Griselda's Sneak Peek

A few days ago I posted a photo from Griselda's session on Facebook, and I promised that the sneak peek of her images would be full of bright, fun, art filled backgrounds.  I wasn't kidding!

As I was driving by this area recently, traffic was moving slow enough that I was scoping out possible shooting locations while I was passing by.  (I'm always on the look out for great new places for sessions!) When I saw all of these bright fun colored backgrounds, I knew I wanted to use them for a session. I've seen a lot of amazing photos, full of bright art in the background, taken by other photogs and I've always wanted to give shooting in this type of location a try.  However, there weren't any areas like this back in Fort Wayne (or if they were there, I never found them), so I was thrilled to stumble upon this area here in Phoenix.

When I knew that I was going to be photographing Griselda, I knew she was the perfect person to rock out this location with.  Griselda is the wife of one of Kevin's law school classmates and she is awesome.  She's this amazing little spitfire, full of so much life and energy that I don't know how it all fits in her little body!

Not only does she support her husband's efforts while he is attending law school (and as a fellow law school wife, I know how tough that can be), but she works two jobs and goes to school herself.  One of her jobs is teaching spin at a local gym.  I've never taken one of her classes, but just seeing how much energy and how much fun she brings to everyday life, I have to imagine that her classes are incredible (and perhaps a bit exhausting, too!)

Ok, enough of my babble.  Let's get on with the pictures, shall we?

Before we got started, Griselda admitted to me that she really enjoys having her photos taken and I did a little silent cheer of victory.  I love it when people enjoying being in front of the camera.  She wasn't kidding either because this first photo was one of the first I took of Griselda, and she looks GORGEOUS.  It's always surprising when the very first images of someone come out so well because it usually takes people a little while to loosen up and get comfortable with the camera, but not Griselda!...

This is my all time fav from the session. I love everything about it. I love Griselda's pose and her smile and the position of her head, and the super fun bright colors.  Love.  Love.  Love...

I know I sound like a broken record (for those of you old enough to get the reference), but I had so much fun working with these colors!...

After an outfit change, we headed off to another section of the street with more art to play with.  I got such a kick out of taking the series of photos in front of this wall and I think I told Griselda that I loved each and every image I took after I snapped it.  Below are two of my favs...

Is Griselda rocking this scarf, or what?...

Before we get to the final sneak peek image, I'm going to share a little bit of a confession about something I've only recently began to realize thanks to the incredible and amazing women I have had the honor of photographing the past few months.

But first, please allow me to digress just a little bit, because, well... It's what I do. If you've ever talked to me in real life, you know I have to tell at least 3 stories in the middle of the story I started telling before I can finish the original story. (See what I mean)...

The day of Griselda's session the temps were hovering in the low 100's, so we decided to push the session start time back, hoping it would cool down at least a little by the time we started. Unfortunately, a later start time meant less time to shoot before we lost the light. There were so many amazing places to shoot in this area, that we didn't even begin to touch them all. However, before we finished up, I just had to take some photos of Griselda with an old Volvo that I had spied while I was checking out the location before we got started.

It was getting really dark, and I kept having to crank up the ISO on my camera.  My biggest gripe about my camera is how horrible it does in really low light conditions, and how noise ends up in the photos.  So, I knew that I was going to end up having a full blown love/hate relationship with these photos. Love the photos - hate the noise.

Back to the confession...

As I've been photographing recent clients, I've watched them rock some incredible looks - everything from accessories that I think I could never pull off to expressions that I could never make work.  Yet these women are making these things look A-MAZ-ING.  And as I was thinking about this I began to realize that these women call pull off these styles, and look stunning while doing it, because they choose to own them.  The confidence they allude while showing off their style is what makes it work.  If they were hesitant and unsure of themselves, then perhaps the styles might look silly, but by owning the look they are able to rock it.

I'm taking this new found knowledge and applying to my life, my looks, and my photography.  Instead of thinking to myself, "Well crap, there went a perfectly good photo full of noise."  I'm going to start owing my noise and making it work for me.  It's an old car, right?  So, why not change it into black and white and embrace the noise to make it look like an old school grainy image, possibly taken back when the car was new....  cuz let's be honest - who doesn't love a sexy old black and white car photo with a gorgeous girl posing in it?

