Nature Archives - Page 6 of 8 - My Colorful Expressions

August 4, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #108 SANCTUARY

“Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” – Hermann Hesse This week Xenia from Tranature.com is challenging us to share our thoughts about our Sanctuary, where we find it and how we create our place of calm and healing. Be sure to check out her blog. My Sanctuary is a place I can visit either literally or figuratively. It is a brief retreat from a daily routine plus ever changing events I cannot control. The importance of a personal sanctuary is to create a balance between a hectic lifestyle and a time to relax and clear my mind. …

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

July 29, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #107 WINTER

This week Ann-Christine suggests we post the last topic in this series featuring the four seasons; Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. “I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape—the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.” – Andrew Wyeth When winter is mentioned, many people think about snow and cold temperatures although in the southern states close to the Atlantic Ocean it is normally fairly warm and sunny. Usually we spend our winters on Kiawah Island and the temperatures here generally range from the 40’s to 60’s. Snow is such a rarity that when it…

written by Sylvia - Posted in LENS-ARTISTS, Maine, Photography, Snow, Winter

July 15, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #105 SPRING

This week Tina selected Spring as our photo word challenge. After thinking about this topic, I decided to approach the topic of Spring a little differently by focusing on an event that occurs each spring on Kiawah Island when Red Knots or Calidris canutus rufa begin to arrive. These birds leave their winter home on the coast of southern Chile and Argentina and journey to the mainland and islands above the Arctic Circle; a one-way trip of more than 9,300 miles or 14,966.9 kilometers! For years now Kiawah’s beach is a stop-over in their semi annual migration. Red Knots are amazing birds and one of my favorites. They are documented as being…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Atlantic Ocean, Kiawah Island SC, Landscape, LENS-ARTISTS, Photography, SC, Spring

June 16, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #101 A Single Flower

“Flowers always make people better, happier and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the soul.”– Luther Burbank Lens-Artists Photo Challenge has a well- known guest host this week, Cee Neuner at Cee’s Photo Challenges. For our topic this week she chose an interesting topic, “A Single Flower”. Flowers mean so much to so many people. They can help you feel better and happier; a gift of flowers can express love, friendship and caring. Their beauty is unparalleled. “A single flower is miraculous. It may not live long, but before it withers, it blooms to its fullest and bestores nature with so much love and beauty.” – Amita I…

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

June 13, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #100 The Long and Winding Road

Tina chose “The Long and Winding Road” as our photo topic this week. I found a few of my favorites looking back through the archives. I enjoy photographing roads or paths that meander out of sight, around the bend . They seem to bring up questions such as where the road leads, what sights are around the bend, how old is the path, who are the people or animals using it? Each of these roadways look so inviting that it is hard not to want to explore them. “When the road ahead seems too long, look back to see how far you’ve come. For even if the hill before you…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Landscape, LENS-ARTISTS, Nature, Photography

May 25, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #98 DELICATE COLORS

This week’s challenge from Ann-Christine gives us a chance to explore Delicate Colors; beautiful, soft shades of color blending into each other. Being surrounded by these lovely colors can be soothing and relaxing in spite of the hectic world we live in now. 🙃 Delicate Colors are all around us, waiting to be discovered when outside and one with nature. Ann-Christine shows beautiful examples of delicate colors she found in her garden and neighboring forest. “There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.” – Edouard Manet Each of these pictures show a different color palette that only mother-nature can create…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Abstract, Digital Art, Kiawah Island SC, Landscape, LENS-ARTISTS, Nature, Photography

April 5, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #91 SIMPLICITY

Patti suggests we think about Simplicity this week so I decided to feature a few flower and landscape shots to illustrate how beautiful and elegant things are when they are not lost in the detail. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “Simplicity is the glory of expression.” – Walt Whitman “There is beauty in simplicity” – unknown “Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy” – Isaac Newton “Our life is frittered…

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

March 18, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #88 CHAOS

Ann-Christine chose Chaos as the word challenge this week. Choas in some form seems to be most everywhere. On Kiawah Island, there is a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins who learned to feed in a chaotic manner called strand feeding. This taught behavior is only seen in a few parts of the in the world. You can see from the pictures below how chaotic strand feeding is! The first part of the feeding routine looks more organized. Working together, they locate a school of fish and begin herding them towards the shore as shown below. Once the fish are boxed in with no escape route, the dolphins attack by herding them…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Bottle Nose Dolphins, Kiawah Island SC, LENS-ARTISTS, Photography, Wildlife

March 5, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #86 SAME SUBJECT, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

This week Patti wants us to feature pictures taken from different perspectives, or angles, of a subject instead of standing in front of it and taking the shot at eye level. Perhaps spending a little extra time exploring the subject from different angles. Get down low and look up or move up high and check out the view looking down, or maybe move laterally to include or exclude other items near the subject, especially to see if the light changes in an interesting way. The Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts, is located in Copley Square in Back Bay. This first picture shows the Church at street level. The second image…

written by Sylvia - Posted in Boston, Kiawah Island SC, Landscape, Photography

January 27, 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: #81 SEEING RED

Patti invites us to show pictures featuring the color Red. Red colors are believed to be a symbol for many things: passion, love, rage, danger, good luck. Even though shades of red can be in many tones, it’s rarely seen as demure. Perhaps Taylor Swift says it best: “Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.” Ladybugs are considered to be lucky charms by many cultures when they land on someone…

written by Sylvia - Posted in 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