I am hosting this week’s Lens Artists Challenge with a theme of Inspiration found in the kitchen. That is often a place I find something to photograph in an hour of need. It can be a view from the kitchen window or an interior shot of the kitchen. As we know, kitchens may vary from an alley kitchen to an open plan or kitchen-diner. More importantly, the kitchen hides a huge number of small details. Here are some ideas: cultery, glasses, pots and pans. I have done my share of these shots. Food photography, recipe ingredients, as well as a cooked meal can also be found in your kitchen. The possibilities for all kinds of variations are an endless source of inspiration. Let your creativity flow.
I am lucky to have two kitchens. The following items have found their way to my summer house. As you can see from some dust and spiderwebs, these are not in use, but make for nice photos.
Now I have one request and hope you play along. Please share a photo of your favorite cup. No explanations are necessary but hoped for. My cup is old and used to belong to my husband’s grandmother. It is pretty and vintage. I like it. Most importantly, you can have a nice cup of coffee in it.
I cannot make a post about kitchen inspiration without a shot of food. Pizza, with air dried ham, mozzarella and rucola. So good.
I hope you found inspiration and share your kitchen discoveries with us.
Remember to link to this post and use the Lens-Artists tag in the reader section. Next week Philo of Philosophy Through Photography will be presenting a wonderful challenge so look for her post.
If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info.
Ritva Sillanmäki Photography 
Wow!! Incredible photos. Thanks 😀
Thanks Paul!
Sehr schöne Aufnahmen, Sie können direkt in ein Interior-Design-Magazin einsteigen.
Danke schön , what a great compliment Rudi
Great shots, Ritva Sillanmaki!
Your images beautifully capture the essence of everyday objects, reminding us of their elegance and the role they play in our daily lives.
These clicks express the craftsmanship.
Each click tells a story of its own.
Love the cup and the tomatoes (I hope my guess of tomatoes is correct.)
Thank you so much
Philo.
Thanks Philo, yes tomatoes. Looking forward to seeing your take on this challenge
You are welcome, my friend. Hopefully I do get some photos from my archive.
great idea, Ritva. Love your style of photography.
Great inspiration in your post, stunning photographs André
Thank you so much and you’re welcome 😊
These are wonderful, Ritva, although I hope you had to move lots of things to get such empty counters for the background! My counters have quite a few things on them. 😉. To me, your shots show a peacefulness, a sense of joy in lovely but useful items which is something I also like. Beautiful shots.
Thanks Janet, I clean up before I take photos
That makes me relieved! 😁
Great challenge Ritva! Now I have to rummage through my kitchen, and I do have a favorite mug!
Looking forward to seeing your take on the challenge Anne.
😊😍
Superb, as always. Tarnish is an indication of age, which is an indication of wisdom and experience, unless it’s not. 😉
unless it is not 🙂 , thanks John!
🤷♂️😉
I love this challenge and your wonderful images of everyday kitchen items. I love that your beautiful cup is from your husband’s grandmother!
Thanks very much, looking forward to your response to it 🙂
These are wonderful, Ritva. Any time you have posted something from your kitchen, I always think, ‘why didn’t I think of that!’ So much good inspiration from you.
Thanks Lois, kitchen is an inspiration to a lazy person 😀
You have provided me with a lot of inspiration. I think I’ll have some fun with it tomorrow.
Looking forward to to it.
Great post! and a delicious challenge.
Thanks Ana 🙂
What a very elegant home you must have, Ritva. The photos are stylish and beautiful. That cup reminds me of my Mum’s china cabinet. She had some wonderful pieces in there, but long gone or in my daughter’s house. I do have a favourite cup- a Snoopy one, bought for me by my youngest one Christmas.
Fabulous images, more than enough to inspire Ritva 🙂
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for your kind words, you created a lovely post
I think these photos are quite nice. There’s a pleasant softness to them.
Here’s mine for this one:
Thanks happy to hear that 🙂
I love everything about your challenge and how you present it. There’s something very unique about your style that I find comforting and inspiring. Wonderful, Ritva. Thank you.
Thanks Sofia for your kind word’s, it is nice to know that you think I have my own style.
Thanks for joining the challenge
Thank you for hosting the challenge this week. Your photos are stunning, I love your composition and the bokeh effects!
Thanks Shelley, glad you enjoyed the post.
🥰
Hi Rivka, nice to meet you and thank you for guest hosting L-A challenge this week. Your images are marvelous and make ordinary kitchen objects look breathtaking! Kitchens as a prompt is great and I managed to add a look at Ft Vancouver’s historical kitchens into my Sunday Stills post this week. https://secondwindleisure.com/2023/07/02/sunday-stills-getting-historical/
Thanks Terri, glad you enjoyed my post.
Your photos are really beautiful, I love the softness and the angles you use, especially the corkscrew. The pizza made me drool, I could happily eat a slice or two of that!
I have to say the pizza was delicious, had to have to just to get a photo 🙂 I do try to make the shot visually interesting. Thanks for your kind words on my post
Hi Ritva. What a great theme idea. I love it as well as your images. Your heirloom teacup is wonderful. It must be so satisfying to hold the same cup that your grandmother used. And that pizza….terrific. Your lighting of these household items really adds to their beauty. I’m so delighted you’re leading the challenge this week! Many thanks!
