Macro Fun | Part 4

If you missed my other four posts about experimenting with a Macro Lens, you can find them here, here, here, and here.

Some of my favorite Macro Lens photographs taken by other photographers are of water droplets. So, I decided to try my hand at a few. Of course I'm not really a morning person (plus I live in the middle of the desert), so I had to fake it a bit. Instead of getting up to find some morning dew, I just turned on the hose and sprayed some nearby weeds and trees!

I love the detail of the reflect in the water droplet here...

This photo was a bit of a whoops, as I was trying to focus in on the water droplet and obviously I ended up with the leaf in focus instead.  But, I was amazed at the detail that was visible in the veins of the leaf and decided to include it for that reason...

This is a water droplet on the hose. If you look closely you can see a reflection of our rental house upside down in the drop of water...

And FINALLY, flowers!!!...

And there you have it!  A week's worth of photos from my Macro Lens Experiment!

So, now the looming question is.... Would I want to own this lens? I have to admit that shooting with this lens was TONS of fun, and I wasn't ready to return it by the time my week was up. I could have easily spent another few weeks experimenting with it. I really do think that I would enjoy having a Macro Lens, and I can see myself getting a bit more into nature photography if I owned one. That being said, I'm not sure that I would opt to purchase this exact lens. I felt like the lens was fairly heavy (and I'm not a wimp when it comes to lenses!) and I think it made it harder to hold the lens steady because I was getting tired from holding the lens up. I also felt like the auto focus wasn't very useful, so the USM basically just added useless weight. I haven't done any research on the options of Macro Lenses available, but if I was going to purchase one I would probably opt for a lighter weight lens, possibly without auto focus.

As always, thanks for stopping by and viewing my photos!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Macro Fun | Part 2

If you missed my other two posts about experimenting with a Macro Lens, they can be found here and here.

The second thing on my agenda with the Macro Lens was to find some flowers and insects to photograph, so I decided to see what I could scout out near the Gila River.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite have the hang of the lens yet and most of the flower images didn't turn out so great.  I had read over and over again how small the DOF is with Macro Lenses, but I guess I just didn't believe it until I saw it for myself. When I saw the images on my computer, I was shocked to see that only a very tiny portion of each flower was in focus.

Luckily, I did a bit better with the bugs!  I was actually quite surprised by how many insects I saw while I was out shooting, and even more surprised by how many I had captured on the flowers I was photographing without even realizing that they were there (but they were out of focus, of course!).

These are my three favorite bug images:

I especially like this one...

I like all of the detail you can see in the wings above, and I am in love with the lighting!  I was shooting in the early afternoon, and the sun was out full force.  I don't normally shoot at that time of day, but I figured I was going to take advantage of the time I had with the lens.  I was rather surprised by how many of the images were keepers because of the lighting, instead of in spite of it.

After finishing near the river, I decided to take photos of a nearby cotton field.  I've been getting such a kick out of seeing them everywhere near our rental house.  I actually can't remember ever seeing a cotton field before, but that seems highly unlikely!  I lived in Mississippi for 3 1/2 years, for crying out loud.  It has to be physically impossible to live in Mississippi and never lay eyes on a cotton field, doesn't it?  But, I seriously can't recall ever seeing one in person before.

Confession Time: I have this serious bad habit of being so excited to get started photographing at a new location, that I'll fire off a few shots before I check my camera settings.  Then I'll rein myself in, and glance at the settings only to realize how insanely off they are.  You'd think after over/under exposing my first 2-3 images every time I shoot, I'd stop doing this but I never do.  I just can't seem to contain my excitement at whatever I'm about to photograph and just HAVE to capture a few shots instantly.

Shooting in the cotton field was no exception, and this next image is the first photograph I took.  It was (is) insanely overexposed, and it took a crazy amount of editing to bring it back under control.  It's not even 100% in focus, but there is something about the composition of the image, and area at the top of the cotton where the sun is so intense, that kept calling out to me and I just couldn't resist including it.  When I look at this photograph, I can picture the sun glinting off of miles of bright white cotton on a hot scorching day on a big Southern plantation.  I can picture the workers out picking the cotton, sweat rolling down their faces, and their baskets overflowing with billowy white puffs.  I guess you could say that it tells a story to me that makes the image come to life (which is quite odd considering I've never actually seen that scene anywhere except in other photographs)...

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I am sooo in love with this entire set of photos!  I love the glare of the bright afternoon sun on the white cotton.  I love the texture that just screams out from some of these images.  I think I could have stayed in that field shooting for hours if I'd had the time.  Instead of rambling on and on, saying the same thing about each photo, I'll just let the rest of them speak for themselves:

Admittedly, this isn't the best use of a Macro Lens, but I wanted to capture a little more of the entire cotton field and it was the lens that I had at my disposal...

I hope you'll come back to check out the photos coming up in Part 3! There are some fun ones that I can't wait to share with you!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

They Don't Call It Red Rock Country for Nothin'

My husband and I just returned from a week long trip to Arizona. The purpose of our trip was more business than pleasure, so I didn't get to do as much sightseeing as I would have preferred, however, we did managed to escape for a day to Sedona, Arizona to take in the gorgeous red rocks.

It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever witnessed! I spent most of the day with my jaw scraping the floor, fighting the urge to pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming. If you've never been to Sedona, you are seriously missing out!

Since I realize that you probably can just up and run off to Arizona tomorrow to see these amazing rocks for yourself, here are some photos. Words pale next to the beauty of these images, so I'm just going to let them speak for themselves:

Awesome, huh?!

So, what are you waiting for? Go book your vacation to Sedona, NOW! (And don't forget to book a seat for me, too!)

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Feeding Frenzy

I SWORE to myself that I wasn't going to pick up my camera today for anything other than today's joy of love class assignment. I am thoroughly enjoying the class, but it is time consuming taking photos for the class every single day.

For me, being behind my camera is an addiction. The more time I spend behind it, the more I want to be behind it, and before I know it all I'm doing is taking photos and editing photos, while the rest of my world is falling in around me. Kind of like it is right now! And I still have a little editing to do on the baby shower photos a took a few weeks ago, and on the winter photos I took a few days ago. So, I promised myself no more personal photos until I was caught up.

Things never work out according to plan in my life!

I got home from work this afternoon, and Lexi would not stop barking at the windows. I finally got up to see what had her attention and saw that there were TONS of birds swarming around outside. I went into the kitchen and there were probably 40 - 50 birds in the tiny cherry tree right outside the window, feeding on the cherries that were still hanging on the tree.

I grabbed my camera and ran outside to try to get some photos, but I scared half of them away when I opened the door so this was the best I got...

As I continued trying to take photos, more and more of the birds got scared off. I'd go back inside and they'd come back to the tree, but they'd fly off as soon as I'd go back outside again. I finally decided to just pop the screen off of the window and take the photos from inside. Luckily, the windows weren't too dirt!

You can see from the photo above that the sky had a distinct line between the bright blue sky and the clouds, so depending on where in the tree each bird was located, the background varies.  It almost looks like the photos were taken on different days!

Here are a handful of the awesome shots I got...

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Bare Branches

This afternoon I ended up with some unexpected free time, and decided to head to downtown Fort Wayne to shoot some winter photographs.

This was one of my favs that I captured today...

Nothing says winter quite like bare tree branches topped with snow.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.