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A Photo a Week Challenge: Squirrel!

With the mountains so close, Salt Lake City has a lot of wildlife. Once, while waiting for a lightrail train to pass, a beautiful, four-point buck came bounding down the tracks ahead of the train. My sister is constantly battling to keep her plants and trees alive from all of the deer that make their way down to her yard during winter and early spring. Usually, chipmucks and potguts stay in the mountains, but we do get frequent squirrel sitings. This guy made his presence known during a wedding shoot at a popular photography site near downtown Salt Lake. He was so obliging to pose that I couldn’t resist taking his photo.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) OF ANIMALS, WILD 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″ 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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Fleeting

“The beauty of a moment is that it’s fleeting. By its very nature, it slips through our fingers, making it that much more precious.” Ted Mosby (How I Meet Your Mother)

The soil at our house is horrible. Each year, I think about getting a couple of bags of gardening soil and spreading it around the rose bed, but by the time that the ground is ready for new soil, the tulips are up. I know they would last longer if I replaced the soil, but I forget about it by the time they are gone. Maybe this year…

Anyway, I love flowers, but they are delicate and fleeting. Their beauty is here for a short time, but they bring so much joy. The current world situation has made me realize how many things we think as permanent are actually not that permanent. It has made me very thankful for the things that I know will last, but it has also made me stop to appreciate the moment because it might not last.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THINGS YOU LOVE THAT ARE FLEETING.

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: Just for Fun

With the stress of lockdown (or semi-lockdown, depending on where you live), I thought we could all use another de-stressing challenge. A couple of years ago, I bought a small crystal ball to use in my photography but hadn’t gotten around to trying it out. With the tulips and early bulb flowers in bloom right now, it seems like a good time to see how it worked. It worked just great. I did make my husband worry a bit when I told him it was a standard crystal ball and not one made specifically for photography, but I also assured him that I wasn’t planning on following Professor Trelawney from the Harry Potter books into divination. I really did buy this to use for photography.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT ARE JUST FOR FUN.

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: Changing Seasons

Last night, I started a post for my normal Thursday challenge, and I just wasn’t feeling it. This morning, the sun was shining and some of our early spring flowers are blooming, and I changed my mind to this topic. With all of the uncertainty in the world right now, I’m so glad we can count on the earth understanding its role. The changing of the seasons tells us that things do move forward. Life goes on. We will get through this, we just have to be smart and patient.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT SHOW HOW THE SEASONS ARE CHANGING IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD.

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.

Thankful November 14th: Flowers

I love flowers. I love smelling flowers. I love looking at flowers. And I especially love photographing flowers. My maternal grandmother had the most amazing flower garden: roses, lilies, snapdragons, daisies. Each summer, her small yard was transformed by colors and scents that transported us to a fairy world.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Flower

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and we’ve been enjoying spring so much. This spring has been especially amazing for our roses. We have several bushes, and they have all produced amazing blossoms. My favorite is our yellow rose bush. We almost lost it a few years ago during a very harsh winter, but I’m happy to report that it has roar back wonderfully.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING FLOWERS OF ANY KIND.

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: Nostalgia

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So I seem to be stuck on a theme. Last week the challenge focused on endings. This week it is nostalgia. Memories are powerful things. And the way our brains store and retrieve memories means that they aren’t always exactly accurate. Since the invention and wide-spread use of photography, we are able to capture moments and memories in a way that could never have been dreamed of just 200 years ago. This photo is my mom’s lilacs. The house I grew up in had several lilac bushes. Light lavender, deep purple, white. So many colors lining the back wall of our home. When my parent’s moved, the new house didn’t have lilacs, and my mom missed them very much. When it came time for my folks to leave large houses and move into a condo, my mom insisted on a lilac bush. The community my parents moved to allows the residents a bit of autonomy when it comes to plants around their unit, so she got her wish. Every time I walk by lilacs, my mind is flooded with memories of my childhood home.

These words from a song the children at my church love to sing pretty much sums it up for me:

Whenever I hear the song of a bird
Or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face
Or the wind as it rushes by,
Whenever I touch a velvet rose
Or walk by our lilac tree,
I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world
Heavenly Father created for me.
(My Heavenly Father Loves Me, words and music by Clara W. McMaster)

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) THAT SHOW ENDINGS OF ANY KIND.

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Raindrops

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Spring in Utah is an interesting thing. In April, the weather varied between temperatures in the 60s and 70s to snow. The mountains surrounding the Salt Lake Valley are still covered in snow, and the last week we have had more rain than we usually see the entire month of May. But that might mean that we won’t have another rainstorm until July. That’s just the way it goes.

With the rain yesterday, I had fun capturing the raindrops on my tulips. Rain can be tricky to photograph, but raindrops on objects are a lot of fun. They give things a fresh feeling.

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

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: The Rule of Thirds

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The rule of thirds is a standard photographers use to frame their images. You divide the frame into a grid of three across and three down, and then don’t put your subject in the middle square. It’s also best if you can put the focus of your image on one of the grid lines. Just like any really good rule, it’s also fun when you know when to break it. However, for this photo, I didn’t.

For anyone who needs it, here’s a grid for reference. If you want to do portrait orientation, just flip it.

rule_of_thirds_graph

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) USING THE RULE OF THIRDS.

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.

Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge: Nature Macro

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For more from this challenge, visit the Trevor Carpenter PhotoChallenge: Nature Macro.