lens-artists

lens-artists: cloudscapes

Across concealed blue skies,

drifting signs.

Imaginary birds and dragons –

aimless shifting stories.

Gathering and dispersing

water droplets and star dust.

In flight,

clouds empty of clouds

solitude
solitude
solitude

trails of clouds

layered memories

a time forever gone

stands between us

dewdrops of autumn

solitude
solitude
solitude

The World is a Book

lens-artists: it’s tricky!

Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. 

People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

Cited: History.com

Double exposure is like a mystery bag, one never really knows what will come out of the camera.

How did this playground slide become Phantom of the Opera?

Yes indeed, patience is a bit tricky.

Hop on over to Wind Kisses to join this week’s photo challenge

lens artists: spring

March winds bring April showers and May flowers

In northeastern Colorado, March and April often bring heavy snow storms. While many across the globe may be tired of snow, I delight watching big snowflakes cover the world outside my window waiting with anticipation for the stilled silence that will embrace the neighborhood.

Waking up to a snow covered streets is a sure sign that soon there will be a call; it’s a snow day! A guiltless day away from the office, yes!

And then after a sleep in, there is a walk through the park and being silently greeted by snow people.

Do you remember playing King of the Mountain on the big piles of snow left by snow plows?

The next best part of these storms is the warning that occurs in a day or two … the sounds of melting snow’s rivulets and the touch of spring’s silken breezes.

spring begins–
sparrows at my gate
with healthy faces ~Issa (haikuguy.com)

Sofia Photographias: spring

lens-artists: Road (most often) taken

Road trips! I love spontaneous road trips with nights in “X-Files” motels that invite with their buzzing neon vacancy sign.

I delight in planned vacations that included staying in city centered-hotels, having breakfast while watching national news, and then roaming (with camera in hand) through art galleries, museums, churches, parks, historical buildings, cemeteries, and shopping districts.

I welcome intentional photo walks that invite an openness to be present to the world as it presents itself and to delight in the richness, complex and wondrous elements of life.

These roads most often taken is Contemplative Photography where I open myself to what is and to see without expectations.

Journeys with Johnbo: The Road (most often) Taken

lens-artists: alone time

A freshly-opened cherry bud … her lips upon the flute. She leans in the corner of the balcony: the night is chill, her silken robes are thin, her fingers cold . . . but music floats through the frosty woods and startled plums fall pattering down. ~Chang Hsien (Ed. various. The Jade Flute, The Project Gutenberg eBook)

The general sense impressions I have of “alone times” are moments of grief and loss as well as feelings similar to forlorn, isolated, lonely.

if there’s a house
standing alone, sure enough…
plum blossoms ~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)

I have often pondered a different sense of “alone” after learning of it’s origins; Middle English, “all one.”

“All one” speaks to me of a time of solitary; a sense of completion, wholeness, self-direction, and freedom.

Leya’s Alone Time

lens-artists: bringing softness

The above autumn image was a raw photograph created in Fujifilm X-T4 with a film simulation recipe, Retro Red.*

Within Capture One 23, I did a bit of light and shadow adjustment, cropped and removed some leaves, and set clarity at 2.

The image on the left was further edited with a Capture One preset, DF-03-Arapaho (bright).

I then hopped over to Color Efex 4 Pro and added a glamour glow layer to create a light softness to the image.

This week Bren invites photographers to explore editing softness into their creative work. I hope you enjoy.

*FujiXWeekly app

lens-artist: perfect patterns

Patterns give us order in an otherwise chaotic world. 

I find myself pondering the concept of perfect…are patterns designed by human design seen as more perfect than the ones that ebb and flow through the dynamics of mother nature?

Is there a pattern within an image that at first glance seems chaotic?

solitude

Does rhythm which involves the same or similar elements repeating at regular intervals create an image that soothes the eye and thus a seemingly “perfect pattern?”  

Join this week’s lens-artists challenge: perfect patterns at Leya to see the world in a grain of sand