The Ring Of Kerry on two wheels…

The image just below is my favourite from the last couple of months. There is nothing exceptional about it, it’s just a nice spontaneous moment snapped when the couple were goofing around between the bridal party shots. It’s real and it’s fun and that’s why I like it. It’s typical of what I love to shoot and the couples that book me want to see images like this more and more.

Here are the rest of my favourites, click on the multi-directional arrow at the bottom right to view full screen.

I’ve just finished editing a wedding that brought home the significance of photography to me once again and the lasting impression it can have.

For this particular wedding, we decided to use the same location where the brides mother had her wedding photographs taken. We also re-created a shot of the brides parents on the same spot where they stood for one of their own wedding photographs 40 years earlier (or as close to the spot as we could guess!). I also managed to get some shots of the bride getting ready that morning with a large print from that same image in the background which tied things in nicely from a storytelling point of view.

Sadly, the brides mother has passed away in the intervening 40 years but the images remain as powerful as ever and hopefully one day, her daughters wedding photographs will also serve as a reminder to the next generation of how beautiful she herself looked on her wedding day. Few things last as long as your photographs as they truly are an investment in your family heritage.

I get a lot of emails asking me what photography equipment I use. I think too many people get caught up in having the latest and the greatest, thinking the equipment makes the difference when really in many cases the shot has nothing to do with the equipment.

Here is an example. My cameras like many others read the amount of light in a scene it is pointed at, takes the data to the CPU and then computes (based on comparisons with thousands of scenes in it’s database) what the right level of exposure should be. They do all of this in milliseconds. Hugely impressive stuff when you think about it! So you have this amazing technology but you really need to switch it all off and work in manual mode to get the shot as you see it in your head because no amount of technology will do that for you. Spotting a moment, spotting potential in a location and being able to assess light are all far more important things to consider than the gear you use. The shot has to come from you, not the camera!

For the record, I use Nikon cameras and both Nikon and Tokina lenses. The important things to me are the layout of the controls (can you work quickly), how the thing balances in my hands, toughness and reliability. Everything else is a nice to have rather than a necessity. Over the years I have found that Nikons have always worked first time out of the box, have proved very reliable and survived all sorts of downpours and falls. It’s important to be able to trust your equipment and of course to have plenty of backup. Remember though at the end of the day, cameras are only tools - they won’t necessarily make you any better.

Yesterday I attended a motorcycle show at Mondello Park. The day was going great with some good action on and off the track until the feature race came to an abrupt end after a multiple bike accident at the first corner resulted in a rider losing his life. Witnessing something like this brings many things in to perspective but one old saying comes straight back to mind:

Live your life to the full
Any day could be your last
Follow your hopes and dreams
Leave the bad stuff in the past

RIP Dave Lynch, deepest sympathy to all friends and family.

It’s hard to believe we are in to the month of May already. This is my favourite click of the year so far. I wouldn’t be a particular fan of this church from a photography point of view. Like so many of the modern churches, the quality of the lighting overall is pretty poor. Mixing in the natural light coming in from the top improves things no end. The lines on the ceiling lead your eye to the couple and the spotlights give a bit of sparkle. I think the combination of these elements in the shot sets the scene beautifully:

Here is a slideshow of some of my other favourites. Click on the muti-direction arrow on the right to view full screen, then just use the left and right arrows to cycle through them: