The publicity for this year’s Big Toddle for Barnardos launched this week. For my part I was at Bessborough Creche, Blackrock taking pictures of Cork’s own Graham Canty supposedly bossing some preschoolers around ‘Celebrity Bainisteoir’ style – but of course the kids were having none of it!
Find out more and register your own Toddle Team at www.barnardos.ie/bigtoddle
The World Press Photo Awards have been announced for 2009. The full set of winners are available on their website
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/
Please be warned, there are some very strong and graphic images on this web site. This is real news happening to real people and it is not all pretty.
I have tracked these particular awards from way back. I think I have the books of the winners going back into the early-1990’s. Obviously there are a lot of very powerful, moving images in there: the competition represents the best of the world’s press photography.
Over time they also represent a great visual history of recent events.
But looking at the images of conflict in this collection show me that the trend in the press has been to more stark, shocking, even grotesque imagery.
Don McCullin was also in the news recently as London’s Imperial War Museum is featuring an exhibition and he presented an audio slide show on the BBC Website.
Looking at McCullin’s work is a very different experience for me. He in no way holds back on the impact of conflict but it seems his focus is much more on the living left behind during conflict and what it has done to them as it is about the dead.
Of course the World Press Photo Awards is not all war, I still love all the sports work and a lot of the features. It is well worth a look.
I guess the only question is whether I will still buy the book now that all the winning images are on the web site. I still love having this kind of stuff in my hands in print!
Thanks to everyone who stopped to chat at the Irish Anaphylaxis Campaign Fundraiser on Friday night.
As one of the two men in the audience, much of what she was saying wasn’t really directed at me. She is a great speaker. Two full hours of passion and energy about the very fundamentals of good, natural living and positive self image. More power to her.
And from a professional perspective, I fully support what Claire is trying to do with encouraging women (in particular but people in general) to have a more positive self image: to make the best of what they have but also to accept that what they were given is pretty fantastic whatever shape it is.
If more people took this on, it would certainly make my job easier.
It was great for me to talk to so many people on the stand on Friday. I received a very positive reaction to the work on display and I think many people now see that there is an alternative to traditional studio family portraits – and one that provides a much more natural, personal look to the pictures.
I have extended the IAC fundraiser for the rest of this week. If you contact me to book a Session or a Gift Voucher before 7th February and mention that you saw me at the Irish Anaphylaxis Campaign fundraiser, I will donate 10% of the price of what you purchase to the IAC.
The Irish Anaphylaxis Campaign are holding a ‘Woman Wellbeing and Wardrobe evening’ this Friday, 29th January at the Radison Little Island, starting at 8pm. The charity supports families living with life threatening allergies. Tickets are €10.
I’ll have a stand there and I’m also doing their publicity photos so if you’re attending, please come over and say ‘Hi’.
I will have family session vouchers available at the stand and as part of the fundraiser I’ll be donating 10% of all sales on the night to the IAC.
After a hectic Christmas period and my trip away, I managed to find some time to update the gallery pages of the web site last week.
I have just uploaded the new galleries: additions to the main kids, babies and families gallery; two new Ireland galleries including the ‘Best of the Blog’ images from 2009.
Enjoy…
My apologies to anyone who has come to the site looking for pictures of the Christmas Pageant.
In order to respect the privacy of the families involved in the Pageant, the photographs are only available on a private gallery and are not posted to the public site.
If you are a parent at the school and you’d like access to the gallery, please e-mail me stating how you’re related to whom at OLOL and I’ll send you back the link.
Once again, sorry if this is confusing. This arrangement was made with the school with the interests of the children at heart.
Please call if there are any problems: 087 683 8511
I’m still catching up from an extended weekend trip to London for the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) Convention. It is a big do: Trade Fair; hours and hours of seminars and classes; even a black tie awards night. 1000’s of photographers from across Europe attended.
Careful choice and self-control allowed me to get some really useful stuff without being totally overwhelmed. When my head did start to get full I headed to Hammersmith tube to re-acquaint myself with London.
It’s hard to believe that it has been over 10 years since I did anything more than travel through London. A lot has changed for me (and London) since then and I took the opportunity to get away from talk of cameras, lighting and endless wedding albums to actually see some inspirational pictures.
On the list were: the National Portrait Gallery (including two temporary exhibitions of photographic portraits), a Norman Parkinson exhibition at Somerset House, the Courtauld Gallery and the Photographer’s Gallery. Some great pictures there – lots to think about.
Now the Photographer’s Gallery was an old favourite when we lived near London (although it has moved since). Often the exhibitions were far too Arty for me and again this was the case. It always had a good coffee shop and a great book shop and that hasn’t changed either.
It was there I found the Mini Diana. I have been aware of the whole Lomography / Holga cult thing for a while. Basically it seems to be a reaction to the uber-technical side of photography: the multi-mega-pixel, lens envying hell that it can be at times. Take a cheap, crappy, 95% plastic camera and have some fun. Be creative. Take some photographs.
My original interest was in the 120, Medium Format versions – an easy way to start using big negs. But it seems hard to get 120 processed and impossible to get it scanned these days so I settled for the Mini: a square or half frame image on 35mm film; two settings; crude manual focus; plastic 24mm lens.
Maybe in my small part I was reacting to being in High-Tech Heaven for four days. I do like the technical aspect of photography but I guess the engineer in me always seeks an application for good technology. Too much technology without any discussion about what it can do for me gets on my nerves.
So I bought the Mini Diana, a roll of film and set off on a beautiful winter’s afternoon to walk from Oxford Street to Embankment (via Picadilly and St James Park) to give it a spin.
I had so much fun. And after I found it was originally set in ‘Night’ mode I even got some usable pictures out of it.
So lots to think about from the SWPP: Marketing Plans write, technique to hone and gadgets to play with. But I also need to buy another film for the Mini Diana.
After watching all the snow in the East over the weekend we finally got ours yesterday. We had loads of fun all afternoon with friends and neighbours out the back of the house. The boys had to be dragged in when it was getting dark!
It is all still here today and no more is forecast but this is more snow in Cork than anyone can remember. I know I should probably be out there shooting landscapes but snowmen are way more fun. I did do a few ‘Andy Goldsworthys’ which I’ll put together and post up here soon.
Meanwhile, take care out there and have fun.
I know, I should be getting down to some work. But when this appears out your window you’re bound to be distracted.
I originally was going to shoot just a section of the sky for the files (in case I ever need to ‘insert’ a sky into a under-dramatic photo) but the whole thing opened up into something quite wonderful in its own right. It is still stunning now the sun has sunk further and the lights on the hill have come up.
It may be cold, but the frosted landscape, low sun and clear blue skies have made things pretty magical these last few days.
Happy New Year.
For the record, I shot this hanging the camera out of the window using LiveView to get over the telephone wire. I took four separate shots with the 50mm and stitched them to make a single panorama.
I wish everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
No doubt Jan 2010 will be tough for many but I wish you the gifts of hope, trust and self-belief. Treasure the people who love you and draw strength from them.
