Michelle Wrighton Fine Art and Photography

I can’t help myself, I take thousands of photographs of everything around me, both for reference material for my artwork and because my camera is just another medium to create art.  I don’t always have time to go through all my photos and select my favorites to display, but the other day I realized that my photography galleries were very outdated and thought I had better add some new ones.  This is just a few of the new additions, the rest rest can be seen in the Landscape and Animal& Wildlife Photography Galleries.  These photos were all taken within a short distance of my home, except the Tawny Frogmouth which was found a little further south.  Enjoy!

Harvest Landscape © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Sunset Silhouette © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Long Shadows © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Dark Sky © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | South West Photography

Up Close and Personal - Tawny Frogmouth © 2010 Michelle Wrighton | 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

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

The highlight of last week for me was a wonderful session that I had on Saturday with Mitchell and Kaden, two gorgeous little boys who were loads of fun and had me cracking up all over the place with their antics!

I know their lovely mum is anxious to see their sneak peak, so here it is – thanks so much Jackie for letting me photograph your beautiful boys, I hope they had as much fun as I did:)

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Perth Childrens Portrait Photography ©2009 South West Photography

Portrait photography session information is available on the portraits section of my South West Photography website.

Its hard to believe its nearly the middle of the year already, where does the time go?

I have recently decided to expand my photography business to include people portraits – and in particular children’s portraiture. Of course, as with any new endeavour, its a huge learning curve!

I am really enjoying the challenge, not only the technical side of the photography, but the biggest thing is engaging and interacting with the subject, and when they are young toddlers that you have never met before, that can be a really challenging task indeed!

So this week I have had my first two photo session with a gorgeous two year old boy and a lovely little three year old girl. Both were so well behaved and although unrelated both had the most gorgeous blue eyes, and there parents have graciously allowed me to use the photos in my portfolio, so I can post a few here in my blog.

At some stage in the not too distant future, I will have a section for portraits on my http://www.southwestphotography.com.au website as it is significantly different to the event photography that I do, but until then I will just be posting some images here from time to time.

In the meantime, I am still building my portfolio and would love to hear from anyone in the Perth area interested in having a photography session (free session fee for areas 20 minutes from myhome!).

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