just for fun – Page 2 – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Really Big Toys

We were out of town for the US Independence Day holiday, so I’m combining the challenges for this week and next week today. Hurrah!

While visiting our daughter and her guy in Spokane, Washington this weekend, my husband got to check off one of his bucket list items: drive a vintage tractor. Our kids have an amazing property in the area above Spokane of twenty acres of forest. They’ve been clearing some of it for animals (chickens and soon sheep and pigs) and a huge garden (about an acre). We had a blast, and Tyler showed Russell the 1951 tractor and how to run it. He had so much fun.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) FEATURING LARGE TOYS 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″ 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: 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:

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: 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: Something Missing

Every other Sunday, we take bread to church to use for the Sacrament (Holy Communion). I have a wonderful, no-knead French bread recipe that I make almost every week. I don’t need the recipe any more. Or so I thought. Saturday, I made this beautiful loaf of bread. It was light; it was fluffy. The crust was nice and crackly, like you really want it to be with this bread. We cut into it when it was still warm enough to melt the butter. It was going to be so good. Except for one thing. I forgot the salt. It is the blandest bread I have ever tasted in my life. It took me about two hours to figure out what I had done wrong. Kneadless (ha, see what I did there?) to say, I made another loaf, this time WITH the salt.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) WHERE SOMETHING IS MISSING.

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: Unexpected

A few weeks ago, I posted a challenge for an unexpected focus. This week, the prompt is simply unexpected. While visiting the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival a few years ago, we were met with unexpected rain. We grabbed some umbrellas as we headed out into the gardens. Our daughter soon found out that her umbrella had a slight problem. Any amount of wind and it would flip inside-out. The first time it happened was right when we were setting up this shot, so this is the one I got first. And it is my favorite, if only for the look on her face.

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

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: Open

Spring has sprung in Utah, and my tulips are starting to bloom. Usually, when a photo challenge has a topic of open, it means to post anything you want. However, this challenge is literally open: open flowers, open cases, open doors, open cans, open anything.

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

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: 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:

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: The Street Where You Live

Lately, we’ve had several rain and snow storms blow through the Salt Lake Valley. They’ve cleared the air and left the mountains surrounding the valley all snow-capped and beautiful. I took this shot from my neighbors driveway across the street from me (you can see my chain-link fence over on the right side of the photo). It gives you a nice view of the Mount Olympus and a little feel for what my street looks like.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF YOUR STREET OR NEIGHBORHOOD.

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.