~ Lens-Artists Challenge #407: Celebrations ~

Posted on August 6, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Patti invites us to showcase Celebrations Around the World, and provides a beautiful array of examples from her own travels here. Though I have albums with photos from celebrations I’ve been a part of over the years, this post will be of recent gatherings near home that celebrate events and are unique to my current life.

When I retired 14 years ago, I joined a writing group which has evolved over the years, and which I continue to be part of. Last summer we met at my home to celebrate writing together. We had a fine time chatting by the pond, and read pieces we had selected to share. Since I enjoy entertaining, this was a true joy for me.

The last wedding I attended was a lovely gathering celebrating a wonderful couple. Three weeks from now, my niece and her partner will be rejoicing their upcoming marriage with a reception, to which I will be taking my Panasonic!

Last year, Kai (the tall Doberman pinscher) turned 3. His owner and friends hosted a birthday party for dogs and their humans at our favorite dog park. Yes, we are sort of over-the-top about our pets! It is wonderful that the dogs have an opportunity to socialize, at the same time we humans can keep company with other dog lovers. 🐾

Any members of my family who are able, gather together for a celebration of Christmas before the actual day, usually at my sister’s home in Corvallis or at my home. We have plenty of good food, listen to holiday music while we chat, and enjoy being silly with crackers!

The No Kings protest I attended is a different kind of celebration. Above, several hundred people gathered together in Vancouver, WA to express our dismay at the Trump administration. There is a sense of rejoicing in the group, as we peacefully demonstrate our support for democracy. Solidarity brings joy.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Challenge #406: Summer Daze ~

Posted on July 31, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Ann, of Slow Shutter Speed invites us to showcase how we stay cool and what we do to enjoy summer. So far the weather has been fairly normal for this time of year in the Pacific Northwest, USA. There have been a few days over 95°F (35°C), and there will be more in August, however hot days have been followed by more moderate temperatures, so we have been able to enjoy time outside. There are massive wildfires in Washington and Oregon, though the prevailing westerly winds have kept the smoke away from our area.

By mid June, we say farewell to our Breakers condominium and friends at Long Beach, WA to spend most of the summer at home in Vancouver, WA. Why? Summer is always busy at the beach, so we prefer to let others rent our condo, while we enjoy the peace and quiet in our own home and grounds.

With morning coffee, I head out to our deck (my tree house!) to enjoy the fresh stillness, and watch birds as they bring their fledglings in to our feeders. I have seen Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Song Sparrow, Junco, House Finch, Goldfinch, Bewick Wren, Bushtit, Stellar’s Jay, Spotted Towhee, Crow, and Anna’s Hummingbird all partake of the feast, while I sit quietly enjoying the beauty of their being.

Almost every day, Max, Daisy and I go to our favorite dog park, where they can sniff and explore off leash, and I can walk without them tugging me onward!

By late afternoon, I settle into my garden nook; a shaded space facing the pond and waterfall, where I relax in the surroundings, create Lens-Artists posts, and read. Just finished Giving Up Is Unforgivable, by Joyce Vance, and I’m now re-reading What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan.

In between times, I tend my gardens. Tomatoes are starting to ripen, Basil is coming on strong, Zuccini is producing nicely and I have high hopes for my peppers.

Thanks to Ann for a fun and straightforward challenge!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Challenge #405: Adventure ~

Posted on July 23, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Anne-Christine welcomes us back after a summer break with the theme of Adventure. Her invitation is here. Once a year, I have the pleasure of joining my sister and brother-in-law for a family fishing adventure at Odell Lake, at the summit of Willamette Pass in central Oregon State. We stay at a private campground adjacent to Crescent Creek, and a short drive from where we launch their boat.

The cold creek flows briskly and has a lovely screen of wildflowers lining both its banks.

I enjoy ambling along the creek where I can listen to the magic rippling water, watch butterflies flutter about, and look for interesting sights to photograph.

We get up early, drive ten minutes to Odell, launch the boat and have our lines in the water by 7:00. On good days, the lake is smooth and inviting as we set out fishing for Kokanee (landlocked Sockeye Salmon) and Mackinaw (Lake Trout).

Daisy is tucked away snoozing while we go about the handicraft of catching fish. My niece, Marie loves going after the big Lake Trout and is always thrilled when she lands one!

We are off the lake by noon to avoid the winds that almost always start around then. Large waves turn the fun of fishing into a struggle, so we reel in. Notice whitecaps above.

After lunch we clean and process the fish we have caught, then enjoy the afternoons and evenings at camp.

