Lens-Artists Challenge #206 – Treasures
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Those who have seen Aletta’s “Treasures” challenge this week may wonder why I’ve opened with a row of rubber chickens! It’s simple really – this week my images express some of the abstract things I treasure, in this case, a sense of humor. Life is full of twists and turns and bumps along the road. Although not always successful, I try to remember to keep a sense of humor to help me through. One of the things I treasure is a hearty laugh shared with loved ones or good friends.
“You risk a lot when you love – your heart and soul, at the least.”
J.E.B. Spredemann
I chose the colorful wall painting above because of the many hearts in the colorful pattern. I captured it in NYC while visiting family. Because of the hearts and the fact that it was from a family visit, I chose this one to illustrate yet another treasure, the love of family.
“The thing that is important usually is the thing that is not seen”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I dipped our toes into our first “get-away” since Covid began, two weeks in the nearby mountains of North Carolina. I’ve chosen the image above, a site near the top of Grandfather Mountain, to illustrate yet another treasure, my love of travel and the many things I’ve learned through our experiences both close to home and around the world.
“The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. “
Louisa Thomsen Brits
One of my favorite things about traveling is how much I love coming home. The image above was captured from my airplane window as we approached our beloved lowcountry. Looking down, I captured an iPhone image of some of the marshlands and rivers that surround us. For me, home truly is a treasure – it is where my heart is, no matter how much we enjoy our travels.
“Each season is unique yet so important, so cherish the seasons in your life.”
Gift Gugu Mona
Speaking of home, the image above pays homage to another of the things I treasure, the beauty of nature. In it we see one of Kiawah’s marsh areas surrounded by trees. Together they provide a home for our many species of wildlife, as well as an opportunity for the recreation so many of our residents and visitors enjoy. Nature here, nearby, and seen throughout our many travels is another of the things I most treasure.
“The truth is, we find time for what’s important to us.”
Craig Groeschel
Finally, I could not close today’s post without a mention of photography. I treasure it because it causes me to notice so much more of the world around us, and gives me an opportunity to share it with others. I also treasure the many friends I’ve made through photography, including those in our local photography club. I’ve treasured learning from many of them as well as our visiting professionals, and having had an opportunity to share some of my experience with those just beginning their journey.
Thanks to Aletta for her very creative challenge – we look forward to seeing your responses. Please remember to link them to Aletta’s challenge here, and to use the Lens-Artists Tag to help us find you. Thanks also to those who responded to last week’s Eyes challenge. I loved your very creative approaches and beautiful images. We hope you’ll join all of our guest hosts this month. In addition to Aletta they include:
July 09 – Jez Braithwaite of Photos by Jez Seeing Double.
July 16 – Andre of My Blog–Solaner thinking about Summer Vibes.
July 23 – Tracy, who posts at Reflections of an Untidy Mind, Surrealism.
July 30 – Sarah Wilkie, who hosts Travel with Me, who asks you to share Three Favorite Images.
The Lens-Artists team will be back in August when Anne will host her challenge – “What’s Your Groove”. Until then, as always, please stay safe and be kind.
Interested in joining the Lens-Artists challenge? Click here for more information.
Travels and Trifles 
I ‘m loving the photos! The “Heading Home” is so unique. I would love to have you on my Featured Vacation Photo page of my blog: https://thetraveladventures.com/featured-photo/ Send me an email at info@thetraveladventures.com.
Many thanks Lynn. I appreciate the invitation but I’m afraid your terms related to ongoing rights are way beyond my willingness to share, sorry.
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After seeing the “Treasured Vista” photo, I can see why you appreciate places near your home, Tina. It looks like a place full of hidden treasures.
Thanks Siobhan, we are indeed surrounded by some of nature’s most amazing gifts. That said, the community is constantly engaged in the fight to keep development at bay. Certainly a battle worth waging though!
Happy to hear you enjoyed your time in our beautiful mountains. I’m watching the clouds gather over Grandfather Mountian as I write this. I think it’s been the warmest July I can remember, but still a lovely escape!
Oh trust me Karen, compared to here, or even to Asheville, it was heaven!! We were quite high up – the only ting higher was that odd mountaintop condo that can be seen from most everywhere.
You must’ve been very close to my home.
That condo is the scourge of the area. I’m told the fact it got built where it did resulted in code changes in the state.
