Troy + Lisa + Teagan's Sneak Peek

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing my BFF's family. I was planning on making a trip to Michigan for two other photo sessions, and wanted to squeeze in a visit with Lisa while I was in town. I offered to take some family photos for them while I was there, and she accepted. So, yesterday morning we had our photo session at their house.

Lisa and Troy have one daughter named Teagan, who will be 2 years old in mid-July.  Teagan is a cutie!  She looks just like her mom did when she was little.  Lisa and I have been friends since we were in girl scouts together in elementary school, so I didn't know her when she was as young as Teagan is now, but I've seen lots of photos of her as a child!

I got started with the session by taking some photos of Teagan in her bedroom while mom and dad finished getting ready.  I had spent the night at their house the night before, so Teagan was pretty comfortable with me, but as soon as the camera came out, she got a little shy...

I had to work at it, but I finally got her to start smiling for me...

Then she decided to read me a story...

CHECK OUT THOSE EYELASHES! Wow, is all I can say!...

Then Lisa came in and joined us for story time. (If you check out Lisa's long, gorgeous eyelashes, it isn't any surprise where Teagan's came from!)...

Love this one of Teagan laughing as Lisa acts out the story for her...

Looks at those adorable little cheeks! Don't you just want to kiss 'em?...

Teagan was having fun playing with the scrabble letters and blocks I brought to spell out her name with, and she even left her name tower in place just long enough for me to snap a photo before she knocked it off the table...

Our weather hasn't been the greatest this spring, and it has been really rainy! Luckily, it let up long enough to allow us to get outside and take some photos. Lisa and Troy's house is in a gorgeous natural setting down a dirt road. Just perfect for a photo session. If only the grass hadn't been soaking wet, and the street full of mud puddles!

Here is Teagan with her daddy, Troy...

The family, taking a little stroll on the driveway...

Could she get any more adorable?...

One more of just Teagan, checking out the daffodils in the landscaping...

And how about a family photo with everyone? (Chase and Copper should look familiar from yesterday's post.)

Thanks, Lisa and Troy, for letting me come visit and capture your precious family! As always, it was great to catch up and spend time with you. I can't believe how much Teagan has grown since the last time I saw her!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer currently located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michele will be relocating to Phoenix, Arizona during the summer of 2011. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Copper + Chase's Sneak Peek

Let me introduce you to Chase and Copper, two incredibly sweet dogs that I was lucky enough to photograph this morning...

I love dogs, and they are a lot of fun to photograph! As long as you have a pocket full of treats, most of them are very willing to sit to have their photo taken, and Cooper and Chase were no different.

My trick is to balance a treat on my lens in order to get the dogs to look at the camera. That's what I did to take these two photos:

Copper...

Chase...

Or sometimes I will hold a treat in my hand while I snap the shutter to get the dogs to look in a slightly different direction, like I did for these photos:

Copper...

Chase...

You just have to be careful that the dog doesn't decide to help himself to the treat and jump at the camera to get it. If that happens, you better be quick or you're going to be cleaning doggie drool off of your lens. Chase almost got mine, but I managed to move it just in time. Although, I'm not always so lucky when I photograph my own dogs!

Thanks, Lisa & Troy, for letting me photograph your wonderful dogs!  It was great getting to take their photos.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer currently located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michele will be relocating to Phoenix, Arizona during the summer of 2011. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Sweet Surprise

Don't you just love pulling off a great surprise for someone??

On the morning of Alex's photo session, Olivia sent me a text message telling me that their anniversary was coming up and she wanted to surprise Alex with a new photo of the two of them. So, she asked if during the photo session I would take a photo of them together.  I asked her if she had anything specific in mind for their photo and she said no, so I got to use my imagination, which was tons of fun!

We didn't tell Alex what we were up to; instead, I just kept randomly asking Olivia to join Alex for some of the shots. After the photo session was over, I met Olivia and showed her all of the photos I had taken of the two of them and let her pick her favorite to present to Alex as a gift. I promised her that I wouldn't give her surprise away or let Alex see the photo she picked until after she gave it to him.

It's been killing me to keep this photo under wraps this long, as it is one of my favs from the session, but I never would have ruined Olivia's surprise.  Luckily, she gave Alex his photo and gave me permission to share her surprise on my blog today.

So, which awesome photo did she pick?  This one...

Is it possible to get more adorable? Seriously.

I kinda dig it in black and white, too...

Happy Anniversary, Alex and Olivia!!! You two are awesome and adorable together.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer currently located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michele will be relocating to Phoenix, Arizona during the summer of 2011. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Alex + Olivia Are Back!

These two should look VERY familiar to all of my regular readers! I photographed Alex and Olivia back in February, and I just posted some photos of Alex a few days ago.  As promised, here are more of the photos that I captured of the happy couple during Alex's photo session over the weekend.

This one was one of the very first photos I took of the two of them, and it is definitely one of my favorites.  Both Alex and Olivia take such awesome photos that it is impossible for me to pick a number one favorite!...

They are just too stinkin' cute!...

After the photo session, Kevin and I went out to dinner and a movie with Alex and Olivia, so my hubby got roped into tagging along for the photo session. I'm not exactly sure what was going on between the three of them while I was behind the camera, but I think that Alex and Olivia are laughing at Kevin in this photo. I love it!!!...

Alex and Olivia have an eye for good trees to photograph! I might have to start hiring them to come along on future photo shoots to point them out! In their first photo session, Olivia spied the one that resulted in the awesome photo of them in front of it, and Alex pointed this one out...

This is one of my favorite photos from a photographer's point of view.  I really like the composition of it with Alex and Olivia in the background...

And they are both just as awesome as their photos make them out to be! They are very easy to be around and within minutes of meeting them, you feel like you've known them for years. They are both very talkative, and tons of fun!

I am in love with this one, too!  (Oh, who am I kidding?  I love them all!)...

As always, thank you so much for allowing me to take your photos! It was awesome getting to work with you two again! I wish you both a lifetime of happiness.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer currently located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michele will be relocating to Phoenix, Arizona during the summer of 2011. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Tay + Sunny's Sneak Peek

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of photographing two awesome sisters, Tay and Sunny!

I met up with the girls, and we all hopped in my car and headed off for our photo session. During our drive I learned that Tay is just finishing up her Senior year of high school, while Sunny is finishing up 8th grade.  Their mom wanted to get some photos of them before Tay headed off to college next year.

While we were driving to our session, I asked the girls if they got along well or spent their time arguing.  They joked that it depended on the day.  Apparently Sunday was a good day (or they were being nice to each other for my benefit).  Either way, this first photo is one of my absolute favorites from the photo session...

I just might have a minor obsession with railroad track photographs (but I guess there are worse obsessions to have),. I just love both of these pics...

Perhaps, I have an obsession with shoes, too...

It took Sunny a little while to get into the photo session, but once we got going she was a riot! She was dancing around in between photos, and during the shots she kept asking if she could pose a certain way. A lot of the really fun photos we captured where her doing.  I just love this one of her laughing at Tay...

I think both girls thought I was nuts, when I asked them to pose for this one! But, it is another one of my favs...

As we were finishing up, I asked Sunny and Tay if they would be interested in doing some silly shots posing with suckers. I was half expecting them to say no, but they were really excited to get creative and take some fun shots.  This photo really captures our photo session to perfection! It was insanely windy during the entire photo shoot, and both girls ended up having to pull their hair up to keep it from constantly blowing across their faces! But it didn't stop us from having lots of fun, and capturing tons of smiles!...

Thanks Tay and Sunny, for allowing me to take your photos. It was a pleasure meeting both of you and spending the evening with you. Tay, I wish you lots of luck as you head off to college next year! Sunny, good luck with high school!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer currently located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michele will be relocating to Phoenix, Arizona during the summer of 2011. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Alex's Sneak Peek

When I began taking portraits, I twisted all of my friends' arms asked very nicely if my friends would be willing to act as models to help me build my portfolio. I had several volunteers, but all of them were female. (Big surprise, right?) So, my photo galleries are sadly void of males.  In an attempt to even out the score, I've been trying to round up some fun, fearless guys, who are willing to brave the camera lens and help me out.

My husband's friend, Alex, is the only brave soul who has volunteered so far and we had his photo session on Saturday evening.  Alex is THE MOST photogenic person I have ever met! I guess it helps that he is also ridiculously adorable, too...

His girlfriend is one lucky lady, isn't she?!

