Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

I went along to Harvey Dickson’s Rodeo down here at Boyup Brook to get some reference photos for some western and rodeo inspired paintings that I have planned.  I can understand where the origins for many of the events lay – calf roping, bareback and saddle bronc…even the steer undecorating, but I really have to wonder who on earth first thought of trying to ride a full grown bull that would rather kill you?  LOL, must have been a man with more bulls than brains;)

Here’s a few of my favourite shots.

Junior Steer riding © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Junior Steer riding © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Junior Breakaway Roping © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Junior Bull Riding © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Junior Bull Riding © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Junior Barrel Racing © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Bull Riding © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Thats going to hurt! © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Bareback bronc riding © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Saddle Bronc event © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Rodeo Cowboy © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Steer Wrestling © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Harvey Dickson's Guitar Man

The full set of proofs for the rodeo are available to view and purchase online at South West Photography.

I’m currently in the process of setting up my new studio gallery:)  Seeing as I have not yet formally ‘moved in’ and started painting, I thought it would be a good idea to post some photos before I start and it develops into messy disorganized chaos (LOL I’m sure most artists reading this will chuckle as ‘messy studio syndrome’ is a condition that seems to afflict many of us;).

I know that I am beyond lucky to have a dedicated, completely self contained studio gallery less than 200 metres from my home…even more so because I have stunning views right from my studio window as well as a verandah that will be perfect for painting plein air landscapes:)

The gallery won’t actually be open to the public for a while  as most of my artwork was sold before we moved from the city so I need to get busy and build up an inventory of paintings!

My art studio gallery

Front View of studio

Partial view from my studio

Right Hand corner

Drafting table and computer table...minus the computer

Left hand side

Boyup Brook is the Country Music Capitol of Western Australia, and the annual Country Music Festival and WA Country Music Awards brings visitors not only from around WA and the rest of Australia, but also from around the world.  This was my first time attending the Festival and it was a bit of a shock to have so many people in our sleepy little town!

A local icon © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Boyup Brook Country Music Festival © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Boyup Brook Country Music Festival © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Boyup Brook Country Music Festival © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Boyup Brook Country Music Festival © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Country Music Festival ©South West Photography All Rights Reserved

Yes the two following photos were taken at the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival, LOL the last thing I (and everyone else) expected to see was a punk playing non-traditional music on the bagpipes, but this guy was very good and I regret not buying one of his CD’s!

The Bad Piper - Punk 'n' Bagpipes © South West Photography

Punk playing the bagpipes at the Country Music Festival © South West Photography All Rights Reserved

The 2011 Boyup Brook Country Music Festival will be held on 17th – 20th February 2011 and will feature Troy Cassar-Daley, Felicity Urquhart, Peter Denahy s well as the Bush Poet’s Breakfast, Country Music Awards, stalls and markets, free street party and the Ute and Truck Muster.

All images from the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival and the Ute and Truck Muster can be viewed and purchased through the events section of South West Photography website.

SOUTH WEST PHOTOGRAPHY: Portrait, Event, Landscape and Fine Art Photography Prints

I have just changed over from using Photoshop CS4 to Lightroom 2.4 for processing my photographs – all I can say is I wish I had done this sooner!  As much as I resist learning new computer programs (fuzzy mummy brain I think), Lightroom is so quick to use compared to CS4, the time out I have taken to learn how to use it is going to be a huge benefit in improving my workflow, especially for batch processing.  Here is a selection of the first images that I have processed through Lightroom from my road trip down south to Boyup Brook.

The only nitpick that I have with Lightroom is the watermarking ability or lack thereof.  I have purchased the mogrify preset which allows me to use my standard watermark…but it places them at the same location in every image, which can obscure important elements of the photograph. Plus I need to make additional copies of the watermark for different opacity and colours so that I can select slightly more subtle watermarks to suit individual images better…either that or just continue to use CS4 and apply the watermarks manually for each image.

Other than that one issue, I can highly recommend Lightroom to any photographer looking to speed up their workflow.

I hope you enjoy these images, some of them will be available for purchase as prints http://southwestphotography.com.au in the near future.

