This week, we have another guest host for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Donna. She asks us for images showing the destination and the goal i.e. a hike or a trip. In German, the term also has a different meaning. When having been severely ill and your situation is becoming finally a little better so that you can see, it will probably not get worse again, this person is considered to be ‘over the hill’. It can also be used for a business to get better in regard to the financial situation after a depression or so.
the very young river Rhine in the Alpes in Switzerland long before growing to become one of the big streams of Europe. (try to find the ‘toy’ train)
have a little rest at the end of the cliff above the sea
Every now and then in the Alpes along the tracks, you can find one of these springs giving you fresh drinking waterfollowing the small track (and your GPS device)
Looking back to where you started and where you want to come back in a healthy condition
That hidden beach was our goal after hiking over paths in very bad conditions over hills and through the jungle.
follow the beaten path
Even when you can’t see much of the path ..
Maybe, I was able to inspire you to dig in your archive and find some images, you can publish your images on your blog and set a link to Donna’s inspirations post. Don’t forget to tag it with the tag LENS-ARTIST, so that we can find it.
It’s Saturday! So, it’s time for Lens Artists Photo-Challenge. This time, Tina is our host and she challenges us this week with the topic “opposites”
Sunshine vs. rain
hot in cold: these ice blocks captured the warm light of the setting sun
from dry to wet
mountains so high and valley so deep
young vs. old(er)
big and small
yellow and blue
Although, Tina brought up the topic by combining two images to show the opposites, I preferred to find images with the opposite in itself. Thank you so much, Tina, for this challenging topic!
Maybe, I was able to inspire you to dig in your archive and find some images, you can publish your images on your blog and set a link to Tina’s inspirations post. Don’t forget to tag it with the tag LENS-ARTIST, so that we can find it.
Today, Sofia invites us to share images showing urban environments. After pausing the last two weeks because of a vacation, I’m on board again to participate in Lens-Artists weekly photo challenge.
You know, I’m much more interested in nature and wildlife than in cities. Being in a city is generally more of a necessary evil than doing it voluntarily. But, every now and then, I’m also in a town with my camera.
You can see, even from a photographer’s point of view, there are a lot of opportunities to switch your camera on and take an image.
Art
City lights
Architecture
Public transportation: suspension train station
Public transportation: bus station
gas station and the automobiles
more city lights
much more city lights
pittoresqe old buildings
narrow street canyons
pittoresque old towns
thousands of people stuffed in overcrowded places
amazing views
lights in the nights
modern architecture for public transportation: tram station
squares
illuminated architecture and buildings of interest
people rushing through the streets
Maybe, I was able to inspire you to go out in your city or town with your camera. When back, you can publish your images on your blog and set a link to Sofia’s inspirations post. Don’t forget to tag it with the tag LENS-ARTIST, so that we can find it.
It’s time for LAPC, the Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge, hosted by Amy, this week. She came up with the topic “Here comes the sun”.
the rising sun enlights the dark room
sunrise on Easter morning
sunrise hourfirst hot-air balloon flight
Although this topic cries for sunrises, I have a sunset put in my selection. After a few days of heavy storms, the sun was able to calm the storm and warm our faces again. That tiny window between heavy clouds and the rough sea was the proposal for the next days. Summer came back!
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: click here, where you can also find some more information.
A new challenge prompt is posted each Saturday at noon EST.
As always, please link to Anne’s post either as a comment or as a pingback and use the Lens-Artists tag.
It’s time for LAPC, the Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge, hosted by Patti, this week. She got a fantastic idea and asks for photos featuring “Motion”.
While considering some common examples and refusing to follow those ideas, I ended up in more invisible examples of motions.
Listen to the wind
capture the wind and transform it into motion
2. Listen to the waves
what a noise when the sea meets the land
3. Listen to the surf
rough is the surf not only after the storm
4. Listen to the snow falling down
how silent the snowflakes are falling down on earth
5. Listen to the foliage
when the wind or kids play with the leaves
5. Listen to the rain
6. listen to the normal surf
7. Listen to the spring, the creek, and the river
their sound is refreshing
8. Listen to the time
9. Listen to the fun
Not Van Halen!
10. Listen to Feng-Shui?
they incorporate the motion of natural powers into architecture and allow them to pass
Motion means change. Change of speed, location, direction, power, and lots more. Everything flows and you can’t keep it except the memories.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: click here, where you can also find some more information.
A new challenge prompt is posted each Saturday at noon EST.
As always, please link to Anne’s post either as a comment or as a pingback and use the Lens-Artists tag.
Anne will be our host next week, Saturday, August 6. Her intriguing theme will be What’s Your Groove.
