This is Donegal

 

A Journey Through DonegalOne week exploring beautiful Donegal For print or wall art options of Donegal click here

For image licensing click here

DSC_5922 DSC_5925-Edit DSC_5928 DSC_5931 DSC_5934 DSC_5935 DSC_5937 Queensberry are known for their high end hand crafted products. They are the only company I use as I believe that investing in a higher end product will stand the test of time. The images from the wedding day can be enjoyed for many many years.

Rachel and Alan choose the classic matted 12" x 12" Queensberry album with a cover material of silk. The pages are mounted pagemount style (ie with the photos trimmed to fit inside the card mat to expose the core page) with ivory mats and core pages. Supplied in a soft velvet bag, and presentation box.

Images were printed on Kodak Endura Lustre photographic paper with traditional silver halide technology.

They also choose two 5" flushmount parent copies.

Tim Creed I first met Tim Creed while on family summer holidays when I was about 14 years old in Ventry, county Kerry. Myself, along with my older brothers and Tim managed to infiltrate an Irish summer college ceili. We danced the night away leis na gcailíní until we were spotted by the ceannaire and shown the exit door, 'amach libh! Since those days, we have met from time to time over the years.

Tim is fast becoming a successful Irish actor appearing on many films and shows on television. He is developing a long list of achievements on his acting cv.
We recently happened to meet by chance near the same spot we first met, this time in Ballyferriter. I mentioned to him about working on his headshot as it's an area of photography I haven't had a lot of experience in. I have done headshots for people but not with actors. Tim was very obliging about the idea.
We met up at his house and after fine tuning the lighting and camera settings we went about getting to this final image.

It was a very interesting experience for me to learn from Tim how to best try and capture the essence of a person in one single picture. Casting agents can scan through a catalog of actors headshots when filling parts. Your headshot gives you one split second the capture their eye and jump off the page. This means that it's not just a case of standing in front of the camera and taking the shot. Subtle posing, exposure, lighting along with that glint in the eye all can lead to a successful headshot.

Having music playing the actor likes, having a chat over a cup of tea and getting to know each other before ever taking a photograph will all lead to the actor feeling comfortable in front of the lens and with a stranger trying the expose their vulnerabilities in front of a camera.

The whole process can last up to three hours to try get that one split second moment in time.
 

If you would like to know more about Tim and his work check out the following page:
http://www.lisarichards.ie/actorsm/tim-creed#.WWqH1sYZNEI

I'm looking forward to working with more actors in the future!

This is a video that I shot at the beautiful An Díseart in Dingle just this week. Aoife Granville is a flute player from Dingle in county Kerry. The flute is made by Solen Lesouef and she has been playing it since around September. The tunes are 'An Buachaillín Donn' and a slide from the playing of Julia Clifford called 'She didn't dance and dance'.

Samantha + Alan Wedding Day Highlights Film
Church: Gurranabraher Church, Cork
Reception: Fitzgeralds Vienna Woods Hotel & Holiday Homes
Photography: Eddie Hennessy

Filmed by: Michael Meade

I attended a three day guitar workshop that Steve Cooney gave in Ballyferriter during the Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh music festival in February earlier in the year. It was a an amazing three days listening to him speak about life, music, the guitar and to hear him play some beautiful airs. I have been an admirer of Steve Cooney's playing for many years so to spend this time with him was very special. He enlightened me more to my approach to the guitar, music and accompanying music rather than learning particular chords or tunings.

From the first day I really wanted to take his portrait. When I was meant to be focusing on what we were doing with the guitar, I found myself looking around the room for the best place for a portrait. I watched the movement of the sun for the first two days and saw where it was shining in the room at different times during the days. After the second day I plucked up the courage to ask him if he would mind me taking his photograph the following day. I was delighted when he kindly obliged me the opportunity.

When the moment came, I only had about 20 seconds to capture it. I knew exactly what background I wanted, a plain wall in a bit of shadow. I was lucky that it was cloudy so the suns light was diffused coming in through the window to act as a key light for the side of his face. I had my settings dialled in after a quick test shot on a chair. I wanted a shallow depth of field with focus on his eyes so I choose and aperture of f/3,5. "One shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime".

I was very happy with the result!

One of the pieces Steve played for us and showed us how he plays it was the slow air "An Gaoth Aneas"

This is my version of this piece of music he taught us to play.

https://soundcloud.com/michael-meade-banjo/an-gaoth-aneas

Steve Cooney Portrait