sunset – nancy merrill photography

Thankful November 7th: Photography

I love taking pictures. I love taking pictures of people. I love taking pictures of places. I love taking pictures of abstract things. I just love taking pictures. My love of photography started with I was very young. Starting from about age 7, if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you, “A free-lance photojournalist for the National Geographic Society.” And I knew what that meant. My parents had a subscription to the NGS, and each month I would pour over the photos from around the world of amazing places and cultures. I got my first camera when I was about 10. I took a photography class in 9th Grade where we learned all about light, f-stops, aperture, and how to develop your own black and white film (yes, film). I got my first really good camera when I was 23, and I loved taking black and white slides. My first trip to Europe (when I was 26), all of my photos were slides. Crazy, I know. But now, with everything digital, most photos are shared online and shown in a new form of slide show. I was just ahead of my time.

Recently, I’ve delved in portrait photography, and it’s been a blast. Weddings can still give me some anxiety, but it is so much fun to capture moments and memories for people.

I had a hard time deciding what photo I would include on this post. I decided to use the first photos I posted when I started this blog seven years ago. I still can’t believe it’s been that long. What an amazing adventure!

Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Rise/Set

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I grabbed this sunrise a couple of week’s ago as we were heading into the gym one morning.

Here are some from past posts:

Utah sunrise

Gilbert Arizona Temple

Wildfire sunset

Big Sur sunset

For more from this challenge, visit the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Rise/Set.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Clouds

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Yesterday and this morning, while other places in the country were able to get good shots of the super blue moon and lunar eclipse, here in the Salt Lake Valley, we had clouds. Beautiful clouds, but still clouds that made it hard to impossible to get good photos of the moon. (We’ll just have to wait until 2037.) But it’s okay. I love photographing clouds.

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

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.

7-Day B&W Challenge: Day One

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Linda at Living with my Ancestors invited me to join this challenge. Here are the rules:

• Post a B & W photo for 7 days.
• 7 black and white photos of your life.
• No people.
• No explanation.
• Challenge someone new each day.

I would like to invite anyone who is interested in participating to do so. I would like to specifically invite Cee from Cee’s Photography with the understanding that there is no obligation to participate!

Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Glow

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There is nothing better than golden hour on a beach in Hawaii.

For more from this challenge, visit the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Glow.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Golden Hour

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Aloha! Sorry about the two-week hiatus from the challenge. We had the opportunity to go on a cruise around the Hawaiian Islands. I don’t like to give advanced notice of being gone (i.e., empty house) for two weeks, so I didn’t announce it.

But that means that for the next few weeks, at least, you will be flooded by images from the beautiful isles of Hawaii. This image was taken just before sunset at Three Tables Beach on the North Shore of Oahu. Golden hour is the time just before until just after sunset. It creates the perfect lighting for photography and is a photographer’s best friend for outdoor shoots. If you can catch this time on a beach, all the better!

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) WITH PERFECT LIGHTING (IN YOUR OPINION).

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.

Clouds of Flame

The sunset tonight was especially amazing. At one point, the clouds above the mountains looked like they were flames of fire.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Details

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I recently asked my husband for some ideas on challenge themes. He very graciously came up with two: Textures (last week’s theme) and Details (this week’s). I had a good idea what I wanted to do for last week’s theme, but this week, my husband asked if I would use a couple of his pictures. As a structural engineer, he has an amazing eye for details. He is also very creative and artistic, which means that when you put a camera in his hands, you get amazing pictures. The fun gargoyle is a detail on the Cathedral of Basel in Switzerland that is best viewed from the tower. The Cathedral is an impressive edifice that makes a stunning image for a calendar, but the gargoyle is a great story piece on its own. If you look closely, you can see the gargoyles sticking out near the base of the tower caps.

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IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A SERIES OF PHOTOS THAT SHOW THE GRAND SCALE AND THE DETAIL OF THE SCENE.

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.

Because the featured photos are my husband’s, I decided to add my own. First a broad view of the Salt Lake Valley at sunset.

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