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Archive for the ‘Portraits’ Category

Make hay (and photos) while the sun shines

December 14, 2009

Poor Yvonne. She arrives at the apartment carrying a bag of nachos, some dip and a bottle of Diet Coke, innocently thinking that she has come to watch the X Factor final.

But see, Yvonne has arrived as the sun does a pretty little golden dance across my balcony, and within minutes she’s out in the cold, holding a reflector and being curiously watched by a guy in the apartment across from us.

Believe it or not, Yvonne is extremely camera shy. Most pictures I have of her involve her hand shooting across to block her face, paparazzo style. No amount of ninja-like camera wielding or sneaky zoom techniques allowed me to get a picture of her.

But in the past few months, whether down to my insisting she stand in while I test out light and location while assisting me on shoots, or just down to us getting older and more mellow, Yvonne’s no photo rule has relaxed a bit. Which is why I love these shots so much. You never know, she could return to her no-photos-please days at any moment.

Her earrings were so pretty, her make-up so lovely, her blonde locks so crying out for a bit of flare, that I had to drag her out to the balcony and take her picture. And I’m so glad I did.

Isn’t she soooo pretty? And before you ask, I don’t know where she got those earrings but I’ll check.

I could tell you why she’s laughing in this pic. But I’m pretty sure Yvonne could sue me.

My absolute favourite. I heart flare.

Tags: flare, natural light photography
Posted in Personal, Photography, Portraits | No Comments »

Circus shoot

November 27, 2009

Some shots from when I tagged along to the KISS photoshoot, shot on location at Circus Vegas way back in June – I have no idea why I didn’t post these before.  The show is run by my family, as many of you know, so I went along to make sure no one stepped in any pony poo or got roped into making candyfloss; things like that. I snapped these pics alongside Beta Bajgartova, who was the photographer on the job.

I know I’ve said it before, but Beta is so awesome. Not only is she a great photographer, but she openly shares her knowledge, always listens to any suggestions or ideas I throw out there, and answers any question, no matter how silly. Having someone like that helping me as I learn, try, succeed and sometimes fail is amazing.

Tags: circus, circus fashion shoot, circus photography, circus vegas
Posted in Photography, Portraits | 2 Comments »

Those eyes

November 24, 2009

Doesn’t this little guy just have the most gorgeous eyes? Such a cutie.
His name is also Ethan, and he was born just a week after my Ethan (well, he’s not mine, but you get my drift) so we bonded over a shared love of coloured building blocks and bubbles.

I know you probably don’t need or want to see all the pictures from the bubble series… but he’s just so happy and smiley and cute that I had to post them all.

We spent the afternoon in the very pretty St Anne’s Park in Clontarf. It was right after these bump shots, so although it was cold, the light was was gorgeous. Bokeh-licious (sung to the tune of Destiny’s Child Bootylicious…. no? Anyone?).

They’re the cutest family.

Remember being swung like that? It rocked. I wish they’d invent a funfair ride that swings you around like that. I would a pay a good €2.50 for that.

The cuteness continues.

I know all toddlers are happy, but this kid was really bringing the LOLs, you couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

A serious shot. I love this.

Some family shots…

This is part of a series we did for the fam’s Christmas cards, hence the Santa in the background…

Shooting from between the roses (yes, roses! In November) in the park.

And last but not least, I grabbed this quick shot after Ethan cheekily pulled off his hat and before his mum promptly squished it back on. Love those wispy blonde locks. And the eyelashes (why do boys always get the lashes? No fair!)

Tags: family portrait photography, park life, photos and bubbles, toddler photography
Posted in Photography, Portraits | 2 Comments »

KISS Model Search Finalists

November 16, 2009

People believing in you is a funny thing to wrap your head around.

As some of  you might know, my main job is working as a Deputy Editor of KISS magazine. On occasion, I accompany the lovely Beta to photoshoots, where I learn all sorts of on-the-job tricks (one big one: stand-alone ladders are amazing, particularly if you are shortie photographer snapping a gazelle-like model).

For a while now, Fashion Ed Corina (who blogs for Stellar mag here) and Ed Sarah have been encouraging me to do a shoot myself. I was all “No way Jose” – I need to practice more, get better gear, and generally learn how to not suck so much before my pictures can be splashed across 25,000 copies of anything.

And that was that, until I returned from my Bali hols. While sifting through a gazillion emails, Corina appeared behind my desk and coyly says, “Guess what you’re doing on Friday?”

Which is how I found myself with 10 gorgeous KISS Model Finalists, shooting a pretty Sartorialist-inspired fashion story, the results of which are below and in the current issue of the magazine.

Throwing me into the deep end and seeing if I would swim, or sink in a sea of badly composed, dodgily exposed shots is not a risk a lot of people would take, and I can’t thank the girls enough for pushing me in. Ladies, you are legends; thank you for being so encouraging and supportive.

And now, for the model finalists – the winner gets a contract with 1st Option, which is pretty sweet. In no particular order, here they are…

Zoe:

Grace:

Tamyn:

Anna:

Bronwyn:

Chloe:

Samantha:

Niamh:

Poppy:

Alison:

Tags: fashion shoot, inspired by The Sartorialist, learning on the job, portrait photography
Posted in Photography, Portraits | No Comments »

Amanda & Bump

November 13, 2009

Some women have all the luck.

