Tag: Utah Symphony

A Photo a Week Challenge: Preparations

Baking always requires preparations. If you don’t have all of the necessary ingredients ready, it can ruin your bake. This is my set up when I make french bread. It’s a very easy recipe, but as I demonstrated in an early challenge (Something Missing), even one thing wrong can spoil the whole loaf.

As a wedding photographer, I’ve had the opportunity to take pictures of brides and their attendants as they get ready for the ceremony.

When I sang with the Utah Symphony Chorus, I was able to take pictures backstage as we and the symphony prepared for concerts.

Sometimes photos of the preparations are as much fun as photos of the finished products. And here’s mine:

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO (OR THREE…) OF PREPARATIONS.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography. Here’s how it works:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.
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Thankful November 13th: My Home Town

  • Salt Lake City and County Building
    City and County Building
  • Utah Symphony under the stars
  • Oquirrh Mountains

To be honest, I haven’t moved very far from where I grew up. It’s a five to ten minute drive from our current home to my childhood home. As such, you could really say that I still live in my hometown, and I’m very grateful for that. Salt Lake City surprises quite a few people who come to visit. Though it’s not a huge city by any stretch of the imagination, it’s also not small or super backwards (depending on who you talk to). You can listen to a world-class symphony (the Utah Symphony), enjoy a play or musical presented by one of the top regional theater companies in the country (Pioneer Theatre Company at the University of Utah), enjoy world-class skiing at one of the many resorts less than an hour from downtown, take a hike up the Wasatch front for a break-taking view of the Salt Lake Valley, or take a tour of the beautiful grounds around the Salt Lake Temple.

Thankful November 9th: Music

  • Papa’s hands
  • Piano keys
    Keys
  • Inside a grand piano
    Inside
  • Steinway & Sons
    Steinway & Sons
  • K Harmer playing Grieg
    Concerto night
  • The Master Class
  • Finish with a florish

There has never been a time in my life that hasn’t included music. I grew up in a family of seven (including parents), and all of us played at least two instruments (including parents). My dad’s mother was a piano teacher. She taught me for 11 years, and she was my biggest supporter when I chose to study music in college. I play the piano, and violin. In college, I studied singing and choral conducting. I started teaching piano when I was 18, and I currently have 15 students who do two to three recitals a year. I met my husband because I was the music director for a show at a local community theater. The show we were doing was written by a friend who asked my younger sister and me to arrange the music. I have written a little original music, but I mostly do choir arrangements (makes sense, see previously mentioned college path). I love music. I don’t know what life would be like without music infusing pretty much every aspect of it.

A Photo a Week Challenge: Under the Lights

under_lights_nmp

Ever find yourself in a tricky lighting situation? We recently went to an outdoor symphony concert. The symphony performed in a temporary amphitheater at Deer Valley near Park City, Utah. It’s an amazingly beautiful venue for a concert (mountains, first-class resorts, mountains, fresh air, mountains…). As the concert drew to a close and the sun had long set behind the mountain peaks, it was tricky to find the best settings on the camera to capture the stage without a flash (not allowed during the concert), without it being too dark and without a lot of shaking motion (we had left the tripod in the car). For this image, I used my 50mm lens; exposure: 1/320 sec; f/2.0; ISO: 500. The concert definitely ended with a bang (the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky and Stars and Stripes Forever by Sousa), and I was able to grab this great shot.

IN A NEW POST CREATED FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PHOTO OR TWO OF TRICKY LIGHTING SITUATIONS.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.

Here’s how it works:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Come back here and post a link to your image in the comments for this challenge.
  4. Follow nancy merrill photography so that you don’t miss out on weekly challenge announcements.