Lens-Artists – Wandering Dawgs

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #378 – Last Chance 2025

December 13, 2025December 13, 2025Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Flowers, PhotographyTagged Last Chance, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge54 Comments

All of the members of the Lens-Artists team have joined together to host this final.challenge of the year. The challenge is to feature any of our favorite images that never made it into of the Lens-Artists challenge. The images can be of any subject but they must have been created in 2025. Here are a few of my favorites from this year.

One of my favorite images of the year never fit into any of the Lens-Artists challenges. In early May I discovered a female Diamond Back Terrapin laying her eggs in my garden. I kept a close watch on the nest but sadly none of the eggs ever hatched.

Butterflies, flowers and bees

Birds

I rushed out to the beach when I heard there was a marker buoy weighing around 13,900 pounds that had washed up on the beach at Tybee Island, Georgia. When I got there I found a mermaid, too!

Thanks for sharing lots of Holiday Fun last week for Ann-Christine’s challenge. I enjoyed all of the festive holiday images.

We hope you will join us in posting images from this year that never made it to a Lens-Artists challenge. Please remember to use the Lens-Artists tag and to include a link to this post or any of the Lens-Artists team member’s post.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in our Lens-Artists challenge this year. The Lens-Artists team will be taking a break until the end of the year so we can enjoy celebrating the holidays. We will return on January 3 with our annual end of the year Favorite Photos of 2025 challenge.

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and a very happy new year!

Every Day is a Gift

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #377 – Holiday Fun

December 10, 2025December 10, 2025Posted in Celebration, PhotographyTagged Christmas, Christmas season, Family, Fun Holiday, Holiday, Lens-Artists, Memories, Photo Challenge38 Comments

This week Ann-Christine is asking us to share some Holiday memories. We can choose any happy memories from any holidays we have enjoyed. The Christmas season is here and I will be sharing some of my fondest Christmas memories with you.

My favorite Christmas memories go way back to when our children and then our grandchildren were young. Those were magical times when they would get more and more excited the closer we got to Christmas. In the following gallery our grandson was 4 when we had a magical day with him at Busch Gardens in Tampa right before Christmas. I love this photo of him looking up at the giant Christmas tree. Later in December of the same year his family came to our house for Christmas. He and his little sister loved looking out our living room windows at Christmas Train lights and seeing our living room transformed into a snowy Christmas village.

Most of the ornaments on our tree have special meaning. My favorite ones are the ones our children and grandchildren made. Below on the left is a reindeer made by one of our grandchildren. On the right the two paper star Santas were made by our children almost 50 years ago.

We have lived on the Georgia coast for many years. Many of the Christmas light displays have a beach theme with lighted palm trees and even mermaids.

One summer we were in North Pole, Alaska on the Fourth of July. We visited the Santa Claus house and although we didn’t celebrate Christmas with Santa we had fun watching the North Pole Independence Day Parade which of course featured Santa Claus!

It was my pleasure to be your host for last week’s challenge of Wings. I enjoyed every one of your creative posts. Thank you everyone who responded with natural wings of birds and insects from around the world. There were even a few airplanes, angel wings, dragons, and gargoyles.

Many thanks to Ann-Christine for her challenge Holiday Fun. I hope you will join us for this fun challenge.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, December 13 at noon eastern time for our last challenge of the year.

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

Every Day is a Gift

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #376 – Wings

November 29, 2025November 29, 2025Posted in Birds, Butterflies, PhotographyTagged Air craft, Airplanes, Angels, Butterflies, Lens-Artists, Photo Challenge, US Army Air Corps, US Navy Blue Angels, USAF Thunderbirds, Wings99 Comments

This week it’s my pleasure to host the Lens-Artists Challenge. I am challenging you to feature anything with wings. To give you a few ideas I am featuring some of my favorite things with wings.

Bird Wings

Butterflies and other insects

Angels

Military Aircraft

My final examples are of military aircraft. My father was a pilot in the Army Air Corps in World War II and later flew several other types of planes including the B52. The first three planes in this gallery were taken at recent air shows I attended. The images of the B24 and B52 are from my father’s photos.

