Farewell Mad Mannequin-Hello Leigh Righton Photography

When I was young I often wished I could change my name… at different ages I had different ideas of what I thought I should be called.  None of these names ever seemed to stick for long, but as I moved through different stages of my life different names suited me, I believed.

When I started out in my photography career, I called myself Mad Mannequin.  And it worked for me, for about as long as any of my past names did.  I should have known, one day I might move on from it.

I am moving on from Mad Mannequin Photography, but this time I am bringing me back.

I’m LEIGH RIGHTON and THIS IS MY PHOTOGRAPHY.

Please join me!

‘like’ me on my new FACEBOOK

‘follow’ me on TWITTER

see my portfolio on my WEBSITE

keep up to date with me on my NEW BLOG

Sophia

The Baddest Bitch To Ever Hit This Town – Esthero

I first connected with Esthero through twitter a year ago.  She is by far one of my favorite female artists and I was following her on twitter.  One of her updates mentioned she would be in Vancouver, so on a whim I reached out and asked if she would be interested in shooting with me.  I was excited when she replied and wanted to make it happen.  It was a real honor to work with her and our first session was a success.

When I spent some time in LA last year, she took me out and treated me to some nightlife.  We went out the night she dyed her hair from red to blond, she turned heads with her new ‘do and I finally got to see LA at night. As it turned out we had a mutual friend, another incredible talent, Chin Injeti (who you can see all over my blog as well)

I caught up with her again a few months ago…and I can honestly say she’s one of the few women I’ve ever met who makes me nervous with her overpowering “cool” factor.  I would have dropped down and pulled a Wayne’s World “We’re not worthy” but I managed to hold it together (I’m a professional, right?)

I met her at her place, which is dubbed “the dollhouse”, which becomes obvious why when you step inside.  We decided to play around and take some casual shots for fun, and when she brought out her BIG ASS WOOD necklace (can you even call it a necklace?), I knew only this girl could pull it off in such a badass way.

Out with the old- bye bye appendix!

The new year is all about fresh starts right?  Well I suppose I’ve achieved this in an unexpected way.

A few weeks ago I was working on editing a photo for Eric Solomon, it was a last minute request for a press explosion he landed (see below) and I was happily working away into the night.  I suddenly started feeling a bit stomach achey, it was uncomfortable but I wasn’t concerned.  I woke up at 3:30am and the pain had become quite severe and seemed to have moved noticeably to the right.  I was pretty out of it, unable to stand easily, nauseous and in a lot of pain…knowing there’s a lot of important stuff on the lower right side, made a call to the nurse hotline who asked a bunch of questions and then instructed me to hang up the phone and call an ambulance. So I did…the paramedics arrived and took me to emergency.  So many tests were performed, lots of waiting in between.

When I went in for an ultrasound I was scooped up, having matched the age and gender of another patient, and almost ended up with a kidney biopsy…woops!  Thankfully they read the confusion on my face and double checked my ID tag before moving on with the procedure.  After the ultrasound they determined it was my appendix causing a fuss, so went in for surgery that night.

They gave me some pretty sexy surgery underwear

The following week was much messier then anyone anticipated, especially since they expected to have me released hours after the operation.  I ended up with what they are guessing is Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting (what fun!) for a whole week I was battling this very uncomfortable condition (made extra fun with a stitched up tummy), which turned out to be made worse by the narcotics they were giving to relieve pain.  I learned a lot about what my body will tolerate!

I have to say, despite the hell-ish nature of the hospital visit, I felt very fortunate to have Canadian health care.  Many of the nurses were fantastic, I ended up with a private room in emergency, a private room in both pre and post operation.  So I am very grateful over all, and incredibly happy to be on the mend!  Now it’s catch up time…lots of exciting shoots coming up

Eric’s story was spread in newspapers across Canada, including the Province!  Congrats Eric.

Eric Solomon

2011!

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and a fantastic start to the new year!  I’ve been gearing up and prepping for a busy and exciting 2011.  There are a few major changes on the horizon so check back as new developments are unveiled!

Below is an image I took recently on a foggy night walk.  It was particularly eerie as a large portion of the surrounding streets in the area were police taped off.  The fog seemed to compliment the mood of the winter evening appropriately.  This shot and others from this series will be made available through my stock agency Photolibrary.

Dana

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that I had to get outside.  I met up with my friend Dana to stroll around by the water and brought a couple cameras with me.   I have a shoot coming up that I wanted to do some tests for…I used my digital 5D MarkII and shot into the viewfinder of my Uniflex I.  This is a process I heard about years back and wanted to experiment with again.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

The Viewfinder

Back to my 5D MarkII

Dana- with 5D MarkII

Dana- 5D MarkII

Karma

On December 22nd I was back at the beautiful SUGAR STUDIOS with KARMA ATHLETICS shooting some catalogue imagery with their team.  They are a lovely crew and we had a great session, the model is a ballerina and pilates instructor…so there were mutterings of new years resolutions while we worked with our super fit talent!  I had the assistance of the wonderful Victoria Canning (check her BLOG for more behind the scenes photos!)

Looking forward to seeing the completed catalogue!

Model: Bevin Poole

Hairspray, hairspray, hairspray

Teamwork

Final touches

Photo by: Victoria Canning

Photo by: Victoria Canning

Photo by: Victoria Canning

Photo by: Victoria Canning

Of Giants

A sweet musical combo you will want to watch out for, Of Giants is Chin Injeti and Larissa Gomes.

Playing

This series was taken after a headshot session, I got to play a little bit with my subject in a more experimental environment.  We were shooting in an area that was…colorful. Lets just say, when I took a taxi to this area to a studio I was visiting at night, he didn’t want to let me out there without knowing I had someone meeting me.  So I figured it would make for a good backdrop and my subject agreed…by taking his shirt off

Suzie McNeil & Scott Walters

I am quite backlogged on everything I have planned to blog, so much to share!  To start, here is a small selection from my recent shoot with the very gorgeous and talented Suzie McNeil and Scott Walters.

These two were a blast!  Visiting Vancouver from out of town, the couple wanted some shots around the city, we had a great time wandering False Creek and Gastown.  Much love to them both!!