Uinta Mountains – nancy merrill photography

A Photo a Week Challenge: Gates and Fences

This is the road that leads to our family cabin. It is in a gated area (but don’t let that fool you into ideas of a grand, luxury home; it is as cabin-esque as a cabin can be) in the Uinta National Forest. I spent a lot of time during my childhood swinging on this gate. Gates and fences come in all types, shapes, and sizes. This one is rather heavy (but well hung to be easy to swing open and closed). I know that we occasionally get a notification that someone has tried to drive through it, but it usually ends poorly for the vehicle and driver.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT FEATURES GATES OR FENCES.

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: 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:

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: October

Fall is my favorite season of the year. I love wearing sweaters. I love the cooler weather. I love all of the holidays from October through New Years. In the northern hemisphere, October is the first real month of fall. The mountains in Utah turn the most beautiful colors. This year, I’ve really appreciated being able to escape the craziness of the pandemic and the U.S. election cycle by heading up into the mountains. Our latest trip was this last weekend, and the mountains and quaking aspens did not disappoint.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO THAT REPRESENTS OCTOBER IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD.

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: Action in Series

I love watching my husband at work. He is so good at so many things, like splitting wood. We have to keep the cabin supplied with fresh cut wood, especially now that the temperatures are dropping and we we are lighting fires more and more. My camera has a great cluster shooting mode that I’ve used many times.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A SERIES OF PHOTOS THAT SHOW ACTION.

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: Nostalgic

I’ve mentioned before that my mom’s dad built a cabin in the Uinta Mountains in the 1950s. He was a postal worker by trade, so it’s a bit clumsy, but after nearly 70 years, it’s still standing. When we go up for a weekend, there are a few things that are “must haves”: s’mores roasted in the fireplace, sugar wafer cookies, and breakfast toast cooked on the old wrought-iron griddle. This is seriously the best toast ever. I’ve tried making it at home. It doesn’t taste the same. Not even close. Years and years of seasoning have gone into that iron, and there’s nothing else like it. Anyone up for a nice mountain adventure?

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF THINGS THAT SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU NOSTALGIC.

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: Opposite Weather

Here in Utah, we are heading deep into winter. Cold temperatures, a lot of snow, overcast skies, and ugly inversions. While I do enjoy some snow, by the first week of January, I’m usually longing for the warmth of late spring and early summer (which is hilarious, because by the beginning of August, I’m longing for the cooler temps of fall and early winter). I took this picture in July 2019 at our family cabin on a beautiful July 4th day. *Sigh* Why do we almost always want what we don’t have at the moment? Humans are funny, funny creatures.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR MORE) OF THE WEATHER THAT IS OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU ARE EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW.

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 6th: Utah

Earlier I posted about how I’m thankful for the beauty of our wonderful earth. Today, I wanted to focus on my home state of Utah. Utah has amazing diversity in nature, from lush forests to desert to red rock formations and mountains. When the Mormon pioneers first settled here, the leader Brigham Young prophesied that the industries of the pioneers would make the desert blossom like the rose, and it truly has. The Salt Lake Valley has a population of over 1 million people, and the state has a population of over 3 million.

I love traveling around this beautiful state, photographing nature and people across the landscape.

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: Yellow

To me, yellow is the color of warmth. As children, we learn to make the sun in our drawings yellow. Fire is usually depicted with yellow flames. These small, delicate flowers were growing along the driveway of our family cabin, and even though very small, they were a wonderful burst of color and warmth. I’ve seen these flowers my whole life. We used to pick them and rub the small tuft against our skins, much like a yellow dandelion head. Small, yellow flowers will always remind me of the Utah mountains.

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

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: Off the Beaten Track

off_beaten_track_nmp

In the 1950s, my grandfather built a cabin in the National Forest deep in the Uinta Mountains. It’s been in our family ever since. To get there, you have to get to the small, mountain town of Kamas, Utah. From there, you take the Mirror Lake Highway (a scenic byway between Kamas, Utah and Evanston, Wyoming). About half way between mile markers 14 and 15 is the Soapstone Basin turn off. After you cross the Provo River, the paved road becomes a well-kept dirt road. When you come to the first fork, you go to the right to get to the “gated” community of the Soapstone Summer Homes. Don’t let the grand name fool you; only a handful of the cabins here (most built between 1940 and 1970) could pass for a luxury get-away home. We finally had ours wired for electricity in 1999. This photo is the hill just before the last turn before you get to our property. We don’t own the land (that belongs to the National Forest), just the building and contents. But the scenery is spectacular.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE OR…) OF SOMEWHERE YOU GO TO GET AWAY FROM THE HUSSLE AND BUSTLE OF OTHERS.

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.