Archive Page 3

20
Apr
10

Fishin’, Kissin’ and Rock n’ Roll

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: engagements and portraits

So I’ve been trying this new thing where I pick a Sunday and a location and then schedule as many portrait sessions as possible. I think this will be more convenient for many of my clients who are located all over the place. So Sunday April 11th I was in Downtown Chicago. This past Sunday, April 18th, I was far east-side Metro Detroit (Shelby Township/Chesterfield/Etc). Seems to be working well so far. :)

This past Sunday, started out with some fishing with Brandi and Sean at Stoney Creek Metro Park. Sean is an avid fisherman, Brandi likes to hang out by the lake. It works well for them. :) We actually hadn’t planned to fish during the photo session, Sean just wanted to sneak in some fishing before I showed up to take pictures. But I really like to try and incorporate my clients hobbies and interests into their photos. I feel like it personalizes them alot more than the basic “look over here and smile” stuff (BORING!). So. They broke out the tackle box and I proceeded to click away…

Portrait Photography Michigan

Portrait Photographer, MI Sara Michele

Brandi and Sean Engagement Session

Sean even caught a fish!

Photography by Sara Michele

I’ve always wanted to do one of these photo animations. Here is my first try at one. You have to click on it to make it work:

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Photographer Sara Michele

A few more from Brandi and Sean’s engagement photo session ->

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Next comes the Rock n’ Roll part. I switched locations to a bar called New York New York in Chesterfield Township, Michigan where I met Nichole and Jason. Jason is a bass player in a band called Dirty Whiskey. I stalked him on Myspace after their session so I could check out their music – good hardcore rock stuff! Jason proposed to Nichole on stage during a gig here, so it made for the perfect spot for their photo session. Following is a few of the resulting photographs. As a side note, this is my first time working with a video light for pictures. I couldn’t really use a traditional flash in this location because it was wicked dark, and there wasn’t really anything to bounce my flash off of and I totally forgot to bring some kind of diffuser or something. Plus, I kinda wanted to experiment with using the video light. After viewing the photos, I think this is going to be amazing if I take the video light OFF the camera and have an assistant hold it or something, but it did work to get the job done.

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We played around on the stage for a bit, but then moved to the neighboring bowling alley to get a couple in a little better lit area:

13
Apr
10

chris + katie engagement photo session!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: engagements

Chris and Katie are getting married in Troy, Michigan but they live in Chicago. I work in both the Chicago and Detroit areas so it worked out perfect for me to set them up with a local e-session. We headed out to a dog-friendly park just north of Belmont Harbor to get a few quick photographs:

Lola was a feisty little thing. I tried hard to get a good picture of her, but she moved around too quick for me. I think I need to work on my pet photography skills…



27
Feb
10

look at all the pretty pictures…

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: cars, engagements, final four, models, portraits and weddings

I dig the blog method of displaying my work, but truthfully I get a little jealous when I see other photogs super flashy portfolio sites.  So I decided I needed one too.   I still need to actually work on the home page, and whatever other pages, but I did get three portfolios put together for people interested in viewing a variety of my work.   The hardest part was narrowing down the images to include.  Initially I had over 1,000 wedding favorites, getting that down to a favorite 75 was challenging.   Choose one of the links below to view my new portfolios!

A few of my wedding photo favorites

Faves from engagement sessions

A collection of other stuff I like to shoot. Mostly models and cars.  A few from the Final Four events I did too that bring back fond memories for me :)

23
Feb
10

1 late photographer + 1 broken finger = Erica + Charles Engagement Photo Session!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , ,

I’ve been looking forward to photographing Erica and Charles since I met with them a few months back to talk about their wedding.   They had so many great ideas, not too mention just seemed like they were going to be a really fun couple.   An email sent late at night (my fault), and a wrong phone number (my fault again) resulted in me being 1 hour late for the photo shoot.  I felt soooo bad, I’m seriously never late, and I felt worse given that Erica and Charles wanted to go to two locations for their photos.   With the late start, we only had time for one.  (Sorry Charles and Erica!!  I’ll fit you in another day if you’re up for it!).   Once we did get started with the photos,  the very creative groom-to-be Charles, had the awesome idea of climbing on a rock for a quick photo.   Got the photo, but on the way down, Charles landed on some ice and did some painful damage to his finger (ouch!).    Not sure if he dislocated it, sprained it or broke it, but either way, Charles was in some serious pain.    I thought that was it.  Game over.  But nope, Charles insisted he was fine and wanted to finish the photos.    Now most people would have been cranky and pretty annoyed at this point but Charles and Erica are so easy-going and cool, that I had a blast taking their photos.  They laughed, joked around, and came up with some great ideas.   It was truly a pleasure to photograph them.    Here are a few from their session:

02
Feb
10

Beer is good, God is great, Melcher’s (and Spencer’s) are crazy! :)

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings

The hardest part about doing this blogging thing is deciding on just 20-30 photos from each wedding.  Especially from such a fantastic wedding as Elaine and PJ’s.   The Melcher’s and Spencer’s are NOT crazy as the title of this post suggests, they are incredibly kind, generous, and FUN people and were a pleasure to work for.   Elaine and Paul (a/k/a PJ) and their amazing bridal party were down for whatever, even freezing their butts off outside in January Michigan weather, so I was able to get tons of photos.  Here are a few of my favorites —>>

The title of this post is inspired by a CD I spotted laying on top of the stereo at the bride’s parents house:

Elaine’s “something blue” was the blue sharpie that her bridesmaids signed the bottom of her red (!) shoes with.

