Nancy Merrill Photography

CITYSCAPE: A PHOTO A WEEK – Marilyn Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 7 Comments

A Photo a Week Challenge: Cityscape/Townscape

I love shooting in town. We used to get into town a lot more often than we do now. Admittedly, we get into Uxbridge often, but there isn’t a lot of Uxbridge to shoot. It’s a very small town and all the towns in the area a small. Boston has a lot to offer, but it’s a long drive with terrible traffic, bad roads, and incredibly expensive parking and we go there only rarely these days.

Schubert Theater, Boston, 2014

Fenway Park 2018

The city has spent literally billions of dollars to redesign the roads. They look better, but the traffic is even worse. They made the roads straighter and one of the worst ones now runs underground so you don’t have to see what a terrible mess it is. But the mess is there and for me, the idea of bumper-to-bumper traffic in an endless tunnel is not an improvement. Just breathing would be traumatic.

Brookline

Parking on the street!

So we stay here in the country. Our city pictures all date from 2016 or earlier. That’s how it will remain. I don’t see the traffic, parking, or distance getting easier, cheaper, or shorter.

On the street

Symphony Hall, Boston

BRIDGES: A PHOTO A WEEK CHALLENGE – Marilyn Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 14 Comments

A Photo a Week Challenge: Bridges

We don’t have any big bridges near us, but we do have bridges.

Footbridges.

River bridges on every road.

Railroad bridges.

Highway overpasses.

The railroad bridge, downtown Uxbridge

Highway bridge

Little bridge over the Mumford

Stone bridge over the river and canal in Autumn

Photo: Garry Armstrong – Footbridge at River Bend

Little footbridge over tiny canal alongside the Mumford

Footbridge at River Bend

ATTITUDE – A PHOTO A WEEK CHALLENGE – #FOWC- Marilyn and Garry Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 40 Comments

A Photo a Week Challenge: Attitude & #FOWC

I once took a series of pictures of Garry. All of them came out kind of dull. He looked at them. I looked at them. He said, “Why didn’t you tell me I needed to give you some ‘attitude’?”

Photo: Garry Armstrong – Someone has an attitude. Horse or rider? Maybe both?

That was, believe it or not, the first time I’d heard that expression used as a photographic term. I’m not a portrait artist. What I do best are landscapes and casual portraits, more or less on the fly. I’ve done very few “formal” portraits. Anything else has been candid, at best.

Kaity (I think this is her “good side”)

But Garry worked on television, so he “got it.” He also knew “his good side,” something about which I knew nothing. To this day, I don’t know if I have a good side, but then again, I didn’t spend forty years in front of a camera.

Good side?

I have, however, spent more than 40 years on the other side, so I probably ought to know more. I guess this is what you get for picking it all up without any training at all. You know things, but you don’t know what to call them. Terminology doesn’t come with “hands-on” learning.

Photo: Garry Armstrong – An actual portrait! I’m even dressed for the event!

Garry is the only person in my current life who seems able to take a picture of me I don’t immediately hate and want to delete. He has a knack for finding the “me” under the wrinkles and bags of age.

And also: FOWC with Fandango — Attitude

LET THE SUN SHINE IN – Marilyn Armstrong

/ Marilyn Armstrong / 9 Comments
A Photo a Week Challenge: A Study in Light

I love the color and quality of light. Through the leaves of a tree or a window. I love the light through the French doors in my dining room. My plants seem to love it too and grow beautifully in the glow.

Morning light in the dining room through French doors

The light has brought the orchids into bloom, something I never expected. The wonderful light from the east.