I had the absolute pleasure of shooting Fiona & Davids wedding in the stunning Bellingham Castle this October. It was a great day, the sun shone, the crowd were great and Fiona & David were wonderful to deal with. Not only did we share a mutual love of beaches & dogs 🙂 but, on the day, we complimented each other with our relaxed attitude which lead to some lovely photos. Just a small selection follows.
Sorry for the inconvenience – blog is currently getting a bit of a facelift.
All should be back to normal shortly (fingers crossed)
Firstly, a big thank you to all my friends, family and of course wedding couples, for their help & support throughout 2011. Yet again, it was a privilege to be such a major part of so many weddings – thanks for putting your faith in me to capture your day through photography. I can’t say that my style of shooting weddings has changed too much over the last 12 months – I still focus on reportage and informal photography, but, I also understand the need for a few nice family shots and some bridal party and bride & groom portraiture – although I do try to make these sessions as informal and painless as possible !! I know that for most couples the day (apart from the marriage itself) is all about having family & friends close, so why would you want to spend most of your time posing in front of a camera ? Whereas my style might not have changed too much, my awards tally for the year did – for 2011 I received a total of 12 gold, 19 silver and 2 bronze awards, mainly for my reportage work, but also a few for classical wedding, and even a couple for landscape ! I have uploaded a selection of images below, from various weddings throughout the year, in an attempt to show a typical wedding day as told through photos, some of which will be familiar, some are making their “blog” debut.
Hope you enjoy and I look forward to plenty more blogs as well as some new & exciting developments over the next 12 months.
The final round of the IPPA photographer of the year has just finished. This year, I have managed to achieve 12 gold, 19 silver, and 2 bronze awards. The vast majority of the awards have been for my wedding reportage work, but a few classical wedding images did sneak in there, along with a couple of other, non-wedding related categories. Overall I am quite happy with the results, but also determined to achieve more next year !! Next up are the annual awards, I can enter up to three images for the individual awards, and, at this stage, I have qualified to submit a portfolio selection in both reportage and classical wedding. I have uploaded the gold award images below (will bore you all with the silver at a later stage !!) so feel free to take a look. You can just click on any image for a slightly larger version. Thanks & regards – Kevin
With holidays, the mad summer season & preparing kids to go back to school I didn’t put as much time as I had wanted into the 3rd submission of the IPPA photographer of the year. This time I only entered 6 images – all in the wedding reportage category. While not overjoyed, I was fairly happy with the results – 2 gold and 4 silver awards. This makes my total for the year – 27 images in total entered – 11 gold, 15 silver and 1 bronze award. Next up is the final submission followed by the big one – the photographer of the year. For the photographer of the year you can enter 3 images for any category, but the images must have attained at least a gold award, and you can also enter a panel of four images. For anyone interested in photography you should check out the IPPA website and have a look at the diamond & gold awards from this quarter – the standard is quite staggering http://www.irishphotographers.com/gallery.php?id=22.
I have uploaded my six submissions below
My late mother was always on at me to document things, either in picture or by pen, especially when I would be telling her of the pearls of wisdom spoken by the kids. So, for our (by now regular) summer break in Dungarvan I had great plans. Not only was I going to get up at sunrise, take hundreds of landscape photos, get to the gym before the kids surface etc…, but I was also going to document our trip through a mixture of photos & diary entries – more Pete McCarthy than Bill Bryson – and I was quite looking forward to it.
However, the best laid plans & all that !! Within one day of arrival I had the most horrible of head colds, and, discovered that its not a good idea to swim underwater while blocked – cue severe sinus, fluid in the ear to add to the joys of my cold. Within three days I was attacked by some breed of horse fly while in Colligan Woods. This guy would not go away despite swatting, he was a persistent little bugger who kept coming back for more of my blood – think John Mullane with a poisonous stinger instead of a hurley – leaving me with septicaemia. The very next day I ended up heartbroken, my favourite lens, the one I use for 90% of my photography somehow managed to break while in a padded camera bag, so, that signalled the end of my photos and a bill of EU1,700 for a replacement (hurt way more than my bites !!). To top it all off, by day five my eldest had to be brought to the medical centre with a chest infection, and on day 6 my better half mislaid our one and only set of keys in the middle of Dungarvan !!
Despite all that there were still some great moments. Discovering Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe in the centre of town (yum!!), the sheer joy on my youngest daughters face when we won the family quiz in the local hotel, Butlers ice cream (not the chain – just a shop) still tastes as good as ever, the town is still a great place for food, drink & a bit of craic (its not called Fungarvan for nothing) , Dungarvan has some stunning scenery, as well as fabulous coastline on its doorstep, the kids were thrilled with Fota Wildlife Park, especially when the lemurs came over and opened my wifes handbag , when it comes to Cluedo, Peacock is a murdering b@stard and finally, and probably most importantly, you can’t beat spending time with friends over a bit of food & drink.
All in all an eventful week, it certainly won’t be forgotten in a hurry, so, there was probably no need to document anything anyway !! Have just a few pics below, and, its well worth clicking on the panoramas for a larger view.
