This week’s Lens-Artist Challenge is hosted by Ritva who encourages us to consider what is behind the subjects of our photography.

Whether it’s a serene landscape, a bustling city street, or a simple studio backdrop, the background influences the mood and message of the image.

I drifted back several years as I looked for photos that I thought would best meet this week’s challenge. As Ritva skillfully shows, there are seemingly endless ways in which background can enhance or even be the subject of our lens.

The next few images were taken in October 2013 during a visit to my childhood home. The light from the setting sun drew my eye to trees that, at any other time, would simply be background, not a focus of my lens.

In the next photo, the white house (on the right) was my childhood home; the other, a house where I spent an inordinate amount of time watching TV with the grandfatherly man who lived there. Both houses are now gone, demolished because of a flood. You can’t see in this photo, but both houses had “Condemned” and “No Trepassing” signs on them.

While it looks like the foreground in the above photo is a wide expanse of lawn, it is in fact a field. When I was a teenager, I worked summers at a cafeteria. On Sundays I worked 7 am to 3 pm, and when I started my mother’s car on Sunday morning, dozens of bunnies jumped at the sound and hopped around in a panic. It was a great way to start my day.

Sometimes to make a subject stand out, you need to add background, like my husband’s hand. I credit Golden Silk spiders with helping me (mostly) get over my spider phobia. While these spiders are quite large, they are also shy and more likely to skittle away from you than toward you.

I feel like I’m digressing from Ritva’s challenge because I seem to be focused on backgrounds that are the subject of my lens. Case in point: Sunrise over a fishing pier at Safety Harbor, Florida.

No, wait … here’s one where a background of neutral colors helps to make my pink yoga mat pop (never mind the blue urn at the bottom corner trying to steal the show). This was taken in August 2017, at an Airbnb in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Here’s an example of an almost monochromatic photo. From a distance, I might not have spotted the alligator given how well it was blending in with the water and lily pads.

Finally, this post would not be complete without a photo or two of a dragonfly. My husband has placed several bamboo poles around our house, and the dragonflies love using them as hunting perches.

Besides attracting dragon- and damselflies, the poles have enabled me to photograph these delightful insects at my leisure. Yes, they fly off frequently to snatch a snack, but they just as quickly come back to the pole.

In the following photo, I blurred the background so I would capture more detail of the dragonfly.

Many thanks to Donna of Wind Kisses who challenged us to think about and illustrate our conceptions of “Connections.” The responses to her challenge were wonderful and demonstrated just how connected we are to each other and to nature.

Please check out Ritva’s post for inspiration for this week’s challenge. If you choose to participate, don’t forget to use the “Lens-Artists” tag so you can be found in the Reader.

Next week, Egídio will be our host. Check in with him at Through Brazilian Eyes on Saturday at 12 noon (EDT in the USA). Please see this page to learn more about the Lens-Artists Challenge and its history.

Without further adieu, I give you Raji and his impersonation of a Meerkat.

Thank you for reading! Stay safe and stay well.