Griselda, thank you so much for allowing me to take your photos and for being so willing to let me have fun with these wild and crazy backgrounds. And, a huge thanks for being one of the special women who has helped me gain a new and amazing perspective and attitude towards life and how I'm gonna live it!

As always, thanks for stopping by.  I heart my readers!

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.

Product Review | ExpoDisc

Before I get started, I want to state that the content of this post is my opinion based on the use of this product. I am in no way connected to the company that makes this product nor am I being compensated in any way for this review. If you've been around since the beginning of the blog, then you know that this is a first for me. But this product is just too good not to say a few words about it and pass on it's awesomeness to fellow photogs who may not know of it's existence.

I recently learned about the ExpoDisc White Balance Filter at a photography workshop I attended, and being introduced to this amazing product was worth every penny I paid for the seminar plus every penny I paid for my ExpoDisc. Yes, it's that amazing.

The ExpoDisc is crazy-easy to use.  You simply hold the filter up to your camera, and take a photo in the light that you are going to be shooting in.  Then you use the photo to set the custom white balance on your camera.  This is huge for me because my camera body doesn't have a setting that allows me to set custom Kelvin temps.  I can't tell you how excited I am to have found the ExpoDisc to solve this issue!

By taking the few seconds it takes to do this for each environment I shoot in, or every time the light changes, I have literally cut my editing time in half! Since beginning to use the ExpoDisc, I barely have to do any white balance or color correction edits on my photos.  This is huge! Less time editing = faster turn around time for getting clients their proofs!

ExpoDisc is made by ExpoImaging, and comes in two versions - neutral and portrait.  I actually opted to purchase the neutral option even though I shoot mostly portraits because personally I like photos that are a little on the cooler side.  But I realize that I am a bit of an exception, so for those individuals who prefer portraits with a warmer appearance, the portrait option was designed for you!

I didn't take any photos of this product or any before/after images because ExpoImaging has already done it.  To learn more about the amazing ExpoDisc, head on over to their website to read more about it and see the comparison images.

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.

Self-Portrait | May 2012

At the tail end of April, I took a photography workshop that I found through Groupon. It was advertised as a beginning workshop for portrait photographers who are interested in going pro, so I wasn't exactly sure what it would cover. It was reasonably priced, so I decided to take my chances and sign up for it. I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would take home some useful tips, and I wasn't disappointed.

It was a fairly basic class, detailing how to select manual settings and basic posing suggestions, but what made the class so amazing for me is that the instructor showed a video of her shooting a client session, and I picked up several ideas for things to try during my own sessions. I wanted to check out some of her methods to see if anything clicked for me as an easier way to shoot.

The other great thing she shared was a detailed process of how she instructs people to pose. Instead of just verbally telling them what she wants them to do or walking up to them and moving them herself, she demonstrates what she wants them to do with her own body and then asks them to mimic her, from her place behind her camera. To get used to doing this, she suggested that we go home and practice posing ourselves. She suggested posing ourselves using a mirror, but I wanted to see the more realistic results of posing myself in front of the camera.

What I learned was that I'd need a lot more practice if I was going to switch to this method of posing people, or all of my clients are going to end up looking as ridiculous as I did in 95% of my photos! In each image, I could see exactly what wasn't working with my positioning and how I would have directed myself to change it if I could have. If I ever manage to figure out how to pose myself without being able to look at myself and make adjustments, perhaps I'll switch to her method. But for now I think I better stick to my posing method of giving verbal directions and walking up to readjust when necessary.

Since the month of May has been consumed with trying out shooting techniques and suggestions from the seminar, I thought it fitting to use a photo of me striking a pose as my self-portrait for the month.

May's self-portrait was taken at our rental house in Phoenix, and it took some major furniture rearranging to find a decent place to take the photos.  The house we are renting is much smaller than the one we sold, and it is busting at the seams.  In order to find a place with good lighting and a background that wouldn't be too distracting, I literally had to move half of the furniture out of the living room.  Am I dedicated or what?

