Welcome to CliQ Happy! and Chex!

Welcome everyone to my very first post on CliQ Happy! My intent for this blog is to share my experiences and inspirations for doing what I love...Making pictures. In turn I hope photographers and everyone else who finds joy out of clicking that magic shutter button will find this blog as an environment to grow and share inspiration and advice. Seeing as I have no experience writing a blog there will be a feeling out process for a while, so expect changes aplenty in the beginning.
Now for a proper introduction. My name is Mike Walters, and I am a 25 year old photographer in the United States Marine Corps. I am happily married to my lovely wife Ashley. Currently I am stationed in Parris Island, SC and live in Ridgeland, SC. I got into the photography field by chance, after getting hopped up on Bud Lite one night and watching Jarhead I walked into the recruiters office and signed up (just kidding). I actually signed up for the videography field but I guess the field was full or they felt the need to move me to photo, whatever the reason I picked up a camera and never looked back.
Alright, with the introduction out of the way let's get to the reason you came here...photos (finally that guy was going on forever). Recently my wife and I made an addition to our family, so say hello to Chex!

Say hello to Chex

Funny thing about these two photos. For the first one I was trying to get a nice full body portrait of Chex, but everytime I pointed my camera at him he would move or try to attack it. So I put my camera on live view mode (I'm using a Nikon D300 by the way), placed my camera on the ground and snapped away. PERFECT! he didn't even know I was taking pictures, Live view is an awesome tool when used in the right situation, like when people are being camera shy, Bravo Nikon.

For the second one Chex kept fidgeting everytime I tried to take a picture of his collar. So as my lovely wife Ashley tried to hold him down my challenge was to keep her hand out of the frame and catch Chex in a still moment. This shot took me probably twenty frames, patience is something I have always struggled with. I have been known to jump around and always see something else going on over there. Squirrel! Lesson learned. Know what you want and don't quit until you get it.

 Now this dog is pure awesomeness. It is impossible for me to walk him by someone in my neighborhood without them stopping to admire his cuteness. It is a beautiful thing to see a dog bring joy to so many people just by walking around. For those of you wondering about the name we named him after Chex Mix because he is a mixed breed Boston Terrier and Cockerspaniel. He is 8 weeks old and enjoys chewing everything he comes across.

Chex being goofy

Biting Ashley's hand

Now let's talk about something that many young photographers, myself included struggle with. Capturing moments. Anyone can take a picture, it takes a photographer to capture the mood and a key moment that tells the viewer something. Now my wife has a baby face, and my Chex is obviously adorable, put the two of them together and it's not even fair. The challenge of being a photographer is making your subject comfortable and free to show you their personality, then capturing that personality during a very brief and candid moment. As a photographer there is nothing like the feeling when you know you nailed a great shot the moment it clicks (a great book by an amazing photographer Joe Mcnally).
To me there is no such thing as a failed photo shoot. Look at it this way, you picked up a camera while someone else sat at their computer all day. I ran out of fingers to count how many times My old Master Sergeant (and I emphasize old) yelled at me for screwing up a shoot (sorry top piece). Shout out to retired MSgt Kevin Williams.
Soo lets take a look at what can be learned from this shoot.
-stay with a picture until you get the results you want.
-a great photo can be taken anywhere: at your home, your car your desk. anywhere.
-live view can be used to capture a moment when your subject doesn't suspect it.
There is a common message that is told in the Combat Camera community. "give back what people teach you as freely as you received it". This blog is my way of giving back what has been freely given to me by so many great Military photographers. Please enjoy :)
Well that does it for my first blog entry please feel free to leave me feedback, comments or advice. Critiques are welcome let's try to keep it positive y'all. Till next time cliqqers. -Mike  


Yes that is yours truly chewing a dog bone. I have no shame. photo credit to my beautiful wife Ashley