Thanks to Anne-Christine for this timely challenge. I enjoy this adventure with my family very much and it’s a pleasure to share it here.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Challenge #404: B is for Blossom! ~

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

This week Beth, of Wandering Dawgs gives us a wide-open topic for the challenge; we are to select a subject that begins with B. Immediately I thought birds, yet since I often feature birds in my challenges, I selected blossoms instead. From the moment I spot spring crocus on through the seasons, blossoms cheer me along the way. Trillium is native to this region, and I love seeing it emerge around my yard in early spring.

More spring blossoms above: Camellia, Tulip, Cistus-mickie and Dicentra – bleeding heart. By the summer solstice Hydrangeas burst out in bright blue blossoms.

Summer blossoms: Major Wheeler Honeysuckle, Lincoln Rose, Artichoke (my first time with this plant!) and on into autumn, Rudbeckia and Coneflowers keep me cheerful.

“Where flowers bloom so does hope.” Lady Bird Johnson

Thanks to Beth for this welcoming challenge. I appreciate all of the Lens-Artist hosts and hope that you have a pleasant summer break!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in flowers, Gardening, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature photography, pacific northwest, photography, weekly photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

~ Lens-Artist Challenge # 403: Perspective, Depth & Scale ~

Posted on June 27, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

John Steiner zero’s in on three tools that shape visual space in photography; perspective, depth and scale. Perspective provides an accurate impression of the height, width, depth, and position of subjects in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point. Immediately my mind went to this photo I took from the Lincoln Memorial, looking across to the Washington Monument and its reflection at dusk in December, 2006.

John comments that though the tools sound technical, “they are incredibly intuitive once you look for them, and you’ll likely find you’ve been using them all along.” That certainly is true of the photo above. I looked out and said, OMG, take this picture while you can!

Depth in photography means the image creates an illusion of three dimensions. Below, a beautiful clear summer day at Crater Lake National Park provided this picture perfect image. Another “right place, right time” moment.

Scale is helpful to show the relative size or dimension of a subject. This huge rock on Orcas Island, WA might have seemed just a big bolder, even with the trees in the background. I decided adding a known item – my water bottle – would provide a clue to just how big this thing was!

Thanks to John, for continuing to remind us of the importance of fundamentals!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Challenge #402: Looking Back at #1 – Wonder ~

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Sofia harkens back to the beginning of Lens-Artists Photo Challenges with an invitation to showcase, “moments, places, people that we treasure; the little stories behind a shot that stuff our lives with meaning and joy.” I decided to keep my selections to NOW and present the little joys and wonders that have given me pleasure this week at Long Beach, WA. The weekend was quite warm and pollinators swarmed over the Butterfly bush I pass on my morning walks. Bees fascinate me, and are essential to the well-being of life on earth.

I was immediately charmed by the clean simplicity of this daisy. So simple and ordinary – yet extraordinary at the same time!

A friend from the Breakers, Patrick Moore crafts all sorts of amazing things with resin. I brought a bag of sea-glass and a tired old birdbath to him in early spring and asked him to give it new life. What a lovely piece he created, and I have just the place for it at home!

Daisy barks at the waves while Max keeps an eye out for crab-crunchies on an afternoon beach walk. The Pacific Ocean is always awe-inspiring, and on this day I was amazed to spot a whale doing a spy-hop out on the horizon!

Sunsets always fill me with admiration. Every one is different, and some are spectacular. I have many glorious sunset shots from Long Beach, and I was tempted to use one of them, however I’m determined to keep to my ‘here & now’ theme, and this is the only sunset shot I have from this week. Maybe not as stunning as others, but still wonderful.

Thanks to Sofia for her inspiring post which you can view here. It’s such a pleasure to share joy and wonderment on the Lens-Artists site.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature, nature photography, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, Report from the Edge of a Continent, travel, weekly photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

~ Lens-Artists Challenge #401: Focus! ~

Posted on June 13, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Patti is back in the line-up and I am determined to participate! It’s been one of those weeks we all have; when too much is going on, and all of it is important. Fortunately I am now at Long Beach, WA with the sun shining over the meadows and sparkling whitecaps in view on the Pacific Ocean. I simply don’t have it in me to fulfill the whole challenge, however I still want to end this week on a creative note, so here is one of my “Walking With Eagles” photos. I hope you enjoy it and find peace in its beauty.

