Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope you all have a peaceful and restful holiday.
Closed for the Holidays
The Gallery will close on Christmas Eve and re-open on 3rd January. So anyone who wants to take advantage of the Gallery Opening Gift Voucher Offer and get a last minute Christmas gift needs to call in today or tomorrow to get one.
I am around Cork for the holidays and taking a few bookings between Christmas and New Year so if you need anything urgent do call the mobile: 087 683 8511. If I’m not available please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.
The Gift Voucher Offer will continue in January so if someone springs an unexpected present on you, you can still get a voucher in return!
RTÉ’s ‘The Model Scouts’ finished last night. The adults have been addicted in our house: the Mrs for the Fashion and the Model thing, me for all the Photographers featured.
I love seeing other Photographers work – I always learn something from them one way or another.
Lasting impressions? We’re both very impressed with IMG for starters.
And there were few surprises in the girls who did well or how hard they found it.
I thought it showed very well how personality and engagement are just as important – more important in fact – than good looks.
Which of course is good news for all of us! Photography is really about capturing and evoking emotion and being pretty doesn’t get you all they way there.
Working with models is very different from photographing ‘normal’ people: it is the model’s job to give a photographer what they want. It was interesting to hear the feedback from the photographers in the programme discussing which girls were ‘harder to work with’.
Most ordinary people just do what they do – many in fact feel very uncomfortable being photographed to start with and it is my job to make it as relaxing and ‘normal’ as possible in order to get the best photograph of them that I can.
January is the start of ‘seminar season’ for photographers. Traditionally a quiet time there’s a lot of training out there at all levels. Many of these use models. A good model is patient (they are being paid to be there) and they don’t need a lot of help posing or striking a look. It’s a great way to learn more about photography – just don’t expect all ‘real’ people to be so comfortable in front of the camera!
Well done to everyone involved but especially the girls who took part. They were all so young and thrown into a voyage of self-discovery that I certainly couldn’t have taken on at their age! Great job! Great TV!
To celebrate the opening of the Gallery, I am pleased to announce a special limited availability Gift Voucher.
The Voucher costs €30 and gives you a full family portrait session, a viewing session and a 5×7 print. The session has to be taken before 31st March, 2011.
This is a great deal and the Vouchers make ideal gifts for Christmas. So if you know someone who is long overdue a family portrait then this is the gift for them.
As usual the Portrait Sessions will take place in the family home (or outside if it’s warm enough). It’s a normal session so it can cover a large family group or just some pictures of the kids – or both.
You’ll then be invited back to the Gallery to see you pictures and select your complimentary print. You’ll be able to order more prints or other products at normal prices (although of course you’re under no obligation to do so). There are a range of new products on show in the Gallery.
The normal terms and conditions apply but there are few additional things to note about these vouchers:
This offer applies to sessions taken before 31st March 2011. The voucher cannot be used for a session after this date.
You can only view your images at the arranged view session: no on-line galleries will be provided with this promotion.
Travel to a location within an hour of the Gallery is included in the promotional price.
Note that if you don’t think the time limit on this voucher suits the person you’re buying for then you can purchase standard gift vouchers (which have no expiry) from €80.
Well done to all those guys who did their bit for Movember. I hope you’re all enjoying your first day without Mo – those that aren’t tempted to keep it that it!
I was warned not to take part – it’s a great cause but I don’t think I could cope with the family exile that I would have to bear.
The Small Fella gave it a go for a while though – this has to count as the best effort from our house – for this year anyway!
News has got out about the new Gallery and Office. Thanks to everyone for their best wishes and offers of assistance.
In between the usual day job there’s been a lot of work gone into it over the last couple of weeks: a bit of DIY, a trip to Ikea, plenty of flat pack assembly and the slow and steady migration of the office up to the new site.
On Wednesday the guys turned up with the new sign to find the Mrs and Me painting the outside. The first good day outside in two weeks – or so we thought – plus a bit of indecision on the colour front meant that this was the first chance. So unfortunately we had to send them back with the sign until the painting was done.
It was a rough day weather-wise but it stayed dry until about 9pm. The gang swung by on the way home from a club and all was well. I even passed in the early hours on the way home from Barry’s and the paint was holding up in the rain.
But when we turned up next morning ready for more work, half the paint job was on the pavement! OMG! We cleaned up the path but now we’re stuck waiting for the weather to improve before we can paint and then the sign needs to go up.
Ironic for a location photographer who is rarely put off by the weather to be hung up like this.
But I spent my first day working down there processing pictures (waiting for the undercoat on the door to dry) and I’ve moved from being a little apprehensive to really wanting to get on with it.
Inside it looks good in there now: I have furniture, I have a sofa and a coffee machine. I’m getting the first batch of pictures for the walls on Tuesday.
So if you pass and the door is open do call in and say ‘Hi’. And say a short prayer for good weather so we can finish off the outside!
Well done to everyone concerned with last week’s CCRC Runway for Research at the Radison Blu. Great style on show and lots raised for research into treatments for Gynaecological Cancer at CCRC.
In particular well done to Kathleen Fitzgerald and Michelle Stack who were treated to a full makeover and got to close the show with a walk down the catwalk.
Halloween has become a big thing here now. Whilst the kids enjoy the dressing up, visiting neighbours and of course way too many sweets, as each year it becomes a bigger festival it becomes increasingly odd to me that we celebrate it.
This year tragedy affected our household indirectly and for me and one of my children the whole thing seemed more out of sorts than normal.
November is traditionally a time for remembrance.
It is a time to celebrate the lives of people who are no longer with us. My thoughts are with all families who are feeling the loss of someone.
This post was formed on 1st November and left unposted. Tonight I saw the news footage from the Armistice Day Ceremonies in Dublin. It is important that we remember those who gave their lives for our freedom on all fronts. I’m glad that the thousands of Irishmen who died fighting in Europe are finally being recognised.
Milinery and Dress from Envy Boutique at last year's CCRC Runway for Research
This year’s Runway for Research Fashion show in aid of Cork Cancer Research Centre is on this Thursday 4th November at the Radison Little Island – 7pm Start.
I’ll be covering it for CCRC again this year so I hope to see as many people there as possible.
Come along and see style from a wide range of local boutiques and of course help raise funds for Research in to Gynaecological Cancer at CCRC.
