Lens-Artists Challenge #369: Dreamy

Lens-Artists Challenge #369: Dreamy

This week it's Ann-Christine's turn to host the Challenge, and her theme is 'Dreamy'. (https://lagottocattleya.com/2025/10/11/lens-artistws-challenge-dreamy/) On her blog, To See a World in a Grain of Sand … she writes, 'what is ”dreamy” for you, and how do you create a dreamy picture?' Ann-Christine tells us the dictionary definition of 'dreamy', and also a photographic description of using, 'soft light, soft focus, delicate tones, and other ... aspects to produce ethereal pictures. A blurred, or hazy feel is typical to the images'. She also gives some ideas of making dreamy photographs, like using, 'ICM [intentional camera movement], changing the colours, cropping or double exposure – just to mention a few.'

When I think of 'dreamy' in photography, I think of Lomography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomography), the camera movement, now company, that developed from, 'taking spontaneous photographs with minimal attention to technical details. [exploiting] the unpredictable, non-standard optical traits of toy cameras (such as light leaks and irregular lens alignment), and non-standard film processing techniques for aesthetic effect'. When Lomography talk of 'dreamy', they're usually selling lenses that produce vignetting or a lot of flare, or using lenses with haze inside that produce a glowing, 'dreamy' effect.

Normally, I wouldn't have an issue with this. I have many cameras, and a few lenses, that can produce such 'dreamy' image quality. But we're away again, and I just have one camera with me, an Olympus Pen E-PM2, with its 16MP sensor (and broken image stabilization), and a few lenses. So, I have to think a little 'out of the box' if I want to make anything remotely 'dreamy' and, to make things even more complicated, we're away on holiday again, in the Maldives, and it's the end of the rainy season. Fortunately, I came equipped with my trusty ND64 six-stop neutral density filters, so here for your enjoyment are a few long exposure 'dreamy' images from around the resort. If you want to see a few more of these, I've saved a small album on my Joomeo. (https://public.joomeo.com/albums/68efa54f270a1)

Themes for the Lens-Artists Challenge are posted each Saturday at 12:00 noon EST (which is 4pm, GMT) and anyone who wants to take part can post their images during the week. If you want to know more about the Challenge, details can be found here (https://photobyjohnbo.com/about-lens-artists/), and entries can be found on the WordPress reader using the tag 'Lens-Artists'.

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#Dreamy, #LensArtists, Lens-Artists, #Challenge, #Movement, #Exposure, #Motion, #Blur, #Image, #Landscape,