Wife, Cats, and stones – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #49 – Favourite Things

This week we are challenged us with:

We look forward to seeing your unique and varied responses to this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #49: Favourite Things.

What are my favourite things?  There are a lot when I come to think of it, but if there are so many, does that make them favourite, or just things that make me happy and those I love.  And what should I group into the category of ‘Things’.  Anyway enough of an early morning existential crisis, here is a photo that has a number of ‘things’ in it.  My wife, friends, me taking a photo, Long Meg and her daughters, stone circles in general, wide open spaces, the country side, walking, nature . . . I’ve used a different edit of this before but it just contained so many favourites, that the opportunity to re-edit was too good to miss.

‘Meg is a favourite’, Long Meg and her daughters, Cumbria, 2018.

What is missing, well cats, our cats especially, music, dancing, visiting new places, West Penwith, St. Ives, sunsets, a roof over my head . . . just where do the likes stop and the favourites begin!

So I am going to choose just one more photo:

‘A wife and two cats’, 2014.

Ken

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Daily pleasure – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #48 – Wild

This week we are challenged us with:

There are many ways one might choose to interpret this week’s “wild” challenge – of course wild animals, but also wildflowers, the wild blue yonder, wild about “fill in the blank”, the wild, wild west….I could go on and on. Instead I’ll turn it over to you to show us YOUR perspective on what wild means to you.

Recently this woodpecker has been visiting us, well the nut feeder actually, almost on a daily basis, and we enjoy this fact very much.  It is about as wild a time as it gets for us on a damp South Wales day :), actually we a blessed with a garden that is bigger than average and thus we get to see our fair share of wildlife.

‘Daily pleasure’, 2019.Ken

Elements – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #47 – Five Elements

This week we are challenged us with:

This week you have an opportunity to interpret metal, wood, water, fire, and/or earth with your favorite photos to express “…the only home we’ve ever known”. Feel free to choose one, two… or all five elements.

Ok so I had a think about how I might manage to get away with one photo for this weeks challenge, but try as I might I only managed three or four of the Chinese elements in one photo.

Oh well, so I have decided to use a photo taken at Sandymouth bay in Cornwall, I have used this location before for some posts, it is very photogenic, especially at sunset.  So here is the photo and a short explanation.

‘Elements’, Sandymouth bay, 2017.

So the sun as Fire, the sea and waterfall as Water, the cliffs, pebbles and sand count as the Earth.  Now this is where it gets a bit hazy!  The camera used to take the photo has metal components, and I know that that pebble beach has driftwood on it, you just cannot see it in this photo.  Can I get away with that?

Ken

Almost transparent – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #46 – Delicate

This week we are challenged us with:

This week, the challenge must be Delicate. To me, Spring itself reveals something of the very essence of the word – Delicate.
Naturally, Delicate is used in several meanings, not only concerning flowers…:
Pleasantly soft or light – like the scent of a rose…; having a thin, attractive shape – delicate hands for example…; fragile or easily damaged – like fine china…; pleasant but not easily noticed – like a delicate floral pattern on the walls…
And being ”a delicate matter” is of course another, more difficult, possibility…
So, what is Delicate to you?

I have used a different edit of this photo before, but it was just too good not to choose for this challenge.

‘Almost transparent’, Knightshayes Court, 2016.

Ken

Interior exposed – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #45 – Street Art

This week Patti challenges us with:

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #44 is your chance to highlight Street Art in any form, such as posters, graffiti, prints, stencils, sculptures, or installations. We’re looking forward to seeing the art you found on streets of the towns and cities close to home or all over the world.

I have mentioned in a previous post that my collection of graffiti is somewhat limited, something which I really should remedy.  So here is a sculpture, or rather four that make up the whole thing, I could not help taking several pictures of it when we encountered it while visiting Copenhagen at Amaliehaven.  The Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro created various sculptures for the park, including these four large abstract columns.

‘Four’, Copenhagen, 2017.

‘Monolithic’, Copenhagen, 2017.

Ken

Sunset sounds – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #44 – Harmony

This week Tina challenges us with:

This is your opportunity to share your favorite harmonies. Give us your best yoga pose, or your favorite musician at work, or perhaps a happy couple arm in arm – whatever floats your boat (especially if it’s on a warm yellow/orange sunset or a cool blue sunrise 😊).

