Tag: architecture

A Photo a Week: Civic Buildings

Scott Matheson Courthouse

My husband is a structural engineer, which means I take a lot of pictures of buildings. Some he has worked on, some he hasn’t. This picture is the Scott Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City. This is a building that my husband worked on. I really lucked out when taking this picture. The sky and sun both cooperated. Weather can wreck havoc when you have to take pictures of buildings, especially large buildings, like courthouses or capitol buildings. Civic buildings are usually interesting and beautiful pieces of architecture, designed to add to a cityscape, so they can be fun to photograph.

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

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: Light the Night

night_light_nmp

We had the opportunity to travel to the Mesa/Gilbert, Arizona area in late July for a family wedding. While there, we wanted to experiment 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:

  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: Perfect Sky

LDS Oquirrh Mountain Temple Skies can be tricky. The best lighting for human subjects is a slight overcast or near dusk/dawn, which can leave your sky a little washed out or darkening. Or if you wait until sunset, you have to get creative with lighting your main subjects (unless the sky is your main subject). Occasionally, I luck out and can get a great sky without sacrificing whatever else is in the picture. The last few weeks have seen a lot of interesting weather in the Salt Lake Valley, from extreme heat (several days in a row over 100) to more rain in a single downpour than we usually get in the entire month of July. Something the sudden storms give us is interesting clouds and early afternoon deep blue skies. For this picture, there were just enough clouds to buffer the LDS Oquirrh Mountain Temple from harsh afternoon sun shadows and allow me to capture some of the beautiful blue sky.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE YOUR FAVORITE SHOTS OF SKIES.

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.

After Before Friday July One Photo Focus

For this month’s One Photo Focus, Robin Kent supplied us with this beautiful shot.

OPF_July_image1

I didn’t have a whole lot of time to work on this, but I thought it would be fun to try out some of the tools that come packaged with Photoshop.

First, I tweaked some of the color levels, contrast, and saturation to intensify the image. Next, from Filter > Filter Gallery, I selected Poster Edges from the Artistic collection. Then I used The Hue/Saturation sepia setting and toned down the saturation.

Next, I created a solid color (white) layer and set it’s opacity to 35%. For the next step, it took me about twenty minutes to find an eraser brush tip I liked to “erase” parts of the solid layer to reveal more of the image below. I finally settled on the Round Fan Stiff Thin Bristles brush tip and played around until I liked the effect.

Hope you like the final product!

OPF_July_image2

Stacy, thanks, as always, for a fun challenge. For more from this challenge, visit One Photo Focus: July.

After-Before logo

Click the image above for rules on joining the fun!

Cee’s Black & White: Construction

Birkhill Construction

This week’s challenge was a little easier for me than usual. My husband is a structural engineer, and I frequently take pictures of job sites for the company.

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

Selected as a feature blog post. Thanks, Cee!

feature_blogger_cees

Sunday Stills (and Travel theme): Fall Foliage (Autumn)

Fall leaves in Scotland

For more from this challenge, visit Sunday Stills: Fall Foliage.

**Updated 11/11/14** I’m adding this to another challenge: Travel theme: Autumn.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Contrasts

Texas State Capitol Papa and Baby CThis week’s photo challenge is about contrasts. The pictures I’m using show two different kinds of contrast.

In the first one, I used my photo editing software to bump up the contrast and saturation to enhance the striking difference between the deep colors of the trees and the facade of the building.

The second picture is of Baby C and his great-grandpapa, one life at the beginning and the other nearing the end of a long and very productive time on this earth.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Monumental

For this week’s challenge, I found two pictures: one from nature, one man-made. The first one is from a trip to Escalante, Utah a few years ago. This majestic view can ben found while driving along the Burr Trail.

Along the Burr Trail

The second is of the front of the LDS Salt Lake Temple taken this past fall.

LDS Salt Lake Temple

Check out other entries and maybe try the challenge out for yourself at https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/monument/