Indoor Portrait Photography

Weather in Ireland is so unpredictable that I often shoot family portrait sessions in-door and they are beautiful in their own special way.

The goal is to capture memories and emotions so that in the future the photographs will be more than just a record of how people looked, they will be a record of what people were doing and the emotions they felt :-)

I had a lovely session with a couple of cuties and their Mum in Tramore recently.

Opportunities are presented to get quiet moments with favourite toys.

Big brothers are pretty special to a little girl.

Storytelling time is always a lovely time with Mum.

Time for a little break.

Time to get active again...

The golden wood contrasts beautifully with Liam's colours.

What gorgeous dimples, these appeared after I blew up a balloon and let it off, flying madly around the room.

Why sometimes Black & White?
I love B&W and always give it as an option as I feel it removes the confusion of colour and creates a 'quieter' shot drawing the eye to the expression, body language or emotion in a scene.

A big thank you to the guys for their enthusiasm and energy in the photo-shoot :-)

Pure Energy on Clonea Beach.

The weather this summer has been rather strange but there were occasional days when I did make it to Clonea beach for  a photo-shoot and one of those days I was in the company of 2 terrific young girls.

Emma and Ellie are sisters and they are just fab.  I love the age they are at; old enough to be able to tell me that somethings are just...' so 5 years ago...' and yet young enough to enjoy fun.

I wanted to capture their energy and vitality so for some shots I lengthened the shutter speed to allow their movements be recorded.  The blurring streaks of colour mimic brushstrokes in a painting with some cool results.

The girls have a great sense of fun so when I suggested that we do some action jump shots, they went for it big time.

(By using a telephoto lens I was able to stay back allowing the girls space to do their thing...!)

We took some timeout to chill and decide 

that maybe having a sister isn't so bad after all :-)

There was still some energy in the tank so off down to the water for some high speed paddling.

These girls are beautiful, inside and out and it was great fun shooting them.  

I hope they will always retain their sense of fun and their knowledge of all things cool ;-)

You may see this girl's name in lights some day soon..

Aoife Kelly is a beautiful young girl studying in Dublin but with a second ambition to be an actress.

Aoife contacted me with a request to have some head-shots made to send to agents, with this in mind we decided to create a variety of shots, outside in natural light and more stylised versions inside with studio lighting.

We felt this would give her options and would allow potential agents to see her in various looks.

The farm where I live gives great opportunities for interesting backdrops, I like the pattern and texture of this corrugated iron door and the green compliments Aoife's colouring beautifully.

A shaft of light coming into the old milking parlour touches on Aoife's face.  The black and white version removes the distraction of colour and draws you to Aoife's eyes and how the light lands on her, highlighting her lovely bone structure.

The same but different.

The green colour of the farm gate is a lovely foil for Aoife's colouring, in contrast the B&W version has great impact drawing you to Aoife's eyes.

A look of Kate Bush or even Cathy in Wuthering Heights about this?

Having spent some time walking around the farmyard Aoife and I headed in to take some studio lit shots to give her more diversity in her portfolio of head-shots.

Aoife was a pleasure to work with and didn't mind one bit stepping her way through a farmyard in search of light and interesting backdrops, the best of luck to her in the future and I look forward to seeing her name in lights some day in the not too distant future.