Tag Archives: Travel

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #59 – Angles

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #59 – Angles. This week, Ann-Christine invites us to look at the world from different angles and interpret what we see. I found a few quotes and a few sets of photos. The quotes may not refer to any photos so I do not link them together.

“The first impression of a new subject is not necessary the best. Seen from a different angle or under different condition it might look even better. Always study a three-dimensional subject with one eye closed” – Andreas Feininger

“Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is like a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue…” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“One moment the world is as it is. The next, it is something entirely different. Something it has never been before.” ― Anne Rice, Pandora

 

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The buildings in the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain include Valencia Opera House, Hemisferic, Prince Felipe Museum of Science, Oceanografic, and Agora. They were designed by Santiago Calatrava. The photos included are the two views of Hemisferic which is a splendid Laserium, Planetarium and IMAX cinema.

 

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Whenever weather allows, my camera is ready to take photos from the airplane. It was snowing on this day before Christmas. Portland, Oregon doesn’t have heavy snow and I was happy to get a bird eye view and a close to the ground view of the somewhat snowy landscape.

 

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Every time I look at these photos of the peacock, I was glad my camera snapped them. It was not too often I could have a behind the scene view of the peacock.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #59 – Angles

 

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #55 – Dreamy Dreams

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The theme this week from Ann-Christine for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is: Dreamy. I will tweak a little bit here. The photos I chose present dreamy images, but the quotes I picked are about dreams.

 

1.Maui

Driving to the top of Haleakalā, the East Maui volcano (in Hawaii), the tallest peak is 10,023. feet.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman

 

2.Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

 

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A helicopter riding with the glacier landing on Chugach Mountains in Anchorage, Alaska.

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.” – James Dean

 

4.Yellowstone hot spring

Mudpots in Yellowstone: Hot springs that are acidic enough to dissolve the surrounding rock. Typically, also lack water in their systems.

“I have had dreams, and I’ve had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.” – Jonas Salk

 

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Driving along a river in Anchorage, Alaska

 “Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes

 

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Old Faithful, the most famous Geysers in Yellowstone, erupts every 90 minutes.

“Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.” – John Updike

 

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Overlooking the mountain range on Pacific coast from the airplane.

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale

 

8.Key West night

Fog came in after nightfall in Key West, Florida.

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” – T.E. Lawrence

 

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Sunset on the west coast on the way from California to Oregon

“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #55 – Dreamy Dreams

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #54: Detail

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The theme from Patti for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge this week #54 is Detail.

I appreciate painting and love colorful things. A good combination of both is stained glass windows. When traveled to Europe visiting the cathedrals, stained glass windows always caught my attention. Although I took photos in several cathedrals, I chose to display some to show the detail of the stained glass windows in Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

Stained Glass Windows

During the Gothic period and the Renaissance (1100s–1500s) stained glass was one of the foremost techniques of painting practiced in Europe. It inspired the lives of the faithful through religious narratives in churches and cloisters.

There was a time when glass panes were too expensive for most people, only in the late 1400s, did glass panels become wider-spread, so that middle class and wealthy people could have them in their homes—and they started setting into their clear glass windows that would celebrate their family histories.

Glass Windows in Cologne Cathedral

In many windows coats of arms help both to identify their patron and to date the glass windows in Cologne Cathedral.

Among the five original windows, the Three Kings is the oldest glass window in the cathedral, and the earliest preserved “Bible windows” in Germany.

A typological, classical of types, view of history is also worked out in more detail in the two “Bible windows” where scenes of Christ’s life are related to Old Testament events. These windows are the depiction of Christ’s ancestors as kings, the History of Salvation with themes representing the three periods of history. The prominence of the scene of the Adoration of the magi has been associated with the importance of Cologne Cathedral as the cathedral of the Three Kings.

I can only identify major detail in the stained glass windows shown in this post. An extensive study would be needed to understand and interpret the rest of the detail.

 

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Cologne Cathedral Germany b

Cologne Cathedral Germany c

Cologne Cathedral Germany d

Cologne Cathedral Germany e

Cologne Cathedral Germany f

Cologne Cathedral Germany g

Cologne Cathedral Germany h

I hope you enjoyed these stained glass windows as much as I do!

 

LenArtists Photo Challenge #54 – Detail

 

 

 

 

Lens-Artists Challenge #52 – Serenity

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The theme from Tina for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is: Serenity.