Well my first photo is of the band Shillelagh playing at Pentreffest Rudry, beautiful musical harmonies, dancers in harmony with the music, and a distinct harmonising palette on stage.

‘Beautiful harmonies’, Pentreffest Rudry, 2015.

And because it does ‘float my boat’, and Tina asked fo it, a ‘warm yellow/orange’ sunset, from last years trip to Dumfries and Galloway.

‘Golden Nith’, Glencaple, 2018.

Ken

Only a flower – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #43 – Less is More

This week Amy challenges us with:

This week, I am hosting L-A Photo Challenge. I hope you’ll join me and share what “less is more” means to you. Looking forward to reading your interpretation, e.g. how you focus on a subject when you take a photo of a landscape, building, person, or your pet, and perhaps how you simplify your life style.

‘Only a flower’, Killerton, 2015.

I love taking close ups of flowers, especially when I can get in nice and close and remove as much of the background as possible, through use of flash, filter (real or post),  and blurring . . .

Ken

The wedding day – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #42 – Creativity

This week Laya challenges us with:

This week’s challenge is all about Creativity – hobbies, crafts, creative spaces at home or places you have visited – show us your creative post…unlimited

Well last week I mentioned my wife was delicious to me, so I thought I would continue with that theme.

I mentioned in another post that I enjoy sewing, and have mentioned a fair few times my love of playing and writing music and song.  So this week I thought I would use a photo from the archives (not my own photo, but a friends), that is full of creativity.

I was our wedding day, a creative moment in its own right, however in this photo we see my wife’s lovely dress, crafted for her by a good friend, we are marching to a tune lovingly written by another friend, surrounded by other friends who are creatively weaving the tune into more than the ‘dots’ can convey.  And finally you get to see a bit of my creativity as I am wearing a suit which I made myself, in a semi regency style.

‘The wedding day’, Rudry, 2011.

Ken

Faluda – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #41 – Delicious

This week Patti challenges us with:

This week, for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #41 share what “Delicious” means to you.

Well my wife is delicious to me, and this is what she finds delicious.  Faluda, an indian drink made of milk, rose syrup, vermicelli and poppy seeds.  This one made at the very special ‘Vegetarian food studio‘ in Cardiff, a dream for us vegetarians as very rarely do we find such an extensive menu, it takes a while to decide what we are going to eat, by which time we may have drunk a Faluda!

‘Faluda’, Cardiff, 2014.

Ken

Warp and weft – Lens Artists Photo Challenge #40 – Something Different

This week it is Tina’s turn to challenge us with:

So lets see something out of the norm in your world.  Show us something different, something unusual, something we wouldn’t normally expect from you.

Well this is quite a hard challenge to fulfil, where to start? What might you not expect from me?  Well my posts are often full of ancient sites, flowers, landscapes,Cornwall, Cumbria, Wales, woodlands, beaches, gardens, music and cats, so all of these are out.  There are also quite a number of ‘oddities’ thanks to Kamie’s oddball challenges, so that takes care of ‘something unusual’ to a fair degree.

So I am off to have a think about this one!  Perhaps the most different and unusual thing would be not to post at all, not include a photo, that would be out of the norm in my world, however this is a ‘Photo Challenge’!

So some three hours on and I have decided what I want to place before you, some of you that follow my blog might remember we recently bought a new table.  Well the seats are solid and therefore we need some cushions.  Now I have not posted about this, but I also enjoy sewing, and therefore the answer was to make some seat cushion covers, and while I was at it quilted place mats and coasters to match.  So far I am two down and two to go.

‘Softer seats’, 2019.

Also I thought I would show you what else I recently started.  In the past my wife has sewn a few patchwork bedspreads that I have then quilted.  Here is the latest completed at the end of 2018.

‘A gift for friends’, 2018.

Well I thought I would have a go at the patchwork as well this time, prompting the comment, “Very manly colours!”.  In my defence, a) I am a man, b) I do want it quite muted, c) There will also be red toned squares.

‘Muted’, 2019.

Ken