Tag: faces

A Photo a Week Challenge: Selfie

Hello everyone! I’m back. The surgery went well, and I’m deep into recovery mode now. For today’s challenge, we are looking for your favorite selfie. Mine is from this week. We went to Texas to be extras on the set of The Chosen TV series. If you haven’t heard of it, The Chosen is based on the New Testament Gospels and follows Jesus and his disciples during his ministry. They are hoping to film 7 or 8 seasons with 8 episodes per season. The episode we will be in is for Season 3 and shows the feeding of the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread. It was very fun to go and be on set with 4,500 other extras, all of the crew, and the main cast. It took all day, and then they had another 4,500 extras coming the next day to do more filming. Quite the undertaking.

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

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: Injuries (none serious, please)

This is my nephew. He played baseball for his high school baseball team for four years. Yes, he’s very good at it. Just before his senior year started during summer practice, he was hit in the face by a line drive ball that caught him just below his left eye. At first, everyone thought it wasn’t too bad, but it turned out that he had a serious concussion and was out of school for almost a month. This picture was taken about a year ago when he was almost over the concussion and, as you can see, the black eye was almost healed. He’s doing fine now and shows no lingering facial damage or effects of the concussion. Hey, but he has a great story to tell.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT SHOW NON LIFE-THREATENING INJURIES.

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. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Natural Lighting

I love not having to set up lighting. Flash stands and additional lighting is the bane of my photography existence. I love, love, LOVE natural lighting. I love shooting outdoors because I usually don’t have to worry too much about lighting (golden hour is ideal). I grabbed this photo of my sister-in-law at our family cabin one morning last summer when the lighting coming in the kitchen window was just perfect.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF USING NATURAL LIGHTING.

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: Weathered

A recent trend in photo editing is an edgy, black and white feeling. I’ve been doing a lot of trial and error to see if I could duplicate it. While this photo doesn’t show it off completely, I really like how this old, weathered log looks using my current experiment. Living close to the mountains and rural areas, I come across weathered items to photograph frequently. There are also a lot of different treatments that you can use to make an image look weathered. With this week’s challenge, try lots of different techniques.

And just for kicks and giggles, here’s one of my great niece with the treatment, so you can see how it looks on people.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) THAT SHOW EITHER WEATHERED ITEMS OR WITH WEATHERED TREATMENTS.

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: That Face!

As much as I love doing portraits, I really enjoy taking candid photos even more. You get to see someone’s real personality when they aren’t worried about how they look or if their hair is perfect. My niece is actually really good about me taking her photo, whether in a formal portrait setting or grabbing a quick shot like this one.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A CANDID (SUBJECT OF YOUR CHOOSING) PHOTO OR TWO.

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. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Off-Center

One of the cardinal rules of photography is to not place your main subject in the middle of your frame. It’s all part of that asymmetry stuff that you learned in high school art classes. If you’ve found a photo with a dead-centered subject that you love, but it doesn’t look quite right, try cropping it with your subject off-centered and see if you like it more. The beauty with digital is that you can try several different ways to see what looks the best and even ask family, friends, or perfect strangers which they like the most.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO WITH THE SUBJECT OFF-CENTER.

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. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.

A Photo a Week Challenge: She’s Got The Look

My sister’s son asked me to take some professional photos for him. He has to put together a business website for his careers advancement class. It was a lot of fun. My sister’s home is a wonderful place to take photos. This great shot of her was taken in their living room (yes, they really do have some stone walls like this inside their home). My sister’s a blast to hang out with and to photograph. We were waiting for my nephew to change his shirt for the more formal headshots when I grabbed this one of my sister. I was testing lighting and focus, and she gave me this look. It really does say almost everything about her personality: fun, sarcastic, open. I love her dearly (though growing up, my parents might not have thought that was possible). I’m so glad that we have become such good friends as adults.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT REALLY CAPTURES SOMEONE’S PERSONALITY.

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: Up Close and Personal

Close ups are fun and challenging, whether you’re shooting a person or a flower. It’s important to make sure you are focusing on what you want to have in focus (sometimes a challenge when you are used to using auto-focus). It’s also important to pay attention to lighting. The little sweetie has such light skin that the camera doesn’t always like to focus on her face, but the close up catches all of the great details, down to her adorable freckles.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF CLOSE UPS (HUMAN 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: Hats Off

This little guy was so much fun to photograph. His mommy and daddy had wonderful ideas for his shoot. This little hat was for a doll, but it fit him perfectly. His great-grandpa wore a very similar hat, so it was perfect for him to wear it. When shooting portraits, accessories can be great. They also can be a huge distraction. It can take trial and error to figure out if something works or not. This hat worked.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING ACCESSORIES, LIKE HATS.

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: Coronavirus Changes

When I work up this morning, I realized that I hadn’t posted a challenge on Thursday. Sorry for the delay. With all of the changes during the pandemic, my schedule has taken a huge hit. There are days when I can’t remember if it’s Monday or Friday. I live in Utah, and today (Saturday, May 16), the governor moved most of the state from an orange level to a yellow level. This means that all businesses can open, all restaurants can open their dining rooms (with distancing limitations), and we can have gatherings of 50 or fewer people. Even with this new “freedoms”, we are still urged to be wise. You see masks everywhere, and some stores require that employees and customers all wear them, like Costco. There are some stores that hand out disposable masks at the door and some that still limit the number of people that can be inside at one time.

One change that I’ve noticed for me is that I’m getting better at recognizing when someone is smiling even if they are wearing a mask. This is my mother. We did a social distance dinner with her on Mother’s Day (we ate outside on her patio and we all wore masks before and after the meal). For family members who came to visit but not for dinner, we set up a small table in the garage where she offered self-serve strawberry shortcake. My sister made her this very stylish mask. We are very aware of the risks and dangers for my mother (who will be 87 next month) and my mother-in-law (who will be 88 tomorrow). We are allowing them to manage their own risk, and they are both being smart while also being aware that as widows living in their homes alone, complete social isolation isn’t good for their mental health. I’m looking forward to the day when I can give both of them a big hug again.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF A CHANGE YOU’VE EXPERIENCED DURING THE CRISIS.

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. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.