There's just something women like about a pickup man (that's a reference to a country song for those of you who aren't up on country charts)...

I'm thinking Alex stands a good chance of making it on the cover of GQ some day, what do you think?...

This one is one of my favs...

Not only was Alex easy to photograph, he was also tons of fun to work with. He was up for anything and didn't think twice about posing for any of the shots that I wanted to take; he even suggested a few of his own. It's awesome working with someone so willing to try anything!

For some reason, I think that this photo makes Alex look like he should be a cop.  All he needs is the gun and the badge...

Love it!...

It was a hard choice, but this last one is my favorite from the session...

If you're thinking that Alex looks familiar it is because you've already seen him on {the blog} when I photographed him and his girlfriend, Olivia. Olivia was able to join us for our photo session, and I took a handful of photos of both of them. Here is just one of the awesome shots I took of them together...

Stay tuned for a few more fun photos of the adorable couple coming up very soon.

Thanks, Alex!! I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule for our photo session! It was awesome having the opportunity to photograph you again.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer currently located in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Michele will be relocating to Phoenix, Arizona during the summer of 2011. Visit Michele's website at michelewhitacrephotography.com. Become a fan of Michele's work on Facebook. Follow Michele's updates on Twitter.

Michele Whitacre Photography is on the Move!!

For as long as I can remember I have had a fascination with palm trees.  If I had to guess at the reason behind this fascination, I would say that it stems from the fact that palm trees are usually found in warm places and I have spent my life fantasizing about living in one of those places.

I'm one of those people who is ALWAYS cold, no matter how many layers of clothing I put on. Sometimes during the winter months I feel like I spend weeks on end unable to ever really get warm.

Three years ago during a particularly bad snowstorm, I was outside shoveling my driveway, cursing Mother Nature for piling the snow on faster than I could take it off, and I finally reached my breaking point.  It wasn't a pretty moment for me - there was lots of cussing and shouting, a lot of tears, and perhaps the tossing of the shovel a time or two.  I decided that perhaps a change was in order before my neighbors called the cops and had me hauled off to the looney bin.  In that moment, I decided that I didn't have to spend the rest of my life freezing to death, and I began plotting my escape to a warmer climate.

But fate had other plans in store for me.

About the time that I would have considered getting my house ready to sell, I started dating my husband, who had just started working on his undergraduate degree.  I knew almost instantly that the two of us were destined to be together, and therefore, I was going to have to put up with a few more long Indiana winters.  I told him that I would stay here long enough for him to finish his degree, as long as he did it as fast as possible, and was willing to move with me to some place warmer once he graduated.

True to his word, my husband completed his degree in 2 1/2 years, and when it came time to apply to law schools, he only applied to ones in the southern half of the country.   After several months of waiting to find out where he was accepted, and discussing where we wanted to relocate to, we've settled on Phoenix, Arizona.

We are both ridiculous excited about our upcoming move, and can't wait for this new adventure to begin!  Several things are still up in the air, as we wait for our house to sell in Fort Wayne, and I begin the process of looking for a new optometry position in the Phoenix area.  But what is definite is that come August, Kevin and I will be sunning ourselves in Phoenix!

What does this mean for Michele Whitacre Photography?

That's a good question!  For now it means that I am going to spend the next two months wrapping up business in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I will be accepting clients, and scheduling photo sessions through May 31, 2011.  After that time, I will focus my attention on our upcoming move, and I will no longer be available for photo sessions.

If you have contacted me recently saying that you want to schedule a spring photo session, please contact me ASAP to set up your session!  I only have a limited number of photo session spots available, and when they are gone, they are gone.  So please don't wait to contact me!

If you have won a photo session giveaway, or if you volunteered to be a subject for a free photo session this spring, please contact me as soon as possible to schedule your session.  Don't worry - a photo session spot will be reserved for you, but the longer you wait to contact me the more limited your options will be!  All time slots will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

Once Kevin and I get settled in Phoenix, I will slowly re-open for business in our new location, which will be exciting and scary all at the same time!  All of my friends and family have been such a wonderful source of support as I have started this business.  Branching out on my own in a city were I won't know a soul is going to be challenging, but I'm looking forward to embracing that challenge as I see what new things are in store for me in Arizona.

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.