Self-Portrait | March 2012

I live in one of the top ten largest cities in the country, yet I only have to travel a few short miles and it feels like I am in the middle of nowhere.  This came in quite handy, as March's self-portrait was taken with me standing in the middle of an intersection.  I wanted to find a time where there would be as little traffic as possible to take this photo, so I got up at 5:45 AM on a Sunday morning to do it, which either makes me dedicated or nuts!

Remember back in January, when I talked about the rough road I have been on?  And how I'd finally realized that the time had come to make some major life changes?  Well, it took a while to set the wheels in motion, but the time has finally come for those changes to happen.  I couldn't be more ready to embrace the new things that life has in store for me and start traveling down a new path.  So, here I am standing at the crossroads of my life, with my arms up in victory for everything I have struggled through and in excitement for where I am headed.

I started taking my self-portraits because I felt like it was something that I should do.  I thought it would be good for me, and that I could learn a lot from it.  You know - one of those tough love kinda things, where I was going to force myself to do something I really didn't want to do for my own good. However, as the months go by I find myself enjoying taking them more and more.  If you are a photographer, I would encourage you to consider doing a self-portrait project for yourself!  I think you might be surprised at how much you can learn and grow from 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 | Shutter Speed

Just joining in? Here is what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!
Photography 101 | Aperture

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

I would once again like to begin by asking you to do a little experiment. For this one you will need two large containers that are the same size, a stop watch, and a sink. Place one of your containers under the faucet, turn it on all the way, and allow the water to run for 5 seconds. Set the container aside, and repeat with the second container, allowing the water to run for 10 seconds.  Now compare the amount of water in the two containers. If you were accurate with your timing, you should have approximately double the amount of water in the second container as you do in the first container. Why? Because the longer you leave the faucet running, the more water you allow to pass through it into your containers.

Applying this same idea to photography, we need a certain amount of light to enter the camera to create a photograph.  One way that we can control the amount of light that enters the camera is by altering the shutter speed of the camera. The shutter speed is the setting that regulates the amount of time that the aperture is left open. The longer it is open, the more light you allow to enter the camera, and the shorter it is open, the less light you allow to enter the camera.

To demonstrate this, I once again took a series of photographs of a single subject. All of these images were taken with my EF-S 18-55mm IS Zoom Lens, with my aperture set to to f/8 and my ISO set to 200. (I chose this lens because it is the stock lens that came with my camera, and is probably similar to the lens that most of you are using. Don't worry too much about the aperture and ISO settings for now.  We will cover how to choose these settings in future posts.) For each consecutive photo, I then changed my shutter speed by one step to show the effect on the image. The first shot was taken with a shutter speed of 1/50 and the last image was taken with an aperture of 1/2500. (I picked this range of settings because I felt like it was a good range to demonstrate the effect of changing shutter speed on an image.)

Just like with aperture settings, shutter speed is measured in FRACTIONS of a second.  So, again, you have to keep in mind how fractions work when you are making adjustments to the shutter speed setting on your camera.  A shutter speed setting of 1/50 of a second is a much slower setting (resulting in the aperture being left open for a much longer time period which will allow more light to enter the camera) than 1/2500 of a second (resulting in the aperture being left open for a much shorter time period which will allow less light to enter the camera).

If you look at the above series of photos, you can see that the first photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/50 and allows too much light to enter the camera, resulting in a photo that looks a bit "washed out." The last photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/2500 and doesn't allow enough light to enter, resulting in a photo that is much too dark.

I encourage you to experiment with your camera's shutter speed settings this week and become familiar with how changing it affects your images. To do this, set your camera on manual mode, pick an aperture setting, and set your ISO setting to 200. (Again, there is no particular reason for this setting. It is basically just a "middle of the road" settings that should work for this experiment.) Then take a series of images like the ones I took above, changing the shutter speed setting one step between each exposure. I suggest experimenting with different aperture settings, and taking a series of photos for each one to begin to get a feel for how the two work together to create an exposure. I also suggest taking a series of photos for several different subjects in different environments to see what results you get.

Then join me back here next Friday and get ready to learn all about ISO!

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.

