Historic Warwick

We recently made a trip to Warwick Castle and spent a day there enjoying a trip back to the middle ages. The castle itself was amazing as were the views from the battlements.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8

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I was particularly taken by this model of a village nearby...

Project 52 ... 32

Meet the lovely Mel...

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 bounce umbrella, Vivitar 285 + gridspot

I first met Mel many years ago; she wasn't in a mini at the time, she was wearing leather trousers! Here she is pictured in her pride and joy; a soft top Mini Cooper. A wonderful lady, always smiling (even at my jokes...), Mel was easy to photograph.

I set up an SB800 in a bounce umbrella to camera left and a Vivitar 285 to camera left and behind Mel. Both triggered remotely. For the whole of the shoot Mel was more or less in the middle of the two lights. The biggest problem was the reflection of the SB800 in the bodywork of the mini. Being curved and metallic I had to be very careful indeed.

We took a lot of shots and had a great laugh! A big thank you to Mel for being such a good sport.

Project 52 ... 31

Meet moody Vince...
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D200 Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, no strobes...

Well, moody is a little unfair, okay, well a lot unfair. I first met Vince on the Scott Kelby 2008 World Wide Photowalk in Windsor last year. The same time as I met Glyn (photographed here). Glyn and Vince hit it off and became good friends and when you become friends with a photographer, then they are going to shoot you sooner or later.

Vince can been seen in multiple guises on Glyn's Blog, a lot of which are moody. So when we were walking around Eton last week, and we found a fantastic covered entrance to a mews with these amazing rendered friezes on the walls, I had to shoot him there. I also kept telling him to be 'moody'.

'You sound just like Glyn', he said. Pleased with that, I kept shooting. But this is my favourite shot of the afternoon. Vince is trying not to laugh as I am saying 'moody'... that was the shot! You can just see a smirk developing out of the corner of his mouth... Thanks for being patient with me Vince!

More shoes ... well boots ...

This is part of a project of photographing my wife Catherine's wonderful collection of shoes and boots. This is the first shot I have taken and this was to decide how to progress the project. I want to create an sense of drama.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 grid, Vivitar 285 grid

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Lighting is all important in these shots and adds to the film noir mystic. Flat lighting will do nothing and leave you wondering why you bothered.
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As you can imagine, there are a lot more photographs to be taken ...

Blackrock Market ...

When I return home to Ireland I invariably make a visit to Blackrock market. An eclectic mix of clothes; vintage and new, books, comics, antiques, photography and all to do with the culture and history of Ireland.
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Project 52 ... 30

Say hello again to Heidi.

I photograph Heidi every year when I return to Ireland on a family holiday. With her lovely smile and long shining blond hair Heidi always looks good in a shot. I photographed her previously here.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800 in reflecting umbrella

This shot had to be taken indoors as the Irish weather was asserting itself; as I posted earlier, rain. Fortunately the hall in Heidi's house is rather large and lent itself to me setting up an SB 800 with a reflecting umbrella. The quality of the light from it was wonderful. As before everything was set to manual, the camera and the flash and I was shooting at 1/200th. I simply tweaked the f-stop until the photo looked right. Simple. Then you just shoot away. In a sequence like this I find it better to take a lot of shots because facial expressions change constantly and you wound not want to miss the best one!

Heidi's two friends are holding her hair up to give this fun shot. Thanks Heidi for being such a great sport and putting up with the hair pulling!

Project 52 ... 29

Meet my little brother, Paul.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800 shoot thro' umbrella, Vivitar 285 + gridspot

I have wanted to shoot Paul since we were kids... only kidding. He is the best brother a man could have. Here he is holding a samurai sword called a katana that was awarded to him on receiving his First Dan black belt grade in Wado Ryu karate. He is also sporting his yakuza style tattoo. Paul and I first started learning karate in the 70's when the Bruce Lee phenomenon hit the big screen. You couldn't get enough of Kung Fu or Karate. It was everywhere and everyone wanted to be a part of it. We both kept it up, Paul studying Wado Ryu in Ireland.

I wanted to make this photo a gritty hard edged one to show something of the karate-ka that is Paul. Unfortunately this cannot show you the blood, sweat and tears that goes into the dedication required to gain this level of achievement in karate, but believe me its there. I lit Paul with an SB 800 in a shoot through umbrella level with the camera to camera left and a Vivitar 285 directly behind Paul and about 10 feet away from him with a grid spot to control the light. I also draped the umbrella with the black/silver cover to limit the spill of light through the umbrella. The lights were in a linear formation; with Paul in the middle forming a straight line.

