Lens-Artists Challenge #85 – Treasure Hunt

SUNRISE ON THE WATER

“Treasure hunts make much better stories when there’s treasure at the end.”

Eric Berlin

This week we’re going on a Treasure Hunt! The challenge is to search for specific items – either from your archives or newly captured – from the list below. Extra credit items are a bit more challenging. Focus on quality over quantity and hit us with your best shot(s)!

Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold and/or hot, a bird, a dog, a funny sign, a bicycle, a seascape and/or mountain landscape, a rainbow, a church, a musical instrument, a boat, a plane, a waterfall
Extra Credit Items: An expressive portrait of one or more people, a very unusual place, knitting or sewing, a fish, an animal you don’t normally see, a bucket, a hammer, a street performer, a double rainbow, multiple challenge items in a single image. My opening image, for example, includes a sunrise, a seascape and birds in a single shot. See how easy it is?! 😀

VIRTUOSO PERFORMANCE

“Music is the road to the soul”

Syed Sharukh

I had tons of fun traveling down memory lane as I searched for images that fit the challenge. The street performer above playing his musical instrument is from a visit to Provence, France several years ago.

OLD MAN AND THE SEA

“Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

Lao-Tzu

Our journey across China provided me with some of my favorite images. The capture above features a traditional fishing method, where trained birds dive for fish, which they deposit into the woven bowl. They are rewarded for their efforts so they also benefit. They and the fisherman balance on a traditionally built raft (boat).

KEEPING WATCH

“The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day.”

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

The image above shows a sheepdog watching over a flock of sheep, animals I rarely see. Notice the one in the middle of the flock keeping track of the dog. Perhaps he’s thinking about making a run for it – or is he assigned to track the dog so that the rest of the flock needn’t worry about him? 😀

SCULPTOR AND HAMMER

“Your life is a sculpture, every day chip away.”

J.R. Rim

I always enjoy making images of people at work. I would really have loved to see the finished product of this sculptor’s efforts with his hammer and chisel.

FLOATING FLYER

“The century of airplanes has a right to its own music.”

Claude Debussy

Each day during our adventure in an Alaskan fishing camp we would board a floatplane and fly to where the salmon were running. It was during this trip that we encountered the salmon-fishing bears shown in last week’s post. A floatplane could be considered both a plane and a boat, and the snow on the mountains beyond represents something cold.

SEEING DOUBLE

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.”

Lord Byron

We saw the double rainbow above during a visit to Prince Edward Island off the eastern coast of Canada. I’m not sure what I found most exciting – the double rainbow, the red sand seascape, or the sea glass that washed up on the shore each day.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

“Mothers of daughters are daughters of mothers and have remained so, in circles joined to circles, since time began.”

Signe Hammer

I don’t often do portraits but I was enchanted by this mother-daughter embrace, my attempt at an expressive portrait. I converted the image to B&W to eliminate the distraction of their colorful outfits.

I got a bit carried away by the number of images I found during my hunt (as well as my header which includes a number of funny signs). I sincerely hope you enjoy the quest as much as I did. As always, Amy, Ann-Christine, Patti and I look forward to seeing your responses.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The Lens-Artists team is delighted to announce that our March 7th challenge (#87) will be hosted by special guest host Miriam Hurdle of The Showers of Blessings. For the rest of February and March we’ll follow our usual weekly schedule, beginning next week as Patti brings us Challenge # 86. In the meanwhile, many thanks to Amy for last week’s Narrow challenge.

Have you seen these?

Suzy of Suzy Blue gives us a terrific description of Narrow Depth of Field along with some wonderful examples.
Andy of AEKShots uses creativity and humor to draw us into the tiger’s den
Ana of Anvica Photos creatively crops to show us what narrow REALLY looks like.
Rambling Ranger Dianne demonstrates her sense of adventure with some incredibly narrow roads.

Finally, it’s been suggested that we post a Treasure Hunt challenge each quarter with a new set of items. Let us know your thoughts on that, and if you agree, feel free to suggest any items you’d like to see included.