Happy 6th Birthday, Lexi!

Where, oh where, does the time go??  I cannot believe that it is already early December and Lexi's birthday has come and gone once again.  I probably say it every year, but it feels like I just adopted my sweet pups a year or two ago.  I don't know how it can be almost 6 years since I brought little Lexi home!

Just like always, the dogs got to open a bag full of toys for Lexi's birthday.  They love opening their gifts, and we love watching them.  It is such a riot seeing them tear into the bag.  Of course, every time they see a gift bag they think it is for them, so it does make it a bit challenging to exchange gifts on human holidays without the dogs trying to help us open them.

Waiting for Kevin to give them their bag...

Hmmm.  Is there anything good in there?...

A new rope to play tug with!...

Zoe's favorite part is tearing the bags up...

A little game of tug with one of their new toys...

It probably seems like our dogs get a ton of toys every year, and you might be wondering how we aren't drowning in dog toys.  But the thing is our dogs are rough on toys, and they don't last long around our house.  That's why most of them come from the dollar store!  The toy pictured above lasted about 15 minutes, and then it had a gaping hole in it so Lexi proceeded to pull all of the stuffing out of it...

Just a little cuteness...

Another game of tug over the string from the handle of the bag...

Success!...

Until Zoe stole it!...

I just love that face!...

She had the tennis ball on this one destroyed in about 10 minutes, too!...

Gatsby and Daisy decided to get in on the action a bit, too!  The kittens have fit themselves into our household better than I ever could have dreamed.  I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are BFFs with the dogs, but our four fur babies do all get along really well.  The dogs accepted the kittens into the house with barely a glance and the kittens haven't been scared of the dogs, either.

Gatsby was being pretty brave and was right in the middle of all the commotion.  She did have to make a run for it and dive under the entertainment stand at one point to avoid being stepped on when the dogs got a little wild, though.

Here she is checking things out...

Gatsby has really unique eyes, and I am just in love with them!  They are green around the pupil and orange around the outside of her iris.  Here she is peeking at me...

Daisy is the wild child between the two kittens.  She's the one we are more likely to find climbing up on the top of someplace where she shouldn't be, but she was a little intimidated by the dogs being all crazy.  So, she did a bit more watching from afar...

As always, thanks for stopping by my blog!

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter © 2013 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Arizona Summit Law School | Student Head Shots

A few weeks ago I returned to Arizona Summit Law School (previously Phoenix School of Law) to take more student head shot photos.  I really enjoy getting to meet and chat with all of these students while I take their photos.  Each of them has such diverse backgrounds and grand dreams for their future law careers, and it's such fun hearing about them all.

Please allow me to once again introduce you to more awesome future attorneys.

Meet Rebecca...

Myrna...

Patricia...

Erin...

Addison...

and Shannon...

As always, I want to say a huge thank you to each of these students for allowing me to take these photos for them.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter

© 2013 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Kourtney + Eric's Sneak Peek {Engagement Session}

There is only one word to describe these photos from Kourtney and Eric's engagement session: PERFECTION.  Complete, absolute, utter, total perfection.  I am in love with every single one of these images and I am so excited to be sharing them with this amazing couple and all of my blog readers.

I work with Kourtney at my day job and she is an absolute doll.  I knew that this session was going to be a ton of fun, but it turned out even better than I could have imagined.  I'd been looking forward to shooting it from the time it was booked, especially when she and Eric settled on one of my favorite locations for their photos. What I hadn't counted on was how much fun Eric was going to be or how much these two love to laugh together.  I adore how you can really see their joy at being together come through in their photos.

We started our session off at the insane hour of 6:00 AM, so we could get in position and get set up to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being as spectacular as we'd hoped, but these images are still awesome and totally worth the early hour and freezing cold we endured to create them!...

Is this photo not to die for?  It is definitely one of my favorites...

Is this not just the sweetest?...

Kourtney, you. are. GORGEOUS!...

Adorable...

