Tag: art

Thankful November 9th: Music

  • Papa’s hands
  • Piano keys
    Keys
  • Inside a grand piano
    Inside
  • Steinway & Sons
    Steinway & Sons
  • K Harmer playing Grieg
    Concerto night
  • The Master Class
  • Finish with a florish

There has never been a time in my life that hasn’t included music. I grew up in a family of seven (including parents), and all of us played at least two instruments (including parents). My dad’s mother was a piano teacher. She taught me for 11 years, and she was my biggest supporter when I chose to study music in college. I play the piano, and violin. In college, I studied singing and choral conducting. I started teaching piano when I was 18, and I currently have 15 students who do two to three recitals a year. I met my husband because I was the music director for a show at a local community theater. The show we were doing was written by a friend who asked my younger sister and me to arrange the music. I have written a little original music, but I mostly do choir arrangements (makes sense, see previously mentioned college path). I love music. I don’t know what life would be like without music infusing pretty much every aspect of it.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Signs

Signs are everywhere. They tell us where to go, where not to go, where we are, and where we want to go. Signs can be big, like this one on Cozumel, or very small.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES SIGNS OF ANY KIND.

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″ tag.
  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: Sunshine

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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:

  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″ tag.
  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: Colorful

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I’ve done several color challenges lately, so this time I decided to go for the whole shebang. I’m looking for the most colorful thing you can find to photograph. This amazing building is the Old Town Hall in Bamberg, Germany. From Bamberg’s tourism site: “According to legend the bishop of Bamberg did not grant the citizens any land for the construction of a town hall. This prompted the townsfolk to ram stakes into the river Regnitz to create an artificial island, on which they built the town hall they so badly wanted.”

The Hall includes an archway (shown below) to the bridges that allow people to cross the Regnitz River.

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IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT HAVE COLORFUL SUBJECTS.

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″ tag.
  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: Look Up

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Looking back through past challenges, I found that I haven’t done a “look up” challenge for a long time, if ever. Trying a different perspective is a great way to enhance your photography. Looking up, looking down, taking a picture from ground level or from an airplane window. All of these are fun ways to change things up. My photo is the ceiling of the Fribourg Cathedral in Fribourg, Switzerland. I’m really glad my husband said, “Look up!” Otherwise, I would have missed this amazing view.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF THINGS ABOVE YOU.

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″ tag.
  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.

Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence

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I love this quote from Aldous Huxley. In music, there are moments of silence that are as important as the moments of sound. They allow you to breathe. They allow your audience to breathe. Without them, music becomes chaos and frantic noise.

For more from this challenge, visit the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Silence.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Directional

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Sorry about the late posting for this week’s challenge. I’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. If you celebrated today, I hope you enjoyed the holiday.

This week’s challenge is about directions. There are many ways to capture directions in photos. I’ve chosen one of the stone and metal compasses that you find along South Temple outside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City. Street signs, traffic signs, weather vanes, and compasses help provide direction. We can also receive direction from a teacher or spiritual leader. We may seek guidance from nature or scripture or our own inner instinct.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT SHOWS OR REPRESENTS DIRECTION.

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″ tag.
  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.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Starts with N

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This is my nephew, who is a masterful violinist and has his black belt in several martial arts. He will graduate from high school this spring, and I think he is rather nifty.

For more from this challenge, visit Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Letter N – Must Start with the Letter N.

Two Challenges – One Photo

This photo is for two different challenges. The first is for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Experimental. The second is for the Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge 2017: This is Not a Pipe, which is all about surrealism.

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This is my take on “This is not a daisy field”.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Literary Reference

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I had the chance to do newborn photos for a brilliant young couple (who just happen to be related to me) that are super geeky. They love Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. I got to take pictures with stuffed Hobbs and Totoro. Sometimes we set up things to have literary references, and sometimes they just come naturally (like the third photo here of a tree that looked like an Ent from Lord of the Rings). I’m really hoping to some day take a picture that looks like the wind sweeping across the moors in northern England or sand dunes that burn with the heat of the sun like Lawrence of Arabia. There is so much scope for the imagination.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE OR…) THAT HAVE A LINK TO LITERATURE, MOVIES, OR ANY OTHER ENTERTAINMENT.

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.