sports – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Injuries (none serious, please)

This is my nephew. He played baseball for his high school baseball team for four years. Yes, he’s very good at it. Just before his senior year started during summer practice, he was hit in the face by a line drive ball that caught him just below his left eye. At first, everyone thought it wasn’t too bad, but it turned out that he had a serious concussion and was out of school for almost a month. This picture was taken about a year ago when he was almost over the concussion and, as you can see, the black eye was almost healed. He’s doing fine now and shows no lingering facial damage or effects of the concussion. Hey, but he has a great story to tell.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT SHOW NON LIFE-THREATENING INJURIES.

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: From the Side

This is my very good friend, Emily, who is an amazing runner. She and her husband (who ran for the University of Utah) have a tendency to win most if not all of the local 5K races. Emily ran for Brigham Young University and the USA team, training for the Olympics until she became pregnant with their oldest child. That oldest child has recently placed in the top 10 nationally for his age group.

So now that I’ve done all the bragging about my friend that I should, on to the challenge topic: from the side. I love how shooting Emily from the side gave me the opportunity to capture the focused look on her face as she’s waiting for the race to start.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) THAT CAPTURES YOUR SUBJECT FROM THE SIDE.

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.

Thankful November 25th: Heat

Today is our first real snow storm here in Utah, and it’s supposed to last the entire week. Yay us. Sort of. Today, I am grateful for heat. Well-built fires, forced-air vents, a down-filled coat, a simple knit hat, a sun-heated beach. These are a few of my favorite things.

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: Sun & Water

I don’t know what it is about mixing the sun and water that always creates such beauty, but I’m really glad it does. This beautiful sunrise was taken at our beach resort in Cancun, Mexico last Thursday.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, my husband and I started on a fun adventure. We signed up for a mystery tour. We were told average temperatures (80-90) and we were told to pack an umbrella and a swimming suit. We were also told to bring our passports. That was it. Two weeks before departure, we were told to meet at the Southwest Airlines check in at the airport at 4:45am (no, that’s not a typo). We went to the checkin counter, gave them our bags, and got our boarding passes for Cancun, Mexico. Whoot whoot! A very nice surprise. We spent the week driving individual speed boats, visiting Mayan ruins, driving through the jungle on ATVs, zip lining (a personal favorite), snorkeling, playing in the water, and taking boats across the beautiful Caribbean Sea to small islands to have lunches on private beaches and do more water-based things. I would highly recommend going on this company’s next mystery tour, but the couple who runs the travel agency are in their late 70s and are retiring. This was their last hurrah, and we are so glad that we caught their final fling.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES THE SUN AND WATER TOGETHER.

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.

Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge 2019 Week 23: Joy

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We were in Hawaii in November taking photos for a friend’s wedding. His nephew asked me to take pictures of him proposing to his girlfriend after a skydiving group activity. (It was the day after the ceremony.) Although they had been talking about getting engaged for a while, she was completely surprised by the timing. I think the tightness of her hug says it all.

For more about this challenge, visit the Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge Week 23: Joy.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected Beauty

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I just discovered this photo challenge, and I’m excited to join in. This photo was take on the backside of Molokini Crater on a snorkeling trip to Maui. While I was prepared to enjoy the colorful fish, the beauty of the crater, the deep blue of the ocean, and the perfect sky were an added bonus to the trip.

For more from this challenge, visit Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected Beauty.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Ready, set, action!

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While we were visiting our kids in Chicago, we were able to catch the University of Utah vs. Northern Illinois football game. (Good news for us, Utah won.) It was really fun taking pictures with the 75-300mm telephoto lens. If you don’t have a tripod, you have to be very stable to get even remotely clear shots. I don’t remember which team had the ball on this play, but it’s still a fun shot because you can see some blur from the moving players while others are clear.

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

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.

Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Open Topic

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For more from this challenge, visit Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Open Topic.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Structure in Nature

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While helping my husband put together a slideshow for his lecture tomorrow (he teaches future architects about structures…he’s really cool), I came across the first photo taken last summer. Spiders are amazing architects. Their webs have been studied for centuries by builders and designers. The Denver International Airport uses a similar tension technic in its tent structures. Arches are also found throughout nature, especially in my neck of the woods in Southern Utah. The second image is of Natural Arch in Coyote Gulch, Escalante (if you look really closely, you can see me standing in the water under the arch, just as a reference for the size of it).

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

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.