I was afraid to insult it not knowing exactly where you live LOL. Yes it’s horrific. I was told it actually caused legal restrictions US-wide. We were up in the Sugar Mountain Reserve which was lovely.
Lol.
We are at Linville Ridge. If you get back this way, let me know!
Oh I think you are so right Tina, our photography allows us to treasure things more, be it the beauty of nature or treasured memories of friends and family.
Thanks Karina, yes ma’am we’re on the same page there. I definitely notice things more and also remember them much more strongly when I photograph them.
I love how you picked each photo for your treasures. I gotta give it to you for the chicken one!! Hilarious!
LOL Thanks Nora, happy to have brought you a smile. It seems the chickens are quite a hit !
I totally agree with your treasures, Tina. They are mine, too. And your photos are superb, as always! I hope you’re cooling off in SC now. (Relatively speaking)
Relatively indeed Patti😊. Many thanks
Really enjoyed your thoughts on all the different treasure; agreed! The chicken check-in is a great opening. These rubber chickens are popular in Thailand and Japan and I’m glad they are in America too (if you took the photo in the US).
The Grandfather Mountain also has an interesting mountaintop area. Would be nice if I can visit if I get to revisit America.
Thank you Gift. The chickens are indeed fairly common in the U.S but I’d never seen them used this way which I thought was really clever and funny. Grandfather is quite beautiful. The image was well below our eventual arrival at the top!
What a lovely take on treasures, Tina. We sometimes have many more than we think. I liked looking out of the plane window with you. It’s in many ways similar to what I see flying back into the Algarve.
Many thanks Jo, you’re so right. Interesting about the plane window. Portugal is top of our list should we ever feel comfortable to travel out of the country again!
Great photos, great quotes, great treasures!
Great comment 😊. Thanks John
Nice collection, Tina. You’re right, with your last paragraph: making friends wherever you are simply by having the same passion and sharing common ground 👍
Absolutely, thanks Andre
😊
Wonderful collection. But the star of the show is clearly that row of rubber chicken
LOL, it really cracked me up at the time I.J., I’m happy to find a way to feature it!
I love your selection of treasures – it’s hard to argue with any of them!
Thanks Sarah, I suppose we might all list the same ones when focused on intangibles.
Wonderful post, Tina 👏 You’ve captured he real essence of treasure to my mind 😃 It’s always good to know you can check your chicken in, we don’t have enough of those here 🤣🤣🤣
LOL, yes, the chicken checking is very important Jez LOL!! Glad you enjoyed these.
Happy treasures, and they made me smile, Tina! Not only because of your stunning opener (!), but because we share so many of those treasures. A beautiful entry to a lovely challenge. And I cannot click Like and get it right…my avatar doesn’t show.
Thanks Ann-Christine – took me a while to decide on my response but once I got started….. Well I guess we are very lucky indeed, aren’t we?! Sorry about the WP issues, hope they’re solved quickly for you.
Lucky we are, Tina. Grateful for every day. Finally the WP engineers answered, and I will try their advice…I have emptied the cache memory at least…
They actually recommended that to me for a previous issue and it worked perfectly. The issue is that it clears all of the info on your other frequented sites so you have to re-enter your login info for those as well.
OK
Intangible treasures are truly more valuable than “stuff”, Tina. I can certainly relate to treasuring photography!
Thanks very much Susan – and yes indeed re photography
Agree, humour is much needed in life! ❤️ Great nature photos as usual, Tina!
Many thanks Teresa
The rubber chickens made me smile a big smile! Lovely treasures Tina. Thanks for sharing them.
My pleasure Anne, thanks for stopping by
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Just wonderful the way you captured the many treasures in your life. Glad you explained why you made the choices. Great to open up with the rubber chickens!
thanks so much Marlene – that one seems to have captured the day LOL. I guess we all need a smile now and then.
Hi Tina! First of all thanks for the list of hosts and themes for this month! Super helpful since I have to schedule my posts in advance this month as we travel in and out of internet. Secondly, wow on your beautiful treasures. Family, travel, hobbies, all wonderful treasures so artfully depicted by your talented lens! Glad you got to get out of town, always worth any effort! But home is THE treasure and the memories never stop. Two weeks in I already miss my home in the mountains!
Glad the list is a help Terri – hopefully we’ll be in sync at least a few times! Agree wholeheartedly about home and understand completely how you’d miss yours. I’m the same way really, I’m always happy to get back no matter how much I’ve loved our travels.
