A New Challenge

 

First: Wishing you all a very Happy and Creative New Year!!!

 

I’m usually not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions – since they never seem to work anyway! – but this year I made one tiny one, and that is to allow myself more time for photography, and to make an effort to improve my skills, and also to share what I come up with – be it amazing (I wish!), adequate (more likely!) or simply hopeless (I hope not!!).

Which is why I’m going to try and participate in this beautiful photo challenge “Lens Artists Photo Challenge” from now on. 😀

Ann-Christine’s challenge for this week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge #78 – Special Spot Shots is to share our very special spot shots. So here they are!

 

 

“If you don’t know history, you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.”

– Michael Crichton

 

Being guilty of having studied History of Art and Classical Archeology I can not help but feel right at home in every museum or gallery in the world.

Fortunately Berlin has many excellent museums to show, some of which are located on the famous “Museum Island”.

 

The Old National Gallery (Berlin)

 

 

“I believe in walking out of a museum before the paintings you’ve seen begin to run together. How else can you carry anything away with you in your mind’s eye?”

– Elizabeth Kostova

 

Colonnade Museum Island (Berlin)

 

 

“A beautiful thing is never perfect.”

– Egyptian proverb

 

From a young age I was especially interested in Egypt, that is its ancient culture and art. If you ever have the chance to visit Berlin, I urge you to stop by the New Museum that houses one of the world’s finest collections of Egyptian art.

 

Sculpture of Pharao Amenhemet (New Museum, Berlin)

 

 

 

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”

– Jorge Luis Borges

“When in doubt, go to the library.”

– J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 

And who isn’t in love with libraries? They belong without the shadow of a doubt to my very favorite spots in the world, and it doesn’t matter how big or small they are – that unique smell of used books always tells you that you’re home.

 

ZLB Berlin

 

“The only thing you that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”

– Albert Einstein

 

ZLB Berlin

 

 

“What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that’s not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.”

-Haruki Murakami

 

“In the creative process, my ego has always been a huge tyrant … a dictator and kind of rude and very misleading, because sometimes when I’m doing something, I say, “This is great! This is fantastic! Very genius!” And 20 minutes later, I feel like a dead jellyfish. “You are a stupid a**hole. This is a piece of sh*t. Nobody will care about it.””

– Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu

 

 

Life in a big city such as Berlin, well in any city I believe, can be very hectic at times, and so it’s good to know a few places where you can simply sit still for a while and let your thoughts flow… just like jellyfish in their water tanks.

 

Jellyfish Berlin Aquarium

 

 

 

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

 

And of course, what’s even better than the imitation of nature, is nature itself. That’s where I like to be the most and where I feel completely at peace. The following pictures were made during my last holidays in Spain.

 

Calm seas and a nearly deserted beach – paradise! (Andalusia, Spain)

 

One of many rough living cats in Spain. Thanks to the tourists they are usually well fed. (Andalusia, Spain)

 

 

I hoped you enjoyed my special spots, and I’d love to hear more of yours!