portraits – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Playtime

I had the opportunity to do an extended family photo shoot, and these adorable cousins were having so much fun together. Even though they see each other often, they were so excited when they got together, and their enthusiasm made the whole shoot go off splendidly, even with the chilly weather. Big kudos to their parents and grandparents, who let them be kids and have moments like this, even if some might think they are wasting time (they weren’t, because I loved taking this photo).

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF KIDS (OF ANY AGE) BEING KIDS.

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: Props

We have a good friend who is a fantastic magician. His extremely cute daughter works with him frequently as his assistant. As she’s headed back up north to continue college, they wanted to grab some shots of them together. It was a lot of fun to help them capture these great moments together. I’m very happy to report that no one was hurt by the swords.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE ONE OR TWO OR MORE PHOTOS FEATURING PEOPLE WITH PROPS.

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: Preparations

Baking always requires preparations. If you don’t have all of the necessary ingredients ready, it can ruin your bake. This is my set up when I make french bread. It’s a very easy recipe, but as I demonstrated in an early challenge (Something Missing), even one thing wrong can spoil the whole loaf.

As a wedding photographer, I’ve had the opportunity to take pictures of brides and their attendants as they get ready for the ceremony.

When I sang with the Utah Symphony Chorus, I was able to take pictures backstage as we and the symphony prepared for concerts.

Sometimes photos of the preparations are as much fun as photos of the finished products. And here’s mine:

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

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: Mothers

with Mother’s Day this coming Sunday, I wanted to dedicate this challenge to the mothers in our lives. This wonderful mother is my niece and her daughter. My niece is hard-working, loves her kids (she has three boys and this one uber-adorable girl), and adores her husband (who adores her back). I also have two amazing mothers: my mom and my husband’s mom. I hope all mothers have a wonderful Mother’s Day with pampering and love and joy.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) FEATURING MOTHERS.

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: Unexpected Focus

As photographers, we try to be very careful about how, where, and what we focus on. We can spend large amounts of time getting the focus just right for an image. Then, there are the fun happenstances where what we thought we were focusing on isn’t what the camera thought we wanted to focus on. For this image, I focused on the foreground tree on purpose as my subject walked towards me along the pond’s edge. I loved the delicate blossoms on the tree, and I also loved how it gave her a feeling of privacy.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF WITH UNEXPECTED POINTS OF FOCUS.

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: 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:

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: Off-Center

One of the cardinal rules of photography is to not place your main subject in the middle of your frame. It’s all part of that asymmetry stuff that you learned in high school art classes. If you’ve found a photo with a dead-centered subject that you love, but it doesn’t look quite right, try cropping it with your subject off-centered and see if you like it more. The beauty with digital is that you can try several different ways to see what looks the best and even ask family, friends, or perfect strangers which they like the most.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO WITH THE SUBJECT OFF-CENTER.

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: Motion

I know I haven’t announced it, but I’ve made the decision to move the challenge from Thursday to Monday. Time on the weekends is easier for me to manage than during the week. So here’s the first Monday challenge: Motion.

I had the opportunity to take pictures during the dress rehearsal of the Myriad Dance Company’s show Catalyst this last week. Our son designed their lighting (yes, he is rather fantastic), and the company was thrilled to get some professional photos for their own use. All of the dancers were amazing, but my subject’s hair on this shot defied gravity.

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

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: She’s Got The Look

My sister’s son asked me to take some professional photos for him. He has to put together a business website for his careers advancement class. It was a lot of fun. My sister’s home is a wonderful place to take photos. This great shot of her was taken in their living room (yes, they really do have some stone walls like this inside their home). My sister’s a blast to hang out with and to photograph. We were waiting for my nephew to change his shirt for the more formal headshots when I grabbed this one of my sister. I was testing lighting and focus, and she gave me this look. It really does say almost everything about her personality: fun, sarcastic, open. I love her dearly (though growing up, my parents might not have thought that was possible). I’m so glad that we have become such good friends as adults.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT REALLY CAPTURES SOMEONE’S PERSONALITY.

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: Working with Animals

I enjoy theater. I enjoy being on stage and acting in a play or musical. It’s a lot of fun. As an actor, you are always warned to not work with children or animals, because no matter how good you are, how compelling your character is, how well you sing, all anyone will focus on is the child or critter. Of course, they are also a blast to work with and photograph. This young man loves his dogs, and asked if we could include them in his senior photo shoot. With such a ham (the white dog, in case you couldn’t tell), how could I say no?

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF SOMETHING THAT INCLUDES ANIMALS AND HUMANS.

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.