For me, it’s to be filled with wonder about the marvelous nature. Getting out with my camera (sometimes quite early) and enjoying the nature. Each season has its beauty. Each place has some nature to discover.
Those years when my camera was on baby pause, it was hardly missed. Seeing nature’s glory and not being able to capture and transform it into a memory.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: click here, where you can also find some more information.
A new challenge prompt is posted each Saturday at noon EST.
As always, please link to Anne’s post either as a comment or as a pingback and use the Lens-Artists tag.
What does favorite images mean? Mine? But in which category? People, beloved ones, most favorite places I’ve been, countries, animals, memories, or ….. you name it. My archive is full of such images. How can I select the “favorite ones”? How to narrow it down? By complexity, clarity, used skills, connected emotions?
Regardless of which side I’m trying to narrow it down, I don’t come to a reasonable end. Therefore I decided to try it in another way. I let others decide. When following the links for each image, you can read a bit more about the background.
This first image is from 2008. I took it during a fun fair and sent it in in 2009 for a competition. The topic was, as you probably can imagine, fun fair. And it won the 3rd prize.
The second image also won a prize. I sent it in in 2012 for a competition on landscape photography run by SanDisk. It’s a huge coal mine in our state. It’s still in operation. I took the image on a very cloudy day with my fish-eye lens and a graduated ND filter. The huge hole creates its own weather (at least a bit). So, the conditions are quite unpredictable. It’s only about 40 km as the bird flies from where I live, but the conditions can really change dramatically. Latest in 2038 the digging ends. Then, the area is supposed to be converted into a huge lake.
The third image is taken in the old town of the town, where I live. Hanging out laundry is an old tradition in the old town during the traditional fun fair. Photographers in our region were asked to send in photographs taken in our region. Each photographer was allowed to send in up to 6 photos in 6 categories (one in each category). More than 2.600 photographers took part. The winners of each category got a prize and another 170 photographs got in the book, too. Mine was not only selected for the book, but also taken in the state archive because it documents local customs.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: click here, where you can also find some more information.
A new challenge prompt is posted each Saturday at noon EST.
As always, please link to Sarah’s post either as a comment or as a pingback and use the Lens-Artists tag.
This week, we have a tough topic. Tracy, who posts at Reflections of an Untidy Mind, has chosen Surrealism. When thinking of Surrealism, I assume, that most people think of the painting by Catalonian artists Salvatore Dalí or Joan Miró. Surrealism began in the wake of the First World War when the horror and violence experienced by so many had shifted perceptions of sanity and reality.
But, what is surrealism?
What are the key characteristics? Surrealism is the doctrine of something going over the edge of reality. It is the try to imagine ideas, dreams, and/or emotions. A painter or sculptor can follow her inner voice to picture her imagination. But a photographer? Cameras are supposed to capture reality. So, how can they capture surrealistic images?
There are a few photographers active in this field like Brooke Shaden and Kyle Thompson. They create dream-like images by transporting the methods and ideas from painting to photography. Strange shapes, floating body parts, and bizarre landscapes: the Surrealists sought to challenge notions of normality through the power of photography.
What makes a photo Surrealism?
“Surreal images tend to be dreamlike and tap into people’s unconscious,” says Tryforos. “They’re often made of different elements that are put together in unexpected ways.” Surreal images almost always contain recognizable elements from real life.
You see, you don’t have to be a painter to be able to create surrealistic images. And, as you can see, the border between surrealistic images and abstract images can be quite small sometimes.
A few weeks ago, I got asked to be a guest host for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. What an honor!
It’s mid-summer in the northern hemisphere, and most schools are closed. Many people are enjoying their summer vacation. This is the time, most people are longing for. But, when it comes to the style of spending this most valuable time of the year, wishes differ following their personal preferences.
Show us your favorite activity (yes, chilling is also accepted as an activity in this context) in summer. In my gallery below, I have some of them as inspiration: biking, mountain climbing, hiking, swimming, diving, sailing, surfing, kite-surfing, beach sailing, chilling, bbq-ing, beach partying, traveling, sightseeing, reading, dreaming, loving, dancing, and I’m sure, you’re finding lots more like i.e. Midsommar in the Scandinavian countries or the White Nights
going to the beach
cycling
traveling
kite-surfing
wind-surfing or sailing
beach kiting
chilling
enjoying ice-cream
bbq-ing
So, I’m curious to see your interpretation of summer vibes. Make us envy and wish to be with you while you’re enjoying your summer and your favorite summer activities! Whether you are in the Northern or the Southern Hemisphere and having your summer now or in 6 months. Tell us about your summer vibes and share some images about them.