Love, love, love...

Having a little dance off.  Did I mention how much fun these two were?...

Hands down…. Favorite!  This belongs on a huge canvas, doesn't it?...

This one is another fav.  I just love that water behind them!...

And now the fun really begins!  Kourtney and Eric ended their session with a chalk war! These photos do a perfect job of telling the story, without any help:

Kourtney and Eric, You guys rock!  I had an absolute blast spending my Sunday morning with you two.  It was an honor and a pleasure capturing these images.  I hope you love them as much as I do.  May the love and laughter you share today continue to grow and expand with each year of your marriage, and may it continue to inspire those around you.  I wish you both a lifetime of happiness!  Thank you for trusting me to capture this once in a lifetime moment for you.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter

© 2013 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

Self-Portrait | November 2013

My husband and I started dating a few days before he began his undergraduate degree back in 2008, and now here we a little more than 5 years later and he is 3 short weeks away from his law school graduation.  We've had some fun and some good times along the way, but it has also been a very long journey with a lot of hard work and hard changes on both of our parts.

One of the hardest things for me was giving up my house in Indiana to move to Arizona.  I had built the house back before Kevin and I met, and it was my perfect dream house.   Leaving it behind has been very hard on me, especially on the days when I have to take everything out of a closet to reach something at the very back because we live in a tiny rental house with zero storage!

With Kevin's graduation on the horizon, we've decide that it is finally time to settle in and put down some roots here in Arizona.  It's time to buy a new house!  We are thrilled that we have finally reached this point, and couldn't be more excited at the idea of owning a house that we picked out together and will truly be ours.

However, can I just say that house hunting is exhausting!

I've been trying to do most of the research and only involve Kevin in the process when I find something that I think will be a good fit for us.  So, I've been spending most of my time this month doing a whole lot of this...

We did find one house earlier in the month that we loved, but our offer wasn't accepted.  Just yesterday we found another, and we have an outstanding offer on it. So, if you're reading this please keep your fingers crossed that our offer is accepted on this one, and hopefully next month I will be posting another moving photo for my monthly self-portrait!

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 | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter

© 2013 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC

BBL 2013-2014 | Photograph a Maternity Session

#38 PHOTOGRAPH A MATERNITY SESSION

Why did I include this on my Bucket List?

I put this on my bucket list because I've never had the opportunity to photograph a maternity session, so it just made sense to add it to my list as something new to try.  I really do enjoy experimenting with different types of photograph sessions.  I feel like each new experience behind the camera stretches my abilities and my creativity to make me a better photographer.

I'm also a firm believer in the idea that you never know if you're going to like something until you try it.  So I am slowly trying to explore all areas of photography to decide which ones I enjoy and which ones aren't for me.  This way I will know which session types are a good fit for my business, and which ones I'd prefer to refer to one of my fellow photographer colleagues.

Was the experience what I had hoped it would be?

It was better!  I really had a lot of fun photographing the session, and the photos turned out better than I expected for my first attempt at posing a couple for maternity photos.

The details...

I never want the first time I try something to be when someone hires me to do it.  I'm just not a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl.  I need things to be plotted and planned out well in advance, and that's exactly what I did for this session.

Back in the spring one of my friends told me that her daughter was expecting her first child at the end of the year.  When I heard the news, I asked if she would be willing to be my subject for my first venture into maternity photography.  She agreed, and her boyfriend was up for joining in, too, so we set a date for the session. And the rest, as they say, is history.  I've included a collage below of some of my favorites.  You can also click here to visit the blog post of the session.

Do you want to see my entire 2013-2014 Birthday Bucket List?  You can find it here. Did you miss my 2012-2013 List? You can find it here.  Or my 2011-2012 List? You can find it here.

Michele Whitacre is a portrait photographer serving Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding area.
Visit Michele's Website | Like Michele on Facebook | Follow Michele on Instagram | Follow Michele on Twitter

© 2013 Michele Whitacre Photography LLC