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…
Election material has come through our door practically every day this week. No surprises there. It normally gets discussed in some way at the table. My 8-year-old has a natural curiosity for the whole thing. I think Deidre Clune visiting Kindie while she was Mayor had a long-lasting affect on her. We encourage this: I’m a big fan of democracy. As my mother put it (although in a very different context): ‘people died to get you the vote’.
At one point she declared that we should simply ‘vote for the best looking one’.
Naturally this sparks a discussion on what makes someone good at running the place and what she’d want them to do (free sweets, no school, look after the planet etc).
But she had a point. Putting your face on a poster or a flyer is an incredibly strong visual message. In doing so, each candidate is projecting an image which is going to influence your impression of them and therefore possibly your actions when you scroll down the ballot paper scanning those same images. Even if your vote aligned to a particular party, they hope to influence your transfers.
It is a strongly subliminal message and I’m not sure how deliberately any of them are using it. Certainly the larger parties have a consistent look and I’m sure there has been some strategy behind selecting the presentation of the image if not the image themselves. The smaller parties and the independents seem to just ‘have a good photograph’ (and some not) and have paid little attention to how the style of the photograph projects them.
It works too. I can name many candidates but I know very little about their manifestos.
In actual fact though, those leaflets I have taken the time to read have contained very little policy information – a big photograph and a lot of bio. Its all about personalities and not policies. If you’re in government it is about youth or experience, if you’re not in government it is about change. But no actual policy statements. A picture tells a thousand words.
The style of a photograph does project an distinct image of them. We learn to interpret a face from a very early age.
I take a good few business portraits for people (mainly web site bio pages). I always ask a client what kind of image they’re looking for and many don’t have a strong preference. So I talk to them about their business and we go from there.
Most people I guess don’t really appreciate what a strong and effective visual communicator a facial image is, especially if they’re offering a service. They know it is important to get their logo and their branding right, but few spend the same amount of time discussing their portrait with their photographer.
Now you’ll now notice that there is no image of me on my web site. That’s a photographers curse I’m afraid: we’re too often behind the lens that no one ever takes our pictures. It is not an easy thing to do either: a portrait of a photographer needs to project the quality of their own work but the photo isn’t actually taken by them.
So thanks so David A Williams for this one: David realises the predicament that a photographer is in and ensures that everyone on his seminars leaves with a portrait. Thanks David (again).
We managed to get a few days away out West over the holidays. I love West Cork, it always feels like you could spend your entire life wandering those hills and beaches and still discover new wonders. One of my (many) resolutions this year is to spend more time out there. OK, so its more of a plan than a resolution but hopefully I can get to spend more time out there this year. West Cork is perfect for a bike tour – there’s no better way to see the country: the perfect mix of the ability to cover some distance but remain in touch with the environment (including the rain). I may require a little training!
I noticed this ‘thing’ on the crossing of the South Mall by Parliament Bridge a few weeks ago. I found it amazing. I suspect that the great majority of people pass by and don’t even notice it but on closer inspection it is a truely wonderful creation. What’s more it must have been sewn on to the traffic light post since there’s no other way that it could have been attached.
Now I know a professional photographer should always have his camera with him but sometimes one just wants to do a bit of shopping so it took me a week or so to get back into town with my camera which is a shame because orginally it had an eye.
I think this is great. Hat’s off to the Secret Knitter who ‘posted’ this one and may there be a few more entertaining pieces of street art appearing around Cork City.
I’m left with the vision of someone stitching on the South Mall in the middle of the night with a few taxi drivers driving past wondering what on earth is going on!
Welcome to my new blog!
When someone mentioned having a blog I thought ‘why bother?’. Then I thought about all the other stuff I do that isn’t on the site. In particular the many photographs I have of Cork city and county that I take, smile at and then file away. So why not use a blog to document those unique moments as I come across them on my work (and play) around Cork.
So to kick off, and to give an idea about the kind of thing I’m on about, here’s an image of the inside of Turner’s Cross Church taken a couple of weeks ago late one sunny winter’s afternoon.
I’ve been fascinated by Turner’s Cross church for a while. Whether or not you actually like it as a building it is remarkable. However photographing it is somewhat of a challenge because its so big and so heavily surrounded by other buildings. So you’re limited to ultra-wide angle lenses, the fisheye or cropped sections of the outer building.
You glimpse bits of it from a number of places around the area and when you end up flying into the airport over the city its the landmark I look for to get my bearings.
Anyway this particular evening I had the chance to go inside, the low sun through the stained glass was quite stunning…