Elle's Sneak Peek {Part 1}

I first met Elle last fall at the birthday party of a mutual friend. From the moment I saw her, I wanted to photograph her. I knew she would be amazing in front of the camera! But I figured she'd think I was a crazy person if I just walked up to her 5 minutes after meeting her and asked her if she would model for me some time.

I ran into Elle again a few weeks ago at another party hosted by our mutual friend. We got to talking, and I asked her how she felt about having her photo taken. She told me that she loved modeling and that she recently competed to be Miss Kansas! At that point, how could I resist? I asked her if she would be interested in modeling for me and she agreed!

We decided on a two part shoot, and the first part was last night. The second half is scheduled for next week, but I just couldn't wait until then to post photos of the stunning Elle.

We started our shoot by meeting at Elle's apartment, where she gave me free rein to ransack her closet and help her pick out her outfits.  That was the first opportunity I've ever had to dress someone for photos, and I have to admit that I LOVED it!  The second I saw the vest and boots in the first half of these photos, I knew we had to use them!

Once we had picked out her clothes, we headed out and spent our shoot just wandering around taking photos near her apartment.

I told you the smile would be worth the wait, didn't I?!...

Elle was so amazing to photograph because she was up for anything. This shot was taken with her laying on a picnic table in front of a restaurant with diners all around her. When I asked her if she'd be up for climbing up there, she didn't even bat an eye!...

We came upon this building, and I loved the white background and fun windows in these next two photos...

I keep trying to find the right words to describe why I love this photo, but it's just not happening.  I just really like the feel of it....

This next set of photos was taken in front of a store, and the white metal thing you can see is actually a bed frame.  While we were shooting, a guy rode by on his bike and said something like, "Now that's how you sell a bed frame."  It was great!  And I'm sure he's right - a few photos of Elle modeling with the bed frame, and I'm sure the store would have it sold in no time!...

One of the best things about Elle is that she can very easily pull off different looks. She can go from cute girl next door...

to serious and sexy, and completely pull off both looks.  Take it from me, not a lot of people can do that very easily!...

I am IN LOVE with this photo of Elle.  It's definitely one of my favs!...

Seriously. Could she be any more stunning?...

Elle was a-maz-ing during the session from start to finish! It is insanely exhausting posing for the camera, and she did everything I asked her to do without hesitation. And I know that some of the positions I had her pose in were tough to keep for as long as she did.

Elle, thank you, thank you, thank you, for agreeing to model for me and for being so accommodating to all of my requests! I can't wait for the second half of our session!

Stay tuned for more photos of Elle coming up soon.

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 | Aperture

Just joining in? Here is what you've missed:
Photography 101 | Coming Soon!

Welcome to my Photography 101 series!  I am so happy that you have decided to join me to learn how to use your DSLR camera in manual mode.

Before we get started I want to mention a few things.  These posts are intended to help you learn how to use your camera in manual mode, using natural light in the environment you are shooting in, meaning that you are not using the flash on your camera.  I will be writing these posts assuming that you have a basic knowledge of how your camera works, how to properly hold it, focus it, etc.  However, if you aren't sure about something, ASK!  I'm happy to answer questions, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you need help.

My intent for this series is to help beginning photographers learn to use their cameras in manual mode.  In order to do that, I think it is important to understand the function of each of the settings, and how they interact together to create a photograph.  So, I will do my best to provide simple explanations and examples along the way to help you understand the concepts.  In an attempt to prevent your eyes from glazing over, I'm going to try to avoid getting too technical or using too much complicated terminology.  However, if you desire a more in depth explanation of something, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to provide more information.

Let's get started, shall we?

I would like to begin by asking you to do a little experiment. Please take a flashlight and a mirror with you into a dimly lit room. Look into the mirror, aim the flashlight at your face, and watch what happens to your pupils as you turn the flashlight on and off. You should notice that when you turn the light on, your pupil gets smaller, and when you turn the light off, your pupil gets larger. Why? Because in order to see properly, we need a certain amount of light inside of our eyes. Too much or too little makes it hard for us to see.  So, we have a built in regulator to adjust the amount of light that gets into our eyes.

Applying this same idea to photography, we need a certain amount of light to enter the camera to create a photograph.  One of the ways that we can regulate the amount of light entering the camera is by adjusting the aperture of the camera.  The aperture of a camera is simply an opening that allows light to pass through it.  If the aperture is made larger, more light will enter the camera.  If the aperture is made smaller, less light will enter the camera.

