indoor photography – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Funny Signs

When we were in Switzerland a few years ago, we spontaneously stopped at this little frozen yogurt shop for a treat. Little did we know that along with a delicious dessert, we would also score this amazingly funny sign. Advertising agencies frequently come up with fun and clever ways to promote their clients’ wares.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF SIGNS THAT MAKE YOU SMILE OR LAUGH.

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: Food

Around the world, fall is a time for celebrating the harvest. Next week, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving here in America. It’s a time for family and a lot of food. Photographing food can be tricky at times. This photo is from a family baby shower last weekend. My niece put this beautiful charcuterie board together (including molding the intricate salami rose in the middle). The only time I’ve photographed food “professionally” has been at events like weddings, so I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do like taking pictures of food. I guess that’s the best place to start when you want to get better at something: just do it.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES FOOD.

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: Props

We have a good friend who is a fantastic magician. His extremely cute daughter works with him frequently as his assistant. As she’s headed back up north to continue college, they wanted to grab some shots of them together. It was a lot of fun to help them capture these great moments together. I’m very happy to report that no one was hurt by the swords.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE ONE OR TWO OR MORE PHOTOS FEATURING PEOPLE WITH PROPS.

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: Attitude

I know I post a lot of pictures of this cutie, but she loves having her picture taken, unless we are doing an actual photo shoot. This photo just makes me so happy. She is a sassy, smart, sweet, and all-around amazing person. She knows what she wants, and she is not afraid to make it known.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT DISPLAYS ATTITUDE.

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″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
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: 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:

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: Preparations

Baking always requires preparations. If you don’t have all of the necessary ingredients ready, it can ruin your bake. This is my set up when I make french bread. It’s a very easy recipe, but as I demonstrated in an early challenge (Something Missing), even one thing wrong can spoil the whole loaf.

As a wedding photographer, I’ve had the opportunity to take pictures of brides and their attendants as they get ready for the ceremony.

When I sang with the Utah Symphony Chorus, I was able to take pictures backstage as we and the symphony prepared for concerts.

Sometimes photos of the preparations are as much fun as photos of the finished products. And here’s mine:

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

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″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
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: Circles on Circles

PSA: I seem to be posting a lot of challenges with food photos recently. Sorry about that, but please know that it in no way means that your submission should feature food, too. Please feel free to post anything that you feel fits the theme.

I mentioned to my husband yesterday that I wanted to make an apple pie. We had someone coming over for movies and dessert, and I was trying to think of something that would be a fun and yummy dessert. He suggested that I make it with an apple crisp topping. Until making this pie, the only single crust pie I have ever made is quiche, and my edges always collapse, so I was worried that would happen with this pie as well. I also searched Dutch Apple pie recipes to see if there were any that used more of an apple crisp topping instead of the traditional one. I couldn’t, so I was pretty much on my own for this. (It did turn out great, and I’ll make it again.)

When I was photographing it, I put it on the edge of our new kitchen table. Without the leaf in it, it is a prefect circle. When I put a couple of rogue apples by it, I realized that my photo had more of a theme than just pie. Even the bits of oats in the topping are round.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) FEATURING MULTIPLE CIRCLES.

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″ and “Photo a Week” tags.
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: Backlit

I seem to be visiting photos from vacations past. It’s probably because we haven’t taken many trips in the last twelves month. Ah, well. While I remember very well where and when I took the photo from last week (Switzerland in 2016), the only things I remember about this circumstances for this photo is that it was during our 2014 trip to Scotland and England and that we stopped because we saw a very pretty church and wanted to go inside. However, I do love this photo and feel that it’s perfect for a challenge this time of year because the stained glass is a beautiful depiction of Christ’s Crucifixion, very timely as much of the Christian world just celebrated Easter and the Eastern Orthodox churches will be celebrating in early May.

I do love stained glass. I love how from the outside of the building you can’t really tell what it is going to show you until you come inside and let the sun do its work. I have visited Notre Dame in Paris, and I was so happy to hear that, even with the tragedy of the fire, the great Rose Window was preserved.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT USES BACKLIGHTING.

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: Take a New Photo

Today was a bit of a banner day. My husband and I got our first dose of the Covid vaccine. Wahoo. Now I just have to get over the sore arm (and the possible symptoms in three weeks when we get our second dose). To celebrate, we hit one of our favorite burger places, Crown Burger. If you haven’t been to Utah and experienced crown burger, I highly suggest a visit just for the pastrami burger. Just for fun, and because food is a lot of fun to photograph, I grabbed a shot of our shared meal. The burger is big enough to share, and the onion rings are divine. The book is my current read, so I was able to get in a few pages while I waited for my husband to get to the restaurant (he had to visit a job site on the way back to the office from the shots, and the restaurant was nearby so I went ahead and ordered while he finished up his meeting).

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE NEW PHOTO TAKEN FOR THIS CHALLENGE (SUBJECT CAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT).

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: Something New

We recently bought a new mirrorless camera. It’s been really fun playing around with it. I still need to get used to a lot of things with it, but I plan on taking a lot of pictures with it in the next few weeks. You’ll probably see some of them in future challenges. This recipe for venison stew is not new to me, but I had just finished making this pot of stew when I took the photo, so it was new for dinner.

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

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.