Perth really is a fantastic place to holiday, whether you live here or are visiting from over east or abroad. There are tons of great things to do and the people are so friendly you’ll always feel welcome and never get bored of our naturally beautiful environment

Working with Noleen and her team and a group of professional models was a great experience, here are a few samples of some of the images you can expect to see in the new brochure.

You can also see a larger sample of the images taken on the day on our web site portfolio.:

Over a period of several days we traveled to Lane Pool just outside Dwellingup, Serpentine Falls and the Mandurah Ocean Marina photographing yacht races, mountain biking, luxury yacht’s and families having fun on the beach. It was a blast, we had a great time and got to explore a few new places along the way.

The Mandurah Region really is a great place to holiday, check out some of the images we took or click here to see the gallery on our web site:

Their first project has been run in conjunction with the Canning Stock Route Exhibition recently running at Perth’s Entertainment Centre.

Here are some of the images from the launch and some teasers from the exhibition.

Click here to see the full photo shoot galleries

Firstly I’d like to remind everyone that I don’t do weddings!

Having said that I was very happy to be asked to photograph the wedding of Lee & Kiara last weekend. Lee is the son of Pete & Tracey Roberts, very dear friends of ours, and last weekend we were invited to Lee & Kiara’s wedding at their home in Mindarie.

It was a beautiful wedding with the ceremony held on the balcony overlooking the sand dunes and Indian Ocean. Hopefully the photos do justice to the occasion

For those of you that were at the ceremony here is a slideshow of the day, enjoy …

Last Friday Maggie and I went on a photo shoot to Carnac Island with a group of fellow photographers from around Perth. A big thanks to Mark Stothard for taking us out there on his boat

Sadly for Mark he was the only sailor amongst us and we sure did everything we could to cause him a few dramas but he was up to the task and proved why he is qualified to run a business like the True North

This is the first image release from that trip which, to me, represents how simple life should be … Sadly life is very rarely simple but walking on the beach on Carnac Island surrounded by Sea Lions certainly gave us a bit of a release from the complicated lives we lead

This is the third release for my new Print of the Month Special Collection. The image was taken earlier this year at one of our favourite local spots, Yanchep National Park.

Read my personal comments on the story behind this Fine Art Print

My Prints of the month are available at a discounted rate (25% off) and include a special Print of the Month Certificate of Authenticity and free shipping within Australia.

More Information
All Prints of the Month are available as a Fine Art Glossy Print or Coated Canvas at our Studio size, which means a 16″ x 20″ print or canvas for an traditional aspect such as this one.

My Print of the Month represents incredible value, especially during their month of release. More information about this Print of the Month can be found on my web site along with my personal comments on this image and links to purchase directly through PayPal with a credit card.

Of course if you prefer the more personal approach you are more than welcome to call or email us to arrange or discuss your investment.

The markets are open all day from 10am to 4pm and we’ll be running our usual competition for 1 lucky winner to win 2 of our high quality Matted Fine Art Prints. The prints to be given away on Sunday are shown here in this post (see above and below).

Everyone is eligible to enter our competition and as an added bonus entrants will also be entered into our monthly prize draw to win a $50 Gift Certificate.

Event details:
Sunday, 31 July
10am – 4pm
Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre
3 Rocca Way, Wanneroo

This is the second release for my new Print of the Month Special Collection. The image is a new release taken earlier this year at Mindarie Marina during another of our spectacular Western Australian sunsets.

My Prints of the month are available at a discounted rate (25% off) and include a special Print of the Month Certificate of Authenticity and free shipping within Australia.

More Information
All Prints of the Month are available as a Fine Art Glossy Print or Coated Canvas at our Studio size, which means a 10″ x 30″ print or canvas for an panoramic aspect such as this one.

My Print of the Month represents incredible value, especially during their month of release. More information about this Print of the Month can be found on my web site along with my personal comments on this image and links to purchase directly through PayPal with a credit card.

Of course if you prefer the more personal approach you are more than welcome to call or email us to arrange or discuss your investment.

We have just sent out our June 2011 newsletter with some exciting new special offers:

• For the rest of June we are having an End of Financial Year Special Offer giving you 20% off any of our Fine Art Prints and Canvases.
• Starting this month we have begun our Print of the Month promotion offering you a unique opportunity to start / continue collecting our Fine Art Prints and Canvases at a special price.

You can find out more about these special offers and much more by reading our June 2011 newsletter.

Getting good pictures of Koalas can be tricky, they sleep all day and when they do something exciting you can guarantee they will wait till you look the other way first …

But you’ve got to love em, they’re just so cute

The challenge is to combine good composition with a bit of character and some great colours, if you can look at the image and see a story unfolding then you’re starting to get there.

