Lens-Artists Photo Challenge | The Showers of Blessings

Category Archives: Lens-Artists Photo Challenge

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Summer Vibes

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Miriam Hurdle 66 comments

Andre is the guest host for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week. His theme is Summer Vibes. He posted some biking, mountain climbing, hiking, swimming, diving, sailing, surfing, kitesurfing, and beach sailing photos.

He said, when it comes to the style of spending this most valuable time of the year, wishes would differ following their personal preferences.

I spend a lot of my summer in my garden

I love the cheerful sunflowers. The bees like them as well.

This baby grasshopper stayed on the African lily long enough for me to take a few photos. It’s the size of a grain of rice.

The monarchs have been doing very well this summer. I’ve raised about 50. There are still two chrysalises and one caterpillar. Then I’ll be done for this year because I’ll be away quite a bit the rest of the summer.

I also take summer trips with my husband and family

Hubby Lynton dived in Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Our family went on a whale-watching trip at Huntington Beach.

Photo on the left, Lynton and I went hiking at Waimoku Falls in Haleakala National Park. Photo on the right, we watched the crashing waves on Makena Beach, Maui, Hawaii

I love to watch my granddaughters having fun in the summer

Autumn and Nora were building sandcastles at the beach in Three Creek Lake Campground, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon.

Autumn is getting good at paddle boarding at Three Creek Lake, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Summer Vibes

What are your favorite summer activities?

Lens-Artists Photo – Seeing Double

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Miriam Hurdle 81 comments

Jez is a guest host this week for Lens-Artist Photo Challenge. Thank you, Jez, for this favorite theme of mine. He said, seeing double is all about reflections.

When I travel, I enjoy taking photos of reflections. There are reflections in the ocean, the lake, the pond, the fountain, the puddle, or the glass window. It’s delightful to take photos with the already perfect mirror images when the water in the pond or fountain is still. It’s equally intriguing to see the wavy reflections in the lake, the river, or the ocean.

I have a collection of reflection images from Spain, China, Hong Kong, Santa Barbara in California, Huntington Library in California, and Portland in Oregon.

Puente de Alcántara Bridge over the calm river, Toledo, Spain

Reed Flute Cave in Guilin, China, with different colored lights and reflections in the underground water

Flamingos in the Kowloon Park, Hong Kong

Chinese Garden in Huntington Library and Art Museum and Botanical Garden, California

Granddaughter Autumn at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon

Lens-Artist Photo Challenge – Seeing Double

Lens-Artists Challenge #197 – The Rule of Thirds

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Miriam Hurdle 84 comments

This week, the theme from Tina Schell, for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is focused on one of the most well-known and widely used rules of photography, the Rule of Thirds. She said, “For those who would like to study the concept further, there are many online descriptions and examples. Adobe offers an excellent summary here. Basically, the rule is a compositional guideline that encourages placement of your primary subject on at least part of three equal rows and three equal columns as illustrated below.”

The Adobe article entitled: How to use, and break, the rule of thirds

Rule of Thirds Grid

The idea is to place your subject on one (or more) of the grid lines, or even better on the dots, theoretically making the image more pleasing to the eye.

I’ve been taking photos since I was a teenager when there were only Black & White photos. As indicated in the Adobe article, “The more you do it, the more it gets ingrained into your head.” I apply the Rule of Thirds most of the time in my photo compositions.

I learned drawing and painting at a young age, the Rule of Thirds also applies to the composition of drawing, painting, and some other forms of art. I’ll post my photos and two of my paintings in this post.

There are many kinds of butterflies in my garden, Swallowtail, Monarch, Mourning Cloak, and Cabbage butterflies. A Monarch came back from the south early this year and is busy laying eggs. I collected 10 eggs so far. Three are in the chrysalis form, two are growing strong, and five are 1/8″ babies. I’ll post some Monarch photos later. I saw a Nymphalis antiopa, known as Mourning Cloak, a few days ago but didn’t take good photos. I took the following one a while ago.

There are many turtles in the lake within walking distance from home. This colorful turtle was sunbathing when I walked around the lake one day. The entire colorful body is attractive. The reflection of the sunlight made part of his body draw more attention.

I took the following photo in Maui, Hawaii. The crashing waves evoke my imagination. I strive to take photos with droplets dancing in the air as the waves splash the rocks.

The following are my two paintings. Naturally, the tree is the focus of the first painting and the butterfly is in the second painting.

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Lens-Artists Challenge #197 – The Rule of Thirds

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Bokeh

Posted on April 10, 2022 by Miriam Hurdle 85 comments

This week for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, Sofia Alves invited us to look at bokeh in photography. The following is her discussion.

“What is bokeh? We all have seen this effect; we have photos of it. The term bokeh was first used to distinguish normal motion blur from the blur obtained when things are out of focus. It literally means blur in Japanese. The Nikon website, after a more complex and technical explanation, reduces it to simply this: ‘bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus blur in a photograph’”.

My newest photo today would do the job.

This is my first caterpillar of the year. I saw a Monarch flying around a few weeks ago but didn’t expect to have caterpillars soon. This little guy is early. Basically, my milkweed from last year is not grown yet. I bought two pots with one in a good shape, enough to feed one caterpillar. After this little guy, I’ll wait until summer to raise more butterflies.

The first caterpillar in my garden, 2022

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Bokeh

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Birthdays

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Miriam Hurdle 71 comments

This week, the theme for Lens-Artist Photo Challenge from John Steiner is Birthdays. I don’t have fancy birthday celebrations. But I love going to birthday parties, especially my grandchildren’s birthdays. My husband and I just returned from a trip to my younger granddaughter, Nora’s birthday. She turned two.

In the previous years, my daughter had outdoor birthday parties for the girls. When Autumn turned one, we had a party at the park. It started raining toward the end. Many friends helped to pack up things. Last year, when Nora turned one, we had an outdoor party. It was raining before and after the party.

I thought it was a good idea when I found out Nora’s birthday party was indoors. The mask mandate was just lifted. Many people came without masks. A few people were still wearing masks. The outfit has a nice setup of various activities and playrooms. Grown-ups had a wonderful time visiting with each other.

My daughter brought cheese and crackers, fruits, and cupcakes and bought Starbucks coffee. She made the raspberry-filled cupcakes. The staff helped to do the decoration and clean up afterward. It was a lot easier than setting up the outdoor party.

Autumn helped Nora open the birthday gifts

We had a wonderful time with the kids. We went to the nearby school playgrounds twice, but mostly we played with the kids and read with them at home. This is also the time for Mercy and Will to take a break. They had date nights while we fed the kids, bathed them, and put them to bed. Autumn loved to have me read to her at bedtime because she could ask me to read many books. Nora is attached to my daughter and prefers mommy put her to bed. We somehow managed to do the job.

Going to the playgrounds

Playing, playing, playing

Reading, reading, reading

Nora reads the instructions for Candy Land! 🙂

I booked the flights to spend Mother’s Day with my daughter and see the grandkids again. In fact, I also booked the flights in September for Autumn’s birthday. The birthday after that is Mercy’s birthday, the day after Christmas. I enjoy going to these birthdays.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Birthdays

Happy birthday, John!