<![CDATA[MICHELLE L. PREMER PHOTOGRAPHER & MULTI MEDIUM ARTIST

<![CDATA[MICHELLE L. PREMER PHOTOGRAPHER & MULTI MEDIUM ARTIST - Behind the Lens Blog]]>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:28:38 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[Creativity Refreshed]]>Fri, 22 May 2026 11:53:39 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/creativity-refreshedLike I said in the previous post... Chihuly is back. 16 years, two lifetimes, more hardships, life changes, and silver linings then I want to sit and count for fear of a PTSD flare up... Chihuly is back. And I've been waiting a year since it was announced. The energy of anticipation to see his work again making that artistic bug that lives in side of me vibrate, waiting to emerge in hopefully new ways thru my work. Maybe after my 4th or 5th time to the Gardens to wander amongst the glass things will rupture and my art will change... Chihuly 2026- April/May images.

]]><![CDATA[Fresh Perspectives on a Long Time Love]]>Fri, 22 May 2026 11:26:39 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/fresh-perspectives-on-a-long-time-loveForever ago. A lifetime ago... My artist mom was rambling over and over about an exhibit coming to the fairly news and fresh faced Meijer Gardens. I'd never heard of him- Dale Chihuly. From his pictures my brain made him some grizzly pirate. She was going on and on and on about it so she and I went together. This was 2010. I'd been married to Hubby for almost three years. Stuck working in retail and trying to find a better way. My photography career was growing slightly and slowly and being the artist I am now was so far back on the burner I couldn't see the stovetop anymore. My camera was my faithful Canon Powershot that I literally drove into the ground. That thing was the base of being a photographer. It cost $100 when I got it.

But that camera started my love for shooting everything. I learned macro photography on it by shooting the insides of bearded iris blooms. It traveling with my everyday in my backpack, just in case. It got me my first national byline in Firehouse Magazine with images I shot of the American Bicycle Company fire in 2007. I got my first local byline with pictures from a house fire my new husband did medical stand-bye for. And yes, it took the first images of the artist that has inspired me so much in my ways of using color as expression for things I cannot explain or photograph.

I dug around in the sealed basement totes earlier this week to find my stash. The hard side plastic tote labeled "Tornado Box #1" because it holds my entire photo career on 7 external hard drives along with other memories and important stuffs that should be in a basement during storm season (The Great Lakes are apparently the new extension of Tornado Alley). I found the oldest two drives, and after realizing I'm on my third laptop since using them that I neither have the software CD nor a CD drive on the current laptop- I used Mr. Google to find and download the software for my to unlock and open the drives. Then with a deep breath and a prayer I searched the drive- and there they were- last opened in 2011, archived on the drive as Chihuly 2010. I found them. Now, these might not be crisp. They might not be perfect. They were shot on "Old" technology... But I've thrilled I found them. I've been buzzing on the high of finding them for the last three days... The photos of an artist that changed my path.

The reason I dug these up, was because he's back. Chihuly is at the Fred Meijer Gardens again!! Less then this amazing display above, but still very much remarkable. Still insanely gorgeous. And yes, probably a catalyst to a new evolution in my art (if I can ever get off my obsession with honeybees). Look at my images from my last two already trips to see his work. We even bought a membership at the Gardens, just so I could go whenever I want to :)

]]><![CDATA[Brainzzzz!!!]]>Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:17:56 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/brainzzzzI’m scatterbrained. Like a lot. Since the onset of my anxiety disorder, even before that, I started writing everything down. Maybe I would need it for later. Maybe I didn’t want to forget something. And mostly because if I write it down, I learn it faster. It sticks in the brain cells just a little bit better if I write it down. Who knows why it works that way, I’d need a shrink and we live on a limited income….
Enter what hubby and I call my brains (notebooks). I have little more than half a dozen of them. All for different things. I’ve got two daily brains- a slim one for small purse days, and regular sized fancy one that rides in my daily driver backpack. I have the KEEP app on my phone so that’s the digital brain that syncs with my Google accounts and keeps tabs on anything and everything I write in there from funny things I’ve heard, to do lists, grocery lists… You name it. And I have my creative brain, one notebook that’s actually two taped together- one side for poems & writing. The other side for art ideas, things I want to draw/paint…

Now, I introduce you to the desk brains. The ones that never, ever leave the house and sit perfectly perched on my desk & bookshelves as home reference only. “Photobook” is the oldest. And I’m currently working on filling book number 3. Five composition notebooks taped together to form one large book of knowledge. Started back when I started photography- each other these are filled with anything and everything photo related. Concepts I want to try, projects, photo challenges, images I love and printed from the internet, Pinterest mood boards I created and printed for photo sessions, notes on damn near everything genre related- like I said. I learn better if I write it down.
Next up, based sheerly on girth- is the “Witchy/crafts Homesteading” brain. All my notes, knowledge, learnings, of herbalism and homesteading. Formulas for tinctures, teas, and salves, I’ve created. How tos of homesteading ideas… Poems about my gardens and life out here in nature.

And brand new to the flock- my garden brain. We created that amazing huge garden last summer and I was so overwhelmed with it all, I kept forgetting things and what did I do last week, when did I fertilize last… Not anymore! This year I have my garden brain- a calendar planner taped to a graph paper notebook. In it I’ve already written monthly garden task lists. When I start seeds next week, dates, times, and what I planted will be added. And inventory of what I have on hand at the start of seeding, did I have a failed germination set, sketches of the new garden additions, note on things needed to be built (like a leaf mould making box)... It’s all going to go in there, and hopefully I will be more organized this year!
It’s weird, I know. But having anxiety makes you change things in daily life. Anxiety, at least mine, is a vicious little demon that lives in my brain and eats up thoughts for fun. So sometimes “I’m going to remember that…” doesn’t actually happen and I forget things. Like going to the grocery store for cat food, and coming home with strawberries, eggs, cheese snacks, and no cat food. It’s really fun though for me as well. It’s like journaling without the journals. Somewhere down the line, someone is going to get a kick out of these things. Screw boring old family tree stuff.

]]><![CDATA[Brrrrrrr.....]]>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 17:47:03 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/brrrrrrrThis week has been ridiculous. Cold, really cold, tolerable cold, and tomorrow is going to be "we're gonna die cold!!" With that we have seen more snow in the past week or so then we have in recent winters! With more coming.

I had photo session scheduled with a fantastic model today, however- Mother Nature and Papa Lake Effect had other ideas. Thank goodness the model and I had the foresight to not only book today but next week Thursday as our back up for shitty weather. Scheduling sessions during a Michigan winter? Yeah, you always have to have a back up plan, no joke.

And since starting tomorrow it is going to be, as the weather guessers keep saying "deadly cold" thru Monday- sticking close to home and catching up on stuff is on tap. Including me forcing myself to turn the damn camera on and photograph something. So I'll be shooting what I call the "Home & House Session" I started yesterday and honestly it's kind of fun! Plus I realized I've missed the sound of my shutter going ker-thunk. Next week in the modeling session re-schedule, as well as a Camera Club photo walk downtown looking at World of Winter 2026. So- I'll be back shooting in no time!! until then... Here's a couple preview shots from my home :)

]]><![CDATA[So Long, Farewell... Here's hoping Next Year's Better?]]>Fri, 26 Dec 2025 22:02:16 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/so-long-farewell-heres-hoping-next-years-betterSo, it’s the last week of December 2025. We are in the limbo zone between major holidays that leaves you in this weird space of what's open, what isn’t, is there time to do this? Wait, I have to do what before the year ends??
And let’s be honest here, this year sucked. Overall. For everyone. On a global scale.
Hubby and I made an incredible list of accomplishments- from small stuff like getting the house’s first new sump pump in 30 years installed and working; picking new colors the bathroom will be painted this winter; expanding my herbalism knowledge, my joining Camera Club… To huge ones like I’ve been cigarette free since January, cleaning, restoring, and painting the pole barn; making the huge new garden; getting a new heating system installed…
Also- some unavoidable things- medications changes, car issues, my entering that blissful peri/menopausal time of life. I put the slash there because even the doctors can’t tell me where I’m at due to medications I’m on for PCOS that mess with my hormone levels. And the fact I had my uterus fried (sorry, ablated) so I no longer have lady moon times for the past 5 years (another menopause time chart requirement) So the docs don’t know where I am. I don’t know where I am, but I’m taking all the steps to treat myself for both to make life for the rest of my home, family, and friends better.
I’m going to make things simple as far as my goals for 2026.
In Photography:

I would like to participate in Camera Club as much as I can, including entering my work in the monthly photo competitions
I would like to go on/lead more photo walks
I would like to work on photo challenges- yearly, monthly, weekly, whatever
I would like to keep improving my social media presence within boundaries.
I would like to continue having crazy ideas for photo sessions & to work with anyone that shares my vision.
I would like to expand my nature photography even more.

In Life:

I would like to expand my gardens. The huge new veggie patch, my house surrounding gardens, the yard gardens…
I would like to spend more time outside.
I would like to keep expanding my herbalism knowledge and practice.
I would like to start writing poems again.
I would like to keep working on myself and my anxiety.
I would like to set firmer boundaries with social media time wasting.

