government buildings – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Ancient

We spent last week in the Yucatan Peninsuala. We took an all-day excursion to Chichen Itza and Ek Balam. Chichen Itza was a bucket item for me and climbing the main temple at Ek Balam was one for my husband. It was quite the day, ending with a refreshing dip in an underground cenote and authentic Mexican dinner. This building, the Temple of Kukulcán, is one of the most famous archeological structures of North and Central America. It was built sometime between 750 and 900 AD and is one of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World. Chichen Itza was one of the largest cities in the Mayan world, and archeologists believe it had a diverse population.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) OF SOMETHING ANCIENT.

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: Cityscape

Salt Lake City sits in a bowl. The city is surrounded on almost all sides by mountains, the Wasatch Front of the Rockies on the east, north, and south, and the Oquirrhs on the west. There is a break in the bowl where the Great Salt Lake sits on the northwest end of the valley. The Utah State Capital Building sits on the north end of the valley on the rise of the Wasatch Front foothills that form a westward jut. Some of the best views (and most expensive homes) lie on the rest of the rise above the Capital Building. This view of the Salt Lake Valley gives you the complete aspect down State Street, all 25 miles of it, as well the city skyline. (If you look closely, you can see the LDS Salt Lake Temple to the right of the the Capital Building.)

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF CITYSCAPES.

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.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Summer Vacation 2020

This year, summer vacations are going to be very different from years past. My sister did a 10-day virtual summer vacation on Facebook, posting pictures from vacations past and asking people to guess were they “where” that day. It was great fun, so I did the same thing. Here are the photos I included. They span 9 years of vacations, and I would love to go back and see each and every place. So, if you could visit anywhere in the world this summer, where would you go?

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OR… THAT SHOW YOUR DREAM SUMMER VACATION.

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.
Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

Thankful November 19th: Light

I know it may seem obvious and a bit silly to say, but I am so thankful for light, and not just as a photographer. The other evening, we had the most glorious sunset. I was driving and couldn’t stop and grab a picture of it. Sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy the beauty and not worry about angles and f-stops and aperture. C.S. Lewis once wrote “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Thankful November 18th: Traveling

I know that I’ve already expressed gratitude for the earth and its beauties, but I am also very grateful for the chance I’ve had (and continue to have) to travel many places around the world and also close to home. When my husband and I got married, he hadn’t traveled much. A couple of years after we married, I convinced him that we needed to take a trip to Great Britain to visit a nephew who had been transferred to London for a year, along with his wife and three boys. It was the best thing that could have happened to us. Since then, we have made a few more trips across the pond to the east, across the pond to the west, and headed down south for my first experience in Mexico (besides Tijuana). I’m looking forward to many more adventures around this amazing globe we live on in the near and distant future.

Thankful November 6th: Utah

Earlier I posted about how I’m thankful for the beauty of our wonderful earth. Today, I wanted to focus on my home state of Utah. Utah has amazing diversity in nature, from lush forests to desert to red rock formations and mountains. When the Mormon pioneers first settled here, the leader Brigham Young prophesied that the industries of the pioneers would make the desert blossom like the rose, and it truly has. The Salt Lake Valley has a population of over 1 million people, and the state has a population of over 3 million.

I love traveling around this beautiful state, photographing nature and people across the landscape.

A Photo a Week Challenge: View

As photographers, we get the chance to take a lot of pictures of many things: scenery, family, scenery, buildings, scenery, pets, scenery. You get the picture (pun intended). I can’t think of anywhere that I’ve ever been where I thought “Wow, I never want to take a picture of THIS place.” And I’m really glad about that. The world around us is amazing. Every place has it’s own type of beauty. These pictures are from our trip last summer to Europe. The top one is looking through a convenient “National Geographic” frame at the windmills at Kinderdijk in The Nederlands. The pictures below are from stops in Germany along the Main and Rhine Rivers. So this week’s challenge is to find the beauty in your view, whether it’s just outside your kitchen window or from a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF YOUR FAVORITE VIEW OR VIEWS.

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.

Trevor Carpenter 2019 PhotoChallenge: Architectural Stairs

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This is the Grand Staircase at the Parliament Building in Budapest, Hungary.

For more from this challenge, visit Trevor Carpenter 2019 PhotoChallenge Week 22: Architecture Stairs.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Light the Night

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It’s been a while since I did a night shot challenge. We recent had the chance to visit Budapest, Hungary. One evening, we strolled from Castle Hill down to the banks of the Danube River looking for great night shots of the beautifully illuminated buildings and structures of the city. The first photo is the famous Parliament Building from the banks of the Danube. The second photo is the Chain Bridge taken close to where we took the picture of the Parliament Building, just swinging the camera down the river instead of up. The third photo is the Matthias Church on Castle Hill. The last photo is the Parliament Building from the Fisherman’s Bastion. I highly recommend visiting Budapest. Wonderful food, amazing sites, and fun adventures (the Széchenyi Medicinal Bath was a blast!) await the adventurous soul.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF NIGHT SHOTS.

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.