Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my friends, here in the UK, back home in Ireland, new friends in the USA and friends who are even further afield! I hope that the new year brings you all the success that you wish for and all the happiness that goes with it.

This year has been an interesting year for me, with many new things happening. I want to thank my wife Catherine, (Mrs H), my son Cein and daughter Katy for supporting me in my photographic endeavours. They have put up with a lot of... 'can you just sit there... I want to try out a new lighting idea...' you get the picture. Thanks guys, I couldn't have done it without you! Here's to you!

And then there is the #curryclub! What can I say about the #curryclub? As one of the inaugural members, here's to hoping it goes from strength to strength this year with a lot of laughs, more shooting and the odd curry along the way. I hope we can get some of the American folk shooting with us this year, so if you are listening and you are over here, give us a call! We'd love to have you! But seriously, you guys; Brian, Dave, Glyn, David, John, Keith and Gareth have been great friends and a lifeline for me. Here's to you guys!

So, come Midnight, I shall raise a glass to you, my friends, and say Happy New Year,

All the best
Noel

Location:Happy New Year

'You!... you're one of us!'

Well, my good friend Dave, known to countless millions as Nappmember UK, please visit the website here... well he finally got me to join NAPP, The National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Its been a few weeks now and I can honestly say that I haven't looked back since. At the moment there a a number of deals to be had for joining. I took the one that gave me all the back issues of Photoshop User magazine for 2010. A great bargain, but there a other deals available, check out the website above for a number of them, Dave always keeps the website up to date.

The amount of learning that is on the NAPP website is phenomenal. There are instructional videos, walkthroughs, a forum for photoshop chat, and, as you would expect in the photography world, everyone is extremely friendly and wants to help. The NAPP home page is here; it is a Kelby Media Group enterprise, and again, when Scott Kelby gets involved gets involved you know it is going to be good.

Thanks to Dave Clayton for finally twisting my arm, I should have joined years ago! and to Glyn Dewis for al the photoshop help and encouragement. So if you use photoshop, are a photographer, then give NAPP a look, you will not be disappointed.

This year has been a joining year for me; the #curryclub is going from strength to strength, we are having a great laugh there! But one other place I have become hooked on is 500px. 500px is a website for photographers best photographs. As my good friend Glyn Dewis puts it; if flickr is a place for people to appreciate your photographs and give you a hug, then 500px is about your best photographs with other photographers best photographs, and then some, and feedback from each other. The photographs are all amazing.

You can have a free account, but I was lucky enough to upgrade to an 'awesome' account on Black Friday, where those lovely people at 500px gave a whopping 50% discount. Check their website out here. Do check out my portfolio, and have a browse at the amazing photos that are on the site, but be warned... Its addictive, you will find hours pass away.



That's it for now, enjoy the run up to the festivities, and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

All the best,

Noel

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present...

Vocalarity, the mad, zany and very eccentric, quintessentially British acting troupe!

And this is no word of a lie. Photographing them was a laugh a minute! Vocalarity is Philippa, Liz, Alex and Tristan, four of the nicest 'luvvies' you will ever meet, actually, they aren't really luvvies at all. just a bunch of really funny people.

They are known for their engagements at fringe festivals, after dinner events, they have even been known to set up a sofa, standard lamp, rug and begin acting in a park in Guildford! I would so loved to have seen that one!

This was their shoot...

We spent over three hours in the studio (GDS Wokingham - another great night Gareth!) Lots of laughs and even a glass of champagne! And my good friend Glyn Dewis popped in and took some of his infamous character head shots! A big thanks to Philippa, Liz, Alex and Tristan!
Vocalarity are currently putting together a new website with photographs from the shoot. I shall post a link when it is up and running. In the meantime if anyone has a message for the troupe, or you would like to book them for an engagement, please drop me a line and I shall pass it on!

   

All the best guys, and I look forward to our next shoot!

Kiss of The Spiderwoman

Its Halloween!.. beware of the Kiss of The Spiderwoman!

Happy Halloween!

Formal Portrait... quick and easy

Katy, first year in Secondary College

Recently I had a conversation with my good friend Paul, He has a son coming up for First Holy Communion and he wanted something a bit different than the standard shots of the day. So it started me thinking of how to do a quick and easy set up that I could replicate almost anywhere. And this is the shot I came up with; a derivation of my favourite two light set up. This is Katy and this is her first year at a new school. She has the obligatory school photos, but we decided to only opt for the big group shot. There was simply no character in the portrait shots.