These are a few of my favorite places of calmness, peacefulness and serenity.

 

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Chinese Garden, The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. Los Angeles, California, USA

Learn silence. With the quiet serenity of a meditative mind, listen, absorb, transcribe, and transform. – Pythagoras

 

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Moulton Falls Regional Park, Washington, USA

The waters are in motion, but the moon retains its serenity. – D.T. Suzuki

 

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Maui, Hawaii, USA

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace,  joy and serenity. – Nhat Hanh

 

Newport

Newport Beach, California, USA

Peace is the simplicity of heart, serenity of mind, tranquility of soul, the bond of love. – Pio of Pietrelcina

 

Lens-Artists Challenge #52 – Serenity

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #51: Unique Nara Deer Park

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The theme from Amy this week for Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #51 is: Unique. I want to post our unique experience in Japan.

Our family went to Kyoto, Japan in January 2019. While in Kyoto, we visited Nara Park.  

 

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 Nara Park is a public deer park located at the foot of Mount Wakakusa. Established in 1880, it is one of the oldest parks in Japan. The park, including the adjunct temples and gardens, is as large as 1,600 acres.

 

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Nara Park

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Kasugataisha Shrine

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Evergreen Botanical Garden

 

The wild sika deer are designated as natural treasures. They are freely roaming around the park.

 

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Visitors can purchase “deer-crackers” to feed them.

 

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Well, this deer wanted to taste the ice cream

The number of deer grew to around 1,200 in 2008 and created concerns about environmental and crop damage.

 

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During fiscal 2016, 121 people were injured by deer. In 2016 the area around Nara was designated into four different zones, with the outer zones allowing deer to be captured and killed. The culling started in 2017, with a limit of 120 deer to be culled during 2017.

As of July 2017, there were around 1,500 deer living in the park, and at least 164 people had been injured by them in fiscal 2017-2018. Most of them were tourists feeding the deer.

In April 2018 Nara city set up new signs in English, Chinese and Japanese informing tourists that the deer are wild animals and to not tease them during feeding.

I took the following video when a deer bowed to ask for food from visitors.

 

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #51: Unique Nara Deer Park

 

 

Lens-Artists Challenge #48 – WILD

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The challenge Tina gave us for Lens-Artists this week is: Wild

I love the quote Tina has for this post, “Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.” – Edward Abbey

When we went to Denali National Park, Alaska, we had a glimpse of the sheer beauty of wilderness.

There are two kinds of wilderness inside the National Park system. The original two million acres of Denali are designated wilderness. Designated wilderness has the highest level of protection offered by the Federal Government. Nearly all the other four million acres added by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) are eligible wilderness. According to National Park Service Wilderness Management Policies, eligible wilderness is managed as designated until it is either officially designated, or removed from consideration, both of which require an Act of Congress. Thus almost 6 million acres of Denali National Park and Preserve are protected as wilderness. Source

“The Denali Wilderness is a land of paradox. It is inviting and it is terrifying; accessible and remote. It is an essentially undeveloped wilderness with a road corridor through the middle that brings millions of people to its edge. It is untrammeled, yet managed. Some of the land within its boundaries is well known and studied, but much of it is full of mystery. It is a natural and intact ecosystem celebrated by scientists, writers, hunters, adventurers and artists alike.

As our world is beginning to experience dra­matic and widespread change, all wilderness is at a crossroads. Encroaching development and climate change threaten to dramatically alter these environments but also present a unique opportunity to preserve their excep­tional wilderness character and linkages to other conservation units in Alaska and Canada.” Source

Features of Denali Wilderness:

Natural – A variety of plants and animals thrive in their natural habitats.

Untrammeled – Denali strives to keep this wilderness free from intentional human intervention.

Undeveloped – Most of Denali’s wilderness lacks the imprint of man’s development.

Unconditioned Recreation – Visitors can experience the primitive recreation.

Source

 

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We were fortunate to spot several wild animals on the way to Denali from Anchorage. I took the photos through the window of the coach.

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Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) – is also known as the caribou in North America.

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Willow Ptarmigan – its color will turn completely white in winter

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Snowshoe Hare is known for the large size of its hind feet to prevent it from sinking into the snow.

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A young moose – Bull moose loses the antlers in the winter and grows back next spring.

Lens-Artists Challenge #48 – WILD

 

 

 

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