography

December 10, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #228 Diagonals

Diagonal lines play an important part in creating a more interesting photograph. Consciously or unconsciously, they tend to move a viewer’s eyes through a picture. This week’s challenge is to consciously look around for to see how often diagonal lines are visible, either in nature or man-made. When composing the shot below, I took advantage of the digonal line created by sand dunes in the forground. Does this line plus the tall sea oaks lead your eye to the focus of the picture, the sun and clouds? This golf course picture shows two types of diagonal lines. First, is the shadow at the base of the putting green (right side, middle…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Kiawah Island SC, LENS-ARTISTS, Maine, Photography

December 2, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #227 Home Sweet Home

“Your home should tell the story of who you are, and be a collection of what you love.” – Nate Berkus This week Tina suggests we think about where Home Sweet Home is to us. We may consider the country we live in to be our home, a neighborhood or our residence. My husband and I live on Kiawah Island and our home sweet home is a special place for us and our family. The house is surrounded by tall trees, blooming plants and an abundance of wildlife. There always seems to be pretty colors in our yard from a tree or two that is blooming at the time. Now…

written by Sylvia - Posted in LENS-ARTISTS, Photography

July 26, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #209 Surrealism

For our post this week, Tracy of Reflections of an Untidy Mind chose Surreal as the topic. A great subject but unfortunately one I am not familiar with! Actually, I don’t think anyone has ever mentioned my name and the word Surreal in the same sentence. This should give you an idea as to why I feel outside of my comfort zone! I found a few pictures from the New England Aquarium in Boston, MA, which might fit the definition of Surreal after some editing with Photoshop and Topaz software. If Andy Warhol decided to paint a surreal looking jelly fish, do you think it might be as colorful as…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Photography, Surrealism in Photography

July 16, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #207 Seeing Double

“The world is a looking glass and gives back the reflection of his own face.” – William Makepeace Thackeray Jez of Photos by Jez, the guest host this week, says “seeing double is all about reflections…. I tend to see them everywhere & actively seek them out when they’re not readily apparent…..[They] are all transitory in nature; they’re not permanent but can be captured forever.” With Jez’s thoughts in mind, I found a few of my favorite pictures of reflections. The banner shot is the reflection of colored lights on the water from nearby restaurants and shops. (Grand Canal in Venice) This picture below is the reflections of several high…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Buildings, Nature, 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 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 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