A Photo a Week Challenge: #GiveThanks

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In the United States, today is Thanksgiving. Even though there is a lot of controversy about our history and what and who we should celebrate, I’m still grateful to live in a country that values freedom. While we may not be perfect at honoring that value, I do believe most of us try. Last Friday, the leader of my church asked everyone, worldwide, to flood social media with posts about gratitude using the hashtag #GiveThanks. It has been amazing to see the tone and feeling of my Facebook newsfeed shift from anger, fear, and division to hope, gratitude, and love for others. I hope that this continues not just through the holiday season, but becomes a permanent part of our lives and thoughts as we give thanks for what we have and who we have in our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, American or not. I hope that your days are filled with love, joy, and happiness.

(P.S. The second photo is to show off a little. I’m loving the flakiness of my pie crust turkey but please ignore the slightly too-dark edge. 🙂 )

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT EXPRESSES GRATITUDE.

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.

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A Photo a Week Challenge: Squares and Circles

Sorry about the late posting for this week’s challenge. I guess my photo is my excuse. Yesterday was insanely busy, and I didn’t realize that I missed the challenge until I was in bed last night. This week’s challenge is all about mixing squares and circles. Photography is a rectangular activity. Even though our lenses are round, the output is not. You can create a round image using post-processing methods. You can also create a round image using scissors on a print (very old-fashioned). I used the cropping tool in Photoshop to put my round pie into a square.

For anyone who is interested: my pie is a take on a blueberry sour cream pie recipe that I found online. A friend asked me to make a pie for a church fundraiser dessert auction dinner that’s tonight. When I mentioned the blueberry pie, she asked me to it with raspberries instead (she’s not a fan of blueberries) because she wants to buy it. I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) FEATURING SQUARES AND CIRCLES TOGETHER IN YOUR IMAGES.

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.

Thursday Doors – April 6, 2017

 

These are the doors to the Bern Cathedral. We stopped to listen to the A’capella group singing, and I nabbed this shot. So glad I did.

For more from this challenge, visit Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors – April 6, 2017.

Thursday Doors – 3/23/2017

The main doorway of the Cathedral in Sion, Switzerland.

For more from this challenge, visit Norm 2.0 Thursday Doors – March 23, 2017.

St. Coloman Church near Schwangau, Germany

Sunday Stills: White

In the LDS (aka Mormon) Church, when a child turns eight, they meet with the bishop to talk about what they believe and how they feel about what they’ve learned in Primary (Sunday School for the children). They tell the bishop if they want to get baptized or not. When you are baptized, you and the person performing the baptism dress completely in white. A couple of months ago, we had the opportunity to attend the baptism of two great-nephews (who happen to be twins and pretty great kids). I grabbed this shot of J before the service started. You can’t see it in the black and white picture, but his scripture case is green and black camouflage. It’s a pretty awesome scripture case.

For more from this challenge, visit Sunday Stills the next challenge: White.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion

For this week’s challenge, I’m reusing several photos I have posted before.

The first one is from a local high school production of A Christmas Carol. This is the Ghost of Christmas Future and her Graveyard Girls. I was very pleased with how this shot turned out, as I was in a theater, and flash photography was not only prohibited, but severely frowned upon by patrons and performers alike.

Next, this is from a day at the park with the kids. I love the intensity on her face as she launches the Frisbee towards her dad.

The last one is one of my favorite pictures. This was taken during the Annual Talent Show for the Kearns Special Needs Mutual (church youth association) last year. This lovely young lady loves to dance, and she shares this talent whenever possible.

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

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fray

After chasing after 30 youth (ages 12-15) around Temple Square for two days, your nerves can feel a bit like this photo.

For more entries, visit Weekly Photo Challenge: Fray.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Water

You can live 20 to 40 days without food (depending on your health before you start fasting), but only 3 to 5 days without water. Water is the main sustaining resource on our planet. We drink it, we clean with it, and we love to play in it. This week, we took the youth from church to a near-by park for our annual Water Party. We had 500 water balloons (yes, we picked up all of the broken balloon shrapnel afterwards), squirt guns of various sizes and abilities, and water bottle rocket launchers. We drank water and ate watermelon. No one escaped dry.

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

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.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Infitine

This weekend, I had the opportunity to work with some of the youth from our church at a service project to do some gardening at Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. I don’t know if they realize it, but to me they represent infinite possibilities. If they are a sample of what today’s youth are capable of, the world will be in amazingly wonderful hands with the next generation. Well done, my young peeps.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/photo-challenge-infinite/