Tina! I hardly ever visit posts before I post my own entry for the challenge – but I am glad to have read yours here because
Now I have ideas – I admit I was stumped this weekend and
From rubber chickens to art to lovely nature – hmmm list of ideas so thanks for that!
Also – cheers to the humor as a treasure as well as family, photography, nature, etc
😊☀️
I’m the same way Yvette – I never visit others before writing my own post because I know I’m impressionable LOL. Glad to have helped you with this week’s challenge and thanks as always for the visit and comment – whichever order you arrive in!
The impressionable factor reminds me of when I used to teach art!
If I had a lesson that was about skill and learning a technique – showing a sample was key!
But if I wanted students to dig deep and let unique creative juices flow – well I only have oral instructors and never showed samples –
And sure enough – almost any time I showed a sample – most students had work that was similar or in the same credence – and without seeing an example – way more variety m!!
-/
Anyhow – the treasures theme was a nice idea
Oh these are all wondrous treasures that your found and captured 😀 😀
Many thanks Cee, glad you enjoyed these.
Treasure is a great word for a theme because it offers a wide swath of thoughts – which you’ve visually done! Cheers to your sense of humor and the choice of the rubber chickens opener! 🙂 Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend.
So glad you enjoyed that one Frank – if we lost our sense of humor the world would be a pretty boring place.
Absolutely!
Tina, I love your treasures. I agree that we can’t get through life without a sense of humor and nature provides us a wonderful relief from today’s stressors. Beautiful images!
Many thanks Anne – I do love a good laugh but it has to be REALLY good to get me going! And indeed, YES to nature!
Which rubber chicken is yours??? (LOL)
🙂
LOL indeed David. Actually I was #3 – each patron is given a rubber chicken with a number to indicate where they are in the line. Gotta smile about it!
Love this shared heartfelt post… grateful for you and your beautiful photography … has expanded my world!
Thanks GF, always grateful for your wonderful comments.
Tina, thanks for sharing your treasures with us. You chose a beautiful way to answer the challenge. I love all the colorful images but the Treasured Vista is my favorite.
Many thanks Beth. Once again, I’d assume you have many similar vistas in your world!
More gorgeous photos. “The Mountaintop” spoke to me, and I (Kellye) love how you have the perfect quote to match the scene. Looking forward to more…
Thanks so much Kellye (and Mike 😊) so happy to hear that one reached out to you. It’s a beautiful spot.
It’s no surprise to see that most of your treasures are in the natural world. I enjoyed being a Virtual Tourist with you.
Thanks so much Margaret – you’re welcome to join me any time 😊
Not surprised to see sense of humor at the top of this list.😎
😍 Laugh or cry – these days it’s even more important to focus on the former vs the latter, right?!
One of my treasures is simply viewing the challenge responses. I always enjoy the photographer’s take on the myriad of subjects in our photo challenges.
I have to say that I love the composition in your “Heading Home” photo. I have trouble creating a nice composition that includes any of the airplane parts in the image. Don’t be surprised if I steal that composition sometime. >grin<
LOL you are welcome to it John – although yours are always extraordinary. I too love to see how others responsd to our challenges.
Nice to know your treasures.
Thank you for sharing.
And nothing like a photographer being photographed in action.
Love your other collections and those wonderful quotes.
A pleasure always I get when I go through your posts.
Thank you Tina Schell
Thanks so much Philo, I do love to capture a photographer at work!
Tina, I love your sense of humor! Thare are so so many of your treasures that I treasure too! Your photos portraying what you treasure are just so beautiful! Thank you so much for joining in this challenge too!
I wouldn’t have missed it Aletta!! Loved your choice and so appreciate your leading us this week.
Thank you, it was only a pleasure 😊
I enjoyed your explanations week maybe even more than your photos. As you know I truly value a sense of humor as well and of course I also love travel, family, and coming home. Well chosen choices.
Thanks so much Janet 0 sorry I missed your comment earlier. Glad you enjoyed this one.
Like you, I enjoy a great sense of humor, so your opening image is one I would treasure, too! What a hoot! The others are so lovely. Nature is definitely a treasure.
Absolutely Lois – actually I thought of you when I put that image up 😊
Thanks, Tina, for sharing some of your favorite images and the reasons why you chose them…Have a blessed 4th!
Hi Laurel – sorry I missed your comment. Thanks so much as always and hope you too had a wonderful 4th