Here is the set up shot; an SB800 in an Eazybox softbox to camera left and a gridded Vivitar 285 to camera right. I can't remember the exact settings, but they were about half power or so, I didn't particularly need a quick recycling time, so I could have gone lower, but I wanted a smaller aperture to ensure all of Katy was in focus. I shot at 1/200 and that ensured that the room ambient hardly registered.

Here you can see each light shot separately; first the softbox and then the Vivitar. That's it; quick and easy, and for my money a far more lasting formal portrait...

Here Come The Girls!!!

Yes, its that time again, the time of leaving primary school and going to secondary school. It's a big deal, and a great step forward in their lives.

To mark this occasion, Katy and the girls of St. Joseph's Class of 2011, made a trip to GDS Studios in Wokingham. Great fun was had by all; we had formal young ladies, we had pyjama fights and we had St Trinians! And before you ask, yes I was shattered afterwards! A big thanks to the girls for being such fun, the mothers who stayed to help keep order and to Gareth for keeping his sanity throughout the afternoon. A special thanks goes to Catherine, my wonderful wife, and Katy for organising the logistics of the day.

So, girls, good luck in your next school, and well done for all the great things you achieved in St. Josephs.

And to all the secondary schools that the girls are going to, all I can say is;

watch out! here come the girls!

It was also an opportunity for the girls to say a heartfelt thank you and goodbye to a teacher that had been with them throughout their stay at St. Josephs; Mrs Sparrow.

London Photowalk

Every so often I get itchy feet and feel the need to get lost for a day. I usually do this in London; its the nearest biggest city and I used to live and work there. Dublin my be my home town, but London is a close second. When I walk, I photograph. My favourite place is the South Bank, then accross to St Pauls and then back to Trafalgar Square and, when it is open, I find myself in the Photographers Gallery sipping coffee.

No better place!

Do you go on photowalks? Are you signed up for Scott Kelby's World Wide Photowalk this year? I'd love to hear your experiences of going out and just shooting the world as it presents itself to you, leave a comment and let me know!

Photographs Tell Stories

I have never liked just taking one photograph when I can take two, or two when I can take three.  As you can tell I like my photographs to tell a story. Well you can imagine how delighted I was to find this little gem of an app for the iPad and iPhone; Strip Design by Vivid Apps. Its a great way to tell a story.

This is one from the inaugural #curryclub

Enjoy!

Shooting Rebecca on her birthday

Rebecca is a wonderful young lady that just turned 12. To mark this ocassion Paul, her Dad asked me to photograph Rebecca and her friends in the studio.

The brief was a number of different outfits... formal, beach and pyjama... We had the studio for three hours. Seems like a long time but when you have seven teenagers, that time just flies by like there is no tomorrow!

Here are some of the shots from the day

We have the formal shots...

We have the beach shots...

We have the pyjama party shots...

And here is a behind the scenes look at the shoot...


Rebecca's Birthday Shoot from noel hannan on Vimeo.
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A great day was had by all and afterwards Paul, Rebecca's Dad, and I enjoyed a thirst quenching pint in a local pub!

Congratulations and a big thanks to Rebecca and all her friends for being great sports and no doubt models of the future! And to Gareth Davies Studio in Wokingham for providing a fabulous environment to shoot in.

#curryclub update... Film results are in!

We had our first #curryclub photo shoot last month. I had the auspicious task of organising it. We had three great models; Lou, Rhianne and Elan.

I decided to make it interesting and set a theme. I chose 'film' and asked all the photographers to take one roll of film. We all shoot digital, so I thought it would be interesting to see how we would get on with traditional materials and cameras.

I brought along my trusty Bronica ETRSi, but I didn't use it; I did shoot through it though. Here are the images.

Glyn, shot through a Bronica ETRSi

But the idea was to shoot a roll of film. I wanted to do something different. I shot with a Holga; one of those plastic cameras. It has a hotshoe so it did trigger the studio lights. This was interesting, because firing the shutter there was two distinct sounds; one when the shutter fired and one, presumeably, when the shutter armed again. This second click fired the trigger again. Unusual.

Elan and Rhianne

Elan and Rhianne

Yorick

Yorick again

Lou

A Happy Accident!

What was interesting about shooting fim was the waiting for it to be returned. I shot a roll of Kodak Portra 120 film colour negative film that I had at the back of the fridge in the garage. I had no idea how it was going to come out because it certainly was past its sell by date. Also, there is no setting the ISO on the Holga. Its a zone focus, one of those lenses that has little pictures on it, you know the ones; a head, a full body, a mountain, that sort of thing. All things being equal, I was not expecting crystal sharp photographs. And before you ask... the double exposures were meant!

Shooting film again was great fun, I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!