trees and leaves – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week: Gateways

A couple of months ago, I posted a challenge for fences and gates. This week is similar but with a slightly different focus. By definition, a gateway is any passage by or point at which a region may be entered. Port cities are frequently referred to as gateways. This very picturesque gateway is in Switzerland and led from a castle courtyard into a beautiful, forested area surrounding the castle. It was almost like a fairy portal. And let’s be honest: I love any type of perspective shot with a vanishing point.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES ANY TYPE OF GATEWAY.

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: 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:

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: All About the Scenery

I am very lucky to live near beautiful, diverse landscapes and scenery. This amazing “forest” is in my sister’s back yard, and she amazingly allows me to come over with people she knows (and sometimes people she doesn’t know) to take their pictures amongst her trees and rocks and foliage. Granted, the young man posing so nicely by the large tree isn’t bad to look at, either.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE NEW PHOTO OR TWO THAT EMPHASIZES THE SCENERY.

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: Masks

This theme seemed to be appropriate on many levels. With Halloween just a couple of weeks away, it will be interesting to see how people morph their covid-19 masks into their costumes. When doing senior photos, I ask people to bring things that they enjoy and have interests in. This is my nephew, who had a lot of fun posing for me with his plague doctor mask. Also, considering what is happening in the world right now, this mask may be a little too close to necessary than we all would like to admit.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING MASKS.

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 Road Not Taken

I love this road. I love this road in every season (even though I’ve only been here in winter a couple of times). This road is truly less traveled by, because our cabin is in a gated community in the Wasatch National Forest. Only cabin owners and forest rangers have keys to get in. While this summer was severely dry, we still got the amazing golden Quaking Aspens this fall, and I am so glad. They really make me wax Robert Frost when I’m wandering through these dirt roads under their golden canopy.

The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO FEATURING FORGOTTEN ROADS AND PATHS.

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: Happiness Is…

With all that is happening in the world right now, we can all do with a fun, positive post. Today’s challenge is to post pictures of something in your life that brings you great happiness. I met my husband 12 years ago, and we’ve been married 11 years. He is funny, intelligent, sensitive, caring, spiritual, handsome as the dickens, and perfect for me. We fit together better than anything I could have imagined. I love him with all of my heart.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THINGS THAT BRING YOU HAPPINESS.

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: Peaceful Place

It seems as though things have gone from crazy to crazier. In the last two days, we’ve experienced two more earthquakes (M4.19 and M4.18) and work up this morning to some snow. Now, snow in April isn’t completely unusual for Utah, but it sure makes you wonder how we are classified as a desert. I’m just sayin’…

With all that is going on in the world right now, I thought we could all do with some beautiful, calming photos. This photo is of the Viamala Gorge in Switzerland. We were supposed to go back to Switzerland in June, but that trip is being postponed for two years due to the pandemic. My husband found this location while doing amazing research for our trip in 2016, and I remember who beautiful and peaceful it was and how glad I was that he insisted we stop here for a look-see. Completely worth the time.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT BRING YOU PEACE.

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 2nd: The Beauties of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
Folliott S. Pierpoint, 1835-1917

I have been lucky enough to do a bit of traveling around this amazing planet on which we live (that sentence structure is a nod to all of my English professors at the University of Utah). I’ve been to Asia, Europe, Mexico, Great Britain, and most of the United States of America. Everywhere I go, I find beautiful things to photograph and wonderful people who fill my heart with happiness.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Changing Seasons

Monday was officially the first day of fall here in the northern hemisphere. We’ve had an interesting spring and summer in Utah. We started with a lot of rain in June, followed by almost no rain in July, and then a bit of a mixed bag in August. September has been undecided in its weather loyalties, going from highs in the upper 90s in Salt Lake City, to barely cracking the low 60s. We have a saying (that is probably common to 90% of the world): “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.”

We are now in my favorite time of year. I love everything about fall. I love the changing leaves, the crisp feeling of a chill in the air, every holiday between now and New Years, and even a bit of snow.

Whether you are going from summer to fall or winter to spring, the changing of the seasons reminds us of the beauty of this amazing world we live in.

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

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: Reflection

reflection1_nmp

I usually save my reflection challenge for the end of the year, but I couldn’t wait to share this photo. I was playing around with (meaning, we rented it from our local photography expert store) the amazing Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens up at Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and I have to admit that I’m really excited to get my own next week. This couple were sharing a quick embrace at a popular portrait location when I grabbed this shot from across the lake. When I was processing the files, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the images and also the beautiful reflection in this particular one.

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

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.