“Flowers don’t worry about how they’re going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.” – Jim Carrey I would like to show my favorite “road” in photography. John is leading the challenge this week and he suggests we consider a favorite photographic style like low key/high key, monochrome, etc. Maybe a genre of photography like a preference for architecture, still life, portraiture, etc. I enjoy photographing many different genres but my favorite must be flowers based on the number of pictures in my archives! Here are a few favorites. “Flowers are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #239 Finding Peace
“Lose yourself in nature and find peace.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson This week Tina, of Travels and Trifles, suggests we “take Ann-Christine’s challenge (from last week) one step further, and address the ways we’ve learned to Find Peace in today’s ever-more busy world.” Experts are in universal agreement on the importance of Finding Inner Peace, a few suggestions are: Spend Time in Nature. When you spend time in nature, like taking short walks or appreciating nature, you may find serenity. Don’t Let Your Past Mistakes Define You. Take Responsibility for Your Actions. Be Grateful. Meditate or practice mental silence. Practice Acceptance and Contentment. The picture below is of the…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #238 Alone Time
“Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio or looked at television. They had ‘Loneliness’ and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would work.” – Carl Sandburg Ann-Christine, who leads this week, is encouraging us to think about “Alone Time” spent in a favorite place away from outside distractions. By relaxing, mediating or working on an interesting project it is possible to temporarily clear our minds of daily ‘to do’ thoughts and allow random thoughts to emerge. Each picture shows someone enjoying their time…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #237 Bringing Softness
“I like the muted sounds, the shroud of grey, and the silence that comes with fog.” – Om Malik This banner shot shows how fog and natural light can bring softness and beauty to everything it touches. “Our soul is like a soft and gentle flower, it needs to be nurtured, cared for, tended to, with sufficient sunlight, fresh air and freedom to bloom into its most precious and beautiful form. – Miya Yamanouchi The photo challenge this week is led by Bren, she suggests we bring or show softness in a few of our photos. One way this can be accomplished in camera is by photographing in the fog or…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #234 Messages
“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.” – Martin Buber Animals have their own unique way of communicating such as this Bottle Nose Dolphin sending the message of affection to her calf. This was taken in the Kiawah River, Kiawah Island, SC. This is our American Cocker spaniels a few years ago when Bentley sent a warning messsage to Chester telling to leave his sock alone! A Mute swan sending me a message that I was getting too close. A Canada goose sounding the alarm to others of approaching danger. Below is the Portland Head Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Like all lighthouses along the coast,…
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…
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…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #224 Exposure
This week the challenge is learning more about Exposure and showing a few examples. When using your camera, the amount of exposure is determined by how much light passes through the lens. Exposure levels can also be determined in post editing using software such as Photoshop or Lightroom or the editing software in an iPhone. The picture below was edited using Photoshop and bumping the exposure slide up to give the image an ethereal look. The second one looks more like the image in the camera. Is there one look you prefer over the other? This is another example of how an original image can be converted into a high…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #217 Opposites
This week we are challenged to show examples of opposites. They can be seen in many places, a few examples could be red and green or other complementary colors on the color wheel, light and dark, circles and straight lines, hot and cold, soft and hard. A well know quote by Niel Bohr is “Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.” This is so true because when opposites are together it is easy to see how well they complement each other. For example, the header shot of fall foliage shows two opposite colors on the color wheel, red and green. Below are two pictures of my granddaughter which show the opposites…
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #216 Urban Environments
“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.” – Nora Ephron Our host this week, Sofia of Photographias, challenges us to feature pictures showing different urban environments. She says, “There are no two identical cities, they’re a product of many different aspects from history to location, to culture and to the people….There’s something mesmerizing about city views. Obviously, some cities offer better views either for geographical reasons or due to the type of buildings.” Every city’s skyline is unique,…