Sneak peaks – that’s all I seem to be blogging recently but trust me, as soon as I have more time I’ll post a real wedding. Mark my words.
Until then, here is a little taster from Carrie and Thomas’s wedding which I shot back on the 5th June in Trinity College, Dublin. It was like no wedding I have been to before. It was truly posh and I mean that in only the nicest possible way. I described it to a friend as “like a royal wedding”.
I’ll save the reasons why for a later post otherwise I’d have a mighty long essay in front of me – and if you haven’t noticed, the photographs come easier to me than the words.
Oh, one thing that I will mention is that Carrie and Thomas have a great sense of humour and thought it would be quite funny to try and recreate their favourite painting when we got to Number 10 Ormond Quay – their reception venue. The painting is The Arnolfini Portrait from 1434 in which the artist Jan van Eyck painted Giovanni and his wife in-front of a large convex mirror. In the painting the artist can be seen in the mirror. Number 10 has several of these mirrors and Carrie and Thomas thought that it’d be cool to recreate and therefore I’d be captured in the mirror too. By pure and utter chance we even found a dog – in the form of a solid brass and incredibly heavy doorstop. Win! I’ve included both my version and the original below.
So, for now – here’s a taster of what was a superb wedding!
Thanks to Carrie and Thomas for having me on what I feel was a very privileged wedding to be at. It certainly felt pretty special from where I was standing.
Today, I done something I’ve never done before at a wedding. I got people to blatantly pose. Normally I’m all about the candid approach. Catching people unawares mid-laugh or while gazing lovingly into each others eyes. Today though was a different story. Today was all about the ‘tache’.
There seems to be a little trend at the moment of what I can only describe as ‘the moustache on a stick’ pose. I’ve seen it quite a bit, mainly on American photographers sites and it’s complety stupid and yet totally brilliant. I had looked everywhere to try and buy them on online but with no real success. So – I thought I’d make my own. A trip to town for some black card, kebab skewers and a bit of glue and a few hours later I had 10 moustache’s on sticks ready to take to todays wedding.
As I met Dave (the groom) and Alan (the bestman) in Tinakilly house this morning I felt a slight sense of embarrassment as I said “I have a little thing in the car – it may give you a laugh”. Well, there really was no need for me to have worried. They loved them and got straight into character as posh English gentry. It was hilarious!
Surely it would get boring eventually… Nope! Everyone loved them, especially little Josh (5) and Ben (8?). Ben has a future ahead of him as a creative director. He was gathering people up, telling them how to pose and with which moustache (Imperial or handlebars). He has quite the eye for a photo. After we had practically the entire wedding party covered and with no fresh ‘victims’ nearby, he turned to me and said “What about you?”. I tell you what – he’s quite the photographer too….
Brilliant, brilliant day.
Thanks to everyone for being such a good sport and feeling the love for the ‘tache’ and a big congratulations to Cindy and Dave!
It’s 2:50am and I’m home just over an hour from Glaslough village (outside Monaghan) where I’ve been shooting the truly amazing wedding of Alex and Sarah. When I say truly amazing – I can’t mean it more. As soon as I arrived up with Sarah and took one look at the outside of the house I knew this was going to be one magical wedding. A giant marquee was in the field opposite the home of her Uncle David. He had kindly given up his beautiful house and gardens to host this beautiful wedding.
Decorations were scattered through the garden with seating plans hung from the trees with pink and silver ribbons, love hearts hanging from gate posts, little white love birds were perched inside vintage bird cages, there were pink and white paper lanterns, bunting stretched from tree to tree, umbrellas stabbed into the ground in case of rain, a chalkboard to write and record a personal message to Alex and Sarah…. the list goes on and on.
All I know is I could not wait to get home to take a quick peak at what I shot.
Here – is just a tiny snippet to share with your how beautiful everything was. This wedding WILL be re-visited!
Oh, and a massive congrats and huge thanks to Alex and Sarah and both of their familes. You made my day oh so very easy!
“Where are the bride and groom?” – Oh… I couldn’t share that already… Could I?
My weekend in the north wasn’t all about thrills and exhilaration. There was some time for calm too. On one of the more leisurely days, dad took my mum and me on a drive to Portstewart for ice-cream. After all, why wait for the van to come down your street when you can go on a 50 mile journey. Anyway, more about the icecream in a bit.
First stop on the drive was Portglenone forest park. Dad usually goes around once a year to photograph the bluebells. Usually he’s there too early, too late, or just at the right time but without his camera. So we gave it a crack and again we were probably just a little too early as they hadn’t fully bloomed. Still, there was plenty to take and it was nice to see the park. I’ll be back for sure.
Bluebells done and it was back into the car for the drive to Portstewart. Morelli’s of Portstewart is well regarded as serving up the best ice-cream in the north. From the massive selection, dad went for Hot Fudge Sundae, mum opted for a tiny little bowl of pink ice-cream and I went for the jumbo Yellow Man. I added the ‘jumbo’ part myself. It was massive. Honeycomb and vanilla ice-cream, marshmallows, honeycomb pieces (that’s the yellow man part), fresh cream and wafers.
It didn’t look that pretty for long I can tell you. Next time your in Portstewart be sure to drop in.
How could a day like today go by without a walk on the beach. I didn’t bring my camera but when I came across this little sand castle, the only one I came across on the whole walk, it had to be photographed. Out came the iPhone and my favourite little little app (Hipstamatic) in the world was put to use.
Long may this divine weather last.
Oh and for any tweeters out there – help me win a prize from Hipstamatic by tweeting the following – ‘Sandcastle for Summer’ http://hpstm.tc/cx2 by @davemcclelland #hipstamatic
Last Saturday before I set off home for the weekend, I got a call from my mate Dik. Knowing that I was on my way north he asked if I wanted to go out on his boat for the afternoon. About 3 hours later we met in Kesh and as Dik and Gar began to get the boat ready for the water, I fired up the camera and began to shoot lots and lots of video.
It wasn’t long before we were skimming over the waves with the wind in our hair – well, apparently it was in our hair but I can’t really vouch for that.
Captain ‘Gar’ at the wheel.
Before we got down to the nitty gritty (water skiing, wakeboarding and rubber ring-ing..?) we docked up in a little island called Lustybeg, which is a pretty swanky wedding venue by the way, for tea and sandwiches. Sure how can you be out on a boat all day without tea? Then wetsuits were donned and the fun was to begin. JD (not the drink) was up first for a spot of wakeboarding and then it was time for the rubber ring to come out to play. While this sounds like fun and for the first few fleeting seconds is indeed incredibly exhilarating, it quickly turns into utter panic. Lying belly down across the ring, grasping firmly onto two rope handles as your towed behind the back of a speedboat at about 30mph those lovely soft waves that you were looking at just minutes before with gushes of aww and splendor have now turned into hardended walls of concrete. I’ve been told that there is photographic evidence of me on the said ring, pulling faces of sheer terror. I don’t doubt it for a second.
I’m glad to report that none of those faces make it into the video below as I was safely behind the camera.
Now, why is it that I can’t wait to do it all over again?
Post edit, Mon 24th May. Those pictures of me? Here they are. Can I just say, isn’t life cruel – I spend my time taking incredibly flattering photographs of everyone I see and this is how I’m repaid.
Gareth, couldn’t you have looked scared for even a brief second? Just to make me feel that little bit better?