Honesty, I had a lot of fun taking this month's photo.  I basically held a little photo session for myself and even tried a few different outfits.  I did end up with a handful of photos that I liked, but this one was my favorite.  If you are a photog and have never done this, I highly recommend it!

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 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.

Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro More Examples

Just joining in? Here's what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!
Photography 101 | Aperture
Photography 101 | Shutter Speed
Photography 101 | ISO
Photography 101 | Exposure Meter
Photography 101 | Depth of Field
Photography 101 | Motion
Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro
Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro Examples

Welcome back to my Photography 101 series! I'm so glad that you have decided to join me.

This week I am going to share some more examples with you.  Again, I am hoping that these will help you to make a little more sense out of my previous post, Think Like a Pro.  All of these are real life examples, where I created the photos under the given circumstances instead of making any attempts to stage the "perfect" shooting environment.

Example 3

Before we get started, here is the scene for the following photos.  Again it is my backyard, only this time it was about 7:10 PM.  This photo was taken from the opposite side of the yard from last week's examples and the setting sun is almost directly behind me...

I took the above photo with my 50 mm lens, set to 1/40 f/16 ISO 400.  To select these settings, I recognized that nothing in my scene was in motion so I was going to focus on selecting my aperture opening first.  I knew that I wanted my entire scene in focus, so I wanted a large depth of field, which is the result of selecting a small aperture opening.  I knew that it was getting dark and I was going to have to use a fairly slow shutter speed in order to get enough light into the camera to properly expose my image and experience has taught me that I can usually hand hold this lens at 1/40 and still keep my shot in focus.  The camera had automatically adjusted the ISO to 400 as I made my other selections and I decided that would work just fine for the above image and took the photo.

A few days ago, I put a post up on Facebook asking if anyone had any requests of shooting situations they would like me to address in these examples. Someone left a comment requesting that I show an example of photographing a moving subject (i.e. dogs or children) in low light.  This was a great suggestion, as it presents a fairly difficult set of circumstances to consider and doesn't fit within the regular sequence of my considerations for determining manual settings.  So, instead of addressing this example like I did the others, I'm going to take a different approach.

When you want to freeze the motion of a moving subject in low light conditions, you have two conflicting situations to consider.  You have the motion of your target that you want to freeze, requiring a fast shutter speed and a reasonable aperture (so the depth of field isn't too narrow) and you have the low light conditions, requiring a slow shutter speed and a large aperture.  So, what's a photog to do?

Well, let's consider our options, and the potential problems of each:

1. Use a larger aperture than you really want to use in an attempt to let more light into the camera.  (This is assuming that you have a lens that will open up wide enough to consider this options.  I was using my 50 mm f/1.2 lens for several of these example photos.)

Pro: Let in more light, allowing you to properly expose your photo and allowing you to shoot with a lower ISO to help eliminate noise.

Con: Small depth of field makes it harder to capture subjects in motion, especially when they are close to your lens and moving perpendicular to you.

Example...

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/500 f/2.0 ISO 250.  Lexi was running towards me and was fairly close to me when I took this photo.  There is sort of a small plane of focus starting at the front of the wall near the left side of the photo and extending over to the middle of her back. (I was kneeling down at an angle when I took this so it's a little bit hard to envision the focal plane since it isn't straight on.) Everything else in the photo fell outside of the depth of field and is therefore out of focus.

2. Use a slower shutter speed than you really want to use in order to let more light into the camera.

Pro: Let in more light, allowing you to properly expose your photo and allowing you to shoot with a lower ISO to help eliminate noise.

Con: A slower shutter speed will probably result in some blur of the motion of your moving subject.

Example...

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/80 f/2.8 ISO 1600.  Obviously this shutter speed was way too slow to freeze the motion of Zoe & Lexi as they were playing!  If you are going for intentional blur, then you won't have as much of a problem with low slight conditions, but when you are trying to freeze the motion it makes it a bit tougher.

3. Use a higher ISO than you really want to use in order to increase the sensitivity of the camera sensor, allowing you to shoot in lower lighting conditions.

Pro: Increase the sensitivity of the camera sensor, allowing you to use a faster shutter speed and/or a smaller aperture opening to better freeze motion while properly exposing your photo.

Con: The higher the ISO the more noise will be in your photo. (Exactly how much noise will be present at each ISO is very dependent on your camera model.)

Examples...

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/500 f/2.8 ISO 3200.  It this particular photo the noise in the image is starting to become noticeable but isn't too awful yet.

The above photo was taken with the following settings: 1/320 f/2.8 ISO 3200.  As I was losing light, I had to slow down my shutter speed a little bit more, and I was still able to freeze the motion of Lexi running.  However, in the lower light conditions the noise of the photo is more apparent.  (I also cropped this photo slightly to help demonstrate the noise for anyone who didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned noise in photos.  It's impossible to miss it in this one!!)

4.  Use a flash or another additional light source

Pro: Adding light to the scene will reduce or eliminate the issue of low light, allowing you to select the camera settings that you want to use to freeze the motion of your subject, and/or you can use the flash itself to freeze the motion of moving subjects.

Con: The flash on your camera doesn't have a very large range, so it probably won't illuminate your subject unless they are fairly close to your lens (and it does affect the shutter speeds you can use, but that's definitely a topic for way in the future), and other sources of light aren't all that easy to come by unless you happen to travel with some portable studio lighting every where you go.  If you're reading this article, I'm guessing you're just getting your feet wet with photography and don't own any expensive lighting equipment yet.

Examples...

I didn't take any.  :)  Sorry, but I don't currently own the lighting equipment that would have been necessary for example photos, either.

5. Intentionally underexpose your image, knowing that you can edit it in Photoshop to brighten it up.

Yep, I said it.

I know that there are people that want to reach through the computer right now and strangle me at the mere suggestion of not "getting it right in the camera" but here's my thinking... we have a-maz-ing technology at our finger tips for editing photos today, so why not use it to our advantage every once in a while when it will help us to get the results we want out of our photos?

Pro: Allows more flexibility with the manual camera settings to freeze motion without inducing noise

Con: Requires the extra time and knowledge to edit the photo

Examples...

Before Photoshop:

(This photo was taken with these settings: 1/320 f/2.8 ISO 3200)

After a quick adjustment of the exposure and brightness in Photoshop:

So, I guess you're still waiting for me to tell you what I would do, huh?  Honestly, there is no right answer.  It all comes down to personal preference.  For me, I don't love it when subjects that are in motion are blurry in my images when I didn't intend for them to be blurry.  I also don't love it when my images have a lot of noise in them.  And, I'm not really a big fan of shooting with my flash.   However, I am a HUGE fan of blurred out backgrounds in photos, so I have a lot of experience shooting with my lenses wide open.  As a result I know what to expect from them as far as depth of field.  So.... I usually opt for the wide aperture opening option.  I just try to keep in mind that if my subject is farther away from my lens, I will have a wider depth of field to work with.  I also try to keep the path of my subject's motion parallel to me if at all possible.  Here are a few examples...

1/500 f/2.0 ISO 200

1/500 f/2.0 ISO 200

1/500 f2.0 ISO 250

1/500 f/2.0 ISO 320

And there you have it! We have now covered everything you need to know to begin using the manual settings on your camera. I really hope that you have found these Photography 101 posts helpful as you begin to navigate your own path toward creating gorgeous photos in manual mode. I still have several more topics that I would like to cover in future Photography 101 posts, so stay tuned!

As always, thanks for stopping by and for reading. If you have any questions or suggestions for future Photography 101 topics, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I love hearing from readers!

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.

BBL 2011-2012 | Take a Vow of Silence for 24 Hours

#4 TAKE A VOW OF SILENCE FOR 24 HOURS

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

In the movie Eat Pray Love there is a character that takes a vow of silence, and after watching the movie I got to wondering what it would be like to take a vow of silence of my own.  I thought it would be interesting to see what it was like to move through the world without verbally interacting with it.  I also thought it would be good for me to listen to my internal dialog, and concentrate on the things that I say to myself.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

On one hand the experience was interesting, and definitely gave me a new perspective on a few things.  On the other, I feel like I would have needed to remain silent for much longer to really gained as much from the experience as I was wanting.

The details...

Of course, the practicalities of my life didn't allow me to refrain from talking for too long, so I settled on 24 hours as the "official" length of time.  I was hoping that I would make it more like 48 hours, but it ended up being about 36 hours.  I wish I could say that I was 100% successful and didn't speak at all, but that isn't exactly the case.  There were a few instances where I simply forgot I wasn't supposed to be talking and verbally responded to something. I also went out to eat during the 36 hours, and it felt too awkward not to respond to the waiter during the meal.  I ended my vow a little earlier than planned in order to have a conversation with my husband, when he told me about something that had happened during his day that I wanted to discuss with him.

I was surprised to realize that I didn't really say too many negative things to myself during the course of my silence.  It seems like I've read a lot about negative self talk, and I'd always assumed that I did more than my share of it, but once I really started paying attention I realized that overall I'm not too hard on myself.  However, I did notice that if I had been speaking I would have made several random unnecessary negative comments about the world around me.  So, the experience did make me slightly more aware of this habit, and reminded me that perhaps the old adage, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" would be good advice for me to follow.

Do you want to see my entire 2011-2012 Bucket List? You can find it here.

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.

Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro Examples

Just joining in? Here's what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!
Photography 101 | Aperture
Photography 101 | Shutter Speed
Photography 101 | ISO
Photography 101 | Exposure Meter
Photography 101 | Depth of Field
Photography 101 | Motion
Photography 101 | Think Like a Pro

Welcome back to my Photography 101 series! I'm so glad that you have decided to join me.

This week I am going to share some examples along with details about how I selected the settings for each of the photos.  I'm hoping that this will help you to make a little more sense out of last week's post, Think Like a Pro.  All of these are real life examples, where I created the photos under the given circumstances instead of making any attempts to stage the "perfect" shooting environment.

Example 1

For this first example, I decided that I wanted to take some motion shots of Zoe & Lexi.  I was really hoping to take some fun photos of Lexi shaking water off of herself after playing in her pool but it didn't happen, which isn't much of a surprise.  The first rule of photographing pets or children is be flexible!

To start with I took a photo of my scene, to help you see where I was shooting and the lighting conditions I had to consider.  It is my backyard at about 11:30 AM, with the sun positioned almost directly above where I was standing to take this photo...

I took the above photo using my 18-55 mm lens at 18 mm.  I opted to use this lens because it is the widest lens I own, and therefore would show the largest amount of the yard. The above photo was taken with the following settings: f/16 1/200 ISO 200.  Here is how I came up with those settings: I evaluated my scene and nothing in it is in motion, so the first setting I considered was my aperture setting.  I wanted my entire scene to be in focus, so I wanted a large depth of field.  I thought that an aperture of f/16 would provide a large enough depth of field to keep the entire scene in focus, but also allow me to select a reasonably fast shutter speed so I could hand hold the camera with no risk of inducing any blur, and to keep my ISO in the range I like to shoot in with my camera.  I then adjusted my shutter speed, while watching my exposure meter and ISO setting that the camera was automatically adjusting for me.  When the exposure meter read a proper exposure at 1/200 and ISO 200, I knew that would work for this photo.

Could I have picked different settings?  Yes!   For every photograph, there are multiple combinations of settings that will result in a properly exposed image.  I could have closed down the aperture a stop or two, and compensated by slowing the shutter speed by an equivalent adjustment and still captured the same image.  I probably could have opened up the aperture slightly, and increased the shutter speed as well, but if I opened up the aperture too much it would have affected the depth of field and resulted in the background of the photo becoming blurry.

OK, now on to the photos that I took in the above scene.  I decided that I wanted to use my 24-70 mm lens for these photos.  I picked a zoom lens because I wanted the flexibility to be able to change the focal length of my lens as the dogs were in motion.  Both of the photos below were taken with the following settings: f/3.2 1/2000 ISO 100.  Here is how I came up with the settings:  I knew that I was going to be photographing the dogs in motion, and I wanted to show the motion by freezing it, therefore, I needed a fast shutter speed.  I knew I could have selected a speed that was slower, like 1/500 or 1/1000, and still frozen the motion in the photos.  However, I also knew that I wanted a fairly narrow depth of field because I wanted to blur out whatever ended up in the background as much as possible.  So, I thought 1/2000 would freeze the motion, while allowing me to use the aperture setting I wanted to use.  I opted for f/3.2 because it would give a narrow depth of field which would blur out a lot of the background and help to isolate my subject(s), yet wide enough that I thought I could still manage to capture the dogs as they were racing around.  After picking my first two settings, the camera had automatically adjusted the ISO to 100 for a proper exposure.

Example 2

This second example was taken while I was attending a law school function with my husband.  I was sitting across the table, watching the amazing light pouring in from the windows behind me, and asked Jeff if he would be nice enough to allow me to take a few photos of him.  He agreed, so I captured a few candid images of him while he was conversing with the others at the table.

To start with I took a photo of my scene, to help you see where I was shooting and the lighting conditions I had to consider.  This is inside of a restaurant at about 4:30 PM.  I was sitting at the table directly across from my subject, and the entire wall behind me was windows...

I took the above photo using my 18-55 mm lens at 24 mm.  I opted to use this lens because it is the widest lens I own, and therefore would show the largest amount of the scene. The above photo was taken with the following settings: f/5.6 1/100 ISO 100.  Here is how I came up with those settings: I evaluated my scene and nothing in it is in motion (or at least not in much motion - yes Jeff was moving a little as he was talking but he wasn't exactly racing around the table or anything), so the first setting I considered was my aperture setting.  I wanted enough of the scene to be in focus to show what was behind my subject, but the wall and the door were only about 3-4 feet behind Jeff.  I knew an aperture of f/5.6 would provide enough depth of field for the scene I was working with, and allow me to select a shutter speed that would allow me to hand hold the camera with no risk of inducing any blur.  I then adjusted my shutter speed, while watching my exposure meter and ISO setting that the camera was automatically adjusting for me.  When the exposure meter read a proper exposure at 1/100 and ISO 100, I knew that would work for this photo.

OK, now on to the photo I took in the above scene.  The photo below was taken with my 50 mm lens, which I selected because it opens up to a wider aperture than any of my other lenses.  With that crazy wall as my background, I knew I wanted to narrow my depth of field in order to blur that wall as much as possible in an attempt to isolate my subject from it.  So, I opted for an aperture setting of f/1.2.  I then adjusted shutter speed while watching my exposure meter and ISO setting that the camera was automatically adjusting for me.  When the exposure meter read a proper exposure at 1/250 and ISO 100, I knew those settings would work for the photo I wanted to create.

Again, I know that is a lot to take in!  So, I'm going to leave you with these two examples and next week I will return with another example or two taken in different lighting conditions.

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.

A Long Overdue Appearance

I spent the past few days updating the photo albums on my facebook page, and while I going through my photo archives I realized that I hadn't taken any new photos of Zoe and Lexi in quite a while - especially any portraits! The last few times I've photographed them it has been more action shots of them playing.

So, I dug out a few of their scarves, grabbed a box of treats, and headed out to the backyard with them to take a few photos.  They seemed to have reversed rolls today.  Usually it is Zoe who gives me the most struggles as I try to keep her in place long enough for me to take a photo, but this evening she was a perfect little angel.  She just sat there and let me snap as many photos as I wanted...

Lexi, on the other hand, was being a little stinker and wouldn't stay put for more than a few seconds. As soon as I crouched down and started to raise my camera, she came running up to me. The only photos I managed to get of her tonight were ones where Zoe was sitting right next to her. This photo came from one of those where Zoe wasn't looking at the camera, but Lexi looked really cute - so I just cropped her out. Gotta love Photoshop...

And of course, I had to have one of my two fur babies together...

As always, thanks for stopping by!

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.