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.

Baby Love

It's always a privilege to be asked to come and photograph a new baby in their home, it feels like I am invited to share in a special time in a family's life.  The love visible between the new baby's parents and their precious bundle is always thrilling to see and a joy to capture. 

Baby Muireann is beautiful and petite with big dark eyes and a delicious little smile.  It would have felt rude to introduce bright lights to this gentle scene so all the shots were taken using available window light with the camera aperture wide open to create a shallow depth of field.

Being Photographed is exhausting work when you're only a few months old.  So when Muireann took a little nap it gave me the opportunity to capture tiny details like the little tear on her cheek, her lovely eyelashes, her tiny hands and feet and Mum's loving expression.

A Mother's love is beautiful to witness.

 Following her short nap Muireann was wide awake again and ready for smiles and another dose of adoration.

Dad is really good at sorting out those tummy pains.

The use of black and white adds to these images, I feel, as they remove the distraction of colour and help to draw attention to expressions, which in this case is pure love :-)



Rory - Action Hero

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing Rory and his Mum and Dad in their home.  Rory at one year is an action hero full of fun and laughter and it was important to me to capture this.  We started off with a bath full of bubbles and all the splashes and laughter that created….then we had aerial acrobatics.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself and think the guys did too (even if they were exhausted J)

 

Thank you guys for your enthusiam and sense of fun, we captured some happy memories :-)

Photographing Children:

Photographing Children:

My interest in photography began when my children were small and I felt the need to save every precious moment on film (in the pre-digital age when dinosaurs roamed :-)).

Years later I am still photographing children but now as a job I love, in this blog I’d like to share the techniques I have found that work for me and perhaps they might be something you’d like to try next time you see a little family member present a photographic opportunity.

Give them Space:

To capture the essence of children in photographs your success will usually increase if you take into account the age and personality of the child.  This post will deal with giving children space to be themselves so that they forget that they are being photographed and allow you to photograph wonderful natural moments where they are unguarded and carefree, this captures the real little person and real memories for you to treasure.

The camera I use is a Canon 5D Mk2 with a 70-200mm lens for shots like these but any camera with a decent zoom lens will do, the thing is for you to become part of the scenery and let the moments unfold before you.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

Dance as if no one is looking...

Giving kids some space and staying back out of the way allows for all sorts of action to unfold - who knows you could be capturing the start of a fabulous career...?

The next post will contain more about photographing Children, please feel free to comment or ask questions :-)