Category: Hands

A Photo a Week Challenge: Just for Fun

With the stress of lockdown (or semi-lockdown, depending on where you live), I thought we could all use another de-stressing challenge. A couple of years ago, I bought a small crystal ball to use in my photography but hadn’t gotten around to trying it out. With the tulips and early bulb flowers in bloom right now, it seems like a good time to see how it worked. It worked just great. I did make my husband worry a bit when I told him it was a standard crystal ball and not one made specifically for photography, but I also assured him that I wasn’t planning on following Professor Trelawney from the Harry Potter books into divination. I really did buy this to use for photography.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT ARE JUST FOR FUN.

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

Here’s how it works:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.
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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence

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I love this quote from Aldous Huxley. In music, there are moments of silence that are as important as the moments of sound. They allow you to breathe. They allow your audience to breathe. Without them, music becomes chaos and frantic noise.

For more from this challenge, visit the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence.

Thursday Doors – March 30, 2017

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It is tradition for couples who marry in the LDS Salt Lake Temple to take pictures at the large, ornate doors outside the temple after the ceremony. Part of that tradition is taking a picture of the couples’ hands together on one of the doorknobs.

For more from this challenge, visit Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors – March 30, 2017.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Hands

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This last weekend, I had the opportunity to take newborn pictures for my nephew and his wife, who had their first baby in May. She is such a sweet thing, and so much fun to photograph. One of my favorite things to do with families is take pictures of their hands, especially with newborns. There is something so intimate about holding hands. I love how it shows tenderness, love, and protection for each other.

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

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

Here’s how it works:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

After Before Week 40 Challenge

This week is a standard After Before photo challenge from Stacy at Visual Venturing. I reached back into my bag of old photos to find one that I really wanted to do some crazy fun things to this week. Here’s the final result:

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So, are you wondering what the original looked like? Here it is:

AB40_image

I love this image, and I’ve posted a black and white version of it here. When I opened the image in PhotoShop, I used these settings on the RAW converter:

AB40_image1

These resulted in an image with heightened sharpness, colors, and contrast.

AB40_image2a

Next, I created a duplicate layer and selected the Polar Coordinates filter at 100%.

AB40_image3a

I love how the Steinway & Sons wrapped. Finally, I added a softening gradient fill layer using using the following settings:

  • Gradient: transparent to white
  • Style: Radial
  • Angle: 170.54
  • Scale: 100%
  • Reverse and Align with layer selected

And voila!

AB40_image4a

To see more examples from this challenge, visit After Before Week 40 Challenge.

After-Before logo

Click the image above for rules on joining the fun!

Steinway (and a new camera)

Steinway & SonsMy piano students had a recital last night. I love hearing them play, even if they don’t have a wonderful performance. I love that most of them enjoy performing.

I also just picked up the Nikon D610. Currently, Photoshop doesn’t support the RAW NEF files that this camera produces, so beware! But iPhoto does, and so does Aperture (which I’m purchasing today). I’ll let you know how it all turns out.