I’m in the process of migrating the whole of my web site to WordPress.
And I’m doing it live, in phases so it might look a bit weird over the next few weeks. Please bear with me, it’s getting there. But there were sections that looked pants on your phone and I need to fix that.
So the main site is now be hosted on WordPress. I am steadily moving all the old content over to new pages and a new Gallery plug in. I then need to refresh some of the content – especially the images which go back some years now (but still look good!)
St Vincent’s Bridge and Bachelor’s Quay, Colour Infrared
Nice sunny morning yesterday and cloud was forecast for later in the day so I went out early with the infrared converted D70. This camera has a opaque filter installed over the sensor instead of the normal AA filter, so it only uses the part of the sensor that’s sensitive to the infrared end of the spectrum.
Green foliage tends to reflect more IR, blue skies block out a lot so they go extra dark. And the D70 sensor colour sites tend to get a bit confused. Most notably, the jpegs do this browny-black / blue / white feel but the RAW images have a distinctly red hue (of the same capture). Normally I’d do a black and white conversion to normalise all that but the colours are often interesting.
Everything looks kinda spooky. Love the really dark skies.
But although the IR-effect can make everything look more interesting, the image still needs to be interesting to make it work. It’s tempting to take some very simple compositions just to enjoy the IR-effect but really you still need to work the composition.
It’s just that certain elements are different. For example. you can’t let the white grass take over, whereas you’d often leave a good bit of green grass in a shot to balance things out.
Also using the ancient D70 is fun. You’ll constantly read about how new models make older cameras into trash but that’s nonsense. The D70 was a great camera in it’s day. Sure it’s lower res, lower DR, has a tiny screen, is slow and less effective autofocus. But it is by no means unusable and actually works really well for scenic images. It has a very satifying ‘clunk’ to the shutter and there’s something nice about having small files to work with for non-critical work.
It pays to be prepared. I have a Product Shoot tomorrow and my client wants to Direct. That’s an ideal situation for me because there are hundreds of small design decisions made in a shoot like this and I’d much prefer getting direct input from a client who knows what they want rather than finding out later that they wanted something else.
But this kind of stuff is time-consuming so I set up the lights and the supports this evening so we’re ready to go.
The mood board supplied features a lot of textured products in shiney containers shot from directly above. So I looked around the office to see what I had like that.
Well done to Nathalie and all the other constants in the Belle of Ballinlough over the weekend.
We were very proud to have Nathalie represent us on stage but unfortunately this wasn’t her year.
Congrats to Eimear representing the Orchard Bar who is the 2014 Belle.
Nathalie has a natural presence and was certainly very comfortable in front of the camera when we did a quick photo session in the Japanese Gardens last week. Here are a few more pics from the session and you can follow her Street Style blog at https://www.facebook.com/Streetstyleandsmile
As we did the return leg along the road back to the Car Park in Currabinny on Saturday, I suddenly became aware of being surrounded by these remarkable butterflies.
Hang on, it’s October.
But there are loads of them flitting across the road.
Then I got home and the same butterflies were crowding around the little daisy-bush-thing that flowers in late summer (they could be Michealmas Daisies). Loads of them, all visiting the flowers and drinking nectar. So me and The Boy watched them and I managed to take a few snaps (no macro lens at home, no opportunity to do anything with the lighting, just full sun and the closest, longest setting of the ‘chasing kids around the woods’ lens).
This would be unusual enough if I hadn’t seen the latest episode of Under the Dome which also features butterflies appearing en-mass at an unusual time of year. So if the Dome coming to Cork?
With the Easter Holidays approching and Spring definitely here, it’s time to get out in the local parks and forests and take some pictures!
People always love our Forest Sessions and to encourage you to get out there this Easter break we’re offering a special promotional offer.
For €50 you get:
A full Outdoor Session in the Cork Area
A Viewing Session at the Gallery in Ardfallen Estate to review your selected images
A 12×18 Canvas Wrap
The offer applies to Outdoor Sessions taken between 31st March and 15th April 2012 (no sessions available on Easter Sunday 8th April). Other products can be purchased using session images at our normal pricing.
So now’s your chance to get that Forest Session done over the school holidays.
Wer’e ust back from moving the display in the bank to the Commerical Section of AIB, 66, South Mall. We also took the opportunity to add a slideshow on their TV.
So there’s still a chance to see the display and pick up a print voucher if you’re in town.
After a couple of years of missing out, we finally got to go back to Courtmacsherry this year for the horse riding on the Strand.
The View from the Stands
It’s a great event and there are loads of great photos waiting there for anyone who is bold enough to take on covering it: horses galloping at full speed through sand & water; riders covered in muck; the odd horse loosing the steering on the corners; even a serious looking spill and of course the spectators make it too!
But you either have to commit to covering it or not. The view from the stands just doesn’t cut it (as you can see from my pic). And I was there for a family day out, not to disappear off on to the beach on my own for the afternoon.
There were a few photographers who did commit to the sands: definately a few press-pros amongst them. I reckon they got some great pics.
But all of them lacked one essential bit of kit for an event like this: wellies.
In fairness one guy had a high-vis vest and good walking boots but all the horse-people (who had been here before) had wellies. Another guy got inventive with plastic bags but that just didn’t work out and he got mucky in the end.
So what’s my point? Good preparation, research and planning are an important part of a successful photography assignment. You might get lucky and get something wonderfully spontaneous but your chances of good photographs improve on an regular basis if you do your homework and get in the right spot and have a good idea what might happen next (preferably with good light).
Of course you need the skills to capture it once you’re there too.
And some camera gear – but too often the attention is on the camera gear and not the things that let you get in the right spot – in this case it was simply a pair of wellies!
And how do I know? I did a session by a stream in Glengarriff with a small fella who loved to throw stones. The place to be was in the water just beyond where he was throwing so that he faced me. But I brought my walking boots – great for mud (which is what I predicted) but not great for wading out into the stream. That day I needed my wellies and I missed a couple of shots I would have liked to get because I didn’t have them.
There’s been lots going on since Christmas and I’ve had to neglect the Blog while I get on planning for communions and a few other things that I hope to be announcing on here over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, family life continues and that now includes visits to the Gallery by many keen supporters.
Our Marketing Guru at Work
The Young Fella has taken to coming in to the Gallery, grabbing business cards and flyers and going out on the street to hand them out (well they do bear his picture after all).
I can’t knock his enthusiasm to promote the business so I guess the pupils and staff of Eglantine School are just going to have to get used to him as they go by on their way to the Park!
