Landscape – Wandering Dawgs

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #384 – What Astonishes You?

February 7, 2026February 7, 2026Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, PhotographyTagged caterpillar, glacier calving, Grand Canyon, Landscape, Lens-Artists, Mesa Verde, ocean, Photo Challenge, Redwoods National Park, Trillium, Whooping Crane83 Comments

What have you seen or experienced that has astonished you? The challenge is to include photos about things that astonish you and tell us why you are astonished.

I got the inspiration for this challenge from these words by Mary Oliver from her poem “Sometimes”:

“Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention

Be astonished

Tell about it”

According to the Merrriam-Webster Dictionary the definition of astonished is “feeling or showing great surprise or wonder”.

There are so many astonishing places and things to experience in our world if we just take the time to pay attention to what is around us. Sometimes we can be surprised by something in our own backyard or neighborhood. It may be something in nature or it could be something created by humans like a piece of art or interesting architecture. We may want to travel to see astonishing wonders of nature or things created by humans. The challenge is to show us what astonishes you. What makes you go “WOW”?

I can find wonders all around my neighborhood and my own back yard when I slow down and look around me. It’s the little things like these that bring me joy. I’m astonished that this weird looking caterpillar on the left will become a beautiful Gulf Fritillary like the one on the right.

I plant flowers in my garden to attract hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators. During the warm months I keep my hummingbird feeder filled with fresh nectar. No matter how many times I have witnessed it I am always astonished when I see one of the huumers hovering in mid air.

I am always astonished at the vastness and power of the ocean. These waves were crashing on the beach as a tropical storm was approaching Tybee Island, Georgia.

Sometimes my husband and I travel long distances to see astonishing sights. When I pay attention I often find astonishing things I wasn’t expecting to see.

I was in awe of the ancient giant Redwoods in Redwoods National Park in California. I spent most of my time looking up, taking in their enormous size.

And then I looked down at the forest floor and was astonished to discover the beautiful trillium flowers were blooming.

My husband and I have traveled to Arizona twice to visit the Grand Canyon. The canyon is awe-inspiring and makes me feel how truly small I am in the grand scheme of things.

We spent two months in Alaska in 2013 and every day brought new things that astonished me. Seeing and hearing a glacier calving was one of those events that has always stayed with me.

Not only was observing Whooping Cranes in the wild an astonishing experience, knowing that they migrate 2,500 miles from Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge every fall was even more astonishing. After wintering in Texas, they begin their migration back north to Canada about mid March each year. We made a special trip to Texas to see these magnificent birds who once were on the brink of extinction.

I am always astonished when I see ancient structures built by humans that have survived for thousands of years. I’ve never seen the Pyramids or the Great Wall of China but I have seen the Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. How did they build these structures and how did the people survive in the harsh environment?

Last week I enjoyed all of your wonderful shapes and designs in response to Tina’s challenge. Thank you to everyone who joined the challenge..

I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. I can’t wait to see what astonishes you. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to this post.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, February 14 at noon eastern time when Ritva will be hosting the challenge.

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #373 – Looking back to Challenge #31 – Landscape

November 10, 2025November 22, 2025Posted in New Mexico, PhotographyTagged Albuquerque, Landscape, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, Sandia Crest, Sandia Mountains39 Comments

Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Egidio is looking back to Amy’s Challenge #31 from February 2, 2019: Landscape. I enjoy landscape photography and have many landscape photos in my archives. Usually I would post landscape photos of things like beaches, sunrises and sunsets but for this challenge I decided to focus on one subject that I have returned to more than once.

New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, is on my mind this week. I recently returned from a weekend in Albuquerque to attend my nephew’s wedding and spend time with my family. I also got to enjoy magnificent views of the Sandia Mountains. The featured image is of the Sandia Mountains just before sunset the night before the wedding.

This was not our first visit to Albuquerque. During our RV travels we passed through there a couple of times and in 2023 I attended the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Here are a few views of these mountains from some of our earlier visits.

View of Sandia Mountains from Coronado State Monument

Hot air balloon rising over Sandia Mountains at dawn

On one of our visits we took a scenic drive to the top of Sandia Crest to take in the gorgeous views.

Last week Tina’s challenge was Ephereral. Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge. Your responses were great and I loved all the creative images of things that last a very short time.

I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to Egidio’s post Lens-Artists #373 – Looking Back to #31 – Landscapes.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, November 15 at noon eastern time when John will be hosting the challenge.

For information on how to join the Len-Artists challenge please click here.

Every Day is a Gift

Lens-Artists Challenge #133: My Photography Journey

February 6, 2021Posted in PhotographyTagged Landscape, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, photography journey, Sunday Stills36 Comments

I am not a professional photographer. Photography is something I do for fun and I enjoy sharing my photos here on my blog.

I had so much fun getting out my old cameras and going through old photo albums for this challenge. My husband has an old video camera that’s been in a closet for a long time so while I was working on this post he was going through his videos. I would have had this post done yesterday but I am easily distracted and got side tracked watching some of his videos!

I began my photography journey as a kid in elementary school with a Brownie camera. My pictures were pretty bad but it’s fun to look back on them now. I can still remember taking the film to be developed and impatiently waiting to see how the pictures turned out. The first animal picture I can find is of our pet turtles lined up on the sidewalk in front of our house.

When we started scuba diving in the late 1980’s I became interested in under water photography. I would just aim the camera in the general direction of whatever I was trying to get a picture of. After many epic fails and lots of wasted film I finally gave up and just enjoyed the diving. Occasionally, I actually captured the fish but they were usually out of focus. Here are a few that kind of turned out. These are cropped and edited to bring out the colors.

Back on land I had better luck with landscapes. Two of my favorite landscapes were shot with the two old Sony Cypershots. At the top of the page is a landscape from Oahu in Hawaii and the image below is of the Pitons in St. Lucia.

I got interested in wildlife and bird photography after we began traveling in the RV. I managed to get a few decent shots with the Cybershot if the subject was pretty close to me.

Bison in Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)

Elk in Yellowstone National Park (Woming)

A few years later I graduated to a Sony DSLR with a zoom lens after I tried in vain to get a close up shot of a pair of eagles on one of our trips. This was as close as I could get with my old Cybershot.

Pair of American Bald Eagles in south Florida

The next year Henry got me a Sony A550 DLSR camera with two lenses. There were times when the 400 mm lens was too much so I added a smaller zoom lens later.

What a difference these zoom lenses made! I could now get the close up shots of wildlife I wanted. This eagle was high up in a tree in Alaska.

Bald Eagle at Chilcoot Lake State Park, Haines, AK

In addition to the landscapes and wildlife I enjoy close up photography of flowers and critters from the garden.

I’ve never been very good photographing people. Other than taking family pictures I think I’ll stick to nature and landscapes.

Many thanks to Patti for this week’s Lens Artists photo challenge #133: My Photography Journey. Also shared with Terri’s Sunday Stills – your favorite landscape

Okefenokee Landscape

April 1, 2016November 7, 2017Posted in Georgia, Nature, PhotographyTagged cypress trees, Landscape, Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Okefenokee Swamp, Weekly Photo Challenge15 Comments

Our last stop of our late winter RV trip to Florida and Georgia was Stephen C. Foster State Park in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Fargo, Georgia.