Thank you to Patti, one of the original leaders of Lens-Artists, I believe!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Challenge #400: The Rule of Three ~

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Tina presents a less familiar design “rule” that is present all around us, and one I have used in my landscape plans and interior decorating. The concept holds that images with three subjects (always an odd number) is more striking than even numbers. Sometimes nature dishes up beautiful examples, other times it seems a miracle when there are three! Often, cropping is the only way to get the desired effect. Below, three Mallard ducks stepped off shore and into the water at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. On the opposite shore a bright red Chihuly sculpture installment draws our attention.

Two blackbirds were harassing a crow and all landed on top of this tree. The blackbirds beaks are pointed at each other, while the crow is looking askance at them both!

The past few days I’ve been cleaning up my back yard and putting out some yard decor that gives me pleasure. Every time I looked out the bedroom window at the arch/bench where I had put two birdhouses, it nagged at me, and with this prompt I realized I needed to add one more. Now, I feel a sense of calm when I glance that direction!

Here’s a metal garden sculpture with three posies, that fill in a blank spot along the fence. Two or four would look strange. What do you think?

Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) bloom in late winter and always cheer me up , as they signal that spring is on the way! They have such a delicate drooping blossom with green dots and white tips that repeat the theme of three.

Thanks to Tina for this fun invitation, and congratulations on hitting the 400th Lens Artist Challenge! It’s over 7 years that this dedicated group of volunteers has provided the rest of us a weekly photo challenge. Tina was among the original group that started where WordPress left off. Kudos to you all, and many, many thanks.

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

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~ Lens-Artists Challenge #399: Stuck in Place ~/

Posted on May 29, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

For this week’s Photo Challenge, Egídio asks us to select 5 shots from photographs which are taken within 10-15 steps in any direction of where we choose to be “stuck in place.” Since my deck limits my range of movement already, I chose to be stuck here. I often come out on the deck to enjoy a glass of wine, and to wind down from the days activities. This is the view from the sliding glass door. I sometimes think of the deck as my tree-house. There are no stairs down to the yard, so I am stuck 10 feet (3.4 meters) in the air!

From here I can look down, all around the back yard. While I was snapping shots, my dear Daisy came into view. She loves to sniff-out all the wild smells around the grounds, and often paddles at the surface of the pond, “fishing”.

The 8 old growth Douglas Fir in the back yard are sacred to me. They anchor everything in the gardens, and provide lovely shade in the summer. This group of four I have named the Mother Tree and Three Sisters. Yes, I’m a tree-hugger. Just look up at them though!

Egídio suggests we look closely for compositions we usually walk past. This wall of sun faces is just such a place. The way the filtered sunlight highlighted them provided a moment to see them freshly.

I’ll finish with a fun visitor. My suet feeder has been knocked to the ground so often that it no longer is able to hang from its holder. I put it in the center of the deck table, and moved all the chairs far enough away that dogs and squirrels can’t jump up to eat the suet. Pretty soon my regular visitors found it, and were not a bit bothered by me sitting there snapping shots!

Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis)

Thank you to Egidio for this intriguing challenge!

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in landscape gardening, Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, photography, weekly photo challenge | 10 Comments

~ Lens-Artists Challenge #398: Choose a Color ~

Posted on May 21, 2026 by Lindy Le Coq

Ritva revs us up this week with a challenge to focus on color. She guides us to use either a single color for all images, or a different color for each image, and limits the total shots to six. At first I started gathering a file of photos featuring purple which has been my favorite color for most of my life. It was very tempting just to go with it, until I thought about other tones that would be less likely to be featured for this challenge. A color that might complain, “I don’t get no respect”! (Rodney Dangerfield), so I decided to feature brown, the combination of all three primary colors; blue, red and yellow.

“The beauty of nature lies in its earthy tones, where brown speaks the language of love.” – Noah Adams

Columbia Black-tailed mule deer

“Nature’s palette is rich in browns, encouraging us to appreciate every hue of life.” – Sophia Ray

“Brown connects us to nature, reminding us of our roots and the beauty of the earth.” – Henry Taylor

Brown Pelican

“With every shade of brown, feel the heartbeat of the earth resonating through you.” – Liam Wood

Brown Garden Snail

“Take a moment to breathe in the earthy scent of brown soil, nurturing life in every way.” – Emily Davis

My beagle Max loafing on the sofa!

“In the warmth of brown, find the embrace of comfort that cradles the soul.” – Victoria Banks

Thanks to Ritva, and all the Lens-Artists hosts for continuing to provide us a weekly focus on photographic creativity. Cheers to you!Ritva’s Lens-Artists Challenge

On your walk with life, please honor our earth, encourage dignity and share kindness. 🐾

Posted in Lens-Artists, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, nature photography, outdoors, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, photography, weekly photo challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments