Why doing your photosession at home ?

When you think about a family portrait, a photosession, you think about planning for a trip to the photographic studio a long time in advance, loading suitcases full of accessories in the car and stressing about being on time and finding the place. Am I exaggerating ?

There's the alternative of doing the photoshoot in the comfort of your home. The photographer will come to you or will meet you in the location of your choice (you can really create a distinctive look by choosing your location cleverly)

In the end, the difference is amazing : everyone is relaxed and comfortable (especially those that are a bit camera-shy), all the toys, clothes and musical instruments are there already and there are just a set of studio lights to make it all shiny and bright.

Also there is actually very little of your home that is shown on the finished pictures so no spring clean is required !

The other good thing about it is that there's no opening hours to worry about : you can schedule the shoot with the photographer according to YOUR own hours.

Get your mojo back, dare a boudoir session !

I use the word "dare" with humour because, once you've seen how relaxed and informal the shoot is, you realise that it's really fun and silly before anything. I mean it can be very dramatic and seductive if you want it to but most of my boudoir sessions were just a good time, lots of laughs, bouncing ideas of poses and clothe combinations and then the surprise of seeing the jaw dropping result at the back of the camera !

Boudoir is all about seduction in an elegant and subtle way. It's saying something without really showing it.

We, women, know how to do that A LOT. And experiencing how seductive you can be without actually showing much flesh, that's pretty empowering ! And I'm not even talking about your partner's captivated eyes as he discovers the shots !

Every session is quite different, it's really about each model/ sitter's personality and how I react to it, which means every session is really unique in their nature, style, mood.


Fancy trying it for yourself ?

Pre-baby pictures

Babies grow up SO fast, it's overwhelming ! 

There's so many reasons to photograph their progress as months go by. Parents often only wants pictures of their baby, and being in the frame is more optional for them...well, their lifes are run by these little princes and princesses after all.

Having a pregnancy photo session is even more important because that's the first picture of your baby where YOU are completely in the frame. It's such a special moment, so short (well, in terms of calendar months, not in emotional time obviously !)

I particularly love these sessions because there is so many emotions in the air and for the mum, it's a bit of a break and a time to really visualise life after the birth, when the family will open the album and look at mummy with a big belly. 

I offer an all-in voucher with the shoot, a cool slideshow / video and a framed pic or a selection of digital pictures, which a great treat or a nice gift for mothers to be !

Why not trying a different style for your baby pic ? :-D

:-D Get a baby session gift voucher here

The 1 min business speech challenge

In december, the Dublin City Enterprise Board  gave the opportunity to entrepreneurs to have a 1 min business speech recording and showcase them at their Success 2011 Christmas Event.

I was commissioned by the brilliant Channelship to produce a video for the lucky 12 business owners.

Whether you are good at talking in public or not, this exercise is of another level : consistent and strong eye contact, a confidence both visually and in your voice, a speech to deliver like you've always known it...it was pretty challenging for the people that were in front of the camera but Fred and I were there to get everyone relaxed and help them find their focus.

A good promotional video talks millions compared to a text or a few pictures. It is dynamic, multi media and more interactive. If you're looking to get a promo video for your website or to share online for instance, I would recommend to ask for a combination of these face to face speeches and dynamic presentations of your products or your team at work (if it is a service), the location of your business etc, while you will talking to your potential client over the video (audio only) or we add the right music for your business.

I offer video vouchers for 2-3 hour shoot that suit a promo video perfectly at a very affordable price on my website.




Portrait photographer, Dublin,   videography,  boudoir photography, studio photographer,   baby photoshoot, corporate headshots,   baby pictures, irish portrait photographer, female photographer, family portraits, HD DSLR video, commercial photography, advanced photoshop retouching, commercial videos, portraiture, Ireland, creative photography, event video, romantic photoshoot,

The best baby model to date...

Here's my shoot with Kohsay, a 7 month old little sweetheart who gave me smiles, giggles, cries ( we always need a bit of drama !) and ... baby seduction !

I met May, his beloved mum, during a previous crazy project on Grafton St where I stopped her and asked her if I could photograph her in front of a white backdrop with a medium format camera. 

Needless to say I was delighted to hear back from her and learning that she had a baby now !

We had such a ball, we didn't see the 2+ hours passing.

For this shoot, I used flashguns on tripods, with light diffusing attachments. This was in May's apartment so I wasn't too sure how much space I'd have and I knew it was Kohsay's first pro shoot so I feared professional lights would scare him or at least intimidate him.

Intimidated ? are you kidding ! 

If you fancy a photoshoot, you can buy a gift voucher HERE !

Timelapse in Dublin

Back in October when the sun was still shining in Dublin and clouds where dancing and disappearing fast, I experimented with timelapse techniques. I am lucky enough to have a good (and open) view from my living room so I set my camera on a tripod with a timer for a couple of days (evening to evening). That was actually quite fun and it really made me want to try that a few more times, maybe during different weather conditions (like during the snow or a windy& cloudy weather..) and different seasons.

What I took out of this experience was that

- Yes you do need to completely block the indoors light at night because everything will be reflecting (well, I actually thought it was interesting that the image at night was a mixture of the scene outside and the one behind the camera, from the room, that was cool I think to be able to see so much information like that)

- a 5 min lapse between shots is too large, 1 min is  best but then you end up with 1440 pictures a day !!

- a dull grey day is still dull on the camera...but clouds are very photogenic !

-It may look like an easily automated process to use non pro video editors but Final Cut really gives the best result, especially when you add your music (which I got from Pascal from Route 66 and Armchair Coyote by the way...)

Versatile solution for HD DSLR

HD DSLR video offers an unprecedented image quality and such a versatility compared to traditional video cameras (if you've tried a pro lens with a Canon 5D mkII, you'll know what I mean !) but it is still pretty much a work in progress. A lot of guys are experimenting to compensate for the high prices of DSLR-specific video accessories and the relatively poor choice that are offered right now, especially in Europe...these guys are my favorite DIY... they just make me laugh with their creations and ...really made me wish I was a better DIY person.

Anyway, though the list of gear you need to have is a never ending, I realised that this is what was really crucial to offer the best quality and the sharpest HD videos :

• An LCD Video viewfinder : attached to the LCD screen, it is a life saver when it comes to focus with precision and continuously. It also blocks any light from your vision so the image is really clear and your eyes don't get exhausted in an hour.
• A sturdy tripod with plenty of controls, ideally a video head. Avoid ball heads and joysticks as any movements will be too abrupt on the screen. Lately I've been very keen in actually switching to a monopod with a good foot to minimize the space taken by the camera and also to be able to go to corners etc.
• A stabiliser...depending on what or how you shoot, you will need something specific for yourself. My best fit was a habbycam shoulder brace  to be able to move around without a tripod, have the mic attached to it, and being able to bring the camera high and low with a minimum of camera shake. That's what I used for this video : 

• A good external mic : as a lot of HD DSLR bloggers mention, the sound on cameras is ... crap. That's just a few holes on the front of the camera that take more noises from your hands than from the scene you are recording. I've chosen record my sound completely separately and to sync the video with the audio at post production stage. That's the best workflow I've found, both in quality and in time management. I have 3 different Zoom mic that are pretty handy and good : the H1 which is the smallest and still gives me all the controls I need; the Q3, that is older but still decent and the Q3HD that has the handy feature of doing HD videos (I'm yet to review this feature in terms of picture quality but hey that's a great way to have a 2nd camera view !)
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• A LED video light with manual controls : oh so important whenever you are indoors. I used it as a fill light on this video

And here's another demo of it :-)

That's the basics but if you are really keen in knowing more about HD DSLR, you probably know its master, Philip Bloom