Welcome to my photography page!
Here you will find all manner of photography by me, Michael Phillips.
There are four clickable categories immediately above, featuring various styles to which I am drawn.
Below, I have put together a few small photo collections from various photoshoots from the past few years.
And finally below that - if you're interested in how I got into photography, you will find the whole story.
Enjoy!
A Brief History of Michael and the Camera
I grew up watching my dad carry his old school Canon from vacation to vacation, as well as watching my grandma capture every moment at family gatherings.
Back in the early 90's my parents got me my first camera... ↓
I remember taking so many photos with it.
Even at that young age I had a basic
understanding of the idea of a panoramic
photo. This one time at camp,
I was standing looking at a small mountain,
I grabbed my "new" camera, aimed the
camera at the far left side of the mountain,
*click*. Then twisted my body a little to the
right aiming at the immediate left side of
the rock face, *click*. And repeat. Then when
I got home and got the photos printed, I
placed them in on the carpet and that's
when it began.
My mom got our first SLR with digital settings in the early 2000's. That's when I learned about shutter speed and the "long exposure". I borrowed and used that camera pretty often and thankfully my parents never got annoyed. That's when I realized my own personal photographic eye. On a family trip to NYC I went through rolls of film and discovered composition, depth of field and bokeh.
Fast forward to May 2009. I have a full time job, making decent money and I all of a sudden have more than a couple hundred dollars in my account. What would you expect a twenty-one year old male do with $1,000 dollars...you can probably think of multiple options. Me? I bought my first camera, a Canon Rebel XSi. A "Big Kid" camera that I could call my own. I bought a body, two lenses(18-55 & 55-250) and a backpack to carry it all in.
I upgraded to a Canon Rebel T3i in 2011 and that was my camera for 10 years! It did photo AND video, which is how I gave tangibility to the moving images I had seen in my head throughout my life. I could use what I knew from photography to compose a frame and then create videos to make people smile.
At the end of 2020 I made a true big kid upgrade of equipment. I purchased a Canon EOS R5 as well as the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom.
In September 2023 I upgrade my arial photography capabilities and got a new drone, the DJI Air 3. It's more compact and more capable.
I use these two tools to create captivating images, both still and moving.
Throughout my career I have learned from multiple people about photography. I call them my "Photo Heroes". Some friends, some I've never met. Ansel Adams is pretty cool too. I still have so much to learn, but I'm so thankful to have helped photograph and work with hundreds of incredible people all over the country.
Looking forward to every new adventure with a camera in hand!