In this image the sun was just starting to take on its “magic” golden quality as it started to set and this guy just sat there in the crook of the tree oblivious to the world around him and hugging his tree.

I just love watching wildlife like this guy. Is he dreaming? Is he aware that I’m taking a picture of him and ignoring me? What is important in a Koalas life?

Well, one thing is for sure this guy certainly loves his tree

Are you a Koala lover too?
You can have this guy hanging on your wall, click here to visit our web site and purchase a Fine Art Print or Canvas that will love you back for the rest of your life …

Here’s another image I overlooked from several years back. What really struck me when I came across this image again was the complete lack of any real patterns, and the total chaos of the water being blown from the top of the wave by the strong winds.

In fact it’s so chaotic I find it mesmerising and the contrast of the beautiful shades of green, blue and white just add to that chaos.

It’s just one of those images I can sit and stare at and appreciate the chaotic nature of the world around us and how little control we really have over our lives.

I love images that make me think, and this one makes me appreciate what I have in this chaotic world of ours. It reminds me to make the most of life while I can and help others do the same.

No doubt this image will invoke different emotions in different people, that’s the great thing about art it’s objective and it’s never bad, just different

It’s not like the boardwalk at Mindarie is lacking in things to draw you there, with the Indi Brewery, the Boat and the new Waterfront Cafe all set on the one of the most beautiful marina settings in the world.

But now there is another great reason to visit Mindarie, we have been given considerable space in the Mindarie Marina Hotel Foyer to extend our permanent display of Fine Art Photography.

Currently on display are over 15 Fine Art Photographic Canvases of Western Australia, including 60 inch panoramas of our very popular “Sunset” over Mindarie Marina (see above) and our new image from Monkey Mia, “Solutude” (see below).

So Before you settle down in the Indi for a locally brewed pint, party away in the Boat or have a relaxing lunch at the Waterfront Cafe take a side trip to the Mindarie Marina Hotel Foyer and see our latest display of Fine Art Photographic Canvases. You’ll be blown away by the colours and beauty of the world around us …

Yanchep National Park is a great place for a day out and what better way to end our visit than a quick trip through the Koala enclosure.

The Koala’s were in their naturally laid back state, perched on branches and snuggled into the nooks and crannies that they always seem to find up in the heights of the trees.

These guys sure make a stress free life look appealing, it sure is a Koala’s life

Capturing these sleepy little guys is not as easy as you’d think, here’s a few tips for getting better pictures of Koala’s as they doze the day away in the tree tops:

• Whenever possible shoot away from the sun, that will help you get those nice blue skies while lighting up the Koala at the same time
• Use a higher ISO speed (400 – 800) to make sure you get a fast shutter speed
• To get a well lit shot of the Koala try overexposing your shot by a few stops as the auto metering will try to expose for the much brighter sky
• Hang around for a while, eventually even sleepy Koala’s will move around or shift into a better position
• Using the longest lens / focal length you can will get you some nice close ups of the Koala’s but make sure you keep your shutter speed high enough to avoid camera shake
• Sometimes it’s nice to zoom out a bit and get a shot of the Koala in his surroundings
• Try to keep the surroundings natural, avoiding sprinklers and buildings in the background
• Have fun and remember these guys are endangered so no touching or disturbing them
• Respect the animals and environment you are photographing, always remember the old adage “Leave nothing but footprints”
• Respect the owners of the park you are in and abide by their rules at all times

The very kind owners of the house gave me a demonstration of how smoothly and easily each of the slide out drawers moves in their newly refurbished kitchen. What was even more stunning was that you couldn’t tell they were cupboards so nicely finished and flush with the wall as the work was.

Of course Wayne does not just do kitchens he does bathrooms, laundry’s and purpose built cabinets to fit any space as you can see from the video, enjoy!

Posted by Maggie Catley

We had our “Thongy Postcards” on display and they proved to be very popular

If you were there or if you want to know what you missed out on then watch our video slideshow of the event on youtube:

The other day I was happily Photoshopping away sharpening an image for a new print size when I stumbled across a small problem.

I wanted to select the part of the image so I could apply a different sharpening technique to it, I switched to the trusty Magic Wand tool and clicked on the sky. Imagine my surprise when, instead of selecting the just the white the whole image was selected.

