Tag: outdoor photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Unedited

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the photos used to look. It used to be that photo editing was limited to the professionals and people who could afford a really cool dark room in their basements. Today with cell phone cameras, everyone is a photographer armed with pretty powerful editing programs and the ability to make a quick phone grab look like it came from a professional session. This weekend, my husband and I took a fun drive to Corner Canyon, which gives a great over-view look at both the Salt Lake and Utah County Valleys. I didn’t have any of my nicer cameras with me, so I took this with my phone. This shot is looking at Mount Timpanogos on the Utah County Valley side of things. Position, lighting, fluffy clouds…everything lined up for the perfect shot that needed no editing.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) THAT HAS NOT BEEN EDITED.

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: 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 Chlenge: Layers

Roses and ogres are like onions. They have layers. Layers upon layers. I love photographing roses, and this year our rose bushes are blooming like crazy, mad things. I love watching the buds open up and the layers of pedals forming my favorite flowers. My grandmother had an amazing rose garden. She grew many different types of roses, and her garden always smelled wonderful during the spring and summer.

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

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: 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:

  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: Mothers

with Mother’s Day this coming Sunday, I wanted to dedicate this challenge to the mothers in our lives. This wonderful mother is my niece and her daughter. My niece is hard-working, loves her kids (she has three boys and this one uber-adorable girl), and adores her husband (who adores her back). I also have two amazing mothers: my mom and my husband’s mom. I hope all mothers have a wonderful Mother’s Day with pampering and love and joy.

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

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: Celebration Covid-style

Last year, when Covid-19 first struck the United States, my friend’s daughter got married. It wasn’t the wedding she had started planning when she got engaged in November, but it was a beautiful celebration of love and joy. I was one of twenty-five people who were able to attend the sweet backyard ceremony. It was fun to not only take photos but to help with the decorations and food and just overall doing what we could to make the bride and groom happy.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) OF HOW YOU HAVE CELEBRATED DURING THE PANDEMIC.

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: 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:

  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: Unexpected Focus

As  photographers, we try to be very careful about how, where, and what we focus on. We can spend large amounts of time getting the focus just right for an image. Then, there are the fun happenstances where what we thought we were focusing on isn’t what the camera thought we wanted to focus on. For this image, I focused on the foreground tree on purpose as my subject walked towards me along the pond’s edge. I loved the delicate blossoms on the tree, and I also loved how it gave her a feeling of privacy.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF WITH UNEXPECTED POINTS OF FOCUS.

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.