Michele Whitacre Photography

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

A Day at the Office

I took my camera and macro lens into my office last week to take some close ups of my equipment. (I am an optometrist, for anyone who doesn't know.) Then I played around with adding a fun contrast-y black and white edit to the images, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I think these images are a fun and different representation of what I spend most of my life doing.

I'm not sure there's much to say about the individual images, so I'll let them speak for themselves:

I've really enjoyed getting back behind the camera and I have been shooting a ton! I even have several sets of photos stacked up waiting to be edited. I have to admit that I'm really enjoying the freedom to shoot whatever I want, whenever I want, and editing the images in whatever order I please. It's kind of fun shooting just for myself (and my dedicated fans and readers, of course! Thank you to everyone who has returned to following me now that I'm back. I appreciate all of you so much!)

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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© 2017 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Self-Portrait | May 2017

If you haven’t been by the blog since I up and vanished a few years ago, let me catch you up. Here’s what I’ve been up to recently:

I published two old self-portraits posts from spring 2015 that were just hanging around waiting to be posted. I have no idea why I never published them back then, except to say that I was getting burned out and when life threw me some crazy curve balls I needed to turn my attention elsewhere for a while. I think (knock on wood) that things have settled down and I’m ready to return to some of those things I put on the back burners. If you want to check out those past posts they can be found here and here.
I photographed a maternity session for my friend Amanda, (who may need her own blog label soon, as she’s been in front of my camera so many times!). I really enjoyed taking her photos and catching up with her. Not to mention that I owe her a huge thank-you for getting me back behind my camera and reminding me just how much I enjoy shooting. If she hadn’t asked me to do her maternity session, I’m sure I sill wouldn’t be back. Her session really is quite lovely, and Amanda is one gorgeous mama-to-be. Her photos can be found here, if you’d like to check them out.
I announced that I was going to return to doing some shooting and blogging, and I created an Instagram account for my photography. As of right now that is where I’ve been posting some of my images along with links to the corresponding posts here on the blog. I've still made no decision regarding if I am going to revisit my FB photography page or not, but for now it's still hanging out and I have posted a few things to it since returning.
I took some new portraits of all of my fur babies. They are rather adorable, (but I’m not biased or anything). Zoe and Lexi’s can be found here, and Daisy and Gatsby’s can be found here.
I also began experimenting with macro photography. So far I’ve posted some images I took of some scorpions using a black light, which can be found here, and some images I took of the landscaping in our yard, which can be found here. I’ve also taken a few other sets of macro images that I’m working on editing, so stay tuned for those soon.
AND, I also managed to completely mess up my blog when I was viewing an alternative layout I was considering, so I’ve set it to this basic layout until I find the time to go in an reset all of the customizations again. Sigh. Please ignore my mess if you happen to pop over halfway through the edits.

Honestly, I’m still not sure where I’m headed with my photography. I’m hoping that my experimenting will lead to an area of photography that feels right to me. I’m hoping something will eventually just click and I’ll find a new photography home. In the mean time, I’m just going to keep experimenting and working my way through the lists of things I’ve been meaning to try but never found the time to do in the past.

I don’t know where my self-portrait series is headed, either. I’m not sure if I’m going to resume it as a monthly feature on the blog or not. In many ways I miss taking them, and I regret giving them up. At the same time, it was starting to feel like a burden doing them every month after so long. Only time will tell I suppose. For now, I’m just happy to be back behind the camera. It feels like coming back home after a long (but much needed) vacation. I’m going to try to let that feeling be my guide as I venture back in, and that feeling had me wanting to do a self-portrait this month. So that is exactly what I did...

Since photography has been occupying almost all of my time this month, I decided it was only fitting to include a photo of me shooting as May’s self-portrait. I took this image while I was taking some of the macro shots that I’m still working on editing. I was using a lighted make-up mirror as my light source and opted to focus in on my reflection for my photo.

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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© 2017 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Friday, May 26, 2017

A Walk Around the Yard

As I begin experimenting with other types of photography I feel like I'm a newbie again who has no clue what I am doing! I see these gorgeous macro shots or stunning landscapes that other photographers create, and then I see how blah and boring mine are in comparison and realize I have a long way to go to get good at something other than portraits. That's the crazy thing about photography, in my opinion. Someone can be amazing at one type of photography and completely suck at another.

I recently looked back through the first set of portraits I ever took. At the time I thought they were pretty good, but now I realize how awful they really were in comparison to what I can do now. I just keep reminding myself with tons (and tons and tons and tons and tons and tons and tons) of reading, learning, and practicing I eventually got decent at portraits. The same thing will happen with other types of photography if I stick with it.

While my first attempts at portraits are buried in my archives, where no one will ever them but me, I've decided to share my early attempts at other types of photography with my readers. (Aren't you lucky?!) So, here are some macro shots I recently took of the bushes, trees, and flowers in my yard:

I have no ideas for what to photograph next, which seems to be a common problem for me. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions send them my way! Otherwise, I think it's time to start researching some photo prompts to inspire me.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Daisy & Gatsby: An Overdue Blog Appearance!

Poor Daisy & Gatsby have been sorely neglected on the blog! The last time I posted any photos of them was in September 2014, shortly after the one year anniversary of when we adopted them. I stopped blogging just before their second birthday so there are only a handful of posts including photos of them. Many of those are ones that I added to posts of the dogs' birthdays, since the cats love to get in on the present opening fun, too!

Just like our dogs, our cats have very different personalities. Daisy is a bit wild and rambunctious, and she loves to play with her toys. She will run around the house carrying them, or spend hours tossing and batting them around. She's a bit of a daredevil and can often be found climbing high up where she doesn't belong. Gatsby is much calmer and can usually be found watching the world out the window. Gatsby is more likely to wander off by herself to take a nap, but she's more likely to jump in my lap when she is in the same room with us. Daisy loves to be around the rest of us, but she's less likely to sit on our laps. However, she's the one who is more skittish around strangers, so it often takes her a while to make an appearance when new people are at our house. Daisy actually does better with photos, so I ended up with a lot more images of her that show off her spunky personality. Gatsby doesn't like the sound of the camera shutter so she tends to look irritated or scared in many of the images, so I have to work pretty hard to get good photos of her.

Without further ado, here are some portraits of our sweet kitty fur babies:

Meet our crazy little Daisy...

And our sweet Gatsby...

Oh hello there...

Just hanging on the stairs...

I think I was interrupting nap hour...

When we first moved into our house one of Daisy's favorite places to be was IN the fireplace, so we had to search out fireplace door to keep her out. We were lucky to find some that fit considering our house was built in the 90's. So now she has to settle for laying in front of it...

That little tongue!...

Daisy & Gatsby are biological sisters that we rescued as small kittens. They were born in a shelter on May 6, 2013 and just recently turned 4 years old, which seems impossible! I love how they both have the lighter area on the one side of their noses, even though their coloring is completely different overall...

What a goofball...

Gatsby sits with her front paws crossed all. the. time. It cracks me up...

She also likes to sit with her paws folded up under her. Kevin says she looks like a chicken sitting on her eggs when she's like this...

For some reason hanging out by the towering basket of dog toys was a popular place while I was taking their photos...

Gatsby is amazing at catching flies or other bugs straight out of the air. She seems to be great at spotting things far off and quick to get them. Something's definitely got her attention here...