Simple? Small? I think so. Achievable? I really hope so. With such a weird, mixed up, messy shit-u-ation 2025 turned out to be, I think starting small is an awesome start. See you in the New Year!]]><![CDATA[The Garden Blog]]>Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:39:50 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/the-garden-blog

I have established gardens before- created new beds where there were none, expanded and recreated beds that existed. Weeding, pruning, planting, cleaning, creating, rage weeding- none of this is new. We’ve had small runs of growing tomatoes, I have my kitchen herb planters every year, we’ve even grown large garlic patches…

But for some reason- this veggie patch has basically consumed us from February up until the end of October when we cleaned out the frost killed 6 feet tall Cosmos. The combination of emotions- Excitement. Fear. Dread. Worry. Anxiety. Overwhelm. Bliss. Happiness. Pride… it’s just honestly been incredible.

There was the planning stage- designing blue prints, figuring materials & cost, combing through a foot tall stack of seed catalogs- one of which being the most beautiful catalog I have ever laid eyes on, redesigning blue prints, discussing where the beast was going to go, arguing over costs. Then the beautiful seed packages start coming in the mail. Then it was looking at the calendar, checking start times and germinations, buying seed starting mix, and a greenhouse, and growing lights, and tiny little starter pots, and sprayer that mist just enough water, spending an evening planting seed by tiny seed, labeling popsicle sticks, and waiting. All the waiting. Light schedules, watering, waiting, buying heater mats…

Collecting the building supplies- traveling to a lumber mill in the middle of where the hell are we, badly overloading both truck and trailer (trailer mostly) and hauling it all home, to unload. The splinters! Oh my gawd the splinters from those damn pine boards! They would go clean through work gloves- leather, neoprene, or otherwise, and the splinters would leave splinters when you pulled them. So you had to wait until they festered and popped. Building the raised bed boxes piece by piece, then carting them over to the garden area freshly covered in wood chips and finishing their builds and placing them. We borrowed a friend's tractor and when the first came- Hubby loaded the frames by tractor bucket full and I raked them out between loads.

Then once we were finally frost free- which was actually the first week in June (almost a month past where you should plant)- the time had come for the babies to go outside… where a lot of them died almost instantly. Talk about breaking your heart. This is when the drought and the heat started. We went from frost at night to 80 degree cloudless days.
Soon enough we realized there were hardly any nutrients in the soil we bought for the boxes and we didn’t know we should have added compost or at the very least compost manure to them before we planted. Then it was playing catch up with fertilizing. Meanwhile our little veggie patch had clearly caught the attention of the neighborhood so it was almost nightly and daily tours with the neighbors, showing what was where, what things were for, and my my my how strange the little cluster of luffa sponge plants were. “Sponges? Sponges are plants? I thought they were plastic!!”

We collected tomato plants from the greenhouses we were regulars too from other gardening adventures around the house- because it honestly didn't appear as if many at all were going to live from the babies I grew in our basement greenhouse set up. Then for a month came stress, finding bugs eating everything, finding organic bug killers, and the non-stop watering schedule because, of course, it was a MAJOR DROUGHT this year!! Walking out in the evenings with our black light flashlight to find the horned worms (which glow in the dark by the way) to pick them off and smash them. Also nightly treatments to the stems of the zucchini and summer squash because of the damn vine borers.

We avoided all deer and rabbit issues our neighbors were having by simply planting marigolds in every single box all the way around (rabbits and deer hate them). And we made a haphazard fence from wooden stakes and fishing lines around the perimeter. When deer feel it but can't see it, it scares them away from that area. They were literally sleeping in the garlic patch next to the garden, but never came into our garden. Marigolds, as it turns out, were multi-purpose. Rabbit deterring and mood satisfying little balls of sunshine. Popping their deadheads off (oh so satisfying) and tossing them in the aisles of the garden- to keep the bunnies away also gave it a festive celebration feel.

We learned that later in the season, Monarch butterflies who have ignored the plethora of milkweeds I let grow every year- turns out they LOVE carrot tops to live in and eat to the nubs! We also learned other important things- like Lola will eat crabgrass and weeds by the handful as she follows you when you weeded the beds. You will pray on and wish for success everyday until the first small yellow tomato blossoms turn into tiny green globes of promise.

For myself, I found peace in that garden. If I was mad, or stressed, or having a huge blowup of medically uncontrolled anxiety I went to pull weeds. There were always weeds, even after we buried the beds in straw. The smell of damp garden soil altered my brain chemistry and brought me back from whatever hellbeast of an emotion I was suffering from. I enjoyed walking down in the early morning and just listened to the sounds of the garden waking up. Especially when things started blooming- it was full of honeybees and bumble bees. There’s also something about wandering down through the dewy grass, bare foot, in my night shirt to pick a handful of Tulsi (Holy Basil) for my daily quart of anxiety reducing tea. The quiet pride of growing your own medicine has definitely got me hooked to continue doing it.

Our harvest started mid August and stretched long into late October given the warmest Autumn season I could remember. And still when it finally looked like the cool was to set in, I brought in almost an entire bushel of green tomatoes we came up with uses for and canned up late in the season. Soon after we harvested the 30+ luffa gourds, tossing over half that since they’d not mature once off the vine, and processed the rest green. This far north, processing them green is about all you can do instead of hoping they would dry inside and instead turn rot. We then cleaned up the beds, pulling the straw, weeding, and pulling plant remains. We dressed a box with compost, tilled it in, and planted a fine little garlic patch for next year. Our first hard freeze hit, turning what was left blooming into beautiful little icy dancers that soon shriveled and were pulled during our last bit of planting and cleaning before the leaves fell.

Now the garden sleeps and I’m already planning for next Spring. Catalogs come in the mail, I make lists of supplies needed for next year, ideas of things to build to make gardening easier. Ideas on how many more boxes we will build from the leftover lumber and fill to make more garden beds, fence ideas… Just… Hope. Planning for spring will help me get my anxiety riddled brain through the dark cold winter. Until then… time to sip a warm cup of chai tea and read my new favorite book…

]]><![CDATA[Apologies Required.]]>Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:09:13 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/apologies-requiredI have been crazy busy. Life has not slowed down one bit- but with cooler weather settling in and the garden chores stopping for the season- I will be able to dedicate more time here on the blog/website. I've been feeling as if I've been neglecting it- the website. I've been updating it as I can, and I know I haven't written a blog since July. Like I said- cooler weather means less outside distractions. Right up until they start installing our new furnace- as the old basement beast has puffed it's last burp of smoke from the chimney. Stress? What stress?? Lol.

So, until I finish writing the most epic of blogs dedicated to the gardening/homesteading bloom this year, settle in for a walk through a few of my favorite cemeteries, here on this day before Halloween.

The places in the photographs here are Forest Home Cemetery, Greenville, MI. Graceland Memorial Garden, Cascade, MI. And where all deceased members of my line rest- Maplewood Cemetery, Lamont, MI.

I have always loved wandering the completely mapped out and grid like beauty of cemeteries, They are quiet, filled with nature and still hold structure in their lines of granite memories of people long since past. There is a calm that settles into my body when I visit those that may not have had visitors for decades if not longer. I feel like my being there- dusting off name plates, or tidying flowers, even snapping a quick memory of my own with my camera, may ease troubled souls that may not be visible to the eye.

]]><![CDATA[End of June Wrap...]]>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 15:52:06 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/end-of-june-wrap

Been a super busy June... Gardens, harvesting in waves every other day, getting back into the swing of busy photo sessions, dealing with sessions that the client went whacky after (tainting the whole session to the point of my feeling like I wasted a lot of time on the images that I no longer will be using, in spite of how much I want to). It really doesn't help it went from 50's and 60's straight to 95 and humid as all get out!!! But we've managed. And there a lot of images along the way.

Hubby and I even managed a day date to the local fair this year!!

]]><![CDATA[Goodbye Cold, Hello Summer!]]>Mon, 09 Jun 2025 14:15:32 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/goodbye-cold-hello-summerThe calendar's flipped from May to June and we are in full swing summer weather!! Just like that, Mama Nature decided she'd give us a break on the cold crappy weather. And with that, came the full on push to get the homestead ready for this years canning and medicinal foraging. I've been working a lot, basically everyday between foraging, drying, processing the goodies found. Making lists of what I still need for the Fall/Winter, projects I want to start, stock piling things (because, let's face it, the news isn't good and self sustaining maybe the safer bet).

Somewhere along the line- everyone has decided they want to spend money on photography again- so I've been booking sessions left and right!! This month is full and we've only just begun, July is half full, and August is a work in progress! If I'm not outside foraging and gardening- I'm going to be hiding behind my camera or in my office doing editing!

Here's a little recap of the road so far as the "Body Farm"/ Big Garden looks now! We finally got what survived of the basement babies in the ground yesterday before the rains came for the evening- giving everything a good soaking. Plans are to see how many of the from seed babies take and probably hit the local nurseries for summer clearance veggies. Fingers crossed with will be canning/baking/Freezing lots for the winter later this season!

]]><![CDATA[Oh, Honey....]]>Sat, 10 May 2025 16:00:00 GMThttps://www.workshoots.com/behind-the-lens-blog/oh-honeyWith spring finally springing- I'm busy winding up the home apothecary/foraging around here. With the start of spring- comes dandelions- the number one reason I started all this homesteading crazy a year ago- to create a pain remedy for my husband. It worked and here I am a year later- doing 4 times a day runs to the hayfield to collect dandy's to dehydrate in batches. While doing so- I've taken the opportunity to photograph all the busy buzzing honeybees around me!

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