Michael Orton - Fine Art Photography

Intro by Admin: Michael Orton is a fine art photographer living in Nanaimo B.C., Canada and is the creator of the Orton Imagery process AKA the Orton effect. Michael recorded an Orton Imagery – Orton effect podcast with me a while back. Feel free to take a listen.

The photos you are seeing now are some of Michael’s more recent work. When I asked Michael about his technique for these featured images he generously replied the following:
“In its simple form this is merely “camera movement”. I have used this for over 25 years myself so there is some, shall we call it, experience or history, acquired over that time. This last year in search of some “play” I began to take this approach where I had not been before. This was making the “movements ” compound in nature , 2 or 3 at the same time. (as compared to a rather predictable straight line).

The number of movements and the combinations are numerous, and the choice of which to use is of course based on your subject matter, its design, and any implied lines within it. Here is my new “twist”. In many images I am also either changing focus or changing focal length while this camera movement exposure is taking place. The reward for being able to “feel the camera” in this way has given me some moments far beyond the ” photographic parameters”. This I would best describe as “freedom”. And hence the title of the slideshow on my site. All subject matter is landscape. I work 99% of the time in overcast or rain (which is the best light because of the wet reflections) . There are no added or altered colours . Colours are derived by “mixing” existing colours to obtain resulting colours. Exposures are in the 1/8 sec to 2 or 3 second range generally. All handheld obviously, using most of the time my 18-70 lens.”

Michael Orton – Biography
I am a husband, father, grandfather and photographer. A camera has been a part of me for a large part of my adult life and has taken Mary and I on a wonderful ride. In 1992 Orca Book Publishers published our first book “Once Upon an Island” and as luck would have it, the owner of a stock agency found it in a bookstore in Seattle and our stock photography career began. We now license through Getty Images and Age Photostock. Once Upon an Island contained some of my first painterly impressionistic images, which have since become referred to as “Orton Imagery” by other photographers. (I believe Darwin Wiggett started this reference). In the fall of 2011, Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 will be released, containing an “Orton Effect” plugin. Early in my career I had begun working with a dissolve / projector / music presentations, allowing audiences to experience the combination of music and imagery in the theatre setting. Camera Canada and Abottsford Photographic Seminars, Okanagan School of the Arts. University of Victoria, Vancouver Island University Theater were some of the venues. In 2000, “Photographing Creative Landscapes” was published by Amherst Media. This book presented a look at creativity as it pertains to photography from my own experience. At the heart of my path is what I refer to as the “inner conversation”, the flow of questions and answers that is the source of my responses and actions and the resulting images.

Now in 2011, rather than enter the book publishing market once again, Mary and I have chosen to present instead the unique experience of the presentations of “Earth Symphony” and our latest work, “Freedom”. I am blessed in having a gifted , giving partner who through all the years has given support in so many ways, and now in the design and implementation of this site and the presentations. We have made our home in Nanaimo BC Canada for the last 33 years, with our sons and their families close by. See more of my work at michaelortonphotograpy.com