Mark your calendars now for this special event to help the Arizona Animal Welfare League. For five days only, Spicer Photography will photograph pets for a minimal donation to the AAWL. Help us spread the word about this event! Spaces for sessions will fill up fast, so call now for more info or if you want to make an appointment…
Categorized In: arizona | pet photography | photographer | scottsdale
It's my week for photographing cute babies! This is one from this morning that I just had to share... her Mom got these diaper covers from Moonbeams in Scottsdale, so I just had to showcase them in a few of the images (here is just one sneak peek). Honestly, this little baby girl is one of the sweetest babies I know! Now just wish me luck for next month when I photograph her entire extended family (on her Mom's side) with over 30 people and a dozen little children as they help celebrate a few special occasions - including great grandma's 97th birthday! I have been photographing this delightful family now for over seven years, so it is fun to watch them grow.
Pretty in Pink (and everything else too).
Categorized In: arizona | children's portraits | family | photographer | photography | scottsdale
I have been putting this blog post off long enough but I think I can now get through it without crying and getting my keyboard all wet. After almost 13 years together we had to say goodbye to our sweet KC. We knew this day would come but it didn’t make it any easier to let her go… she had such a sweet and gentle soul and she will be missed. She had a really good last day. She went for a walk (they got a lot shorter and slower as the years went by but she still enjoyed them), played in the yard and pool with her buddy Jake and her new housemate Comet in the afternoon, retrieved her rocks that we would throw for her (not a habit I would suggest getting your dog into, but she enjoyed sniffing out the rocks we tossed out among the others in the yard), and played with tennis balls. Then at some point during the night while we slept, her tumor ruptured and she lost a lot of blood. For some reason I woke up at 3:30 and got up and went to look for her since she wasn’t in the room with us like she normally is. I found her laying in the living room (stressed but not in pain), and laid down next to her and held her until she calmed down and fell asleep. Once daylight came, we were able to determine what had to be done. While I was sitting with her I remember looking down at her paw laying in my open hand and thinking what a lovely picture this would make (but some images are meant to be preserved only in the heart). Here is one of her last photos (one of many – thankfully!). I am already starting to think of KC with smiles instead of tears, and I know her little soul has left a rainbow in my heart forever. Go now and hug your kids and pets...
Categorized In: arizona | pet photography | photographer | scottsdale
Comet is a Saluki-Golden Retriever mix and now lives with my husband and I (and our other Golden KC). We adopted Comet from the Arizona Humane Society last weekend and he has curled up in my heart already. What a sweet gentle dog he is. I am always amazed that two totally different species of animals can get along so well together. Makes you wonder why humans can't all get along better... oh well, that's another blog topic! Anyway, I just wanted to share a couple quick images from the studio. I’m sure once he gets used to the camera and the goofy lady behind it, I will get lots of great photographs of this lovely dog.
Categorized In: arizona | pet photography | photographer | scottsdale
Here is a fun and easy "self assignment" for photographers... go out and look for reflections or shadows to photograph. I don't know WHY I am attracted to these types of images, but I think they are interesting. A photograph of a subject as a reflection or shadow allows for a lot of creativity. Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Have fun...
A Bench... and a building reflected in glass... these images are all around you.
Water always makes for a great reflection image...
Have fun looking at the world in a new way and see what opens up to you!
Categorized In: arizona | children's portraits | family | photographer | photography | scottsdale
It is the last day of March already, and I haven't shared too many of my images from my "Photo A Day" project, so here they are (in no particular order) for the entire month of March. It has been a fun project so far... hope you enjoy the images, and then get out there yourself and use your camera to focus in on some details of your day!
Categorized In: arizona | cave creek | commercial | phoenix | photographer | photography | portraits | scottsdale
I love that quote by Emerson. And the earth is laughing now, so thought I’d take a minute a do a tip of the day on photographing wildflowers. Not a lot of hard and fast rules here, but a few general things to think about when you are composing your images.
Shutter speed and aperture – IF it is a breezy day and the flowers are moving as you try to zoom in on them, a fast shutter speed (at least 1/200) will help to avoid motion blurring. Also play with your f-stops to decide when you want most everything in focus (use f-stops of 8 to 22), or just one flower with the background blurred (try f-stops of 2.8 to 5.6). There is a sample below from my rose bush using two different apertures to show this difference.
Photograph from different levels – Again it depends on the look you want, but as a general rule if you are photographing small flowers (like the poppies shown below) you will want to get down low so that the flowers become more prominent. If the background is not good you can even get down lower and get the bug’s eye view with sky behind the flowers. But if you want to get just one bloom completely in focus you will want to make sure that the camera is parallel to the bloom (like the close up of the rose which was shot from directly above the bloom). So move around the subject and play with what works best to capture the look YOU want.
Most importantly, leave no trace that you were there. Leave the flowers just as you found them, and try not to trample the plants around you just to get the shot. That way we can all enjoy them while they last, and have our images to enjoy once they disappear for the year. Enjoy!
Greater depth of field using small aperture (f-stop 1/16) Aperture wide open blurs background so flower is clearly the focus here.
I wanted the greater depth of field here so the mountains AND poppies were in focus, so I stopped down to f-22.
Sometimes a "Bugs Eye" view is best (there was a road and cars in the background that I didn't want to see)
I love extreme close ups! But try to keep the lens parallel to the subject on something like this.
Categorized In: arizona | commercial | photographer | photography | portraits | scottsdale
Hi! I'm Pam Spicer... I am the owner and Photographer for Spicer Photography located in far north Scottsdale, Arizona. My specialty is photographing children, families, high school seniors, pets, and executives. I am married to Jerry and we share our home with our golden retreiver KC. Thanks for checking out my blog! I hope you will check back often to see what's new at Spicer Photography. Oh, and it would be really cool if you tell someone else about my work and help spread the word. Thanks!
cherie commented on July 8th, 2010
Pam-Thank you for capturing our daughter so beautifully. You are a truely gifted artist. Thank you-The Pobiaks