Both flashes were triggered with CTR 301 P, Ebay remotes, which have fired every time for me so far! Thanks Paul for a wonderful meal that night and for having the patience to sit (stand) while I took the shot.

Casper, the Friendly Dog

The last photo I took of a pet was of our cat Snowy, some 30 odd years ago. We called him Snowy because he was white, quite. One day he was accidentally locked in the coal shed, but that's another story.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, natural light

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This is Casper, and is very close to Ann, a wonderful lady who recently had an important birthday. Her husband Roger asked me to photograph Casper as a surprise for her. So one afternoon when Ann was out and about we popped back to the house and took the shots. It was great fun and Casper was a treat to work with.
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Roger then had them framed, three main photographs and a collection arranged as above. I am told they went down very well, brownie points for Roger! And a belated happy birthday to Ann.

The Capital

When I return home to Ireland I always find myself drawn to Dublin and then to the GPO (General Post Office) on O'Connell's Street in the heart of the city. It holds a particular fascination for me. I can happily sit and watch the world go by there for hours.

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8

Designed by Architect Francis Johnston and completed in 1814 it stands as one of the most iconic and famous of Ireland's building. It played a pivotal role in the Easter Rising of 1916 and it was here that the Proclamation of Independence was read. The great columns that support the portico are still pock marked with the bullet holes of freedom.

The statues seen here from left to right are Fidelity, Hibernia and Mercury with the Irish Flag just behind. The portico is of Portland stone and the rest of the building is of granite. The GPO stands as one of the greatest Georgian buildings of all time. the steel spire to the right is another thing altogether...

Project 52 ... 28

This is Art Droid Ross...

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50, f2.8, SB 800

I have known Ross for quite a while now. he is a local Artist, I should say a very gifted local artist. He can turn his hand to so many things from sculpture, drawings, restoration and I am sure many many more. I was delighted when he agreed to sit for a portrait. Naturally, it had to be in his studio. And what a studio! Surrounded by banks of wide screen monitors, electronic writing tablets, books (and a drawing board) it was an experience! I was overwhelmed. His artwork has graced the pages of magazines, comics and the film industry, and I like his way out futuristic style, he was also an Art Droid on 2000AD, a comic I was hooked on as a kid. You can see more of his work here.

There was a lot of mixed lighting in the studio - small low voltage lights in the ceiling, the monitor lights and daylight coming in through the door. I set the SB 800 with diffusion dome to camera left and set the camera's white balance for tungsten. I tweaked the final image white balance a bit.

What struck me as a huge coincidence is the disparity between this shot and the last of Roger, here, Ross uses a tablet to draw on the screen, Roger uses a drawing board.

Thanks Ross for giving me a glimpse into the life and studio of an amazing artist!

Project 52 ... 27

This is Roger.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, natural light

Roger is an Architect and has been practising for a number of years with great success. He has won many awards over the years. But what he is known for outside of work is climbing. he has climbed more mountains than most people on the planet! His last trip was to a peak in the Everest range a mere 200m lower than the main peak itself! Frost bite and the cold mean nothing to him! (I wasn't going to climb a mountain for this shot, the stairs were high enough!)

This picture is taken in his studio, in the gods, in the natural light streaming in from a rooflight to camera left. He climbs up here everyday, right. This photograph is an interesting contrast with the next one of Ross. Most architects use computers in their work and in Roger's office this is no exception, but he still uses a drawing board. I should at this point add that he is an advanced Autocad user, with a certificate to prove it...

Thanks for letting me take this shot Roger.

The Holiday Season

Or should that be the rainy season...!?! I am just back from a two week trip back home to Ireland. It rained most of the time. When I lived there I was used to it, but living in England's almost tropical climate by comparison has made me forget about living with the rain. While it wasn't constant, it was there and did curb some photo walking I had in mind.

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I have a lot to add to the blog over the next few weeks. Not least of which is the 30th week of Project 52! A big thanks must go to all of you who have allowed me to photograph you. I have enjoyed it immensely. I shall email you all separately in the next week or so to let you know what is happening.

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D200, Tralee, Cockle Shell Beach Cow

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Just befoew I left I took part in Scott Kelby's World Wide Photoshoot, you can read about it here. It was a great day and lead by my good friend Glyn, I took his portrait back here a few weeks agoand there is a video of the day on his website, so do have a look. And why not make a note to take part next year - I am assumming that there will be another one then.

The day was great; there was about twenty of us and we wandered the streets of Guildford taking photos.

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D200, Guildford, Through the Looking Glass

Watch this space!