Friday, May 30, 2014

Self-Portrait | May 2014

Remember back in December when I said that I would finally get around to unpacking when I got tired of parking in the driveway?  So that finally happened.

Kevin drives a black car with a dark grey interior, (that we owned when we moved here. We aren't crazy enough to purchase a dark colored car living in the insane desert heat.) It pretty much turns into an oven on wheels during the Phoenix summers.  So, clearing space to park it in the garage got bumped up on the priority list once the temps started hanging out in the triple digits the past few weeks.

So, I spent most of my month working on finally unpacking the rest of our stuff.  I still have a bit to do as you can tell by all the junk behind me, and I REALLY don't want to talk about what it looks like behind the door of our third garage space, but at least for now we won't get cooked getting into Kevin's car.


As I look back through my 2014 self-portraits thus far, I'm beginning to see a trend.  Namely, that I've turned into a lazy bum who rarely gets out of my comfy kickin' it at home clothes!  I have no idea what June is going to bring my way, but perhaps I need to make spending a little time on my appearance a priority for the coming month. At least on the day of my self-portrait.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Did you miss some of my past self-portraits?  Clicking here will take you to all of my self-portrait blog posts. Clicking here will take you to my self-portrait Facebook album.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter


© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

BBL 2013-2014 | Tube the Salt River


#5 TUBE THE SALT RIVER

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

I love living in Phoenix and I adore the desert landscape and temperatures, but I'm still a Michigan girl deep down and I love me some water!  I thought tubing the Salt River would be a great way to see a little H2O, and relive all the fun memories I have of tubing as a kid back home.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

It was better!!  I can't describe how much fun I had or how awesome it was to relax and float down the river with Kevin and a few friends.

The details...

Because I'm a bit insane, I picked Memorial Day weekend to plan our tubing trip.  The river was packed with other tubers, but that only added to the fun.  We have a water proof case for our point and shoot, so I even managed to grab a few photos of our trip:


I can't wait to plan our next trip!  Who wants to join us???!!!

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List?  You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here.  Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter


© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Ava's Sneak Peek

A few days ago I had the pleasure of photographing Ava, a super sweet pit bull who belongs to someone my hubby attended law school with.  Ava is pretty famous on Instagram since her mom posts tons of cute photos of her all the time and I was excited to finally get to meet her in person.

Lauren brought Ava over to our house to meet Lexi and Zoe and to have her photos taken.  Ava was a little camera shy at first and kept wanting to lay down with her back to me but after a little while she started warming up to the idea and we were able to get lots of really cute photos of her.

So please allow me to introduce you to Ava:

Isn't she a cutie?...


A nice little back scratching roll in the grass...


Such a happy girl...



That face!  So adorable!...



Treats?! Yum!...



Too cute!...


Nap time...


She's so beautiful!...







Love this one!...




Come on, let's play!...



Lauren, Thank you for bring Ava over to play with Lexi and Zoe and for letting me take her photos! It was great finally getting to meet her. She's such a sweet dog.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter
© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

BBL 2013-2014 | Visit Jerome, Arizona


#26 VISIT JEROME ARIZONA

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

Since moving to Arizona, I've had several people tell me that Jerome is a neat place and that I should check it out. Since it's not too far away, I thought it sounded like a great day trip idea to add to my list.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

I really enjoyed exploring Jerome, but would love to go back when I had time to really explore it more with my camera in hand.

The details...

A few weeks ago my parents, Kevin, and I had a trip planned to Sedona to take a hot air balloon ride over the red rocks. Unfortunately, the balloon ride was canceled due to the direction of the wind so we found ourselves up before dawn with the whole day ahead of us. We had all already been to Sedona a few times so we decided to head over to Jerome to check it out. I tried to take a handful of photos to document the trip, but I didn't take very many. I'm not very good at combining socializing and photographing. I can do one or the other but not both, and once I have a camera in my hand I lose focus on everyone and everything else. I don't want to turn Kevin into a photographer's widow and/or ignore everyone around me in social settings. That's why you'll rarely see me with my DSLR in my hand at social events unless I'm officially photographing it.

Here's a peek at a few of the photos I did take:











While we were there we stumbled into a kaleidoscope shop and I had a blast taking photos through some of them:








Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List?  You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here.  Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter


© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Monday, May 5, 2014

Amanda's Trash the Dress Session

Before I can even think about getting started I have to give a huge insane THANK YOU shout out to Jake for allowing us to use his shop for this session.  He was generous enough to open his doors to us and give up several hours of his time while we were there.  He was beyond amazing with his willingness to accommodate any and every request that we had!  If you want to check out Jake's work, you can find Mouse's Kustom Fab on Facebook and Instagram.

As you probably know, I usually post a sneak peek from each session that I shoot, along with a bit of commentary about the photos, but I'm going to change it up a bit today.  I've decided to post this session (almost) in its entirety and I'm going to let the photos tell their own story.  Much of the awesomeness you are about to see is Amanda's doing, as many of these ideas were 100% hers.  I am incredibly proud of these images and doing this session made me feel alive in a way I haven't felt in a really long time.  I hope you love them as much as I do.

So, please allow me to introduce you to Amanda.  I hope you will settle in and enjoy her photos!



































































































Amanda, I cannot thank you enough for volunteering to help me with this session.  I am so happy and excited that I was finally able to make my dream of photographing a trash the dress session a reality. You were amazing to photograph and it was so much fun getting to hang out with you for a few hours.  I hope I have the opportunity to photograph you again in the future. :)

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter


© 2014 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC