Film Scanner

I now have a film scanner which will allow me to work from negatives supplied by clients where I am otherwise unable to take the photographs myself and the client does not have access to a digital camera.  35mm or medium format film only.  All negatives will be returned once scanned.

New Web Sites

I now have 3 satellite web sites supporting my main site at www.sally-jane.com One purely for pet portraiture which is http://www.petportraitsbysally-jane.co.uk/index.html, one purely for pet cards here www.petportraitsbysallyjane.co.uk and one for other forms of photography including human portraiture and still life images here www.sally-jane.co.uk
As the new sites were purpose built rather than simply evolved like my main site, I am hoping they will be easier for viewers to navigate. The main web site needs some work to tidy it up as it has turned into a sprawling mass of pages but I don't want to lose any inbound links so weeding out the rubbish won't be easy. Any tip would be welcome.

Sally Jane Photographic Art video

I thought about this long and hard before I finally managed to pluck up the courage to make this video but I was assured by my friend, Mike, of MKlink.com that YouTube ads are a good way to increase sales. Umm, lets hope so. As you will see by the heavy swallowing, I found speaking to a camera felt very strange and unnatural.

Sucess on the Cards

With Christmas fast approaching I have been kept quite busy with producing pet portraits for Christmas presents which is great. My turnover this year has probably doubled on this time last year as word gets round and my web site becomes more popular. This year though, people have started noticing my cards as well as my portraits and orders for cards are now really taking off. I produce the cards to order which means they can be customised in any way customers require. People who have ordered portraits are now returning to order Christmas cards of their pet while other people who have not had or require a pet portrait are simply ordering cards because they like the designs and want a stock of animal cards to cover various occasions. All the cards shown in my gallery are for general sale and can be customised with any greeting or message either inside or out. The more pet portraits I do the more cards I can add to my gallery so if a particular breed is not shown today, just check back later to see what new ones have been added.

Clouds do come with silver linings

Yesterday the weather men warned us that today would be really wet...all day! "Great", I thought, as I envisaged walking a muddy dog in the rain and hosing him down before allowing him back in the house, "nothing I like better!" Hey ho.
This morning loomed dark and gloomy as I peered out from under the covers. Dark and gloomy yes but rain, no. OK, I can do dark and gloomy. As I fetched Brac in from his kennel the first few drops begin to fall. Ummm. I devise to get some breakfast and see if it develops, if not, I'll take him for his walk early. It didn't get any worse, just a fine mist of dampness so off we go to the heath. When I got there the car park was full. Seems like all of Wilmington and half of Dartford had had the same idea. There were dog walkers everywhere. Normally I might only meet one or two other people but this morning there were dogs everywhere which was good because Brac loves to socialise.
I advertise on the side of my car for my pet portraits and as we returned to the car I saw a man there waiting for me. He was interested in getting a portrait done for his girlfriend as a Christmas present. The full car park was an obvious bonus, may be I should have some brochures available that people could help themselves to while me car is parked there. I don't like the idea of leaving stuff under peoples wipers as that is tacky and invasive but I'm sure I could exploit the advertising a little more effectively.
By 10am I was back home, ready for a cup of coffee and with a clear day ahead and another job on the books. All thanks to a miserable weather report.

Keep up the good work!

I went back to see my consultant today about my shoulder. Last time I saw him he was less than impressed by my progress 2 weeks on from the op. Today I felt like I had made no improvement since then and he might come up with a different course of action. I have to say that going to physio three times a week and running through countless different exercises several times each day and not noticing any significant improvement has left me feeling a bit deflated. My hope was on a glimmer of light being offered by the consultant today but all he said was that I was my progress was about average and I should continue what I'm doing for another 6 weeks until I see him again. That gem of information will cost me £130 plus another £35 every time I visit the physio. It would be worth it if I could see some signs of improvement but even the physios are telling me it should be far better. It's my own fault really. I should have had something done about it far sooner. Oh well, another 6 weeks it is then, back to the exercises.

Still, on a more positive note. I had a great day yesterday. I had a commission deep in the heart of Kent for a surprise portrait of a horse for my client's husband. The horse was a 'cart horse' of no particular breeding but he has got to be one of the most beautiful horses I've seen. They used him for carriage eventing so he was trained in harness and he looked every bit the part. Pied balled with a very long straight white main and tail and full feathers. Beautiful conformation and as a stallion he was proud with it so held his head wonderfully. When I asked her what his history was she told me they bought him from some gypsies! Amazing, so few gypsy horses have such a good shape but then out of the thousands of poor broken down animals they breed a few have got to turn out right. The other thing that generally makes gypsy horses look so poor is their lack of work so they tend not to be very muscled up. This horse was certainly not lacking there as since they had had him he had been trained regularly and is constantly in competitions. When I can I'll upload the image to my web site but as this is a surprise Christmas present it will have to wait in case her husband should stumble across it.

Portrait of a Wayward Pony

For those of you who are regular readers of my blog you will know who 'wayward pony' is. For the rest of you, you really don't want to know. Notice there is no head collar. It was 'painstakingly' removed...by digital editing in the end. Notice too how demure she looks. Ummm ;-)
Visit www.sally-jane.com/photographic_art/pet-portraits.html for more information on my pet portraiture.

The 13th was not my lucky day! (Occupational Hazard?)

Now, I won't say I'm totally free of blame here. There were plenty of warning signs and a lesson to be learned. Basically I was kicked by a clients pony. Luckily, an unshod one.
One of my first mistakes is to forget that there are two classes of horse owners. Those that 'do' at least to some degree and those that simply 'don't'. By that I mean those that look after their charges as well as ride them and those that have this all done for them, including taking up, and simply have to turn up when they want to ride. Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that but this group tend not to have as much understanding of their animals. My client, to be referred to a IC from here on and I'll let you think of a suitable word for the 'I', was of the latter category I eventually discovered.
IC was not at the stables when I arrived on time for the photo shoot. This should have been my first warning. So far, all of my clients have been in attendance well before I have been due to arrive so they could get their charges all spruced up and looking pretty. IC was about 15 minutes late and there was no one else at the yard apart from a very friendly guard dog.
Warning sign No.2, IC appears all 'dressed up to the nines' in a satin blouse, designer black 3/4 length jeans, winkle picker fashion boots, false nails and jewellery.
IC introduced herself and showed me to her daughter's pony whom I was to photograph. She told me she had her for 6 months and she was an absolute sweetie. She also said she had her own horse at the same yard that she rode.
Mistake No.1, as IC claimed to be an equestrian and horse owner I assumed she had a degree of horse competence.
The pony had not been groomed and had a very dusty face. I asked if IC could give her a bit of a groom to smarten her up. IC said she didn't know if there was any grooming kit available. I said if nothing else we could roll up some straw to use as a brush but we would need to clean her off a bit. IC rummaged around in the stable and found a body brush but no curry comb. What that was doing in the stable I have no ideas but mabe the pony liked to give herself a brush up occasionally! She gave the pony a quick brush off on her neck but left the worst of the dust on the pony's face. When IC put the brush down I took it and cleaned off the pony's face. IC clearly didn't relish the idea of possibly getting dirty.
Warning sign No.3, IC produced a head collar and held it up to the face of the pony. IC could not work out how to put it on. Eventually I had to put the head collar on. This really was a major warning sign for me to have overlooked as putting a head collar on for a horse owner is as basic as putting a collar and lead on a dog.
We lead the pony to the sand school where I noticed, as did the pony, that there was a lot of lush grass growing around the edges. The head collar was scruffy and obscured a lot of the pony's face. IC asked if I could take the head collar out of the portrait. It is far easier and better if the head collar is not wanted in the portrait to take the photographs without it on but in some cases this is not practical. In such cases the head collar needs to be removed by careful digital editing but if too much of the animals face is obscured this doesn't always work that well.
My response, therefore, was a question and not a request. "Will she stand still if you take it off?" Mistake No.2, to assume people are going to respond in the way you want them. IC replied "I don't know, let's see." and before I could issue a word of caution she remove the head collar and the pony wandered straight off for the grass. This was clearly not going to work. A horse determined to graze is never going to keep her head up for a photo. IC goes to put the head collar back on but the pony moves away. She tries again and the same thing happens. IC said "I don't know what to do, she's never done that before."
Mistake No.3, I took charge because I stupidly felt guilty for leading my client to this situation. I knew she had no hope of getting hold of her pony especially as she didn't know how to put a haed collar on. She couldn't leave it in the school loose as this was supposed to be a surprise present for her daughter and 'said' daughter would want to know why her pony was there. I got IC to hold my camera while I took the head collar to catch the wayward pony. Wayward pony did not want to be caught while there was so much fresh grass to be eaten. I asked IC if she had any food, a carrot or some hay to tempt her with. IC informed me it was all kept in the tack room and she didn't have a key. Great!
I started to carefully approach the pony by sidling up to her with shoulder relaxed, not making eye contact and holding out a very large hand full of grass. She would allow me so far and then move off. Eventually she settled in a corner and I approached again. Only looking at her out of the corner of my eye my judgement of my exact position in relation to her was limited and as she was facing into the corner I was approaching too much from behind rather than from the side. Too late, I notice a slight change in her and instantly knew she was about to swing into me and kick. My weight was on the wrong leg to move out the way and the next instant I heard, more then felt, a whack on my thigh. I can't say it hurt at that pont, it was more a feeling of weakness. I clasped my leg and began rubbing it vigorously. "Did she kick you?" chimed IC. "Yes" I said. "She's never done that before!" replied IC, "Are you all right?"
There was nothing to be done but to continue with this sherade. If I left then IC was be like a fish out of water. The horse community is a small world and word would no doubt get round to my detriment not to use my services. The customer is always right and the show must go on...blah, blah.
I try again and again but never really got her trust enough to allow me to put her head collar on. Still, as long as I kept moving my leg was not too bad.

After about 20 minutes of so, I suggest we let the pony out of the school in the hope she would take herself back to her stable as most horse would especially as the area was secure. She left the school but went straight passed her stable preferring instead to hob knob with the other horses in the next field. I asked IC again if she could find some hay, maybe from her stable. She went into her stable muttering how she hated entering their stable when they hadn't been cleaned out! She came out with a handful of hay which the pony ignored. I then noticed a whole stack of hay bales tucked around the corner so grabbed hold of an arm full which I placed on the ground by the pony. The pony tucked in and I slipped the head collar on her. Relieved, I hand the lead rope to IC to take her back into the sun for the photo shoot. IC then said, "Can we not do it here only I don't really want to lead her in case she kicks me?" As it was in the shade this would have been a useless location so I simply told her she would be fine provided she was holding the lead rope and stayed near the front.
A few minutes later and the photos were in the bag and I was free to limp back to my car. By the time I got home I could hardly get out of my car and my leg had swollen considerably. I know this should have been treated with a cold pack straight away but 1 1/2 hours later it was too late for any of that. I shall just have to put it down to a lesson hard learned and ensure I don't make those same mistakes again.

Sally Jane's Pet Portraits goes Global

This is my first pet portrait commission from Australia. She is an Australian cattle dog from New South Wales. Her owner confirmed today that the portrait arrived in the post in perfect condition so I'm quite relieved. I always worry about the post as it's the one part of the operation that I have no control over other than to keep piling on the bubble wrap!
Her owner is thrilled with her portrait I'm pleased to say and is thinking of getting one done of her husbands dog. I'm thrilled too because this was my first overseas commission. Hopefully one of many more to come.

Pet Portrait Gift Vouchers

I am now producing gift vouchers as part of my pet portrait range. These make ideal presents especially when things have been left to the last minute. The gift vouchers can be for any amount and will be valid for 12 months from date of issue. Each gift voucher will be presented in one of the many cards available on the web site. Please specify which card you would like when ordering. For further information visit the web site at www.sally-jane.com or contact me direct on 07956 448690.

Last Minute Presents

I've been a bit quiet on the blog side recently but that is because I have been kept busy with a last minute rush for Pet Portraits as Christmas presents. Not that I'm complaining, it's great to be able to do this. It gives me a real buzz creating something that other people will cherish and hang on their wall. I get to meet like minded people - animal lovers - and some really great pets like this little Cairn Terrier. She was a real character who was not too impressed with being photographed and I don't blame her as it was a dismal day and blowing a gale. Despite this she came up trumps when she stared right into the lens as if to size me up just before legging it!

Customised Pet Greetings Cards

When ever I create a pet portrait I always create a greetings card to go with it. A sample card is given free with the portrait and further card can be ordered at any time. Most of these cards are also available for general sale. These cards can be printed with any message inside or simply left blank. Each card looks like a watercolour painting. They make great congratulations cards for anyone involved in either dog or horse competitions. View a gallery of the cards available by clicking here. Or click on the title of this blog for more information.

Pet Portraits

Pet Portraits by Sally Jane

I am now creating pet portraits which are proving to be very popular. They are created from digital photographs that I take myself and have the look of a real painting once completed. Prices start from £40 for a mounted print ready to frame. With each portrait I also create greetings cards that can be purchased either with the portrait or at any time in the future.

Clicking on the image will provide you with a better view.

For further information visit my web site for further information at www.sally-jane.com/photographic_art

Other pieces of digital art work are also available including landscapes still life portrait commissions.