U. S. Navy Blue Angels — U. S. Air Force Thunderbird

When you think of wings do you think of birds, insects, angels and airplanes? Maybe you think of art work featuring fantasy beings like dragons and fairies. Whatever you think of I hope you will join in for this week’s challenge. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and include a link back to this post.

Last week you showed us some creative mysterious images in your responses to Patti’s challenge Mysterious.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, December 6 at noon eastern time when Ann-Christine 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 #375 – Where to find the Mysterious

November 25, 2025Posted in PhotographyTagged Black and White, Lens-Artists, Mysterious, Okefenokee Swamp, Photo Challenge29 Comments

I am happy to welcome Patti back as this week’s host. For this challenge she is asking us to explore the mysterious. Her wonderful post contains great examples and tips to help inspire us.

I chose to include black and white images because I like the way they create a more mysterious feeling.

Cypress swamps are mysterious places. The featured image was taken from the Swamp Trail in Silver Springs State Park, Florida. The next image is from a different swamp, the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia.

*Into the unknown in the Okefenokee Swamp*

I find mystery in old abandoned buildings and other old structures.

*Abandoned mental institution on Milledgeville, Georgia*

Abandoned dairy barn in rural Georgia — *Old dairy barn in rural Georgia*

Last week your responses to John’s On the Move challenge took us around the world on many interesting types of transportation.

Many thanks to Patti for her challenge Lens-Artists #375 – Finding the Mysterious. I hope you will join us for this week’s challenge. Be sure to tag your post with Lens-Artists and link back to Patti’s post.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, November 29 at noon eastern time when I will be your host for the next challenge.

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

Every Day is a Gift

Lens Artists Photo Challenge #374 – On the Move!

November 18, 2025November 22, 2025Posted in Photography, TravelTagged Cruising, ferry, Lens-Artists, On the Move, Photo Challenge, Photography, RVing, Train Ride, Viking Ocean Cruise51 Comments

Truck and camper in Denali National Park, Alaska

John has a fun challenge for us this week – On the Move. He asks “How do you travel? Where do you go?”

I started my blog in 2013 as a way for our friends and family to follow us along on our four month RV journey to Alaska and back. The featured image is of our truck and fifth wheel in our campsite in Denali National Park in Alaska.

From 2006 to 2019 we spent many days on the move as we wandered around the United States and Canada in our trusty Chevy Silverado towing our home on wheels. We traveled from campground to campground, state to state, and through a few Canadian provinces. Sometimes we would be away from home for a week or two, other times for a month or more.

We towed our fifth wheel on interstates and back roads and sometimes took it on a ferry to get where we needed to go. I captured the first image in the following gallery as we waited our turn to board the small ferry to cross the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon. We also towed our camper on the Alaskan ferry from Skagway to Haines and on a Texas ferry on the way to Galveston.

We watched this truck and trailer board the ferry to cross the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon

During our RV travels we would often take excursions on different types of transportation. In Alaska we took a ride on the Alaska Railroad, rode a bus in Denali National Park, took wildlife cruises from Haines and from Seward, and landed on a glacier in a small plane.

Our driver with the bus he drove on the road through the Denali Wilderness in Denali National Park, Alaska

In 2019 we made the decision to park the RV and take different kinds of trips. We went on our first ever ocean cruise 2022. We were hooked.

The Viking Sea was our home for two weeks as we sailed around the Caribbean on our first cruise.

We had some fun modes of transportation in some of the ports. We rode on a Wacky Roller bus in Dominica, an open-air Safari bus in Tortola, Henry drove us around St. Martin in a Talon 4-wheeler, and the Monster Bus in Costa Rica took us into the rain forest.

Henry drove is around St. Martin in one of these Talons

No matter how we move from place to place we always enjoy seeing new places, meeting people, and enjoying the scenery along the way.

Thanks to Egidio for taking us back to challenge #31: Landscapes last week. Your responses took us around the world with your wonderful landscapes of mountains, valleys, oceans, and so much more.

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 John’s post Lens-Artists #374 – On the Move!.

Be sure to check back on Saturday, November 22 at noon eastern time when Patti will be hosting the challenge.

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

Every Day is a Gift