Monthly Archive for January, 2010

A bit of quiet…

Published on January 30, 2010 in Uncategorized. 3 Comments Tags: .

Weddings are great, wonderful, beautiful occasions. People are dressed up and in the best of form. There is much socializing, eating and drinking to be done – and then there’s the dancing. In fact, it can all be a little bit hectic. So sometimes a little bit of quiet time is welcomed….

For the stars of the show, the bride and groom usually get that little bit of peace and quiet as the bell is rung and the guests are called upon to take their seats in the dinning room where dinner will soon be served.  This gives the happy couple some time alone to relax and just enjoy each other’s company before making their grand entrance to much whooping and hollering.

I caught this little picture at today’s wedding of Marie and Tony. A truly wonderful wedding with the nicest bunch of guests you could come across. They had all just gone to be seated and I seen Marie sitting there quietly on the couch alone, probably just going through her thoughts on the day and wondering where Tony was.  He was just out of shot – still talking.

They’ll get a laugh out of that – he never stops :)

Congratulation Marie and Tony, it was an absolute cracker.

Real Wedding – Karina and Conall

Published on January 16, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: .

Last October, Karina and Conall’s wedding brought me all the way to Spiddal in Galway.  It was a real Irish affair with everyone speaking fluent Gaeilge.  Except for me that is.  Being from Strokecity (Derry/Londonderry) and having lived in Dublin for the past 11 years, this was a completely fresh experience for me.  This may sound silly but there was something rather lovely and romantic about the whole thing.  Here I was, in rural postcard Ireland and everyone around me was speaking the native language.  It really was lovely to hear.  I felt a bit like that Brazilian girl in the Carlsberg ad. “Speak more Irish“.  Mind you, talk about feeling somewhat ashamed.  Lucky for me, everyone was extremely welcoming and the language barrier was removed when they switched to English to help me out.

I tell you what though – there is one word that is the same in all languages. Ferrari. When that thing pulled up at Conall’s home, us blokes literally poured ourselves over it.  Superb machine.  I wish I’d taken a sound sample of that engine. What a car to arrive in! Mind you, you need to arrive with some class when your bride has movie star appeal. Surely I can’t be the only one to think that Karina has a bit of Uma Thurman in her?!

To see a little selection of their day click here on on the images below.

Real Wedding Revisited – Gráinne and James

Published on January 16, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , .
A while ago I blogged about ‘The Sitting Down Shot‘.  As part of that blog post I mentioned the wedding of Gráinne and James.  Their slideshow was rather hidden in that blog post so I’m going to mention it again.
Here’s what I mentioned as part of that post.
“It was a fabulous day. Right from the outset when I was fed a fry on arrival, saw the most incredible wedding car arrive to collect James (a Shelby Mustang Cobra 350 GT), had fun in the garden with the cutest dog in the world – little Coco, and then was fed like a hungry king in the Castle Murray Hotel.
Oh, and it was all pretty fabulous for Gráinne and James too.”
So see their updated slideshow click here or on any of the images below.

Real Wedding – Real Smoke Monster!

Published on January 15, 2010 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments Tags: .
It’s been a while since I’ve added a real wedding slideshow to my site, however I’m going to make up for it by adding three or four over the next few days.
The first is from Aisling and Declan’s wedding. They got married in Cashel last May. I know Aisling well, we used to work together a while back. She’s a lovely girl with a  great sense of humor and very little stresses her. Good traits that she’d rely upon on her wedding day.
As we came out of the church after the ceremony and Aisling and Declan began to meet and greet their guests we noticed that there was smoke coming from under the bonnet of the wedding car. The inside of the car was completely white with smoke! Oh dear, this was not good. Should I photograph it? Is that out of order?  I looked at Aisling, she didn’t seem one bit bothered and was actually laughing about the whole thing with her guests. At that moment I knew where to aim my camera.
The fire brigade were called and someone appeared with a fire extinguisher ready to tackle the impending blaze. The door was opened and the biggest cloud of smoke erupted from the car. Up into the air it went like the smoke monster from Lost!
The Smoke Monster unleashed!
It made for some great shots!
When the firemen finally arrived it was quite the Kodak moment – especially for all the ladies. Not quite Backdraft material though if I’m being fair.
While the guests went back to the hotel Aisling, Declan and the bestman all went into the rectory as Cashel’s very own Mrs. Doyle provided endless tea and biscuits for us all.  ”Ahhh go on!”
The rest of the day I’m glad to report went perfectly. The reception was brilliant! They know how to party! When you see the rest of the shots you’ll know what O mean.
To enter the slideshow click here or on the smoke monster above.

Absence, Snow, Panic, Twitter, Relief, Wedding.

Published on January 9, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Happy New Year All!  I know it’s late but I’ve been away.  In fact I nearly never made it back!  I’ve been in England since January the 1st.  Surrey to be precise.  At the Lakeside for the World Darts Championships to be exact.  I’m not a darts fan but the Lakeside is always fun and it’s just a couple of minutes walk from my brothers house – it would be rude not to attend really…

I was due to fly home on Thursday, but on Wednesday – as you know (unless you haven’t looked outside in a few days) we entered the ice age.  About 8 inches of snow fell that night and the country ground to a, rather slidey, halt.

My flight back to Dublin was due for take off around tea-time on Thursday.  Gatwicks website said all was okay, Ryanair made no mention that the flight was cancelled and Dublin Airport didn’t report any cancellations. So, with the brothers car stuck in the drive unable to move, I set off on my walk to the train station though what is known as Blair Witch woods. Lovely.

Got to Gatwick about 2 hours later to find the flight cancelled. Had to get another one arranged for the next day with no real guarantee that it would fly either.  Now normally I wouldn’t panic at this point.  I knew I’d get home eventually.  However, I needed to be home by Saturday to shoot a wedding.

When I got back to Surrey I posted the following message on Twitter.

“Photographer calling all other photographers out there. May need help on Sat to shoot a wedding. I may be stuck in UK.”

I couldn’t have asked for a better response. I had about 5 or 6 offers within a short period of time from people who had offered to shoot or from people who knew of photographers who may be able to shoot it for me.

Luckily, I made it home.  I got the last flight out of Gatwick on Friday night and was back in the door of my own home around 1am Saturday morning.

A massive thank you to all of those who offered to help. Ryan from Glassey Alley, Julie from Half a Dream Away, Mel Boyle, Anthony Peyper, Andres Landino and David Mielcarek who offed to come all the way from the states – if he could ;)

Anyway – I shot the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony in Trinity College Church and the reception was held in the Guinness Storehouse.  What a brilliantly Irish wedding.  As I left the reception tonight I thought what could be a better way to end a days shoot than to get some shots of the storehouse by night with snow on the ground.

It’s a small slideshow and I used my tilt shift to get that ‘model’ look. At the moment I can’t get enough of it. I hope you like them too.

Click on the image to see the rest.

Isn’t it odd?