canyons – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Horizontal Lines

Utah and Arizona are well known for their red rock country. Many areas in southern Utah include butte mountain formations where it looks like the ground just dropped away, leaving a flat tabletop. The environs around Lake Powell have several of these formations. This year, with the severe drought, the lake is at its lowest level in history making the strata lines in the hills and mountains are even more striking. The lower white portion that you can see in the photo is usually under water. This year, the lake is 146′ below what is considered full pool level.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF HORIZONTAL LINES.

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: Unedited

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the photos used to look. It used to be that photo editing was limited to the professionals and people who could afford a really cool dark room in their basements. Today with cell phone cameras, everyone is a photographer armed with pretty powerful editing programs and the ability to make a quick phone grab look like it came from a professional session. This weekend, my husband and I took a fun drive to Corner Canyon, which gives a great over-view look at both the Salt Lake and Utah County Valleys. I didn’t have any of my nicer cameras with me, so I took this with my phone. This shot is looking at Mount Timpanogos on the Utah County Valley side of things. Position, lighting, fluffy clouds…everything lined up for the perfect shot that needed no editing.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) THAT HAS NOT BEEN EDITED.

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: 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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Peaceful Place

It seems as though things have gone from crazy to crazier. In the last two days, we’ve experienced two more earthquakes (M4.19 and M4.18) and work up this morning to some snow. Now, snow in April isn’t completely unusual for Utah, but it sure makes you wonder how we are classified as a desert. I’m just sayin’…

With all that is going on in the world right now, I thought we could all do with some beautiful, calming photos. This photo is of the Viamala Gorge in Switzerland. We were supposed to go back to Switzerland in June, but that trip is being postponed for two years due to the pandemic. My husband found this location while doing amazing research for our trip in 2016, and I remember who beautiful and peaceful it was and how glad I was that he insisted we stop here for a look-see. Completely worth the time.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT BRING YOU PEACE.

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 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.

Thankful November 2nd: The Beauties of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835-1917

I have been lucky enough to do a bit of traveling around this amazing planet on which we live (that sentence structure is a nod to all of my English professors at the University of Utah). I’ve been to Asia, Europe, Mexico, Great Britain, and most of the United States of America. Everywhere I go, I find beautiful things to photograph and wonderful people who fill my heart with happiness.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Shimmer

shimmer_nmp

It is so much fun to play with light, especially natural light. When shooting outdoors, the sun can be your best friend or your worst enemy. I love taking photos of the sun and water. This shot was take at Silver Lake at Brighton Sky Resort. It’s a popular location for photo shoots. The walk around the lake is easy (unless there’s a lot of snow and ice on the trail), and there are many places to get great shots with either the lake or the trees as a great backdrop. I was trying out a potential lens (I did end up buying it), and was really happy with the results, especially of the sun shining on the lake.

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

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: The Great Outdoors

great_outdoors_nmp

Living in Utah, I’m surrounded by amazing nature. It is less than 30 minutes to several major sky resorts. The Rocky and Uinta Mountain Ranges dominate the landscape in northern Utah, and the amazing red rock landscape of southern Utah make it one of the most diverse places to visit. In September, we to a short hike up one of the local canyons to these amazing ruins. We’re not sure what this building was or why it was built, but it was a lot of fun to get to and roam around.

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

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: Reflection

reflection1_nmp

I usually save my reflection challenge for the end of the year, but I couldn’t wait to share this photo. I was playing around with (meaning, we rented it from our local photography expert store) the amazing Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens up at Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and I have to admit that I’m really excited to get my own next week. This couple were sharing a quick embrace at a popular portrait location when I grabbed this shot from across the lake. When I was processing the files, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the images and also the beautiful reflection in this particular one.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF REFLECTIONS.

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.