This week we are challenged us with:
We are looking forward to seeing your interpretation of unique, which may be a building, person, color, place, photo…
So here is a unique quilt I made for a friends 40th birthday.
‘Quilting’, 2019.
Ken
This week we are challenged us with:
the theme this week comes natural (!) to me – Trees.
I love trees, and walking in wide open spaces, interaction with ‘nature’ is when I probably feel most like ‘me’. Trees whisper softly and slowly to us, if only we stop and listen.
“I thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing news and plots along in an unintelligible language; and the branches swayed and groped without any wind.”
“But there, my friends, songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and their own way: and sometimes they are withered untimely”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
But sometimes they shout and let us know what they are thinking, they breathe, they weep, and bleed. If we pay attention we might learn what we are missing.
Look at the way the Welsh weather has shaped this tree, and how resilient it has become in spite of the forces of nature, Uprooted at on point in its life, but still strong and apparently healthy.
‘Resilience’, Penmaenmawr, 2019.
Ken
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
