Navigating Change...

Change - it’s constant and unavoidable.  Everything changes! The time, the weather, the date, the stock market, careers, our moods, our kids, our relationships.... Each and everyday brings change in some way.  Some changes are good and easy - we may never give those changes a second thought.  

Other changes are hard - a struggle.  Often leaving us with a profound sense of loss that makes us question everything we know to be true.

These last few weeks have been a personal struggle of change in many ways (hence the lack of blogging)  

I have had to do some (a lot) of self examining and questioning.  It would be far easier to pick up my emotional carpet and sweep it all under it but the reality is that is not healthy.  These past weeks have been spent spending time with my husband, kids, friends and family asking questions and having great conversations.  All of which have been amazing, open and honest.  When big changes happen and you really don’t know why, you have to dig deep and try to figure it out.  The work is important - it helps us grow into better people.  

I must have been sprinkled with some miracle grow because I feel like I have been doing a lot of growing with all this self reflection.

I believe people come into your life at different times for different reasons.  Some people may be a part of your life for a long time and others will be there for only a brief time.

It can be very painful trying to figure out why some relationships end but it can also be  a relief when you realize that some of those relationships were no longer healthy or serving a positive purpose in your life.  

I have taken away a few lessons over the years with the growth and loss of different relationships:

My recent lessons have been: 

1. Do not judge others because being on the receiving end of harsh and unfair judgement is very hurtful.
2. Be true to yourself.  Only you live your life every moment of everyday.  No one walks in your shoes. Only you know your heart or thoughts.  Be true to who you are. 
3. Have a very short memory for bad things and a very long memory for good things.
4. Hold the good times close to your heart - a parting of ways does not change good memories.
5. Let it go peacefully.  Everything happens for a reason and maybe the reason has nothing to do with you. 
6. Know that someones perception is often a reflection of their own issues and not yours. 
7. It’s okay to let go.  Letting go of one thing may mean that the universe is making room  for something else in your life.

This past week I have decided not to train for the July show.  It was hard for me to make this decision because I so enjoyed the first show and I felt that stepping back after committing to train was in some way a failure on my part.  Upon further reflection I realize stepping away from something I know I can not give 100% to is a wise decision. I do plan to train again at some point but this July is not the right time for me. 

Some of the other big changes I have been experiencing is in the photographic industry.

I have watched an amazing industry over the past several years undergo a massive shift.  It’s like an unstoppable tidal wave....  Digital imaging, technology, social networks undercutting prices and the economy have changed the face of professional photography forever.  An over saturated market of inexperienced and underpriced newbies have diminished the value of what it means to be a professional photographer in the mind of the general public.  It is a battle so many of us are fighting and with each day it begins to feel much more like a war.  Everyone and anyone with a decent camera and a couple of PhotoShop actions are promoting themselves as a “professional”.  Due to over saturation, diminishing  education and people literally giving their work away good photographers all across the country are struggling.  It makes me so sad to see what is happening here.  The average consumer has become alright with substandard photography because it has become so “cheap”

There are so many of us who refuse to come down to this new level.  After 23 years of education, investing in equipment and building a business I refuse to lower my standard of business practice because my “new” competitor is selling their digital files and their souls to the devil.  Even new photographers just getting into the industry will realize that time, talent, education, and customer service are worth something.  Giving away sessions and CD’s for almost nothing is no way to run a business.  Let’s be honest here-   if they did the math on time invested vs. income generated they could work at a fast food chain for more money and less hours.  

In addition to working in as a full time professional photographer and staying  true to my art and talent I have found other passions that I enjoy.  Cooking, working out, health and fitness.  I am exploring the options that might be available to me in the health and fitness world.  I love creating healthy clean recipes.  I have been photographing my dishes and recording all my recipes... Who knows - maybe there is a book in my future.  I am also coaching two women who are on a weight loss journey.  We are working on changing their lifestyles, throwing away old bad eating habits, trying new clean foods and examining why food is an issue.... Both of my coaching clients have lost 15 pounds each.  This is a huge accomplishment for both of them.  They have done it by increasing activity and learning to eat the healthy way.  These are all big changes for me.  Helping someone reclaim their health is probably one of my proudest accomplishments.  I took something I am interested in and helped someone change their life because of it.  That is awesome and I hope I can continue to do it for others. 

Some new recipes to follow-

Thanks for reading...

Exerspy

Exerspy....

What is exerspy? It’s a device that will track my calorie burn every minute of the day and monitor the efficiency of my sleep.  Pretty cool, huh?

Along with the online dotfit program I will be able to keep accurate records of calories out and calories in each day.  For those wanting to loose weight this is an amazing tool.

There are four sensors on the device that when in contact with your skin measures your calorie burn for every activity of the day.  The monitor attaches to an arm band the sits comfortably on your left bicep.

Honestly I though it would bother me but it is really comfortable. 

I decided to use it for this show training cycle so I could be more accurate in calorie counting and burning.  

Each day I will log into my dotfit account and add in my food log. It will automatically add up my calories in and calories out and provide a projected weight loss or gain for the day/week.

Today is my first day wearing it.  I did not have it on for my morning workout at 6 am.  I set it up and put it on at about 8 this morning so today won’t be as accurate as tomorrow.  I am pretty curious about how accurate it will be and if it helps to keep me on track.  I think knowing the numbers will really help.

If according to my goals I need to eat 1400 calories and day and burn 2100.... Keeping track of my food will keep calories in on target and knowing I have to burn 2100 and being able to see where I am for the day - well, it seems like a no brainer to me. 

Weight loss, maintenance and even weight gain is a numbers game....  (that’s not the health part of the equation - just numbers)

You can choose to eat 1500 calories a day in doughnuts and burn 2100 at the gym... You will most likely loose weight if you don’t take in any other calories.  You would probably eat 4.5 doughnuts, be hungry the rest of the day and feel like crap.

However if you eat 1500 clean calories (fruit, veggies, low fat dairy, egg white, whole grain breads and lean protein...) a day you would be eating a ton of food all day, feel really good, have plenty of energy and loose weight if you are burning 2100 calories a day.  

Well, I’ll keep you posted.

Official “show” training will begin in about 2 weeks but I have already doubled up on my workouts and I have been feeling the pain.  

In order to get my body more balanced (for the show- I’m just fine the way I am for “normal” life)  my legs need to be a bit leaner and my upper body a little bigger.  I have always been smaller on top and heavier on bottom.  So, more heavy lifting for my upper body and more interval sprinting to get those legs leaner.

Heavy lifting hurts!  I am sore, but it’s getting better.  By the time the diet kicks in I’ll be laser focused and ready to go.

Grandparents...

Grandparents are special.  It’s that simple.  At least for me.  I lived with my grandparents, Anna (nanny) and Anthony (Pop Pop) until I was 13.  My mom was a single mom and had to work full time but I was lucky because we lived with Nanny and Pop.  I had breakfast with Pop every day.  He always got my bowl for cereal down for me and poured the milk.  Nanny walked me to school everyday and Pop usually picked me up.  They helped with homework and I watched as Nanny cooked dinner.  She always let me eat the end of the cucumbers.  Holidays were my favorite time with them.  The house always smelled amazing whether easter pies or Christmas Eve feast of the 7 fishes were cooking.

I adored them, the helped raise me.  Nanny and I walked everywhere together, -the pork store, the butcher, the bakery, the drug store, the grocery store and church.  

We lived in Brooklyn, that’s what you did! You never moved the car unless absolutely necessary or unless it was alternate side of the street parking day for street cleaning.

We had Sunday dinner every week - no questions asked. It was Sunday and you were there for dinner or Nanny was pissed off. The truth is - you didn’t want to miss dinner anyway because it was usually raviolis from Pastosa’s. 

Anna and Anthony

My daughter is named for her beautiful great grandmother.  It still gets to me sometimes when I look at my Anna knowing I honored my grandmother by giving her name to my baby! 

I could write a book about how much they meant to me and what they did for me but this blog isn’t really about my grandparents... It’s about JD and Tara’s Nami and Poppy. 

My friend/client Monica called at Christmas time to buy a gift certificate for a portrait session for her children to give to their grandparents. The session was for the kids and their grandparents.....  (Now you are tugging on my heart strings)

The day of the session came around and I already knew it would be emotional for me.  I have a few snap shots with my grandparents growing up but we never had a portrait together.  I knew that day JD and Tara would have no idea how special this was going to be until many years from now.  I probably said it to them.... “you won’t appreciate this until you are much older.... You just wait!”

Maria and Don are awesome.... I fell in love with them immediately... I usually do when I meet east coast grandparents.
It was obvious how close they were, how much they loved each other.  They had so much fun together.  We spent an hour laughing together. 

I absolutely loved photographing this session.  I can remember having to hold back my emotions a few times. 

It wasn’t until I sat down to edit the images that I actually cried.  I have always known that I don’t create images for today.  I’m really creating something so much more than a current representation of how people look today.  Someday when parents and grandparents have passed on all we will have are memories and the photographs to go with those memories.  I don’t have enough pictures of Anna and Anthony.... One million candid snap shots would not be enough.  But, to have a beautiful portrait with them would be..... Well, I don’t even have the words to say what that would mean to me.  I can’t see past my own tears to even write what that would mean.

We forget just how much family portraits mean to us.  We worry about being the right weight or until the right season... or what ever reasons we put it off.  There will be a time when you can’t put it off any more and the opportunity to have a portrait created will be lost. 

Grandmothers always say “Oh... no, no, no - I don’t want my picture taken - I’m old, I’m wrinkled, I’m overweight.... 

Here is the thing that kills me when people say that... I loved every single wrinkle on Anna’s face,  her sun spotted hands, the glasses she wore... I loved Pop’s little pot belly and the smell of his Old Spice.  I loved everything about them.

Our kids and grandkids don’t care about the silly hang ups we have about ourselves... They love us just the way we are and to have a portrait with you to hold onto someday when you are gone will mean more to them then we can ever dream.  

So, this session with JD, Tara and their grandparents in my mind was not a gift for Maria and Don but the greatest gift Monica will have ever given her children.... portraits with the grandparents they clearly adore they way I adored mine. 

Poppy and JD

Nami and Tara

Please note: All images are the property of Michele Celentano and are copyright protected.  Please do not copy images. Thank you.

Giving back, Remembering Monte and Heading home-

It’s 9:30 PM EST as I sit here at the hotel room desk in New Hampshire.  This is it- the end of my traveling for teaching this season.  (well... almost the end- I have about 12 hours of traveling to get home tomorrow) This is the most traveling I have done in the past couple of years.  

These last few weeks have been rewarding, tough, stressful and wonderful all at the same time. I love the teaching part - the giving back what was given to me.  Passing on to other photographers what was taught to me by my mentors. I don’t like the traveling part.  It’s really hard to be away from my husband, kids and business.  Being away from my gym and my kitchen has become a struggle as well.

I have been in Las Vegas, Minnesota, Ohio, San Antonio and New Hampshire in about a 6 week span of time and each trip required a bit of travel.

I was in San Antonio for 5 days and then flew to NH.  In order to get here I flew to Washington, then Manchester then rented a car and drove more than three hours in a snow storm to arrive at about 11 PM and start a full day class at 9:30 the next morning. 

I was finished teaching around 4:30 today and two of the attendees who had previously studied with me bought me a much needed glass of wine.  

It is a great honor to be asked to teach and I am so grateful that I am asked.  Teaching workshops is a gift and a responsibility.  I am blessed that I can teach and that someone did it for me.  Monte Zucker, my greatest mentor taught right up until his cancer no longer allowed him to.  Without him and what he contributed to the photographic industry - Well, I don’t know what kind of photographer I would be today. I feel a tremendous tug on my heart to continue teaching.  It’s what Monte would want.

The overwhelming emotion I felt at the end of the last 4 programs I gave took me by surprise.  As I said thank you to my sponsors, the person who invited me and the audience that attended, I had a hard time holding it together. Tears filled my eyes and I choked on the words I was trying to say.  

There is no doubt that traveling to teach is a strain on me, my family and the rest of my life but there are moments when I see the light go on in someone’s eye or the end of the program when someone hugs me and tells me that I have really inspired them.... Those are the moments when it is all worth it and all the struggle just fades away.  It’s hard to put into words but those moments really are worth it.  I love to teach - I used to love the traveling.  I think the traveling used to be an escape for me.  An escape from a life I was not that happy in.  Life is so incredibly full now and I am so deeply happy in my marriage, home and family that I no longer want to escape.  I do however feel that when asked- I must do what is right, and what is right is to give back what was given to me by an amazing industry that has blessed my life in more ways than I can count.  The lessons I have learned, the friends that I have made, the life that photography has given me and the images I have created for endless clients that hold them as their most treasured possessions. 

