ABOUT MICHELLE AND LUMINARIA

What’s Your Why?

Have you heard that question before?  I feel like I’ve seen it everywhere lately.

At first I thought it was a little cheesy. “Isn’t it obvious? I love photography, duh.” 

Then I sat down to update this ‘About’ section and started to take the question more seriously.

Why am I still a professional photographer after 15 years? Running a small business in the arts is definitely not for the faint of heart or for people who want to be rich.  

To help me get a clearer answer, I thought about some of the questions I would ask you so you could find your why when it comes to what you want from your family photos (maybe even from life in general), and how I can help. 

How do you want to feel when you look at these photos after our session?

How do you want to feel when you look at them in 10 years from now?

Do you want images that make you feel like you could almost step right back into that era of your life when you see them?

Tell me about one of your family’s absolute favorite things to do together.

Do you have any sweet or silly, little daily traditions that you cherish?

Are you fairly down-to-earth and like to have fun? Would you like to have a no stress photo session where you can just be yourselves and you don’t even have to leave your house? (if the answer is yes, you are probably my people) 

Do you have photos that really convey your personalities and connection to each other?

Do you have copies you could look at any time you want if your phone battery died or your computer crashed? 


Would you like a beautiful album of your kids to look through when you're 82 and they’re grown so you can reminisce about all the fun and crazy times, and how adorable they were? 

Like the shoebox full of mix and match sized loose prints your parents and grandparents left you. 

So when you’re going through your midlife crisis you can look at those pictures of yourself from ages born through 17 and try to remember who you were and who you wanted to be when you grew up. 

Or sift through them to find photos of your grandparents and great-grandparents who were gone before you were even thought of, so you can piece together what kind of life they lived and who they were. 

Like, did they like potato salad as much as you? Your favorite kind - the one your mom makes. Maybe she got the recipe from them. Maybe in one of those old family photo albums there’s a picture of a family picnic with that potato salad on the table and an old recipe tucked behind the plastic sleeve. 

For me photos have always been essential. I can’t imagine my life without them. 

Do you feel the same way? Or did you grow up in a family who hardly ever took photos, but you want to change that for your kids and start new traditions? (if the answer is yes, you are probably also my people) 

I feel fortunate that I had family generations that valued them as much as I do and were taking pictures as far back as they could.

Both of my grandfathers died before I was born. My dad’s father died when he was barely 4 years old, and his mom, my grandmother, died when I was 13. 

As an adult I have a million questions for them both. What was a day in their life really like? What do they remember about their parents? What traits besides physical ones do we have in common? 

It helps me figure out parts of my own life if I know who I came from. Since I can’t ask them, I combine photos of their lives with bits of memories I’ve heard from other family members to look for answers. 

I’ve always been the one to carry a camera everywhere and document everything in my family since I was a little kid.

My first camera was a truly unsexy and now ancient 110 film camera with disposable flash cartridges the size of a giant Hershey bar that sat on top. 

And I’m pretty sure, I was the only kid in 3rd grade taking pictures of her friends’ shenanigans at recess, or taking her camera on field trips to the zoo.

I moved around a lot back then (7 different schools and over a dozen different homes in 5 different states) and my parents got divorced when I was a teenager, so maybe it was an instinctual way for me to save my memories along the way. 

But my parents and grandparents took lots of photos as well thankfully, which I appreciate now because as I got older and more self-conscious, I chose to be in the photos less and less.  

Luckily I have finally reached the age where the number of f***ks I have left to give are pretty minimal. And I have a better grasp of the fact that change is inevitable. Time is short and actually speeds up the older you get (just my unproven and not at all scientific theory). 

But there is one way to freeze time - through photos. 

So I try to get in front of the camera more. And I try not to cringe when my husband wants me in the group selfies he takes when our family gets together.   

I’m grateful for all the photos of me as a kid that my family took so I can look at them and try to reconnect with the spirit of that little girl who was more confident and loved to have fun (and of course laugh at my fashion sense).

