Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

Well I had a huge shopping spree yesterday, after much research I have officially jumped ship and switched from Nikon to Canon equipment, with a budget blowing purchase of an EOS 50D, 50mm ‘nifty’ and the ‘beast’, a Canon  70-200mm F2.8L USM lens:)  And after vowing not to step into a camera shop for the next year, less than 24 hours later I was back in today to purchase a monopod because this set up is *very* heavy, probably impossible to handhold for a couple of hours let alone a full day shooting like last weekend as Official Photographer for the WA Palamino Associations Annual Championship Show.

I havn’t yet read the manual and I have only had a short time to play with it, but the photos are pretty impressive.  Not that a 15 megapixel of the 50D camera impresses me much, but it allows for large cropping without loosing image quality.  On the other hand, with such big file sizes, I hope four 4GB CF cards will be enough for a days shooting.

My New Toys:)

And some first shots:

Border Collie Trinity

Border Collie Taj

Belgian Shepherd Max

Miniature pony colt

Miniature pony stallion

Oh, and the reason I swapped from Nikon to Canon…basically the cost of getting an equivelant Nikon set up for what I want it to do (D300 or D700) was astronomical compared to the Canon, plus long term, Canon lenses are more affordable (if L glass can be considered affordable) and accessible than Nikon lenses – other than that, it wasn’t a quality issue, Nikons are great cameras, and I will keep mine as backup rather than sell it.

If anyone is considering a similar purchase, I say go for it!  LOL you only live once;)

Look out for more photos from the beast on my photography proofs site http://www.southwestphotography.com.au

It was a wonderful honour to be appointed as the official photographer for this years WA Palamino Associations Championship Show, and what a thrill to be able to photograph some very beautiful horse and ponies!

Palamino Stallion © 2009 South West Photography

Palamino Champion © 2009 South West Photography

Show Pony Photography © 2009 South West Photography

Palamino Quarterhorse © 2009 South West Photography

Golden beauty © 2009 South West Photography

Rosettes and Broadsash © 2009 South West Photography

Regal © 2009 South West Photography

Equine Beauty rewarded © 2009 South West Photography

Sleepy Welsh Palamino © 2009 South West Photography

Beautiful horse and garland © 2009 South West Photography

All images are available to view and purchase from the events section of my South West Photography website.

A selection of images from the Canine Association of WA’s Championship Dog Show

Rhodesian Ridgeback dog show photography Perth © 2009 South West Photography

Bearded Collie © 2009 South West Photography

Border Collie Show Dog © 2009 South West Photography

Boxer Dog © 2009 South West Photography

Boxer in the Show Ring © 2009 South West Photography

Rough Collie © 2009 South West Photography

Images available for purchase from dog shows are available to view on the events section of my South West Photography website.

I have finished a new artwork today, this is my first piece of digital art, created from one of my origial photographs, and altered using filters and my wacom tablet.  I’m very pleased with the results of this,

LOL I only wish I could remember all the steps that I took to create it:)

“Equus Dreaming”

Digital Art

by Michelle Wrighton

2009

I know I was supposed to make this post way back in November, but things have been so hectic with the house and christmas, so I am still playing catch-up.

The awesome news is that I was awarded a lovely blue and gold sash and certificate for receiving the most points in the art competition at the 2008 Canning Show:)  I have to admit to being very surprised and pleased, because there were a huge number of entries of really good quality work.  The artwork that received awards were:

First Prize: Painting – Pastel category: “Peaches & Cream” Pomeranian in Pastels

Frist Prize: Painting – Drawing Any Subject: “We Three Kings II – Lion” Colour Pencil

Second Prize: Painting – Drawing Any Subject: “Blink” Cat in Colour Pencil

Third Prize: Painting – Drawing Any Subject: “Noble” German Shepherd Dog in charcoal

LOL yes that was a hat trick in the Drawing Any Subject category:)

That was the same weekend that we saw our new home for the first time, so all in all it was a wonderful day!

There is nothing better on a hot summer’s day than taking the ponies for a swim down the beach!  Ok, well I didn’t take my horse, but I did take my camera and got some very lovely shots!

The Black Stallion - in miniature © 2009 South West Photography

Chestnut by the sea © 2009 South West Photography

Chestnut horse Portrait © 2009 South West Photography

What was that? © 2009 South West Photography

© 2009 South West Photography

© 2009 South West Photography

Images from this photo session are available for viewing and purchase in the events section of my South West Photography website.

The new photograph gallery is now available for viewing all proofs and online ordering of prints, including from selected canine events in 2008.

In order to maximize speed of viewing of proofs, the proofs galleries are hosted on a new website SouthWestPhotography.com.au

This website will also list selected canine and equine events that I will be attending in 2009.

Prints can be ordered and payment made direct from the website using the Paypal buttons to order, alternatively the order can be emailed and paid by Direct Deposit or Money Order.

For photograph printing on items such as mouse pads, t-shirts, gift cards, calendars, canvas prints or other giftware, please email me with your order.

Cheers

Michelle

There are so many different effects and manipulations that can be achieved using photoshop, from simple black and white/sepia tones, cropping and editing out unwanted items like leads or signs to significant special effects that dramatically alter the original image.

The following are just some examples of some of the photoshop adjustment services that are available to my customers (I will add more examples as I find them in my folders).

From this…                                                                                 To this.

From the original photo on the left, I cropped the image, edited out the white pole and lead, and ‘re-painted’ the fur around the neck where it was displaced by the collar.

The original photo on the left in my opinion is not suitable for printing, but it is a good candidate to artistic manipulations such as this watercolour effect (you will need to click to enlarge to see the textural effect in the image).

In the above example, the original photo has been colour corrected, contrast adjusted, cropped, the distracting background has been re-painted and blurred to emphasise Flicka’s beautiful colouring, and a border and name text has been added to finish it off.

This next example has had additional water painted in at the bottom of the image, as well as having the lead rope and the owners forearm removed.

This example has had the background edited, and the image has been altered to black and white with colour accent enhancement.

If you’ve popped in to visit over the last few days, you may have noticed that I’ve been busy changing and adding things to the website, including new art in the Fine Art Gallery, additional photos in the Photography gallery as well as information and pricing for photography shoots and a pet portrait commission price guide, I hope its laid out nice and easy to follow!

I will also be adding some additional information comparing the different fine art mediums that I use in my artwork, and a proofs gallery for photo proofs and online ordering will be available once the finishing touches have been made.  Photos that I took at several dog agility and championship shows last year will be added to the Events section for anyone who attended those events.

I’m also in the process of planning my calendar for event photography for canine and equine events that I will be attending in the next few months, so please let me know if there is a local event that you are competing at with your dogs or horses!

I hope everyone has had a safe holiday period, and wish you all the very best for 2009!

We are in the process of making some changes to the blog and website, and a few things are not working quite as they should, but hopefully everything will be sorted out in the next day or two.

The last few months have been chaotic, so I will be catching up on a few things, including my results from the Canning Show in November (hint: I won a big blue sash;)

Puppies and children are all calling me to go for a swim, and as it is stinking hot (Aussie summer) I am off to oblige them:)

Cheers

Michelle