babies – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Laughter

Last week, the challenge was joy. This week, it’s laughter. As this year is heading to a close, I plan on keeping with uplighting themes for the challenges. I think considering how this year has gone, we could all use it. This is my niece and her youngest child. We had so much fun with their family photo shoot, and at the end, my niece asked me to get some intimate shots with just her and her baby. You can feel the love and happiness.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT FEATURE LAUGHTER.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Joy

I know this photo isn’t in focus. This awesome dad of identical twin girls was having fun running around with them, and as you can see from their faces, the girls were having even more fun. These little sweeties were so much fun to photograph. And even though I have some great portrait-quality photos, this is the one that makes me smile the most. They love their dad, and he loves them to the moon and back. Not only are they showing so much joy, but I had a lot joy sharing this time with them.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT FEATURE JOY.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Hats Off

This little guy was so much fun to photograph. His mommy and daddy had wonderful ideas for his shoot. This little hat was for a doll, but it fit him perfectly. His great-grandpa wore a very similar hat, so it was perfect for him to wear it. When shooting portraits, accessories can be great. They also can be a huge distraction. It can take trial and error to figure out if something works or not. This hat worked.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING ACCESSORIES, LIKE HATS.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Attitude

One thing that really draws me to portrait photography is being able to capture someone’s personality. This little sweetie is my cousin’s granddaughter. Originally, I was supposed to take newborn photos a few days after she was born, but then Covid hit and we put it off until she was at least a month old. She wasn’t super fussy, but we could not get her to smile for me through the whole shoot. This was one of the times she looked directly at the camera. She had her own agenda for that morning, and nothing we planned was getting in her way.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT PORTRAYS ATTITUDE.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Sleeping

I love sleeping. I love being asleep. When the alarm goes off in the morning, I’m a little too likely to snooze one or two times beyond what I should to keep my morning from being a series of frantic movements to get out the door and to the office. Interestingly enough, though, I have a hard time sleeping in once the sun hits my bedroom windows. My husband? Not so much. He can sleep pretty much anywhere. Lucky guy. It was challenging to get this little cutie to settle down for her pictures, until her mom put her in her snuggly pink bear suit. Once she was enfolded in the bliss of pink plushiness, she feel right to sleep.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE OR…) OF PEOPLE OR ANIMALS THAT ARE ASLEEP.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography. Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Babies

Everywhere you turn these days, it’s Baby Yoda. Memes, merchandise, people commenting on social media how much they want a Baby Yoda for Christmas. It’s kinda funny, but Yoda isn’t a species, so it will be interesting find out what the kid’s name really is.

Anywho, I know I posted a super cute baby photo a couple of weeks ago, but that challenge was about the color brown. This week, it’s about babies. Super cute, super funny, super whatever, human, animal, or whatever, we want to see your babies!

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES BABIES.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

Thankful November 26th: Love

There are many things that we can live without: extra money, going to movies, a house as big as the Jones. There are some things we can’t live without: food, water, air, and love. Studies have shown that without love, newborn babies stop thriving. There are so many different ways to show love: spouses and partners, friends, family, even complete strangers. The Beatles said all we need is love, and to some extent, they were right.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Brown

Next week is Thanksgiving, so this week the challenge is the color I associate the most with that American holiday: brown. Deep, dark, rich browns are so wonderful for photography. For this little guy, the deep brown blanket was a perfect contrast for his perfect skin and red hair.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES THE COLOR BROWN.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

Thankful November 10th: Family

I know that I’ve already mentioned my parents and my siblings in individual posts, but I have a lot more family. My husband’s family is very large (he is the youngest of eight kids). I have a wonderful group of aunts, uncles, and cousins. I inherited four wonderful children when I married my husband. And then there are people who aren’t blood relation, but are still family. Family is very important to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Hands

I love photographing hands, especially family hands. The last time I did a hands challenge, this little family had just had their second child. Now they have three. Our hands tell stories about our lives now and what we’ve been through. I have several scars on my hands that tell of an active childhood. Do you bite your nails? Have you lost a finger (or two)? Do you live in a climate that is friendly or harsh on your hands? What stories do your hands tell?

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES HANDS.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

Each week, I’ll come up with a theme and post a photo that I think fits. You take photographs based on your interpretation of the theme, and post them on your blog (a new post!) anytime before the following Thursday, when the next photo theme will be announced.
To make it easy for others to check out your photos, title your blog post “A Photo a Week Challenge: (theme of the week)” and be sure to use the “postaday″ tag.
Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.