To demonstrate this, I took a series of photographs of a single subject.  All of these images were taken with my EF-S 18-55mm IS Zoom Lens, with my shutter speed set to 200 and my ISO set to 200.  (I chose this lens because it is the stock lens that came with my camera, and is probably similar to the lens that most of you are using. There are no particular reasons why I picked these shutter speed and ISO settings other than they would work well for this demonstration.  For now, don't worry about these settings.  I will cover each of them in coming posts.)  For each consecutive photo, I then changed my aperture setting by one stop to show the effect on the image.  The first shot was taken with an aperture of f/5.6 and the last image was taken with an aperture of f/29 (The reason I picked this range of aperture openings is because it is the range that this particular lens will allow.  Each lens is different, so your largest and smallest openings will probably be different than mine.)

OK, now for the complicated part, so please hang in there with me!  The hardest thing to understand about aperture is how the setting adjustments are named, and how to move properly between them.

Aperture is measured in "f-stops" and the common f-stops are f/1, f/1.2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, and f/32.  By adjusting between two consecutive settings you either double, or cut in half, the amount of light that you allow to enter your camera, depending on if you make the aperture larger or smaller. (Many lenses offer a wider range of options than the list of standard ones that I give here. In those instances, the amount of light difference between settings varies by a different amount.)

You may hear someone mention "stepping up or stepping down" the aperture, or they might say "stopping up or stopping down" the aperture.  Stepping (or stopping) up is referring to raising the f-stop by one step (i.e. f/8 to f/11), which decreases the aperture opening by half and decreases the amount of light entering the camera by half.  Stepping (or stopping) down is referring to lowering the f-stop by one step (i.e. f/8 to f/5.6), which doubles the aperture opening and doubles the amount of light entering the camera.

The thing you have to keep in mind is that these measurements are FRACTIONS.  Yep, we're digging deep here to remember elementary school math, my friends!   So, if you think back you may remember that 1/2 of something is a much larger portion of it than 1/32 of it. The same thing is true for your camera's aperture setting. A setting of f/2 is much larger (resulting in much more light entering the camera) than f/32 (resulting in much less light entering the camera). So, as you adjust the settings, you must remember this little fact to make sure you are making adjustments in the proper direction!

If you look at the above series of photos, you can see that the first photo was taken with the aperture set at the largest setting of f/5.6 and allows enough light to enter the camera to show the image. The last photo was taken with the aperture set at the smallest setting of f/29 and doesn't allow much light to enter, resulting in a photo that is much too dark.

I encourage you to experiment with your camera's aperture setting this week and become familiar with the available settings for your lens(es), and how changing it affects your images. To do this, set your camera on manual mode, and set your shutter speed to 200 and your ISO setting to 200. (Again, there is no particular reason for these numbers. They are basically just "middle of the road" settings that should work for this experiment.) Then take a series of images like the ones I took above, changing the aperture setting by one stop between each exposure. I suggest taking a series of photos for several different subjects in different environments to see what results you get.

Then join me back here next Friday and get ready to learn all about shutter speed!

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.

Artemis + Nero's Sneak Peek

More kitty cuteness on the blog! :) These two sweet cats belong to one of Kevin's law school buddies who was kind enough to allow me to photograph them recently.  It was great getting to take their photos and gain some practice with my new lens!

So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Artemis.  She is definitely the friendlier of the two, and was fairly tolerant of me constantly sticking the camera in her face all afternoon...

She seems to like to lay with one of her paws extended, since the majority of the photos I took of her have her in some version of this pose...

And this big fluff ball is Nero. He was definitely a bit on the shy side while I was there, and only made a brief appearance when Alex bribed him to come out with some treats. Unfortunately, I only managed to capture a few quick shots of him before he ran off and hid again...

I couldn't resist this one of Artemis hoarding the little toy mice. Too cute!...

By the way, I didn't do a thing during editing to enhance those eyes. Aren't they gorgeous?...

Hanging under the table...

And another one of Nero. The photos of him just screamed out to be in black and white. I tried to find one to keep in color, but I just couldn't do it!...

Thank you, Alex, for allowing me to crash your Xbox party and photograph your cats! It was a pleasure meeting both of them and taking their pictures.

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.