An additional hint for you when selecting or taking your images for the challenge: pay attention to the composition and avoid having distracting spots in your image like waste, bins, or parts of things. Also, a balanced horizon is usually important for a great image. You can correct it easily, if necessary, in post-production. But, sometimes, even an unbalanced horizon works well, as you can see in my wind-surfing image where the unbalanced horizon highlights the speed of the surfer. Fill your frame like I did i.e. in the bbq image or accept negative space like I did in the cycling image above. Both concepts are right. It depends on the messages you want to tell, and which one supports the message best. These small things divide a great image from a bad or an ok-image. In the past, we had a couple of themes focusing on composition. I assembled a shortlist and put it at the end of this post for your convenience. Check them out, when you’re not familiar with them. They can help you get great images.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with and I hope you enjoy joining this Lens-Artists Challenge. As always, use the Lens-Artists tag and link to this post so we can easily find you.
Thank you, Jez, for last week’s challenge “Seeing Double”. Next week Tracy from Reflections of an Untidy Mind will host LAPC #209. So make sure to have a look at her site.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: click here, where you can also find some more information.
A new challenge prompt is posted each Saturday at noon EST.
As always, please link to this post either as a comment or as a pingback and use the Lens-Artists tag.
It’s summer time and thus we have a couple of guest hosts for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. This week, Jez Braithwaite of Photos by Jez is our host. When walking along the streets you can quite often see things in pairs. Get your camera, take an image and share it with us. Here I have a few examples.
I will follow you
singing together
watching together
a narciss?
waiting to be used
decorations
practicing commonly
time tunnel?
double secured
twin windmills
two tombs
fighting twins
metering twice
decorations
outlook
two doors missing
Not one, or three, or four. Only two. Have fun participating in the challenge.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, just click this link and join us: click here, where you can also find some more information.
It’s summer time and thus we have a couple of guest hosts for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. This week, Aletta Crouse of Now at Home is our host and she asks for treasures.
I’m very sure, the word treasure means something very different for each of us. Thus, I assume we will see a huge variety of images from all the participants.
For me, the natural world is the biggest treasure we have as well as the relationship to my inner family. The natural world feeds us, gives us oxygen to breathe, and ground to settle on. But, all of this is only possible in a small range of changes. Too much heat will kill the environment and us. Too much rain will kill us, the soil, and the seeds. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase the temperature, make the glaciers melt, increase the sea level, kill water plants because less light will reach them, hinder us from breathing well, and many issues more. Our planet works well, but as a marble on top of a pin of a hemisphere can roll down very easily, all these natural processes interlock with each other like a mechanical clockwork.
Monocultures must be avoided since although they offer a paradise for pests, beneficial insects such as bees starve to death because food is not always available for them. A good mixture of different fields and natural habitats is beneficial for insects and a good force against many pests. So, farmers can even save money and work for not to have to bring out poisons (or at least less of them) which helps keep the soil healthy, because poisons can be absorbed by the plants themselves and of course the ground water. Instead of planting the same plants each year and pouring a lot of fertilizer on the fields, the outcome can be increased by changing the plants each year. A rhythm of changing between only 3 different kinds of plants would do so. Having 3 different plants of medium to small-sized fields side by side would help a lot, while the enormous large fields we see in some countries need more and more fertilizer each year while having more and more problems with pests and less useable outcomes in the same time. I’m asking you, is this wise? In my opinion not.
grain field
apple tree blossoms
But also the natural landscapes are to preserve. I don’t say, back to the roots to live as hunters and gatherers. I say, use the natural environment without harming it more than absolutely necessary. All the resources are precious and we are not allowed to waste them. We have only lent this planet from our descendants.
Water is key for nearly all processes, on which this environment is based on. Keep it clean and it will refresh you.
On top of these freedom and peace are treasures. I’m so happy, to live in a free country, and be able to go, wherever I want. This image should represent this idea. No more war and the borders set after WWII are torn down. Pray for Ukraine to give those people peace and freedom back at once as well as in Syria, Etiopia, and the other regions not so present in the news.
Sorry, for the long rant. But, going through the world with open eyes, you can see so many misbehaviors.
This week, Tina has found a very challenging topic for The Lens-Artist’s Photo Challenge: The eyes have it
Yes, eyes can have a message and you have to be able to read it. For the gallery below, I picked some images from my archive, where the eyes have a message. For us, the mimic is an essential part of our communication. Faces are something a baby can recognize very early. And even as adults, we see faces very easily in everyday things around us, like clouds, tree barks, blossoms, and so on. Even some animals have eyes-like patterns on their bodies like i.e. the peacock butterfly. Other animals have, from our point of view, quite strange eyes. I was even searching for an image with a sheep’s or a goat’s eye but failed to find one.
