A Photo a Week Challenge: Vanishing Point

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Helsinki, Finland

Nancy Merrill Photography always brings out the best with her weekly challenges. This week, with ‘Vanishing Point’, she highlights one of the principal guidelines in taking great photographs – Perspective. Nothing aids perspective more than a proper vanishing point to guide the eye through the subject matter of a photograph or painting.

I have chosen two photos from our trip to Helsinki to demonstrate both the curved and the straight line vanishing point techniques.


Curved Vanishing Point

Straight Line Vanishing Point

Note in the second photo that everything is moving away from the observer toward the vanishing point, emphasizing it even more.

Neither photo is of prize winning quality, but both are useful in demonstrating the technique of the ‘Vanishing Point’.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Unusual Perspective

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Poorvoo, Finland

I have found that you often get a better “reflection” photo when you lower your perspective significantly. In this case, I dropped down on my haunches to capture the building and sky reflection in a pool of rainwager.

Poorvoo, Finland

Follow this link for other posts on Cee Neuner’s CB&W challenge for this week.

A Photo a Week Challenge: The Great Outdoors

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Chilean Inner Passage

This photo was taken as we cruised north off the Chilean coast. This area of the planet is almost completely untouched by humans. I have several dozen photos take over two days while we cruised this beautiful coastline.

For other entries in this week’s challenge, go to the blog Nancy Merrill Photography and browse through the comment section. Even better, dig through your photo stash and find a photo of The Great Outdoors and share it with others.

Ice Storm: Jan 14, 2019

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Summerfield, NC, USA

We had our second major winter storm this weekend. When I went out this morning, the temperature was still below freezing, so the ice had not melted from the trees. I just had to pull over and take a few photos with my iPhone for everyone to enjoy. Let me know what you think.


Sun Peeking Out from the Clouds

Back lighting – Sun to the Right
Sun at top of the fram

Sunday Trees – 374

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Tree Ice

It is a grey, icy morning in North Carolina. Another of those winter storms is passing through, leaving a beautiful coating of ice on all of our trees, bushes, sidewalks, and roads. We have already had several instances of power blips, possibly presaging an outage. I thought everyone might enjoy a few photos of a tree ice sculpture created by nature.

Weeping Cherry Tree
Close up I
Close up II
Close up III

Sunday Trees is a weekly challenge offered by Becca Givens on her wonderful blog “On Dragonfly Wings with Buttercup Tea”. Follow the link to see other Tree posts for this week.

Wits End Weekly Photo Challenge: Under Cloudy Skies

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South American Skies

In our 2018 two week South American cruise, we found many beautiful sights, including those under cloudy skies. Here are a few examples that meet the criteria from this weekly challenge from the blog “Traveling at Wits End“.

Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse in the Beagle Channel
Rainbow in the Beagle Channel
Tiera del Fuego Natioinal Park
The Beagle Channel
Lago Roca Tierra del Fuego National Park

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pairs

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Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

These free roaming donkeys work the parking lot at the Grand Turk Lighthouse. They know that tourists will provide food, water and attention.

Grand Turk Lighthouse

Wild Roaming Donkeys

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge always provides an opportunity to show off some of your favorite photos. Follow the link to this week’s challenge page.

Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Inspiration

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In Old San Juan, PR, I sat down in the pew of the Basílica de San Juan Bautista. I have visited this cathedral on several occasions and was looking for some inspiration for different photo opportunities. I noticed the polished floor in the main aisle and just placed my camera on the floor and snapped a picture. The result is modestly interesting but not earth shattering. Sometimes you just need to think outside of your normal mode.


The reflection of the stained glass window in the floor, while out of focus, still catches the eye.

Hopefully, this new photo challenge will provide an opportunity to showcase some wonderful photos and ideas. Many thanks to Snow and Amanda for taking on this task. You can find other entries by following this link “The Snow Melts Somewhere“.