MichaelPettigrew.com

Happy Holidays everyone!

Super bright day so I had to use flash & reflector to counter balance very dark shadows. Poor caterpillar was exhausted towards the end of the photo session.

We had beautiful weather, great company, excellent food, laughters … we’ll be back for sure!!!!

1-hour photo session for a hair salon in Herndon, Virginia.  The cute little girls were shy, but after chitchatting with them about Barbies and Princesses we were best buddies.  On the adults side, one of the models had good eye reflects to detect the strobe flash.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Her eyes were closed on every shot.  I’ve tried a couple things and finally decided to turn off TTL on my flashes and figured out manually how much lighting I needed for the photos.  That did the trick, everything went really well after that!

To view the hair salon portfolio, visit BrushStrokesSalon.com

I went to my first goalie lesson early morning on the 4th of July. After my class I stayed to watch and learn from this talented Junior player from Minnesota. And yes, I had my camera with me
Notice the technical skills of this 6-foot tall kid!

Went to a park in Alexandria, VA for a photo session. The weather was perfect and lighting was nicely diffused because it was a little bit overcast. My lovely assistant/wife helped me holding a silver reflector. The kids had fun playing in the water, making giant bubbles, and catching some fish. The session went really well.

An annual visit to Montréal to see family and friends. We had planned a surprise retirement party for my dad, and it went really well. He was very surprised and happy to see everyone! Spent some time with my sister’s kids … they are so grown and said funny things. Also, visited some friends. We had a great trip, as always. Surprisingly, I always bring my camera!

We recently went to Montréal, Québec visiting my family, and I went trout fishing with my father, brother-in-law and his father in Québec (3 hours North of Montréal). As you can see, the weather was not too warm (low 40’s F / about 5C), but it was the perfect temperature for fishing as there was no mosquitoes!!! We ate fish for dinner 3 out of 4 nights … yummy!!! It was so quiet and peaceful … this is one of my favorite activities! Took a few shots while relaxing on the boat …

My co-worker is a volunteer firefighter for Loudoun County and had mentioned that there will be a volunteer firefighters graduation with live burns to test their skills. I went and took some shots this past Saturday. It was intense seeing all the action … pretty neat experience! The folks on site were thankful that I took pictures for the event. It was nothing compare to what volunteer firefighters go through. They are donating their time and making our community a safer place to live. Thanks to you guys.

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We recently went to Vaughan, Ontario (45 mins. from Toronto) to visit the in-laws. My wife’s sister just had her second baby, and everyone is doing very well. We had a great time up north, and the boys were very nice! We ate, played with the kids, went to the park, ate again, and played again! Also, we celebrated our nephew 2nd (belated) birthday while we were there, and it was nice seeing other family members, too! Of course, the toddler was clueless about his belated b-day! As usual, I took a few candid shots … they were mostly of the newborn and toddler!

View more photos … enjoy!

Our friends went to a wedding and their son had his first soccer match of the season on the same day.  So, they have asked us to take their boy to the match, and I took a few photos during practice/playtime.  It was funny seeing all the 4 to 5-year-olds running after the ball … and it’s not easy to run and look where you are going at the same time!  I can feel their pain!

“In youth we learn; in age we understand.”
- Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach (Austrian Novelist, 1830-1916)

We had great friends from out of town over the weekend. My wife, Jenny, has known her two girlfriends since elementary school … yep, that was long time ago! We ate, drank great wine, watched Hockey on TV, talked, laughed, had a fun photo session, ate again, drank again, and finally took a walk in Great Falls park to burn off all the calories intake! We all had a great time together!

“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”
- Tennessee Williams (American Playwright, 1911-1983)

Hello Friends and New Visitors!

I’m excited to be sharing some favorites from my photography portfolio with you. Feel free to share your comments!

It’s my pleasure to offer photography services for all occasions including, formal and casual portraits, weddings, graduation celebrations and other special events, commercial (advertisement etc.), families, pets and general occasions – and my extensive collection of stock photos.

My work is ongoing and frequent photo sessions keep this site ever-changing – so come back often! Also, if you are interested in receiving automatic updated blog entries you can use the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feature – just click on Subscribe RSS at the bottom of any page and follow the instructions.

Thanks for visiting my online portfolio! I look forward to reading and responding to your posts!

All my best,
Michael