Have you ever discovered a box of old photos you forgot about or didn’t know existed?

I always get so excited when I find those type of photos! And love looking through endless piles of loose prints and family albums. And not just my own, anyone’s really. 

Because I have always loved hearing other people’s stories. When I became a professional photographer I relished the fact that I could also help them tell that story. 

 
And humans have been telling stories through pictures since the cavemen.

It’s a beautiful language, and it’s one I’ve been practicing for as long as I can remember. 

Most of us are familiar with that language because we tend to think in pictures. When someone is describing something, our brains are already drawing the picture in our minds of what it looks like.

When I first started my business and I was trying to come up with a name, I chose Luminaria Photography because the definition of Luminaria means a little lantern and lanterns have been a source of light for ages (I also have an obsession with them and have way too many).

But when you break it down, Lumin means “light” and Aria means “melody or song”,
and I couldn’t think of a more beautiful way to describe a photograph than a song of light.

So then, why am I still a professional photographer after 15 years? 

Because photography is one of my first languages. And for me it’s the closest thing to time travel (Back to the Future is my favorite movie afterall). 

I also love connecting with other people and helping them tell their story. 

It’s such a wonderful rush when your faces light up as we look through your gallery together for the first time, or I watch you point to your favorite moments as you turn the pages of your album and your kids giggle over your shoulder, or I see how big your smile is when you hold the framed portrait of your senior dog captured happily in mid air because he still loves to run, jump and play.

And because

having collections of images that chronicle our various life stories are essential,

not only for those heartfelt memories, but to find ourselves again when we need it, and leave clues for future generations. 

All of these things are my why. 

Have you figured out yours yet? I’m looking forward to hearing about it!

Want to swap stories, ask a question, or book a session? Contact me here.

About Michelle Macirella

Michelle’s main passions early in life were taking pictures of everything and working on community theatre plays. Also directing (aka bossing around) her cousins and neighborhood pals to put on little shows at home. 

In College:

• She studied theatre, art, and film at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she graduated with a degree in Stage Management.

Her Previous Lives:

• Professional Stage Manager at TheatreWorks in Hartford, CT.

• Lived in NYC where she worked in the film/television production industry, most notably on the Emmy award-winning TV show, Ed and the 2002 Best Picture Oscar winner, A Beautiful Mind (if you look closely at the credits you will see her name scroll by quickly).

• Festival Coordinator & Venue Manager for the High Falls Film Festival in Rochester, NY
  

Realizing that big city life working 16-18 hour days with no time or energy left for anything else wasn’t for her, she moved back home to Rochester, NY where she still resides today with her husband and their adorable, 1 ½ year-old dog - a Tibetan Spaniel named Koda Bear.

Photography Career:

• Founded Luminaria Photography in 2009.

• Tried studio photography for a little while at her studio in Webster, NY (realized it wasn’t her thing and she may have tried it purely for her obsession with props and furniture) 

• Photo Editor/Photographer at Pup Culture Magazine for 2 years

• Staff Photographer for 10 years at Lake Affect Magazine

• Photographer for the Jewish Film Festival for several years

• Special Events Photographer at Lollypop Farm and the Front Row Foundation for a little while

• Fell in love with Family Documentary Photography and switched to that genre exclusively around 2016

Proud Achievements:

• One of her images was chosen as a Finalist in the annual Documentary Family Awards in 2020.

• In 2021, one of her images was selected by NY Times Photo Editor, Tiffanie Graham, for inclusion in the Documentary Family Photography exhibit, “Transforming Perspectives.”

Loves Helping People Learn:

• She has done private tutoring and taught photography classes at the Community Darkroom in the Flower City Arts Center.

• Currently developing a couple exciting new courses hopefully to be released into the wild later this year!
  

She is also an aspiring morning person, recovering perfectionist, always working on several different creative writing projects, the reigning Boggle champion in her family, loves game nights, and binge watching her favorite TV shows on (way too many) streaming platforms.