Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Going Wide

This week, Patti is asking us to Go Wide for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. So often we focus on a single item and fail to take a step back to look at the bigger picture. When we visited the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford recently, I felt as though there were some shots that just couldn’t hold everything that I wanted to include. I don’t own a wide angle lens for the Canon EOS so I tried using the camera on my Galaxy phone and the results were quite pleasing.

Sinnissippi Gardens in Rockford lies on the banks of the Rock River. Usually when I take a picture of a river, I like to do so at an angle, so the phone camera came in useful for this shot too, as well as some wider-angle pictures of the gardens and lagoon.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Looking Up/Down

This week, our guest host, Sofia, asks us to Look Up and Down for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. We did quite a bit of looking up when we visited the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, the other day. There was some artwork that required us to look up and we also had to look up to see the waterfall gushing underneath the bridge. As we were leaving the Gardens we looked up to see someone trimming one of the very tall trees.

From the Japanese Gardens we went down the road to Sinnissippi Gardens where we looked down at plants growing in the conservatory and fish swimming in a pool, while outside we looked down at a pair of swans who in turn appeared to be looking down at some ducks.

Last week, I posted my entry for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge on another blog site, one that I rarely use, so you may want to follow this link and hop on over there to see my thoughts and pictures on the theme of Walking.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Harmony

This week, Tina has chosen Harmony as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and I can think of few places that better express the feeling of harmony than in a Japanese garden. We are very lucky to have two such beautiful gardens close at hand; at the Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe and the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Making a Splash

This week, Patti has chosen water as the subject for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, but more specifically, as she implies in the title, she is looking for us to make a bit of a splash, maybe like these sparrows taking a bath in the fountain at the Chicago Botanic Garden or koi fish threshing about in a feeding frenzy at the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford.

For the Polar bear it was not so much about making a splash as blowing bubbles, but you can always be sure of seeing lots of splashing at the Dolphin Show at Brookfield Zoo.

For larger birds, it isn’t always easy to perform a graceful takeoff or landing on water but they do their best. A cormorant takes of from the pond at Clearwater Park in Mount Prospect and a pelican settles down after making a splashdown on the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa.

For more on the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge go to #21 Splash!