Sunday, January 30, 2022

Self-Portrait | January 2022

With my return to photography, I decided to resurrect my monthly self-portrait project!

When I first started the project, I struggled with it a bit and didn't love being on the other side of the camera.  However, over time I came to enjoy coming up with the ideas each month and using the photos to document where I was in my life.  I have liked looking back at them and remembering what was going on at that time. In many ways I regret giving them up and I wish I had photos and posts from all of the months and years that I missed.  However, I know that when I made the decision to step back from my photography it was what I needed to do at the time.  Life had become too crazy to keep up with everything I had going on and something had to give.

Things seemed to have settled down into a routine again these days, and I'm ready to resume taking photos a little more regularly.  I still have no idea what exactly it is I want to photograph, which seems to be the running theme for the past six years since closing my business, but I do know that I want to get back behind the camera again!  Hence, the decision to take the online photography classes I mentioned.

For January's self-portrait, I decided to show myself sitting on my bed with my laptop, since this is were I have spent an awful lot of my time this month.  I've been on my laptop while doing my first online class and also while working on some back blog posts that I never got around to finishing.  I've been doing it from this spot because it's warm and cozy and the evenings have been a little chilly lately.  I do usually have all four dogs piled in around me but that felt like more than I wanted to juggle for the self-portrait!
It feels like a bit of irony that I am starting back out with a self-portrait photo similar to the very first one I took, and for pretty much the same reason!  At the time, I was working on getting everything set up to reopen my business in Arizona and now I'm just returning to photography in general but it kind of feels like I've come full circle.

As a side note, man has blogger gone down the toilet!  It seems like every time I have returned to it for the past 6 years they have made more and more changes that make it less and less user friendly.  Thus far it is been easy and inexpensive to keep my blog hosted here but if I'm going to return to posting regularly I don't think I'm going to be able to deal with all the annoying changes for very long.  So, I suspect a new home for the blog may be coming in the near future!

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 used to be a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona.  Now she just takes photos for fun when the mood strikes.
Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram


© 2022 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Hello? Is Anybody Still Out There?

How has it been so long since I have posted anything?

I'd love to blame COVID, but it would be a big fat lie if I did.  The truth is that since I no longer have clients needing my time or a blog and FB business page needing content, I have allowed my photography to take a back seat to silly things like cleaning the toilet.

Ridiculous.  I know.  But, I'm a stickler for that darn "To Do List" and have a hard time breaking away to have a little fun.

So, what's a girl to do?

Sign up for two online photography classes to get her back in the game, that's what!

It's taken a long time, but I've finally come to accept two things about myself:  1. I will now and forever be an overachiever who needs external validation.  2. I'm pretty good at honoring commitments I make to other people but not so great at keeping those I make to myself.

So, in that regard...

I am taking an online Nature and Landscaping Course and an online Travel Photography Course through New York Institue of Photography.  I have 18 months to finish the courses, and at the end I will get a certificate of completion for each one.  I am going to resurrect the blog to share my assignment photos along the way.  I am asking everyone who knows me, either IRL or online, to hold me accountable!  If weeks have gone by with no photos showing up on here, somebody start nagging me.  Seriously!

I am hoping the combination of signing up for official classes and publicly declaring my intentions will get my head out of the toilet, so to speak, and get me back to doing something that I truly love yet never seem to make time for on my own.

Stay Tuned!

Michele Whitacre used to be a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona.  Now she just takes photos for fun when the mood strikes.
Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram


© 2022 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC