All For Love

Unfortunately for me, a love of photography is one of the rare things in life that Kevin and I don't have in common. Fortunately for me, I have the most loving and supportive husband in the world! So, even though Kevin doesn't really like having his photo taken, he sits for me quite often when I want to try out a new piece of equipment or a new shooting technique. And even though he may not understand why I want to spend several hours behind my camera trying to capture the perfect shot, he regularly agrees to tag along with me when I need help with a shoot, or when I just want company.

Kevin went with me a few times while I was shooting with the Fisheye Lens that I rented. During one of those trips, we stumbled upon a rather large ant hill, and Kevin suggested that I take photos of it. Because of the lens I was using, I had to plant my face just a few short inches from the ants crawling in and out of their house and take the photos. Umm.... yuck! But I did it anyway because my hubby asked me to.

I knew that the photos weren't going to turn out all that great. It was getting dark, and the ants were moving pretty fast - two things that aren't really compatible in photography. In order to let in as much light as possible, I had to slow my shutter speed, and in order to freeze the movements of the ants, I had to speed up my shutter. I was already shooting with my aperture wide open, and my camera doesn't do so hot with ISO levels over 800 and as a general rule I'm not a fan of images full of noise. I did the best I could under the circumstances, knowing that the photos would probably just end up buried along with several thousand others in the archives on my hard drives.

I briefly considered posting one of the photos, but ultimately decided against it. There was nothing special about any of the images, plus the ants were just kinda gross and creepy looking (or maybe that's just leftover trauma from having my nose so close to them)! So, when I posted the final post from my Fisheye Post series it contained no ant photos. On the link to that final post on facebook, Kevin left a comment saying that he demanded ants. I had forgotten that I never even showed him any of the photos that I took!

So, I am once again honoring my husband's request (or perhaps I should say demand), and giving him ants!  I suppose I should consider myself lucky that my husband has such simple (albeit strange) requests.

Here you go, honey, as requested: ANTS!......

And a cropped version, just in case you want to get a little more up close and personal with them...

The things we do for love! So, what strange things have you done for your loved ones?

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.

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Last night, Kevin and I went out to celebrate Amanda's birthday, and she asked me if I would bring my camera and take some photos of the evening for her.

We went out for great sushi and then to a few bars afterward.  I did take a lot of photos during the evening, but my policy is to never post photos of people I don't know without their permission.  So, I'm only going to share this adorable photo of Amanda...

It's always fun shooting something new, and this was a really different experience for me because I don't normally use a flash, which means that I don't own any lighting equipment. So, it really had me on my toes trying to remember that my on board flash was only going to reach so far and I couldn't shoot from too far away.

Every time I photograph an event I am reminded why I prefer to take portraits. It is soooo much easier to shoot when you have control of your environment, you have (somewhat) willing subjects, and you aren't trying to capture every moment around you as it is happening.

Amanda, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your special celebration.  I hope your birthday was everything you dreamed and more!

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.

Fun With a Fisheye | Part 4

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

Day 7...

Kevin and I live about half an hour away from downtown Phoenix, so we live in a pretty rural area. All of the following photos were taken just a few miles away from our house near the Gila River. (I've been surprised by how much water I've been finding in the Phoenix area once I started looking!)

Here is a photo I took of the river, with the lens zoomed so it gave a wide angle view...

Look how clear the water is!...

Like I said, it's a pretty rural area, so I was able to lay down in the middle of the street to take this photo.  (The river is off to the left side of the photo.  It's that shiny area you can see where the trees kind of break.)...

Before we moved here, I was expecting to see a lot of this type of hard, cracked dirt.  I was pretty excited to find it just as I expected and get a photo of it!...

I love me some cacti!  I truly am in love with the landscape in Arizona, and drive around in constant awe of all of the palm trees, cacti, and mountains every where I look.  I hope that these things never lose their sense of wonder for me...

I was really losing light fast, and was trying to capture as many photos as I could, but I would have loved to change out the lens on my camera and take another shot from this same position to show how close those mountains really are to where I was standing!  It's amazing how far away the Fisheye Lens makes everything look!...

See that tiny, little white speck in the center of the photo?  Yeah, that's the moon!!....

Gorgeous colors in the sky!  So far Phoenix has shown us some pretty impressive sunsets.  One of these days I'm going to get out with a different lens and really capture the stunning colors...

And there you have it! My week experimenting with a Fisheye Lens!

So, I guess the big question is... Would I want to own this lens? I really had a lot of fun shooting with this lens over the past week. I think that if I had more time to play with it (and learned the Phoenix area better so I knew of more fun places to photograph), my skill with it would have improved and I eventually would be able to take some really fun and creative shots. However, in all reality I don't see a lot of practical uses for the lens with the type of shooting that I prefer to do (i.e. portraits). I also think that eventually the novelty of the lens would wear off and I wouldn't use it all that often if it was in my camera bag. I think if I ever get the urge to experiment with a Fisheye Lens in the future, I'll just rent one again and save my money to purchase a more practical lens.

As always, thank you for stopping by and taking the time to check out 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.

Fun With a Fisheye | Part 3

If you missed my other three posts about shooting with a Fisheye Lens, they can be found here, here, and here.

Day 5...

I decided to try something a little different with the lens today, and take some night shots with it. So, I headed back downtown with my camera and tripod to have a little fun. This was only my second time experimenting with night photography, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it! I definitely see more of it in my future.

These were all taken from the same parking garage as the images from Day 4.  (I guess I need to spend some time downtown seeing where else I can shoot from, huh?)

I really liked how they all turned out!...