I photographed Amanda’s first bump back in Feb 2008, and again in April (I also snapped what popped out). She had the cutest, neatest bump and it appears that the bump gods have smiled upon her once again.

She is seven months pregnant and I only hope I look half as gorgeous and serene and glowy whenever I decide to get sprogged.

We shot these just last weekend, but lucked out with the most glorious day imaginable. Still freezing, but glorious.

We got proud Dad Conor in for a few shots…

I know. My ovaries are lurching just looking at it.

When Amanda was pregnant with Ethan, we took this lovely pic of her in one of Con’s shirts. So she dug it out again and we grabbed a sequel.

We took advantage of that rare thing, an Irish blue sky, and headed out to the balcony for a few more.

Amanda, congrats again! Thanks for being so cool and obliging, for letting me stand on chairs, kneel on beds, and for getting your tum out in the freezing cold!

After we finished the bump shots, I moved on to Amanda and Con’s incredibly beautiful baby boy, Ethan. I’ll post that session soon, but I couldn’t resist one sneak peek shot, taken before he got all bundled up for the park…

Okay fine, two…! He loves kissing Mum’s bump – adorable.

Tags: bump & baby photographer, bumps & babies, Maternity, maternity photography
Posted in Maternity, Photography, Portraits | 4 Comments »

Acts of Random Kindness

September 28, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a sunny Saturday afternoon running around with three incredibly enthusiastic people. They were Cameron, Ronan and Bridget (or Cam, Ro and Bridge) and they have created Ark°, a clothing company with a very  lovely difference. Cam explains how it works: “I’ve started this clothing line with a purpose other than profit – Acts of Random Kindness°. Wear the Λ° logo, perform an Ark°. That’s it.”

Beautifully simple, isn’t it? Acts of random kindness – or Arks – can be anything and everything, small or big, from paying someone’s bus fare, to paying a sincere compliment.

They needed some photos for their new website, so we met up on Grafton Street and they got Arking.

We got things started by giving out sunflowers to people walking by.

Here’s Bridge handing out cupcakes

Then Ro left his favourite book in St Stephens Green, along with a little note explaining how Ark works, and asking people to enjoy the read.

There were some free high fives – these were great fun.

And some free busking….

On the back of one of the t-shirts from the clothing line there’s a nice explanation of how the whole Ark thing works.

Then there was just enough time to drag an old sofa of Ro’s out to a sunny alleyway for some group shots…

… Which quickly turned into an impromptu couch-diving session

I think I’ll call this my “boyband poster pose”

And a couple of pretty head shots to wrap things up.

Keep an eye on the new site, and in the meantime, head over to their old site for ideas on Arks you can do yourself and to take a look at the clothing line.

Tags: acts of random kindness, ark
Posted in Photography, Portraits | 4 Comments »

Karolina

September 24, 2009

Isn’t she gorgeous?

I got to revisit my old hood – Portmanock – and shoot alongside the lovely Beta Bajgartova as she shot this fab fashion spread for KISS.

You can’t help but totally fall in love with Karolina, she’s simply adorable. A great mover, and really expressive -  she’s the perfect for the teen vibe of KISS. The ever-deadly Corina Gaffey styled the shoot.

Posted in Photography, Portraits | No Comments »

Baby M

September 4, 2009

You know the way some babies, even though they’re only a few months old, look at you so solemnly, and wisely, like they know exactly what’s going on? That’s baby M all over.

She was the cutest little thing, with the biggest, prettiest, solemnest (is that a word?) blue eyes. Here are a few shots from our mini session.

Cuties

Cuties

Cuties

And look, already mastering the art of tying her shoes! What a smart cookie.

Cuties

Cuties

I’ve already posted this in colour, but I like it in B&W too:

Cuties

And finally – look, she’s sticking her tongue out right at me!

Cuties

Tags: cuties
Posted in Photography, Portraits | No Comments »

Edie

August 21, 2009

Maybe I was just too used to the rough and tumble ways of Ethan, but on meeting Edie, I was instantly struck by how gentle a little girl she was. She was just over a year old when we had our session, and isn’t she the cutest little thing?

I this is my favourite – I love those colourful pegs!:

And how cute is her expression in this shot? She’s off in her own little world:

We lucked out with some really pretty light:

And you might recognise these shots from the site’s landing page:

Tags: cute kids
Posted in Photography, Portraits | No Comments »

Karla

August 11, 2009

It’s always said that it’s easy to take a good picture of a pretty girl, but, although Karla is without a doubt GORGEOUS (that skin, those teeth…grrr) the girl had to work it, Tyra-style for our shoot.

First of all it was FREEZING. We lucked out with some sun, but Mother Nature wouldn’t stretch to actually giving us the warmth that went with it.

So poor Karla had to frolick around in cute mini dresses and high heels looking like she was loving life, when really she was cursing her photographer and her mental ideas.

I love the shot below, probably my favourite from the session. I love the wistful expression on Karla’s face, the glow of the sun against her hair.

But if you could look outside this frame you’d see that she’s ditched her heels for Ugg boots and can barely feel her fingers. Seriously. What a pro, eh?

Tags: not-so-sunny weather, Portmarnock beach, work it
Posted in Portraits | No Comments »

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