The first image in the second row is a bit different. It’s a sculpture of 3 boys having circled around a girl. This sculpture is called “Türelüre-Lißje” and pictures an old legend of a girl who used to live here near the cathedral in Aix-la-Chapelle. One day, she had a big need to pee, but a few boys got aware of that problem, circled her, and hindered her to follow the call of nature. I included that image here because the artist was able to model the faces of the figurines so well. Now we can feel how the pained girl must have felt, but also see the cruelty of the boys.
We’re having another guest host for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week: Sylvia Bacon of My Colorful Expressions. Her topic is doors and doorways. Doors usually part something from something else but not as strict as a wall would do. Doors can allow access with permission when having the right key.
Doors can also give some information about the owner or what is hidden behind the door.
a sailship’s captain used to live behind this door back. He build that house in the 18th century.
These richly decorated doors can be found in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the German state located on the south coast of the Baltic Sea. The iconic symbols also tell about the people living here. The doors always have three elements. One of them is most often the rising sun. You can find it on both doors in the lowermost sector and in the top sector of the third door.
But, what happens, when a building becomes useless and abandoned? Doors are open!
no more privacy in the lady’s roomno door is departing the shower from the pool anymore
But, there are more doors.
The next three doors are at home in Barcelona. It’s the entrance hall of Orfeo Catalan, the Palau de la Música Catalana.
and the entrance to a smaller audition stage in the basement. Both glass doors are open at the moment.
For the final images, I’m taking you with me to Asia. Asia in Europe. Asia in Germany!
Feng shui, also known as Chinese geomancy, is an ancient Chinese traditional practice that claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment.
On the other hand, you can find these doors in many places in Japan.
A torii is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. This one is located in Germany. That Japanese garden was created in 1912 by famous Japanese garden architects. Each year a team of garden architects comes over from Japan to make sure, the garden is still in perfect shape.
I was really amazed to see, how many images of doors I have in my archive when I started my search. As usual for this kind of job, I used Excire Foto to find them. I simply used the tag “door” and got more than 1,000 results to choose from. I also had a few images with doors in my mind, to share with you. But, it was great to have so many additional images to choose from. I hope, you enjoy the selection.
*AD because of an affiliate link*
In 2020, I introduced you to Excire Foto, software to analyze and organize your images and, most importantly, find them! Since June 1st, the next version is out and includes among other improvements a Duplicate Finder and the ability to analyze PSD files. I’m going to publish a review soon. In the meantime, you can get more information and the prices here.
This time, Anne challenges us to go local. Everyone takes photos while traveling or on special occasions like parties, graduation for school or university, weddings, birthdays, and so on. But, have you ever tried taking photos where you live? You know, I’m primarily in nature photography. But I live in a quiet urban region. Although, I living at the edge of the Ruhr area, you can’t really step out and be in the nature. Even the forests are fields where trees are planted to harvest wood.
I know, some people grab their camera an go into the city for taking photographs. They are either in architecture or in street photography. For me, non of these topics is really interesting although I do it sometimes.
Instead, I’m planning visits to natural places in my greater region. Quite often these are trips to nature protected areas with significant bodies of water to photograph birds. During the last two years, I also captured some butterflies and dragonflies as well as blossoms in our garden, And I hope, this year the monthly photographers roundtables will start again.
So, for today, I assembled a small collection of images taken in our garden dring the last years. Most of the images are unpublished. I’m extremely proud of the hummingbird hawk-moth having visited two times our garden and me being able to get a few very nice images of this really fascinating and extraordinary insect.
As the other kinds of wildlife photography, this can also be quiet time consuming. Be prepared and wait patiently for your subject coming in the right position. Although this collection might look amazing, I’m not one of these guys going out in the wild meadows to search for and photograph insects. I really admire those people bringing back home those fantastic photos of insects, but for me the necessary effort it too high. So, I only have an open eye and capture what’s around me. I can be patient to get my shot but I’m not patient enough to do so for hours.
