architecture – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Cityscape

Salt Lake City sits in a bowl. The city is surrounded on almost all sides by mountains, the Wasatch Front of the Rockies on the east, north, and south, and the Oquirrhs on the west. There is a break in the bowl where the Great Salt Lake sits on the northwest end of the valley. The Utah State Capital Building sits on the north end of the valley on the rise of the Wasatch Front foothills that form a westward jut. Some of the best views (and most expensive homes) lie on the rest of the rise above the Capital Building. This view of the Salt Lake Valley gives you the complete aspect down State Street, all 25 miles of it, as well the city skyline. (If you look closely, you can see the LDS Salt Lake Temple to the right of the the Capital Building.)

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

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: Tower

I recently took a drive around to take pictures to update our company website (Realize Structural Engineering, Inc. — if you’d like to take a look or need some structural engineering work in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, or Montana). This really cool tower is on the property of some apartment buildings. The property used to be a brick yard, and this tower is the only surviving structure from the original buildings. We were hired to ensure that they could save the tower and keep it structurally sound. As part of his inspection, my husband got to go up to the top of the tower and stand by the white light on the top. He loved it. It kind of reminds me of a lighthouse, and I love lighthouses. It’s pretty sad that I live in a very dry place. Anyway, I do also love this tower.

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

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.

Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Half-Circles, Arches, & Domes

It’s been a while since I’ve participated, but I’m so glad to be back!

For more from this challenge, visit Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Half-Circles, Arches, & Domes.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Up In The Air

Sorry about no challenge last week. With COVID-19 raging throughout the world, things have been a bit crazy here. And then yesterday morning, Salt Lake City was hit with a magnitude 5.7 earthquake. Needless to say, this topic seemed to fit perfectly for the world situation right now.

Last week, I had the chance to visit this job site the day they were flying in the roof trusses. It was the first time I’ve had seen this, and it was a blast. The framers were amazing, climbing all over the frames to secure them once the crane lifted them up for placement. I picked this particular image because I loved how the sunbursts helped to frame it.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THINGS THAT ARE AIRBORNE OR UP IN THE AIR IN ANY WAY.

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: Light the Night

A few years ago, we had the opportunity to travel to the Mesa/Gilbert, Arizona area for a family wedding. While there, we experimented with long exposure night photography. The LDS Gilbert Arizona Temple proved to be the perfect subject for our venture, and the weather cooperated better than we could have hoped, and we are very pleased with the results. When working with longer shutter speeds, it’s vital to have a tripod and really nice to use a shutter remote instead of having to touch the camera. It’s also important to be patient and experiment with different settings on your camera. We got better results with f-stops of 5 or higher to avoid too much light hitting the sensor.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE YOUR FAVORITE NIGHT SHOTS (WITH LONGER EXPOSURE TIMES OR NOT).

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: Over 100 Years Old

This is the Box Elder Tabernacle in Brigham City, Utah. It was built by the Mormon pioneers who settled the area in 1897. The tabernacle is still used as a meetinghouse now, seating approximately 1600 people. It is also a wonderful venue for concerts and other special events and is open for tours during the summer. It was put on National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1971.

Whenever we travel to Europe, it’s easy to find buildings and points of interest to photograph that are 100-1,500 years old or even older (Stonehenge, Colosseum, Pantheon, etc.). To us newbie Americans, that’s amazing. In a few years, we will be celebrating our 250th anniversary as a country, so anything that’s 100 years or older is very old to us.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THINGS 100 YEARS OLD OR OLDER.

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: Three Angles

The rule of threes is widely known and used in art of all kinds, especially photography. Today, instead of using the rule of three in a single image, I’m asking you to show a single object from three different angles. My images are of a recently finished project that we had the privilege of working on. I think this building and parking structure are rather stunning. It was a really fun project to work on.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) FEATURING AN OBJECT FROM THREE DIFFERENT ANGLES.

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.

Christmas Lights Day #23

Salt Lake Temple with Christmas lights

Christmas Lights Day #12

Salt Lake Temple with Christmas lights

Thankful November 24th: My Faith

You are getting two post today because yesterday was too full to do a post (gone from 8 in the morning until 11 in the evening). And the first one today was for fun (see Thankful November 24th: Chocolate for reference.) This post will be much more serious. I’m sure that many people who follow this blog and read my posts are aware that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes known as the Mormon Church). I haven’t tried to make it a secret. I have also tried to not be overbearing about it. I was born and raised in Utah in a family that is very actively involved in this religion. When I was 22 years old, I served as a volunteer missionary to Wisconsin. I married my husband in the beautiful Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, Utah. I have been living my religion as best as I can for almost 53-1/2 years. Having faith has grounded me, given me hope as I see things happening in the world around me, and provided me with a community wherever I have moved. I am a firm believer in Jesus Christ. I have faith in a Heavenly Father, who loves and knows me. I’m grateful for scriptures I can turn to for comfort and guidance during difficult times in my life.

Whatever your religious (or non-religious) life may be, I hope that you find love, happiness, and joy in the Christmas season this year. I love celebrating the birth of my Savior with the entire world.