Friday, February 25, 2022

Self-Portrait | February 2022

Life has been all puppy, all the time, for the past year as we added first Sylas and then Hazel to the family.  I have been working very hard to turn both of them into well behaved dogs.  In that regard, I have spent most of February consumed with training both of them.

Sylas is currently enrolled in his sixth (Yes, SIXTH!) training class, which is a part 2 of a class he took in the fall.  Last year he learned skills to be well behaved while on a leash and now he is practicing those skills at a variety of public places.

Hazel is currently enrolled in two classes simultaneously through two different trainers.  One of them is a basic obedience/skills class and the other one is a leadership and obedience class. Really both classes are teaching her the same type of things but one is just at a higher level than the other.

I really love working with the dogs on training.  I find it rewarding when they learn something new and I find the process of teaching them new things really fun. Hazel is an exceptionally fast learner and picks up on every new skill almost immediately.  Sylas takes a little longer to catch on to some things but while we are training he gives 100% of his full attention to it.  He seems to really enjoy training sessions.  It might just be all about the treats, but I like to pretend he likes the experience!

When I am working with one of the dogs, I usually take that dog by itself into the bathroom where we can work without being distracted by the other dogs.  Once all the dogs know a skill, I may work with them as a group or else I may tether them all and work with one dog while the other dogs wait for their turn.  But the majority of the training is done one on one.  So for February's self-portrait I opted to take my photo in the Master Bathroom with Hazel and Sylas to represent what I have spend so much of the month doing.

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.
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© 2022 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

A Trip to the Nature Preserve

Back in mid-January, shortly after signing up for my photography classes, I got the bright idea to take some new photos of the burrowing owls.  I was thinking that if I got there bright and early maybe I could catch them up and active.  So I set my alarm before the crack of dawn and was out the door just as the sun was rising.

Only to get to the park and find that THERE WERE NO OWLS!  Apparently, they have been relocated to an undisclosed location.  *sigh*

So instead, I headed off to a nearby nature preserve to see what I could find to photograph.  Since I really didn't have any agenda or expectations, I just wandered around and took photos of whatever caught my eye.  I can't say I captured anything earth shattering, but I did get several images that will work for my first class assignment and that was the goal of the outing!

Here are my favorites from the day:

There were tons of these birds up in a tall tree near the parking lot.  I spent quite a while taking photos of them but only caught a few decent ones.  Since my longest zoom lens is only 70-200, wildlife photography can be a challenge.  I often have to do a lot of cropping of the photos after the fact so the subject doesn't look like an ant on the horizon.  If I intend to take up wildlife photography with any regularity, I definitely need a different lens.  I have been thinking about renting one in the near future just to see what I think.
Whatchu looking at?...
I was so excited to see this heart shaped leaf! I see people posting images of hearts they find in nature all the time and this was the first time I have ever noticed one!...
This little guy caught me taking his photo...
A few bunnies just for fun! These guys are EVERYWHERE at the preserve...
Oh to be able to just spend my day lazily gliding through the water...
So tranquil! I really am a water girl at heart. Even just being near it feeds my soul...
Love the coloring of this little guy...
This series of images cracked me up! I don't know if he didn't like the piece or if he sneezed (do birds sneeze?) or coughed and spit it our or what...
I'm not quite sure what it is about it, but I really like this photo a lot...
This guy just hung out and let me take several photos of him until someone walked by with a big dog that scared him off the ledge...
A few more of the ducks flapping their wings. One of the photos I need to turn in for my assignment is one that freezes motion, so I was specifically trying to caputure the ducks flying or flapping their wings...
The eye color of this bird really caught my attention. It seemed like an odd color...
This guy didn't seemed thrilled with me photographing him, or even being on his bridge!...
I was pretty shocked to see that I actually caught one of the ducks in mid-flight! Photogrpahing wildlife feels like it takes an immense amount of luck mixed in with the skill...
I had fun watching the ducks chase each other around in the water. I couldn't tell if they were playing or fighting, though!...
I liked this photo best as more of a silhouette in black and white...
As always, thank you for stopping by the blog!

