Category: Lens-Artists

Patti, Amy, Ann-Christine aka Leya and Tina host this weekly photography challenge that they set up to replace the defunct WPC. They invite you to join in with the goal to continue our creative community on WordPress.

Simplicity

We are living through a very strange period in our lives. One that affects us all. No matter where we live or who we are. A time when we are isolated like as never before. When life is reduced to the simple pleasures. Uncomplicated. Free from excesses and distractions.

Patti’s challenge got me thinking about what this means to me. I live at the best of times in isolation, although I don’t live on my own, but I enjoy my own company and I am never bored even though it would seem to others that I do nothing.

It’s not that I am anti-social, I am just very self-contained. And I have the time to enjoy the simple things in life and appreciate what is around me.

Preferably in the natural world. Trees, water, rocks, views. Although I can and do enjoy a city visit now and then as long as I can find a peaceful place to recharge my batteries. And not just those of the camera.

I don’t need much in life. I am happiest when wandering somewhere, anywhere, where I can disappear unnoticed with my camera in hand.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #91 | Simplicity

The Birks of Aberfeldy

Popularised in a song by Robert Burns, the fine circular walk up the steep gorge of the Moness burn reveals several waterfalls.

Begin along the obvious trail from the car park, bearing left to cross the large bridge over the foaming Moness burn.

This lower part of the Birks is in fact mostly a beech wood. The walk continues along the path beside the attractive burn with several small waterfalls.

“Now Simmer blinks on flowery braes,
And o’er the crystal streamlets plays;
Come let us spend the lightsome days,
In the birks of Aberfeldy.”

The Birks (Scots for birch trees) still cloak the steep slopes of the Moness gorge, along with oak, ash, elm and willow.

“The braes ascend like lofty wa’s,
The foaming stream deep-roarin’ fa’s
O’erhung wi’ fragrant spreading shaws
The birks of Aberfeldy”

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #89 | River

On Reflection

Whilst looking through some older posts I came across one about Painshill Park in Surrey which I wrote about over 4 years ago. Time flies…

The Chinese Bridge with just a small reflection in the somewhat weed-ridden river

The five arched bridge

Lady in Pink

The ruined abbey

The vineyard

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #87 | Reflections

we’re all going on a treasure hunt

This week’s challenge from the Lens Artists is a different one: Tina would like us to search for specific items from the archives

Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall

Extra Credit Items:  An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image.

I have thousands of images in my archives, so I went searching, looking for the more unusual items that could meet the brief. If you click on an image you can go through the gallery and read further information about each image.

Sunrise
Mountain Views AND Cold
Pretty Hot Bouquets
Birds and eggs
Rainbow Lorikeet
Dog
Funny Sign
Bicycle Shop
Bikes on the bay
A boat AND a seascape
A double rainbow
Musical Instrument
Float Plane, Tofino, VI
Expressive Portrait
Knitting
Unusual building / place
Fish
An animal you don’t often see
In the background you will see buckets!
Hammer
Street Performers, Victoria Falls
Sign

Well that brought back a few memories. Nothing for sewing though.
(the header image is of my three youngest grandchildren who were playing at driving a car on the beach in 2017 – Luca then aged 16 months, Isla aged 2yrs and Lorenzo aged 3yrs.)

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #85 | Treasure Hunt

Narrow

the Fernery of Auckland, New Zealand

In the heart of the city of Auckland, New Zealand you will find the Auckland Domain which includes the Wintergardens. Two beautiful Victorian-style glasshouses with a central courtyard and sunken pool. One of the glasshouses is a cooler climate, allowing seasonal changes, while the other is heated to a tropical climate. Just off the left side of the central courtyard lies the entrance to the Fernery an underground place full of light and shadows, large tree-ferns to delicate maidenhair micro plants. Once inside you feel as though you have entered a prehistoric forest full of arching and dancing fronds and the smell of damp earth.

New Zealand has 194 native species and 35 introduced species of ferns and lycophytes. They range from freshwater to alpine habitats, and from just a few millimetres long to 20-metre-tall tree ferns. Just under half of the native species cannot be found anywhere else.

narrow (adjective) – of small width in relation to length

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #84 | Narrow