Self-Portrait | September 2011

September's self-portrait was taken in the bedroom in our rental house in Arizona, using the Fisheye Lens that I rented earlier in the month. Since shooting with the lens was one of the highlights of the month, I thought it was fitting for me to use it to take this month's portrait.

I decided on a photo of myself holding a book, while relaxing on the bed, because reading is one of my favorite things to do!  Now that we are (mostly) unpacked, and things are starting to settle into more of a routine around here, I'm slowly starting to find time to do more of the things that I enjoy.

If you look at the book I am holding, you will see that it is called The Happiness Project. I saw this book at the store quite a while ago and though it looked like an interesting read. I finally decided to buy it and start reading it recently. As I'm reading, I'm putting together my own version of a happiness project of sorts. I feel like my life has been passing by me mostly unnoticed in recent years because I haven't taken the time to stop and see the good around me. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to change that, and hoping that the book will help me to do just that.

I've been really excited to see that the light in our rental house is amazing for photos! I haven't spent too much time taking indoor photos here yet, but the few I have managed have really shown the great light. If I'd decided to try to take these self-portraits in our old house in Indiana, I would have really struggled. The lighting in that house was atrocious, and I'd cringe any time I had to take photos inside there.

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.

Happy 4th Birthday, Sweet Baby Zoe!

Yesterday was Zoe's 4th birthday! I find it incredibly hard to believe that so much time has passed since I adopted her. It is down right scary just how fast time has been flying by in recent years.

I will fully admit that my dogs are incredibly spoiled! On their birthdays, we always buy them a bunch of toys and treats to unwrap. We put them all in a bag covered with tissue paper, and let them open it and pull out all of their goodies.

This is typically how the event starts, with both of the dogs heads in the bag, checking out the goods...

Here are a few photos of the birthday girl that I took after her present had been opened and sufficiently sniffed...

I had to throw in a cute one of Lexi, too!  This photo just captures her personality.  She is such a happy dog...

They were actually doing a very good job of posing together, so I even managed to get a couple of good ones of them together...

Lexi's birthday is in early December, so I'm sure that we will be celebrating hers in the blink of an eye!

How do you celebrate your pet's birthday?

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.

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.