Something great to get your week going:
Thanks again to fstoppers for finding this one.
Family Portraits at Glengarriff National Park
Throwing stones into the stream and wading in after them – what more could a boy want? The small loop in the National Park was a perfect spot for an outdoor session with Séamus and his Mum.
How Photography Connects Us
“The photo director for National Geographic, David Griffin knows the power of photography to connect us to our world. In a talk filled with glorious images, he talks about how we all use photos to tell our stories.”
Nothing much I need to add here. If you have 15 minutes to watch this video – it is well worth it.
Alison and Family
A big thanks to Alison and her kids (and her Mum) who were the first to take part in the Spring Promo before Easter.
(you can click on each image to see a larger version)
January Updates
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…
Haulbowline Theatre Group in AP
I grabbed 5 minutes in Douglas Court yesterday to browse the photo mags in Porters. The majority of photo mags are published entirely to promote camera gear but there are a few that also include some articles on photographs and photographers as well as just cameras.
As I flicked through the November 7th Amateur Photographer (an old favourite) I thought I recognised one of the faces in a picture but couldn’t quite place the guy. Someone very local. On closer inspection it was an article on a Photo Story on the Haulbowline Theatre Group by Cork’s own Damian Drohan. I recognised one of the actors because we had been to the production ourselves back in the summer.
Excellent work Damian. And well done for getting into AP, great exposure.
The images are available on Damian’s Photo-Document site
It is also worth saying we had a great night out in Haulbowline – a great production and a unique place to see theatre.
No Photo Blog
OK, so no pictures from today’s outing yet. So here’s one I took earlier:
Art and madness
I found myself standing in the rain in Shandon today, camera in hand, waiting. Waiting and wondering if I was on the cusp of one of those fantastic moments in Irish Landscape Photography: where the clouds break and the most fantastic light creates a scene of such beauty that it captures all that is magnificent about Ireland’s Landscape.
Or am I just a Muppet standing in the rain?
Well the moment never came. Today I was the Muppet.
I decided this morning to swap my evening’s leisure for an morning of taking photographs of the city. It was promising a beautiful autumn morning. I did my essentials and headed into town, that light fading fast and by the time I hit Shandon the blue was gone and the black was coming, followed by the grey and the damp.
By the time I trudged home up High Street that light did appear. A glorious sun shower with blue sky above and sun ripping through the rain. A rainbow above my head I should imagine. No chance of getting to a significant landmark to create a scene.
And now, as I look out the window the light is wonderful again. Bet you I won’t get to Turners Cross in time.
Good Irish Landscape, like good comedy, is all about…
…timing.
You might be wondering where the photographs that I did take are? Well they are slides so wait for another chance to finish the roll, for me to find somewhere to process them, at least a week to get them processed and then however long it takes for me to get around to scanning them. I hope they’re worth it.
No gimmicks and no Photoshop
I came across this post on the BBC website by Phil Coomes. The New Statesman have hired a photography editor to take control of the delivering their photographic style.
Wow.
As a youth my parents occasionally took the Guardian newspaper and even through that haze of teenage memory, I remember being struck by the photographs it carried in almost every issue.
I have since regularly read and heard journalists bemoaning the change in the industry, both in written, radio and photojournalism. Don McCullin’s auto biography is very interesting on the subject. John Simpson has even reflected on the changes at the BBC.
I have a selection of World Press Award books dating back to the early 90’s and even in that short span you can see a change in the style of photojournalism – or at least that which is being recognised within the industry. Don McCullin’s stunning and moving photographs from various conflicts through the 60’s and 70’s rarely featured dead people: they reflected on the impact of death in conflict rather than death itself. It is stark contrast to the images that came out of the Gulf Wars.
There seem to be very few news or feature periodicals that seek to make a specific statement in their visual content. So All Credit to the New Statesman. Good Luck to Rebecca McClelland, a true, classic style is a much harder thing to develop than following trends and using gimmicks. I’ll definitely be watching her progress in Easons.
Laughter Therapy
It seems a long time since I found myself laughing out loud whilst staring at a screen in a room on my own but I had one of those moments today:
http://www.guidespot.com/guides/engagement_photo_funny_wedding