I checked all the obvious solutions:

• Did I have the correct layer selected? – Yes
• Was the Tolerance setting ok? Yup it was set to 10
• Was the other parameters set appropriately? – Yes
• Restart Photoshop – No change
• Try a different image – No change
• Restart PC (getting desperate now) – No change
• Blame the kids – Still no change (only kidding )

I’d checked all the obvious and no luck, so having eliminated the probable solutions it was time too tart looking for the improbable ones

The Solution

I remembered playing around with the Eyedropper tool a few days before, so carrying on with my search for the improbable I selected the eye dropper tool and had a close look at it parameters. The only one the made any sense in relation to my problem was the Sample Size (which I remembered changing) so I set the Sample Size back to 1 point and returned to my Magic Wand tool.

Amazingly the problem was fixed, the appropriate area of sky was now selected and I adjust my Tolerance to get the result I wanted.

Admittedly I could have just used the Quick Selection Tool but that would not have helped me next time I had to use the Magic Wand so I was extremely happy to have fixed the problem though a little confused as to why the Magic Wand and would be connected in this way.

As far as I can tell this relationship between the Magic Wand and the Eyedropper tools has existed since at least CS3 so it obviously isn’t a “Bug” rather more of an “Undocumented Feature”

Summary

To summarise, if you are having a problem with the Magic Wand tool selecting more of your image than is appropriate for the parameters you have set and you have tried all of the solutions listed above then:

• Select the Eyedropper tool
• Go to the parameter toolbar at the top of the screen (or right click anywhere on the image)
• set the Sample Size to Point Sample

and all your problems should be fixed

If that fails then blaming the kids is the only option left

View or purchase prints of the image displayed above: Moonset, Bunker Bay, Margaret River Region (BBP1.2-V2-PH1)

Here’s a slideshow of some of the photos from the shoot:

Shown in this video is the Chef & owner from the new Waterfront Cafe & Restaurant, due to open in a few weeks on the Marina Boardwalk along with 2 of the superb staff from the “Indi” brewery.

We will be at the festival as usual with the MADCAT Photography stall alongside the “Indi” as well as being the “Roving Photographer” for the day.

The 5th annual ‘A Toast to the Coast!’ – Food, Beer and Wine festival is set to be the biggest yet! Tantalise the taste buds with tastings from local gourmet producers including chocolates, olives, cheeses and more and they are all for sale!

Sample the range of wines from near and far from 10am at the Wine tasting tent and there will be loads of live entertainment throughout the day.

Food gurus and celebrity chefs will be cooking up sensational gourmet delights throughout the day at the Cooks Corner, plus there will be a range of children’s activities and entertainment wandering the boardwalk.

As always it will be a great day out so make sure you put it in your diaries and we’ll see you there

In true Australian tradition these Postcards are die cut in the shape of an Aussie Thong sat on the beach, boardwalk or forest trail and each one portrays a unique Western Australian Fine Art image from MADCAT Photography.

Created from an concept by local printer Adam Hollister and designed by MADCAT Photography these new themed postcards are already proving to be very popular, both as quality postcards to send home and mementos of a great holiday in Western Australia.

All of our images are available for purchase as Fine Art Canvases or Prints through our web site, click the image above for more information.

After successfully trialling some prototypes of our “Thongy Postcards” last year we have just taken delivery of our first batch of production cards featuring a new updated design and new images.

Starting with some of our most popular images we will be expanding the range to cover Western Australia and with luck ultimately they will go Australia Wide.

If you would like to purchase a “Thongy Postcard” then you can visit Oceania Gifts at the Mindarie Marina or Sunshiners at Two Rocks or contact Maggie directly.

If you are interested in reselling our “Thongy Postcards” in your retail outlet then please contact Maggie and we will arrange to come and visit you with some samples

All of our images are available for purchase as Fine Art Canvases or Prints through our web site, click the image above for more information.

It never ceases to amaze me the extraordinary lengths some people will go to to help out with very little to gain apart from knowing you have done some good. The school was started by Gemma Rice to educate children in Tanzania that had no other avenue to gain an education. As a young lady herself, Gemma opened the school in 2002 in Northern Tanzania with 3 children, 1 teacher and 1 classroom. Nine years later there are 1500 students, 350 local staff, three schools and 2 boarding campuses.

Children are the future and I believe they have a right to a decent education so I applaud Gemma for her efforts, vision and insight.

I also applaud the ladies, headed up by Julie Hepworth, who started the St Jude’s Charity Ball 6 years ago who have also grown their event significantly every year and managed to raise $19,000 at the end of last year.

They have announced this years event to be held at Rendezvous Hotel, Scarborough, Perth on Saturday 10th December. Tickets will go on sale in July so be sure to look out for it, its a great night out and for a very good cause.

Maggie

Jean redesigned the living area of this Kingsley home and I have to say it looks simply stunning.

To see the results of Jeans handiwork watch this video we created for her:

If you’re looking to give a little love to your home then why not give Jean a ring on (08) 9304 3207 and see what she can do to help you?