Thanks so much for your kind words Patti. Light in all photos is the most important thing
I love to cook and my kitchen also inspires me. I enjoyed your post and I will really enjoy following everyone’s take on the challenge!
Thanks John!
Thanks for your kind words about my blog and photos.
What a fun challenge and I love your photos. Unfortunately, it seems my pingback didn’t work. I should learn to check! Here is my kitchen: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2023/07/02/kitchen-inspirations-for-lens-artist-challenge/
Thanks for playing along and introducing your colorful kitchen
You are very welcome. I was inspired by your prompt!
Thanks, happy to hear that
Thanks Anne for the help 🙂
Thanks for participating Stephanie
Ritva, this was a real big challenge for me. I love your photos and edits. Thanks for pushing me to do something I seldom do: cooking and still-life photography. Here is my answer to your challenge:
https://egidio.photography/inspiration/
So happy to inspire and thanks for joining even if not your favorite topic.
I can’t tire of looking at the beautifully controlled lighting in these photos. That one with the milk jar is almost like a detail from a Vermeer.
I decided to utilize your nudge to push a little towards abstraction: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/kitchen-abstracts/
I should also add that my favourite mug is a matte black, very hard to photograph. If I had done one you would have taken to be a painting by Malevich.
Coffee cups reflect who we are, so two sides to you. Thanks for participating 🙂
Thank you how beautifully said, I am flattered, with me lighting is the essence.
Thanks for playing along 🙂
It’s the most beautiful cup (and even more special because it belonged to your husband’s grandmother). We have almost the same one – it belonged to my husband’s mother. But it’s tucked away in a box right now … you inspire me to go look for it when we’re visiting our hometown again.
I have mine at the summer home, there is a golden text on the other side of it say, to mom, or in finnish it is one word Äidille
The text on it makes it even more special 💌.
Thanks for joining 🙂
My pleasure and your theme with your examples, inspiring!
🙂
What a beautiful, creative way to photograph your kitchen items, Ritva!!
Your theme is fun and inspiring. Thank you for sharing with us. 🙂
Thanks Amy, glad you were inspired by it.
I liked the layers of color in your photo of stacked plates and in your picture of the delicious-looking pizza, Ritva.
Thanks, happy to hear you enjoy the post
I loved everything about this challenge and your exquisite photos, Ritva. It was a great teaching tool for others, and you are a great model to showcase the kitchen. I don’t have a favorite photo but the pizza looks delicious and the striped bowl was fun. I do love that you asked us to share a favorite mug or cup. For me it was relative to where I was, so I had to share more than one. Loved this!! well done and thank you for hosting. Once again you bring us the best of the best.
Thanks Donna, appreciate your kind words
Thanks Sue for participating in my kitchen theme
These inspirations from your kitchen are certainly wonderful 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Hello Ritka, nice to ‘meet’ you 🙂 I love your close-up shots of the different kitchen utensils, you really bring out details of their form and design beautifully! This isn’t the sort of thing I often photograph so it’s taken me a while to formulate a response, but here it is at last: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-kitchens-in-time-and-place/
Thanks, your take on the topic shows variations of kitchens from all over. you certainly have been inspired by a kitchen
Thanks for participating
Thanks for sharing these images but enjoy this Pizza .
What gorgeous images Ritva!
Cooking is a kind of necessity as well as a pleasure for me. Necessity because of some my food preferences and sensitivities plus the lack of easy access to restaurants that can cater to me. And pleasure because usually the food that I cook turns out pretty good – at least for my taste! 😂. So the topic is good but sadly, my photography of that theme is not as good. I gave it a try nonetheless and here’s the post:
Thanks for participating 🙂
Thanks for joining Marlene.
I was not expecting what I saw when I opened your post. It took my breath away to see how beautiful you made simple things. Photography is truly an art for you. You will laugh when you see my photos tomorrow. They are not art, and I probably shouldn’t even link them because they are “record shots” only. Have a wonderful week.
Marsha, many thanks for your kind words, I couldn’t find your link, and as I visited your site I did not see the post 🙂
It wasn’t up when I wrote to you. I was writing my post. Here is the link. http://alwayswrite.blog/2023/07/05/wq-27-new-ways-to-have-fun-with-flags/
Your photography is wonderful as always. 😀 😀 Great topic for this week. 😀
Here is my entry.
Your work is stunning! Thank you for a wonderful challenge. Here is the link to my response! http://drphotographysite.com/2023/07/07/lens-artist-challenge-256-inspiration-found-in-the-kitchen/
Thanks Donna, glad you liked the challenge
Beautiful images. That is a gorgeous cup!
Thanks Dawn 🙂
What a wonderful idea for a post. It is a true compliment to be asked to host a post and quite a responsibility also, to reply to all of us who join in the fun. Your photographs are stunning!
Thank you Lindy, It was nice to be asked 🙂 and i am catching up with responses and it is fun to see what you all have come up with.
Ritva, what wonderful pictures from your kitchen, love your lighting. And, especially your set of four pictures; two spoon images, one masher and the other I do not recognize. Their backgrounds and lighting are terrific!
Thank you Sylvia!