I haven’t even started going through all the ceremony and reception photos yet, but here are a couple from inside the church:

We had 2.5 hours before everybody needed to be at the reception so that left lots of time for photos!   We started by going back to Elaine’s parents house with the bridal party:

Yes folks, these next photos are from the Rec Bowl!   Personally, I think going bowling on your wedding day is the most fantastic idea ever.  I was so excited about getting to climb in the gutter to get this next photo:

The introductions at the reception was awesome.  Blues Brothers for the bridesmaids and groomsmen and then they made a human tunnel for the bride and groom to run through.   I photographed everybody making their entrance and than ran to the end of the tunnel just in time to get this snap:

Coming soon….the video highlights!  I can’t wait to go through all the video footage!

Congratulations Elaine and Paul!!

24
Dec
09

nicole and rich’s wedding photos!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , ,

Just in time for Christmas, here is a preview for Nicole and Rich of their wedding images!

I started the day at their home in Shelby Township with the guys.   I didn’t get a whole lot of photos because the groom had taken off to go help out a bridesmaid who had gotten in a little fender bender just a few miles from the house (no worries…she’s okay!).    The rest of the groomsmen were already dressed, ready, and just sitting around playing wii and hanging out.   I spotted their calendar hanging in the kitchen and thought that the entry on the “12th” represented this couple soooo well.  :)   =>

I haven’t gone through all the preparation photos yet, but I knew I loved this photo of Nicole the second I snapped it:

Both the Ceremony and Reception were held at Descent of The Holy Ghost church in Warren, Michigan.

Nicole’s dress had the longest train I’ve ever seen!

One thing I’m trying to work on is ring photos.  I took quite a few for Nicole and Rich, below is one of them.   I think I need a macro lens for these types of photos which I don’t have, but that’s for sure going on my shopping list.

There were ALOT of cute children at this wedding, including Nicole’s son.  I had a blast photographing them:

Santa even made an appearance to pass out toys to the kids and take photos with everyone:

A couple more candids for fun:

Congratulations Nicole and Rich!!

20
Dec
09

Stacia and Cale’s Wedding Photos!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: ,

Great wedding!  Great couple!  Here are a few of the photographs->

The church had a game room upstairs complete with a pool table, a wii, air hockey, and a guitar hero setup.  Awesome.

Alright.  I admit I may have gone a little photoshop crazy with this next one, but I think I like this muted look.   And I really like this photo of Cale just before Stacia came down the isle.   What do you all think?

After the photos and on the way to the reception, the party bus made a quick stop at a grocery store to pick up some beer.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity to score a couple snapshots of Stacia doing a little grocery shopping in a wedding dress, so I ran out and caught them just in time to watch a cashier refuse to sell beer to Stacia because she didn’t have her ID on her.   A groomsmen ended up taking care of it,  and I loooove this photo of Stacia running out of the store…  :)

12
Nov
09

megan + chris engagment photos!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: engagements

I loved the cider mill location Megan and Chris chose for their engagement photos!   It was really busy, so it made it a little difficult to photograph at the actual cider mill (at least without getting tons of people in the background), but there was plenty of area surrounding it that was perfect for their photos.   Here are just a few of my personal faves:

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Okay, after looking at these, kinda looks like I totally failed with the cider mill theme.  haha.  Oops.  But they do have a “fall look” don’t they?

Before Megan and Chris arrived for the photos, I was waiting for them in the parking lot and saw 5 guys pull up one after another in 5 classic cars.   They all parked in the back beside each other and I was thinking about how awesome it would be if they let me take a few photos of their cars.   So after Chris and Megan left, I talked to them a minute, and they were totally cool with me snapping a few photos.   I love cars, so I’m pretty excited about these!  ->

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21
Oct
09

Lisa and Mike’s Wedding

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , ,

Lots going on lately, been working at a ton of weddings, and I’ve also been working on designing and ordering wedding albums for a few of my past clients.   As soon as they get approved and finished I will post pics.   Can’t wait!

Almost finished with Lisa and Mike’s wedding photos, but while they wait, I thought they might like a little sneak peak:

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Mike and Lisa had their ceremony and reception at Crystal Gardens in Southgate.   Very convenient to have everything in one spot, and helped to make for a stress-free day.   Or maybe it was stress-free because Lisa and Mike were so laid back and easy-going.   It was such a pleasure working for them.  I especially enjoyed the “Scrub The Ground” track played at the reception….haven’t heard that one in YEARS! If I hadn’t had my brand new camera slung around my neck, I would have showed off my old skool booty dancing….haha ;)

Here are a few more photos =>

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13
Oct
09

justin and liz’s preview wedding pictures!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , ,

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Here’s a couple photos from Justin and Liz’s wedding.   The ceremony was at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church  and the reception at St. Mary’s, both in Livonia.   Special thanks to Garret Urbaniak for second shooting with me!

I started the day by getting a couple photos of the guys at the church.  After photographing them for a few minutes,  the girls showed up and I was able to get a couple photos of them getting ready.

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The church had some pretty tough photography restrictions, like we had to stand WAY back behind all the guests and no flash was allowed at all.   I was glad that Garret was with me, because it worked out well to have him take some photos from the balcony, while I worked from the ground floor and just tried to sneak around the church as best as I could.

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On the way to Hines Dr., the limo made a quick liquor store stop.  I thought it was a great opportunity to get a few photos =>

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The reception was so much fun!  DJ Mike Shea from Shea Sounds really kept the party rockin’!!

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Congratulations Justin and Elizabeth!!  Thank you so much for having me as your photographer!

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