Michele Whitacre used to be a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona.  Now she just takes photos for fun when the mood strikes.
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© 2022 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Saturday, February 19, 2022

Welcome to the Family, Hazel!

I am so excited to share some portraits of our newest fur baby addition, Hazel!  This sweet, adorable little doll joined our family on October 16, 2021.

As I mentioned when I posted about Sylas, the COVID-19 pandemic and my current work situation made it possible for us to adopt puppies into the family.  I knew that I wanted to experience watching two puppies grow up together again after raising Zoe and Lexi together so the plan had always been to add a second one shortly after Sylas joined us.

I thought it might take us a little while to find the right match for Sylas but Hazel was only the second puppy we introduced to him.  He has a 'strong personality' and I wanted to make sure that whoever we brought in would be a good fit with him.  I wanted a dog that wouldn't be bowled over by his strong willed ways, yet one who was laid back enough that he or she wouldn't be challenging him at every turn.  He absolutely thinks he is the center of the universe and I needed a dog that ultimately was willing to let him be.

We truly found the perfect dog for our family in Hazel!  She is an absolute little darling.  She loves to tease and play with her older siblings and she can definitely hold her own with them!  At the same time, nothing really phases her.  She is the epitome of the phrase 'rolls with the punches'!  She is by far one of the calmest and most well behaved puppies I have ever encountered, and she is a huge love bug - at least with me.  Admittedly, she is a bit of a mama's girl, but she is usually pretty content snuggled up in my lap or next to me when she's not playing. 

Again, I wasn't specifically intending to get a second Frenchie and was open to other options.  However the experience adopting Sylas was a good one so we decided to start along the same path.  Since the two dogs seemed to click instantly, we didn't have to look very hard to find our second puppy and ended up with another French Bulldog.

So please allow me to introduce you to our sweet darling little Hazel:

How could you not fall in love with that face?...
I mean seriously, how cute is she?...
I have been trying to work out if Hazel has food allergies so there are only a few things that she is gettting fed right now. One of them is a treat that it takes her FOREVER to chew up. I always joke that she looks like an old man gumming his food when she does it. I really need to get a video, but here is a photo of her working on one of her treats...
Mmmm. That treat was yummy!...
Yes, I am adorable and I know it!...
She was definitely easier to get to hold still for photos than Sylas! She was willing to sit still and let me back up from her enough to take a few shots...
Look at that cute little profile!...
Licking my lips just thinking about getting another one of those yummy treats...
Oh, hello up there...
Man, I just can't stop thinking about those treats...
I think this is my favorite photo of her from the bunch!...
I ended up leashing her hoping maybe I could get her to lay down or to get a different pose out of her but instead she just wanted to walk around and test the limits of how far she could reach so I just got a cute photo of her little bulldog butt instead!...
The rest of these photos were taken on a different day. I wanted to see if I could get more variety of photos of her so I let Ivy, Olive, and Sylas out at the same time. I was hoping to get more photos of her running around and playing and I did! (Stay tuned for a few photos of her and Sylas playing!). I was hoping to take these first thing in the morning but got a later start than I should have and the sun was already too high. The lighting in some of these is awful but what do you do?

Of course, here she stops half in and half out of the bright spot...
Just exploring...
I didn't realize her nose is the prefect little heart until looking through these photos!...
Just exploring her yard. She's still working on house training so she goes out on a leash. She hasn't had much freedom to check things out yet...
Those separated ears! Hazel actually does this all the time so I am surprised I didn't catch her doing it in more photos!...
More cute little Frenchie backside...
Let's Run!...
If you made it all the way through and you're still here, thank you for stopping by and looking at photos of our sweet little Hazel!
 
Michele Whitacre used to be a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona.  Now she just takes photos for fun when the mood strikes.
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© 2022 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC