Under the Bridge (Newcastle upon Tyne)

Having to do a full-time job whilst trying to establish myself in the world of photography creates a lot of challenges. Not that one can afford to be negative at a time where people are finding it quite hard to get work. While I'd love to pontificate about the role our current Prime Minister "Darth Cameron" has to play, the truth of the matter is it's not his fault (entirely), he's just made it more difficult.

I only mention the challenge because with it has come opportunities (look at me being all positive!). My day job requires me to travel across the UK to deliver training. Sometimes more often than I would like and sometimes requiring me to spend nights away from my family. As I have suggested in my father's day post, it's not easy to let my little monster go.

But if it wasn't for my job I probably wouldn't have visited the cities I have, or at the very least not as frequently. I wouldn't have met the nice people that live there or seen the sights they have to offer. Most days now I tend to carry a camera with me, usually equipped with my cheap and cheerful 50mm f1.8. I love that lens,

Having found myself in Newcastle recently, I took the opportunity to take some pictures while the sun was still quite pronounced. On previous visits, I'd taken a tripod with me and captured some of the bridges at night. This time I found myself drawn to a series of streets just off the riverside. A massive bridge merges with/cuts through the buildings until you almost can't tell what was there first.

The deep shadows cast by the evening sun gave me the perfect opportunity to present the pictures in my favoured black and white. Given the presence towering overhead, I felt it only right to name the series Under the Bridge. I'm now inspired to go listen to some Red Hot Chili Peppers, hope you like the pictures.

Father's Day

Lately, when responding to the question "how is Cullan?", I've taken to talking of his habit of sleeping for three-hour intervals and waking up shouting "Bin Truck" or "Birdy ALL GONE!".

The truth is I wouldn't have it any other way. Yes a bit more sleep would be nice, but then I might miss something :-)

For the past few months he's gotten into the routine of snuggling up with me to go to sleep. It's something I really miss when I have to be away overnight for work and I know Cullan will outgrow it before I do.

On a day like today, I know how lucky I am and just want to see him smile :-) The picture is Cullan and my Dad, I think I'll ring him and shout Bin Truck!

Happy Father's Day!

Congratulations Becky and George!

I'm back . . . . .  finally!!!! After a couple of busy months and a bit of poor health, I'm finally starting to catch up with everything (well just about). Thank you to all the well-wishers during my trips to the hospital and apologies to those I haven't yet gotten back to!

So much has happened I nearly didn't know where to start. But as one should, I decided the right thing was to go back to the start.

A little while ago I posted some engagement pictures of George and Becky, a lovely couple whose wedding would be my first outing as a solo photographer. I am delighted to say that the happy couple are now husband and wife, complete with pictures to prove it :-)

As nervous as I was in the morning, I soon forgot about worrying and had a really nice day with some fantastic people. A little bit of rain here and there certainly didn't dampen the mood (no pun intended) as you'll see from the smiles below.

I'm so honoured to have been part of their day and can see many happy days ahead for them :-)

 

Someone was a bit 'too' good at walking in heels!

More to follow!

Paid for my art yesterday by spending a few hours in the studio in spite of a painful ear infection. Really glad I did as I got some fantastic pictures. Here's a taster, more to follow once I manage to function like a human being :-)

George and Becky - My First Engagement Shoot

Like many people who get an opportunity to do something they love, I feel very lucky. But today I'm feeling exceptionally fortunate.

When I decided that I wanted to take on photography professionally, it didn't fully occur to me that I'd get the opportunity to photograph people I know and like (and get to call it work!).

I've known George for several years through a mutual friend and was delighted to hear not only was he engaged, but he'd like me to photograph his wedding in May.

This will be my first wedding that doesn't see me as second shooter and I honestly can't wait. I'd long decided that one of the things I want to do with my wedding bookings is a pre-wedding/engagement shoot. It seems a great way to relax the couple for the big day (and myself) and talk over some of the details. Above all that though, the pictures are always full of love and smiles.

