Category: trees and leaves

A Photo a Week Challenge: Change of Seasons

Hello again! Sorry about the long break. My hip surgery went so well that the doctor wanted to fix my knee as soon as possible. I’m now four week past the knee replacement surgery, and it is also going very well. Whew! Hopefully no more surgeries for, well, forever if possible.

The fall colors this year along the Wasatch Front in Utah have been spectacular. We have some Virginia creeper in our yard that we only like for a few weeks a year when the leaves start changing from green to red. They are dramatic and beautiful, but not really worth the struggle of fighting it the rest of the year. However, I will take some really cool pictures of it until we can irradiate it from our yard.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THE CHANGING OF THE SEASONS.

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.
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A Photo a Week Challenge: Lights

With Christmas this week, it’s time for my traditional lights challenge. I love Christmas lights. I love the warmth and magic they bring to the season. To say that I am addicted to light would be very accurate. Of course, we need light to live, so that’s rather fitting. I hope your holiday season is filled with light and love and the joy of hope.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING LIGHTS.

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.

A Photo a Week: Gateways

A couple of months ago, I posted a challenge for fences and gates. This week is similar but with a slightly different focus. By definition, a gateway is any passage by or point at which a region may be entered. Port cities are frequently referred to as gateways. This very picturesque gateway is in Switzerland and led from a castle courtyard into a beautiful, forested area surrounding the castle. It was almost like a fairy portal. And let’s be honest: I love any type of perspective shot with a vanishing point.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES ANY TYPE OF GATEWAY.

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Focal Point

As a photographer, I take great care about what is in focus in my photos. Changing the focal point of an image can change the entire feel of the photo. In the images I’ve shared for today’s challenge, I’ve taken the same picture but changed the focus of the image. I love each image for different reasons.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A SERIES OF PHOTOS THAT SHOW THE SAME SCENE WITH DIFFERENT FOCUAL POINTS.

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″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
  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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Weathered

A recent trend in photo editing is an edgy, black and white feeling. I’ve been doing a lot of trial and error to see if I could duplicate it. While this photo doesn’t show it off completely, I really like how this old, weathered log looks using my current experiment. Living close to the mountains and rural areas, I come across weathered items to photograph frequently. There are also a lot of different treatments that you can use to make an image look weathered. With this week’s challenge, try lots of different techniques.

And just for kicks and giggles, here’s one of my great niece with the treatment, so you can see how it looks on people.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) THAT SHOW EITHER WEATHERED ITEMS OR WITH WEATHERED TREATMENTS.

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″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
  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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: All About the Scenery

I am very lucky to live near beautiful, diverse landscapes and scenery. This amazing “forest” is in my sister’s back yard, and she amazingly allows me to come over with people she knows (and sometimes people she doesn’t know) to take their pictures amongst her trees and rocks and foliage. Granted, the young man posing so nicely by the large tree isn’t bad to look at, either.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE NEW PHOTO OR TWO THAT EMPHASIZES THE SCENERY.

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Masks

This theme seemed to be appropriate on many levels. With Halloween just a couple of weeks away, it will be interesting to see how people morph their covid-19 masks into their costumes. When doing senior photos, I ask people to bring things that they enjoy and have interests in. This is my nephew, who had a lot of fun posing for me with his plague doctor mask. Also, considering what is happening in the world right now, this mask may be a little too close to necessary than we all would like to admit.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING MASKS.

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: The Road Not Taken

I love this road. I love this road in every season (even though I’ve only been here in winter a couple of times). This road is truly less traveled by, because our cabin is in a gated community in the Wasatch National Forest. Only cabin owners and forest rangers have keys to get in. While this summer was severely dry, we still got the amazing golden Quaking Aspens this fall, and I am so glad. They really make me wax Robert Frost when I’m wandering through these dirt roads under their golden canopy.

The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING FORGOTTEN ROADS AND PATHS.

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: October

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love wearing sweaters. I love the cooler weather. I love all of the holidays from October through New Years. In the northern hemisphere, October is the first real month of fall. The mountains in Utah turn the most beautiful colors. This year, I’ve really appreciated being able to escape the craziness of the pandemic and the U.S. election cycle by heading up into the mountains. Our latest trip was this last weekend, and the mountains and quaking aspens did not disappoint.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT REPRESENTS OCTOBER IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD.

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″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
  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.