roses – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Nature at Work

Our roses have been going like gangbusters this year, and we love it. This morning, when I went out to take some photos of them, I found this little fellow hard a work collecting nectar. Even the stiff wind couldn’t deter him from his appointed task. Bees are a bit like mail carriers that way.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF NATURE WORKING.

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: Bokeh

In photography, bokeh is the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens. In other words, it’s the quality of the intentionally blurry part of your image, or the background. While I love the flower in this photo, I really love the bokeh produced by my 50mm lens. It is my go-to lens for photographing flowers and people. As I shoot using Nikon cameras, my 50mm is a Nikor lens that I’ve had for over 10 years. I haven’t been able to beat it’s quality or flexibility, even though it has a dedicated focal length.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT HAVE GREAT BOKEH.

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: Multiple shapes

I enjoy combining shapes. This one is actually more than just a circle in a square. The pedals are triangular, the leaves are waterdrop shaped, and the steams are lines. It all makes for a diverse and interesting world in which we live. (English degree coming out in full-force there.)

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES MULTIPLE SHAPES OF ANY KIND IN THE SAME IMAGE.

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: Faded

Recently, I’ve noticed that many photographers are using a less vibrant, almost faded look for portrait photography. I like the look, but I still like a bit more color when I’m working on photos I’ve taken of people. Flowers, however, can look really cool when you take the vibrancy down way low. I love the look on these late roses from my garden this last fall.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO USING A FADED TREATMENT.

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 Pretty

Welcome to 2021 and a new year of challenges. Sorry about no challenge last week. It’s been a crazy time here in the Good Ol’ US of A. So, with all of the negativity roaming about, I thought we could all do with some brightness and loveliness, so this week is all about pretty things. Any pretty things. This rose is from a trip we took to Spokane, Washington 7 years ago to visit our daughter who was attending Gonzaga Law School at the time. Spokane has a beautiful garden there called the Manito Gardens. I love wandering through all of the different flowers with my camera. I’ve posted several photos from our trips there over the years.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF ANYTHING PRETTY.

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: Threes and Threes

The Rule of Thirds is an old standard for art and photography aficionados for pretty much ever. 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. Not only did I follow the basics of the thirds rule, I also used three lovely rose buds to demonstrate it. You’re welcome.

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

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.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Opening

Last week, I asked you what changes you have made because of the pandemic. This week, our state went from orange alert to yellow, which means that all businesses can open again and restaurants can offer limited dine-in services (with all proper precautions). Our governor is also talking about some counties that have had little to no impact from the virus might be back to green (all clear and normal) by the end of the month. This is good news. The shutdown was initially only supposed to help hospitals prepare and be ready for an increase of patients. I’m not sure when it went to “we can’t open anything until we have a cure”. We don’t have a cure for the Spanish Flu from 1918-19. Why do we think we will find a cure for this virus? Sorry about the rant. I just worry about economies and isolated people who are at risk with no outside contact. There has to be a balance.

So, in honor of some small signs of hope that this will eventually end, this week’s topic is opening. I know I post a lot of pictures of our rose garden. I’m not going to apologize. I love them. This particular rose starts as a variegated bud but once it is fully opened is a beautiful red.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THINGS IN AN OPENING STAGE.

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: Red

In images, color (or the lack of it) is as important as what is in the image. Sometimes, the color is the reason for the image. Red roses are iconic in our society for many things: love, wealth, success. The red of blood can mean life or death. At the funeral of a friend, the family provided several vases of red roses for anyone who wished to place one on the casket.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT HAS RED AS EITHER THE MAIN OR AN ACCENT COLOR.

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.