Hubby and I had to jump into this one, just for fun!  This is definitely one of my absolute favorites of the week...

Day 6...

All of these photos were taken in Tempe, and I must say that they are by far my favorite set of photos from the week.  When I first got the lens, I had decided that I wanted to try to find a bridge to photograph, but where was I going to find a bridge in Phoenix?  I did a little research, and found that there were several bridges very close to each other that cross the Salt River in Tempe.  I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing with the lines of the bridges in all of these photos, and bending them every which way with the lens.  I do have a favorite of the bunch, but it was a pretty hard choice!

Here is another photo, where I zoomed the lens a little bit to use the lens as a wide angle and decrease the distorted effect...

Fav!  I just love all the curving lines in the image...

Believe it or not, I still have one more post of Fisheye photos to share with you, so I hope you'll join me again soon for Part 4!

Which photo set do you like best... the night photos or the bridge 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.

Fun With a Fisheye | Part 2

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

Day 3...

I didn't have a lot of time to shoot this day, so I headed out to our backyard to try to get a few fun photos of Zoe & Lexi. It turned out to be a lot harder than I had imagined!

One of the nice things about the lens was that it did make it easier to get a photo of the two of them together. They didn't have to be sitting very close to each other for the lens to make it look like they were pretty close...

I took this one to give a better perspective of just how far away the lens makes things look. My arm is obviously not that long!...

The dogs didn't really like having the camera so close to them.  If Lexi had turned her head just an inch or two her nose would have hit the camera lens (which happened more than once!), and it kind of freaked her out a little...

Loved this one!  I thought it was fun how curved it made the dogs legs and bodies look...

Day 4...

All of these photos were taken in and around downtown Phoenix.

I meant to try to take more photos like this one, looking up at the tall buildings but I actually forgot until I was on my way back home!...

Kevin went with me for my morning of shooting, and let me take a few crazy photos of him.  This one was my fav...

I'm a sucker for palm trees!  I love this one, but wish it was a true circle image...

These next two were taken from the top of a parking garage.  Between the two photos I shifted the position of the camera a little bit and you can really see how much more the buildings curve the higher in the frame they are...

This one is my all time favorite photo that I took during the week!  It looks like something out of a movie with the ominous clouds looking like they are circling over the city...

These next few photos were taken through the windows of one of the taller buildings downtown, so please excuse the reflections in the photos!  I didn't have a filter for the lens since it wasn't mine.

I was really having fun using the larger buildings as curving frames for some of the smaller buildings out in the distance...

I really liked how much of the landscape you could see in this next one...

Love this one!  Fun, right?...

So, which one do you like best?

By the third and fourth day, I started to feel like I was figuring the lens out a bit and was able to branch out a little bit and try a few more fun things.  I'll be back again soon with Part 3, so check back to see what else I captured during my week with the Fisheye!

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.

Fun With a Fisheye | Part 1

If you missed my original post about shooting with a Fisheye Lens, you can find it here.

The first evening that I used the Fisheye Lens, I just walked around my neighborhood taking photos of random things that I came across.  I was mostly trying to get a feel for the lens and see how it worked.

Day 1...

This photo was taken with me laying with my feet next to the trunk of the tree (I deliberately left them in the photo for a little perspective, and you can see them in the bottom right corner ).  The tree was near the top of a small hill, so I am laying a bit upside down with my head lower than my feet.  If you look at the top left of the photo, you can see the cars that are on the road behind me...

Here is the same photo, but I have inverted it, to give a different view. In this one the street and cars are easier to see...

The instant I saw that photo, and realized just how much of the scene around me the Fisheye Lens could capture, I was in love! I felt like a kid in a candy store - eyes wide open, staring at all the possibilities in front of me!

This next photo was probably more fun to shoot than it is too view. What I really should have done was tried recording a video through the lens to see how it looked. Watching the cars zoom up and down the curves felt like I was watching a kid playing with toy cars on a race track...

Day 2...

All of the following photos were taken just a few miles from our neighborhood.  I have no idea what the buildings used to be, but I'm a sucker for old, falling apart, graffiti covered dwellings!

This next photo really shows how much the lens curves things, as the two railroad tracks are parallel to each other in reality...

I hadn't quite learned my lesson about getting close enough with this next image.  I was close enough to that wood pile on the right side that I could easily touch it, and it still looks a million miles away!  I was checking out how the horizon curved through the lens when I moved it away from the horizontal...

I had read that Fisheye Lens often have a lot of chromatic aberration, and you can really see it in this photo...

One of the practical uses I can see for a Fisheye Lens it to be able to photograph inside of doorways and capture the whole room inside.  I never could have gotten the following two shots without it.  This photo is taken looking through the door way that is visible in the photo above...

This is another view into the small building taken looking through the doorway that is visible on the left side of the above image...

I then moved on to another nearby building.  Those grey metal beams in the foreground of the photo aren't curved in reality!...

This photo is taken looking straight at the wall that is on the left side on the above photo.  I love how it curves everything and makes it look like it is bulging out straight at you!...

For this final image of the day, I zoomed in a little bit to use the lens more as a wide angle and minimize the barrel effect.  On my camera body, this would be a nice feature of the lens but on a full frame camera this photo would have still been quite distorted (and all of the above photos would have been true circle images instead of just the edges having the black rim like they do)....

So, which one is your favorite?  My two favs are the first and the last ones.

I really enjoyed my first two days of shooting with the lens, and felt like I really learned a lot about what I was able to do with it!  But, there are lots more photos coming up, so stay tuned for more fun Fisheye pictures in Part 2!

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.