Yesterday, on a warm sunny spring(!?!) day, I took some pictures of George and his beautiful bride-to-be Becky. I think from the photographs you can see how happy these two are and a joy to spend time with. I'm very grateful for them asking me to be a part of their special day.

Below are some photographs of the lovely couple and one of their special wedding gift - Molly :-)

Saol-ing Away

So the last week or so has seen me spend more time behind a desk than a viewfinder unfortunately :-( On the plus side though, I have managed a few strides in my 'behind the scenes' work and am getting very close to launching my photgraphy website.

One of the things I've been working on is my processing workflow. This is mainly for two reasons (three if you count also being a bit of a geek!). Firstly, everybody wants nice pictures but nobody wants their photographer to take forever working on their photographs (and as they say time is money). Secondly I want to create a recognisable style for my pictures and some consistency in colour, so when I do a series of images they look like they belong together.

I'm a fan of yellow filtered images, they give a nice skin-tone and warmth to an image. I've tried a few plug-ins for photoshop like Alien Skin Exposure 3, and while they offer a lot of options I couldn't really get the effect I wanted.

So with some freely available actions and a lot of DIY I've finally managed to create a custom action I'm happy with. I won't bore you with the details of it, but at least show you what I'm talking about. The image below gives a side-by-side comparison of two pictures of my little monster. The image on the left is the original and the one on the right has my custom action applied.

As you can see the photograph is now warmer with whites appearing a cream colour. The change to the colours brings out a lot of definition (like the blades of grass) and while it loses some of the lighter blues it makes the darker more defined (so the jeans look a lot more detailed and textured).

Here's a short series of my favourite monster at our local park. After running around like a lunatic for several minutes he went from chewing/hiding my lens cap to picking flowers for his mum... and then forgetting what he was doing and crushing them in his huge baby hands :-)

The image at the start of this post is of my brother Paul back in Dublin, with the deceptively calm looking family dog Daggit. I've applied the same processing to his picture but have really put it in for a bit of home-sickness therapy :-) Hope the sunny weekend is treating you all well!

Studio Shoot

This is probably the most excited I've been about one of my posts. Obviously nothing is going to compare to unashamedly showing off my beautiful son, but in regards to my photography work I do harbor the ambition to also do commercial work. How happy was I when Helen Howard, whom I had met on a training course run by the very talented Mr. Steve Gerrard (see previous non-football explanation), sent a shout-out on Twitter to let people know she was a holding a model event at her studio.

As well as being a wedding and portrait photographer (have a look at Helen's work at www.helenhowardphotography.co.uk), Helen is also a partner in Image Red Studios in Tamworth. The studio is really nice and though I began quite nervous at the prospect of my first studio shoot, I was very quickly relaxed and very happy with the results. I can't say enough good things about everyone there, really helpful and supportive. I would definitely recommend to snappers at any level wanting to do it out of interest, experience or for a portfolio. Booking and information about events can be found on www.photographer-in-birmingham.co.uk.

The shoot itself was fashion-focused which I found really interesting despite being stylishy-challenged myself :-) My research is why you might have seen me walking out of Tesco recently with a bunch of Vogue, Tatler and GQ mags (not that it's having any positive influence on my dress sense!). To get some practice for future ventures I tried to capture jewellery as a focus in some of the images.

The models were as patient as they are beautiful and also very professional. An unexpected treat for the evening was provided by Keshia, the model pictured above. To give some variety in poses Keshia sang a cappella during one of her sessions, her voice was amazing enough but even more impressive to find it was one she had written herself. Have a listen for yourself at www.keshia.co.uk, I'm looking forward to the bragging rights to have photographed a multi-platinum artist before she went off to take over the world!

I'm embarrassed to say I didn't get everyone's name from the night but will get them and put in a follow-up post.

Rock and Roll :-) Happy Saturday!