portraits – Page 2 – nancy merrill photography

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:

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: 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:

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: Attitude

One thing that really draws me to portrait photography is being able to capture someone’s personality. This little sweetie is my cousin’s granddaughter. Originally, I was supposed to take newborn photos a few days after she was born, but then Covid hit and we put it off until she was at least a month old. She wasn’t super fussy, but we could not get her to smile for me through the whole shoot. This was one of the times she looked directly at the camera. She had her own agenda for that morning, and nothing we planned was getting in her way.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT PORTRAYS 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: 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: Water

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. The recent weather in Utah has been a display of the bizarre. We have gone from record highs to snow. The snow pack has started its annual decent to the valley streams, rivers, and lakes. I had the opportunity to take this young man’s photos last weekend, and we went to Sugarhouse Park. I’m not sure which creek this is; it feeds into a large pond (almost lake) in the middle of the park. His mom told me that this is his favorite city park because of the creek and lake, so it seemed the best place to take photos in his first-ever, official grown-up suit. We had a great time taking fun photos, and he had a great time watching twigs and small branches float along the creek and observing the ducks in the water. A great time was had by all.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES WATER 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: Sleeping

I love sleeping. I love being asleep. When the alarm goes off in the morning, I’m a little too likely to snooze one or two times beyond what I should to keep my morning from being a series of frantic movements to get out the door and to the office. Interestingly enough, though, I have a hard time sleeping in once the sun hits my bedroom windows. My husband? Not so much. He can sleep pretty much anywhere. Lucky guy. It was challenging to get this little cutie to settle down for her pictures, until her mom put her in her snuggly pink bear suit. Once she was enfolded in the bliss of pink plushiness, she feel right to sleep.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE OR…) OF PEOPLE OR ANIMALS THAT ARE ASLEEP.

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: Eyes

Eyes are one of the first things we notice about other people, and they convey so much that we don’t say out loud. This little guy loves to have his picture taken. Whenever I have my camera out, he comes up close and never shies away from the camera. After each shot, he can’t wait to see himself on the display.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF SOME OF THE EYES IN YOUR LIFE.

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: Babies

Everywhere you turn these days, it’s Baby Yoda. Memes, merchandise, people commenting on social media how much they want a Baby Yoda for Christmas. It’s kinda funny, but Yoda isn’t a species, so it will be interesting find out what the kid’s name really is.

Anywho, I know I posted a super cute baby photo a couple of weeks ago, but that challenge was about the color brown. This week, it’s about babies. Super cute, super funny, super whatever, human, animal, or whatever, we want to see your babies!

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES BABIES.

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: Brown

Next week is Thanksgiving, so this week the challenge is the color I associate the most with that American holiday: brown. Deep, dark, rich browns are so wonderful for photography. For this little guy, the deep brown blanket was a perfect contrast for his perfect skin and red hair.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO (OR TWO OR THREE) THAT FEATURES THE COLOR BROWN.

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.

Thankful November 10th: Family

I know that I’ve already mentioned my parents and my siblings in individual posts, but I have a lot more family. My husband’s family is very large (he is the youngest of eight kids). I have a wonderful group of aunts, uncles, and cousins. I inherited four wonderful children when I married my husband. And then there are people who aren’t blood relation, but are still family. Family is very important to me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.