Chicago – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Happiness Is…

With all that is happening in the world right now, we can all do with a fun, positive post. Today’s challenge is to post pictures of something in your life that brings you great happiness. I met my husband 12 years ago, and we’ve been married 11 years. He is funny, intelligent, sensitive, caring, spiritual, handsome as the dickens, and perfect for me. We fit together better than anything I could have imagined. I love him with all of my heart.

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

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 20th: Our Kids

When I married my husband, I inherited four children of varying ages. The oldest was 22 and the youngest was 13. Step-parenting is an interesting journey, and it definitely has its ups and downs, but I love my kids, which now also includes two sons-in-law, a permanent partner, and two grandsons. They are wild and wacky and very, very different from each other, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

Thankful November 19th: Light

I know it may seem obvious and a bit silly to say, but I am so thankful for light, and not just as a photographer. The other evening, we had the most glorious sunset. I was driving and couldn’t stop and grab a picture of it. Sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy the beauty and not worry about angles and f-stops and aperture. C.S. Lewis once wrote “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

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 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: Urban

Downtown Salt Lake City offers several urban locations. One of my favorites is Temple Square, home to the famous Salt Lake City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was downtown today with some friends for lunch, and as we walked back to our car, this was my view of the temple.

I’m also including a few other photos I’ve taken of downtown Salt Lake City, Chicago, and New York, just because I know that the temple doesn’t have a typical urban look.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) WITH AN URBAN THEME.

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: Sunshine

sunshine_nmp

We have a popular hymn at our church called There Is Sunshine In My Soul. I love the words to the first verse:

There is sunshine in my soul today,
More glorious and bright
Than glows in any earthly sky,
For Jesus is my light.

This song reminds me to find light even on cloudy days.

This last weekend, we visited our daughter and son-in-law in Chicago. As a surprise, we took our son with us. It was his first trip to Chicago, and our daughter didn’t know we were bringing him. The kids have had a difficult year. Their mom was killed in August, and they’ve struggled to find any sunshine through their grief and pain. This weekend helped me to know that they will make it through and help each other as they navigate these new waters.

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

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: Ready, set, action!

action

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Water

water_nmp

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. This weekend, we were in Chicago and decided to take a walk along the shores of Lake Michigan. The weather seemed pleasant until we were about two blocks from the beach. The wind along the shore was so strong that we did contemplate turning back, but decided to forge on. The waves were massive and looked very dangerous, but gave us some great shots. I really like this one of with the seagulls and the beacon. We usually like to walk out to the beacons, but decided to forego that on this particular day. It looked a little dicey on the pier.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES WATER 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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: From Above

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Okay, in all fairness, I didn’t take this picture. Our daughter took it for us. When we visited Chicago in December, we went to the top of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower). It was a lot of fun to stand on a very thick piece of plastic and pretend to be afraid. The view was amazing. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t take any pictures of just the view. My bad. And just in case you think I was afraid to step all the way out and let go of the frame, here’s another.

from_above1_nmp

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO SHOT FROM UP HIGH (OR AT LEAST HIGHER THAN SOMETHING ELSE).

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.