October 4, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #367 Everyone Should See This

The challenge this week is to share a few photographs that have inspired me or are meaningful in some way. Each picture either has a story to tell or captures a particular meaningful moment. All were taken near our home on Kiawah Island, SC, except the last one. This first picture is telling a story about an Anhinga and the juvenile alligator. When I walked nearby, the Anhinga was quietly resting on the fence post. Then, when the alligator decided to cross the golf path and head for the water on the other side, the excitement began! The Anhinga went crazy, he started making loud “cruk-cruk-cruk” sounds while moving around…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in Nature, Photography

September 12, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #364 Quiet Moment

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” —Hermann Hesse A Quiet Moment is precious time spent alone with one’s thoughts. Away from the hustle and bustle of everyday sounds. Alone time can provide the experience of inner peace and personal growth by listening to your inner voice, enhancing your creativity, improving mental clarity and gathering your strength. Quiet moments can be further enhanced by being with nature or going to a favorite place in your house for reflection.   This first series of pictures shows my favorite Quiet Moment locations close to our house in Maine. This first…

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

September 6, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #363 Virtual Scavenger Hunt

“Of all man’s works of art, a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.” – Henry Ward Beecher The photo challenge this week is a virtual scavenger hunt. Anne is challenging us to look through our photo archives to find the right one that meets her criteria. Who knows, I  may find a few pictures I had forgotten about. She suggested a list of items to look for. Here are a few: something with green eyes, or cool jewelry, something circular, rectangular, has a design or a pattern, something with bumpy texture, a soft texture, or something of glass, and her list goes on….   All…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in Nature, Photography

June 28, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #354 Reflections

Seeing reflections in a photograph can instantly make a picture more appealing. They can be used to create visually interesting and unique artistic designs by adding symmetry, depth, and a sense of surrealism. Reflections are created by any kind of light (sunlight or artificial light) bouncing off a reflective surface (like a mirror or water). If the surface is smooth a clear reflection is created. A rough surface scatters light rays and the reflection becomes blurry and usually creates an artistic looking designs. I have a few pictures showing reflections created by various reflective surfaces. For example, a large puddle of water, a mirror, sunglasses, ocean waves, beach sand, a…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in LENS-ARTISTS, Photography

June 21, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #353 Stormy

Take time to look towards the sky, notice the various cloud formations and lovely colors created by the sun’s light. The photo challenge topic this week is Stormy. Many things can be referred to as being stormy but generally I think about stormy weather such as snowstorms which often occur in Maine, rainstorms, severe storms which can be most anywhere and then there are also hurricanes and nor’easter which are formed over water and occasionally move over land leaving a lot of destruction in its wake. Having lived most of my life along the eastern coast of the United States, I have experienced a fair number of storms, especially Nor’easters…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in Atlantic Ocean, Nature, Photography

May 23, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #349 The first thing I thought of…

“Daily laughter has been shown to elevate our moods, promote creativity and give us more energy.” – Robin Sharma It’s wonderful to smile or laugh out loud when seeing a particular picture, so this week Tina is inviting us to share a little humor by writing the first though that comes to mind underneath each picture.  She says “Sometimes our sense of humor kicks in before we press the shutter button, other times a perfectly serious image can be made humorous after the fact.”    Below are a few random pictures I thought would be fun to post. My eye sight must be worse than I thought! I wonder how that glass…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in LENS-ARTISTS, Photography

April 19, 2025

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge #344 Abandoned

“Abandoned beauty. To notice the beauty in things left behind is to see the soul of the life it once loved.” – Heather Durren It’s always been interesting to photograph things that are old and especially those that have been weathered by the elements and or reclaimed by vines, plants and wildlife. These few photos show some random subjects I stumbled on over the years. A water glass or bottle was washed up on the beach during an ocean storm. Years of erosion from the salt water and pounding waves has created this lovely and intriguing design. This old, abandoned church was sitting on the side of a country road….

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written by Sylvia - Posted in Photography

April 5, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #342 It’s a Wild Life!

This week Egidio of Through Brazilian Eyes is suggesting we show a few pictures of what we consider to be wild! There are lots of possibilities to consider so I decided to show a few wild animals I have encountered plus a couple showing mother-nature in a wild mood! This scene in the Atlantic Ocean was taken at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine in 2011 as Hurricane Irene was passing through. Notice how the ocean was wild and raging due to high tides and strong winds. My husband and lived on Kiawah Island and one of the many unique things about this Island is the pods of Bottle Nose Dolphins…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in Nature, Photography

March 22, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #340 Portraits

“When you photograph a face, you photograph the soul behind it.” – Jean-Lug Godard Ritva, our host this week, is an accomplished photographer especially when it comes to taking portraits of people. Her photo challenge is for us to show pictures that capture the essence and personality of our subject. Whether it is of a stranger, a self-portrait, a friend, family member, acquaintance, or portraits of animals and birds. When viewing a portrait, the goal for the viewer is to connect with the person or subject and become interested in wanting to learn their story. Ritva shares a couple of tips to consider when photographing others. First and probably most…

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written by Sylvia - Posted in LENS-ARTISTS, Photography

February 8, 2025

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #333 Dogs and Cats

“A dog will teach you unconditional love. If you can have that in your life, things won’t be too bad”.  Tina suggests we show some pictures of dogs and cats. There has always been dogs and cats in our life. All our dogs have been  American Cocker Spaniels and their names are Bucky, Willard, Winston, Spencer, Bentley and Tucker. All loved playing games and were great companions. I selected a few random photos of them playing games with each other and also when they had some quiet moments.   Clicking on a picture will enlarge it. Play Time: taking turns pushing the ball over the top step. Winston runs to retrieve…

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