Cheers

Michelle

Orange Flower © 2009 South West Photography

Boyup Brook Farmland © 2009 South West Photography

Boyup Brook Farmland © 2009 South West Photography

Blackwood River, Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

Blackwood River, Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

Rustic Relics, Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

Border Collie, Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

Border Collie, Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

SOUTH WEST PHOTOGRAPHY: Portrait, Event, Landscape and Fine Art Photography Prints

Sometimes life just gets a little bit too stressful, and the best way to deal with it is a few hours in the country re-connecting with nature and the beautiful land that we live in.  Yesterday was one of those days, and what a joy to just take a few hours and enjoy the sunshine and the beauty of our South West.  I rarely go anywhere interesting without my camera in hand, so I do have a few of my favourite shots to share with you all:)

I’m very happy with these for several reasons, firstly every single shot was taken in full manual, and while I have always been pleased with the 50D’s output in the other creative settings that I normally use with changing light/movement situations, I can honestly say that nothing beats pure manual for getting the best images!  Secondly, and this is a biggie for me, I was shooting with the beast (70-200mm 2.8L), but every shot was hand held – the monopod didn’t go on the camera once!  This is truly amazing (to me anyway) as after my first attempt at shooting handheld with the beast when I first got the 50D was a disaster, it was so heavy it made my wrists hurt and every photo had severe camera shake and I never thought I would be able to use it handheld.

Purple Flowers at Harvey ©2009 South West Photography

Rustic Farm Building ©2009 South West Photography

One Tree Hill Boyup Brook ©2009 South West Photography

"panoRAMa" Boyup Brook ©2009 South West Photography

Boyup Brook Farmland in July ©2009 South West Photography

Scarlet Breasted Robin Boyup Brook ©2009 South West Photography

"Bird on a Wire" Boyup Brook ©2009 South West Photography

Donnybrook to Boyup Brook Landscape © 2009 South West Photography

Scarlet Robin, Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

"Flight" Birdwatching in Boyup Brook ©2009 South West Photography

Blackwood River, Boyup Brook ©2009 South West Photography

Boyup Brook at Dusk © South West Photography

Little Lamb backlit by the Sun ©2009 South West Photography

The Golden Hour ©South West Photography

I have to say that I was really pleased with the last two – the little lamb was shot through a ringlock fence and I wasn’t sure if my settings where correct for the lens to blur out the wire strands, but obviously they were (yay for me).  I had to jump out of the car, over a muddy ditch and up a hill to say hi to three very friendly horses that came over to the fence when I called them.  It was the golden hour and the light from the sinking sun behind them was just magnificent while this big bay gelding happily posed for me to practice my silhouette shots:) In the full size, his chin whiskers look like threads of pure gold.

Ok, I think thats more than a few photos (I know, I just can’t help myself)…although I do have heaps more that I will add at some stage when I get time to process them.  I’d love to know which of the photos is your favourite and why, so please feel free to leave me a comment:)

Cheers

Michelle

South West Photography

I wonder if any other photographer else has an unusual subject that they photograph for no good reason whatsoever, with no care for composition or technique, just grab shots for the sake of…well I dunno, collecting maybe?

I collect country road signs.  Well, no I don’t collect road signs, but I do collect photos of road signs.  Specifically country road signs.  LOL ok so I am weird.  Maybe I just don’t know where I am going so I like to have a record of where I have been?  I won’t go scan any film photos that I took in Europe many years ago, but here are a few from my ‘weird photo’ collection.  Most are grab shots taken out the window at 100km per hour.

Blackwood River Valley

Boyup Brook © 2009 South West Photography

Blackwood River Valley

Williams Wagin Perth Kojonup Albany

Dardanup Boyanup road sign

Bunbury Road Sign

A fleeting day trip through the south west.

Boyup Brook Farmland © 2009 South West Photography

Children's Playground - Donnybrook © 2009 South West Photography

Running from the mob © 2009 South West Photography

These images below show a tiny part of the devastation caused by the deliberatly lit bushfire that raged in the Bridgetown area in January 2009.  These images were taken out the window of the car while we were traveling at 110km per hour on South West Highway, so please excuse the less than perfect composition and clarity!

And no, I wasn’t driving *and* taking photos at the same time!

Bushfire devastation - Bridgetown © 2009 South West Photography

Bushfire devastation - Bridgetown © 2009 South West Photography

Bushfire devastation - Bridgetown © 2009 South West Photography

Bushfire devastation - Bridgetown © 2009 South West Photography