After seeing how haggard I looked upon arriving at the hotel last night the check in clerk was kind enough to upgrade my room to a king with a jacuzzi.  I sat in that hot bath tonight reading the “Runners World” magazine Paul put in my luggage feeling emotional again.  I’m going home tomorrow- I have been home 2 days out of the last 12 days and I am ready to be in my own bed, my own kitchen and back at the gym.  It has been my privilege to teach and give to others.  I have made so many new friends but I am ready to go home now and focus on the task ahead - training for the July figure show and studying for my ACE certification.  Knowing I will be getting serious when I get home I treated myself to my last “not so good” dinner.  I sat by myself in a small mom and pop restaurant in the White Mountain Region of northern NH enjoying a glass of wine and a steak.  I ate less then 1/2 of it but that was plenty.  I sat in the hot jacuzzi grateful for the experiences I have had over the past few weeks and mostly grateful that I am headed home.  Paul took the day off work tomorrow so he could pick me up from the airport (I am very grateful for that).

Thank you to my Monte who I think about everyday and who instilled the gift of teaching  in me. I teach today because of you.   Thank you to all of you who invited me to teach, to those who sponsored me and most of all to all of you who took time out of your busy life to listen to my message.  I truly hope that I have in some small way taught you something valuable that you will use to improve your photography, your business and maybe even your life.

Thank you to my family who patiently allows me to just be me and do what I do.  

I am on my way home and ready to get back to my life and to my family- 

Ciao-

Michele

Here are a few of the images I created this weekend at the Precision Camera University workshop-

The three classes I taught there were some of the most rewarding to date.... I just had to share some of this amazing session with you-

On the road again...

It's been an amazing few days.  I'm leaving Texas on my way to New Hampshire after teaching a three day workshop for Precision Camera University... The first one they organized.
I had an incredible time teaching and meeting new people.  My highlight moment was having dinner with Tony Corbel and David Guy Maynard last night.  David also photographed me which was a real treat for me.  I needed some new professional head shots and David stepped up to the plate. He an amazing fashion/commercial photographer with an extremely diverse history.
I was able to get to the gym and run while working and stayed very clean on my diet.  The resort had great options for me and having the tuna packets, protein shakes and bars were a bonus.  I think my class thought I was nuts because I was eating something every three hours and taking supplements.
The people of Texas were fantastic with warm hearts and a great sense of humor.
Thanks again Texas, my awesome assistant Scott and Precision Camera!

Food for thought-

This was sent to me today by a friend and I thought it is worth sharing-
Enjoy-
http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2011/27701.html

The Best Meal in 4 Days

At 9pm last night as I landed in Phoenix, I started craving veggies and chicken.  Paul (hubby) met me at airport and as soon as I saw him I said “I really need something healthy to eat”-

He laughed.  Once I was home I made myself a Berry Protein Shake and I was a happy girl.  

This morning after they gym I had an egg white omelet with spinach, tomatoes and an ezekiel english muffin.  Ohhhh - it was so good-

Recipe below-

There is a book I bought while at one the airports I have recently been through (sadly I’m not sure which airport it was)

The book is fascinating-  I have read just about half of it in just few days. 

The book is Change Your Brain Change Your Body. By: Daniel G. Amen, MD

I seriously can’t put it down.  There is so much great information on how the brain functions and how it affects our weight, health, skin, heart, energy and focus.

It targets low activity and high activity in certain regions of the brain and how that effects 

cravings causing impulsive and compulsive eating.  It also confirms something I have known for ages - Sugar is a drug- it is a drug to the brain and body and it’s addictive- the more sugar you eat the more you want.  Sugar is so bad!

It also talks a lot about depression and ADD.  I highly recommend this book.

It has me seriously thinking about how I can continue to improve on my health and fitness and how I can stay off anti-depressants with nutrition, exercise and natural supplements.  

Another book I really love for some similar information is Depression Free for Life-

By:Gabriel Cousens, MD

Spinach, Tomato Omelet-

3 egg whites

1 whole egg

1 slide of low sodium turkey breast finely chopped

1 cup of finely chopped spinach

hand full of cherry/grape tomatoes 1/2’ed

1 ezekiel english muffin

Mix eggs- I add a drop of low fat milk and pepper

Heat in skillet lightly sprayed with Pam cooking spray

Add chopped turkey, tomatoes, spinach- 

Let cook until eggs can be folded into omelet.

Flip and brown the other side for a minute

Toast english muffin-

I don’t put anything on my muffin (butter or high fat spreads) - I cut the omelet and put it on top of the muffin-

Enjoy!