You can enlarge the images by clicking on one of them and use the cursor keys to jumpe from one image to the next. That way you can also see the descriptions for the images. Have fun!
bumble bee (Bombus terrestris)
European wool carder bee
Bombus pascuorum
Andrena labiata (?) on Cardamine pratensis (the petals are only 5-6 mm long) and the bee is of the same size 😲
western honey bee
drinking wasp
Vanessa atalanta on Echinacea
decorating and daunting
Lycaenidae on a blackberry blossom
hummingbird hawk-moth at phlox
Pyrrhocoridae on lavender
damselfly
coupling Large red damselfly
Large red damselfly
I hope, you enjoyed my little insect gallery. I know, not everyone loves them and I have to admit, some insects really look strange and alien like. Nevertheless, these tiny creatures also have their important role to play her on earth. They help feeding us! And each of them is worth the effort to protect them.
This time John challenges us for The Lens-Artists Photo Challenge with Humor 😲 He writes, that he picked this theme because he was considered of having a very special kind of humor. Phew!
How can I picture “humor”? What kind of humor do I have? My wife sometimes states that it seems from her point of view, I’d have to go to the cellar for laughing. I guess, she’s wrong. But, I have to admit, I love intelligent humor and when you have to look around the corner for being able to understand it.
From my point of view, it seems to be impossible to show “humor”. Instead, I picked a few humorous or funny images from my archive for you.
This is quite common in some areas in the countryside to make public that someone on the farm is about to marry soon.
We found this open-air shower and washbowl in the high-temperature area of northeast Iceland. Water was running unstoppable. While we were wondering about it and taking a couple of images, a second car arrived at this completely free parking ground. A couple from Slovenia left the car and came up to us. They were also wondering about it. After a short talk, the man decided, that taking here a shower would be a great opportunity because the camping ground where they stayed the night wasn’t that great, and visiting a public bath would be quite expensive.
This next image was taken during the parade for the annual funfair of our town. It celebrates the idea of Jamaica having its first bob team for running during the Olympic Winter Games. There’s also a movie telling this remarkable story called “Cool Runnings”. The scene below shows the finish of the racing track.
I photographed this funny lady a couple of years ago, also during the funfair parade.
This is a harpy, a fictional character in an anime or manga. I’m not that familiar whit that kind of art, but I love photographing cosplayers during the annual Japantag in our state capitol every now and then.
I love street art and this huge one is painted on the side of a 3- or 4-floor apartment building. Enlarge it, it has funny details, too.
This is also street art: a war-knitter decorated some poles and street-bordering chains.
I stumbled upon these “babies” in Prague a couple of years ago. No idea, what the artist has in his mind while creating them.
This is also in the town where I live. Two times a year the laundry is put up in the old town: in June during the Old-Town-Festival and in September for the funfair. A few years ago this image found its way into our State Archive as it documents a certain folkloristic habit.
This final image is taken during our annual carnival escape. It’s one of the fish dealers in the Barcelona Market hall
Today, Sofia Alves asks for something called “bokeh”. This word is derived from Japanese. Wikipedia describes it as follows:
“In photography, bokeh (/ˈboʊkə/ BOH-kə or /ˈboʊkeɪ/ BOH-kay; Japanese: [boke]) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image. Bokeh has also been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”. Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause very different bokeh effects. Some lens designs blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce distracting or unpleasant blurring (“good” and “bad” bokeh, respectively). Photographers may deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions, accentuating their lens’s bokeh.
Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas.[6] However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all regions of an image which are outside the depth of field.”
This week, John Steiner is looking forward to celebrating his birthday, so I’m happy to join the LAPC party. In some families and in some cultures, birthdays are a reason for huge celebrations. So, I picked up this post published first back in 2013.
There is a certain habit in Cuba of celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday.
The girl gets special clothing, is dressed up, and gets perfect makeup. Then they go to a photographer to take beautiful photographs.
According to our guide, some girls are dressed like a bride for these sessions, others wear cocktail dresses and I also noticed photographs showing a girl dressed like a female version of an old-fashioned, Spanish caballero. The photographs are usually taken in a park or in the streets and not in a studio.
Two weeks later, the parents and the girl have a party with all of her friends, and an album, containing the photos, which is a real eyecatcher for that party. Also, the parents put framed photos from that session on their walls.
I like that idea. (OK, maybe, because I’m a photographer).
We met this young lady in the old town of Havana. Her mother was with her and took care of her hairstyle and her makeup, while the photographer directed his assistant to adjust the reflector.
So, we can congratulate her on her 15th birthday.
Are there any similar habits, where you live or coming from?
While waiting for my next post you can have a look at the previous posts and maybe drop me a note in the comments section below.
In the meantime, the girl is a young woman. As I said, I took these photos back in 2013. So, she’s already 24. How much must have changed for her in her life.
As I’m always interested in getting to know habits from other countries, regions, or cultures, drop me a note in the comments and tell me, how do you celebrate birthdays. I’m interested in your personal celebration as well as in general habits and traditions.
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