Aoife McGrane, Miss Irish Sun 2015 dropped down to The Studio for a test shoot. Test shoots are great to do every so often as it allows me to keep the creative brain ticking over. As sports and event photography is the main body of work, it can get repetitive. Shooting portraits keep things fresh and new as every face is different.
Aoife is currently signed with Andrea Roche Agency. You can follow Aoife on Twitter Here
Sinead is one of those people beautiful on the inside and out. Not only does Sinead have the beauty, she has the brains to match as she is just about a qualified teacher. It is always great craic shooting with Sinead, normally we would be working with Aimee and Laura on a shoot, but this time it’s just the two of us. We didn’t need a full time this time around as shoot was all natural looks for a fitness feature in the Irish Sun
Sinead was on a bit fitness buzz at the time and was training hard in Go Gym and they were kind enough to let us shoot in the Gym in Greystones for a few hours.
Quick video from a shoot with Sinead Duffy. Pictures will be up soon. I love this video and all of Sinead’s little micro expressions and her laughs. Very natural and beautiful I think.
Sinead Duffy, teacher and Andrea Roche Model is back in studio for her 3rd shoot. She is the current Miss Irish Sun and is going to be for an extra year this year. The Miss Irish Sun competition is an entry pathway into the Miss Universe Ireland competition. As there is no Miss Universe Ireland this year, that means no Miss Irish Sun competition ( I think… don’t quote me on that). So that leaves Sinead to hold the title for an extra year. I have shot with Sinead before ( see all Sinead’s Shoots here), always a great laugh working with her.
This was a test shoot that we organised with Stylist Laura Mullet (www.lauramullett.com) Sinead dropped with Rachel Wallace. Laura had some cool ideas looks for the girls to try out so it worked great. Sinead applied her own makeup for the shoot and styled her own hair, which is by Great Lengths. It was a small team for the shoot, but sometimes for quick fun shoot / test shoot days, a small team is all thats needed.
I shot the green jacket against the white wall using the flash bracket as I discussed before. I have plenty more shoots to come soon with this technique. I am still working with it a lot, figure out different ways to use it and get the best out of it. It definitely gives a different look to the images and there is a time and place for it. In using it more and more to know as much as there is to know about it. Just like any light modifier, to know it perfectly also means that you know when not to use it. For example, if you wanted to shoot a beauty portrait, you would not be using one of these due to the harshness of the light.
The shots were published in the Irish Sun and Sunday Independent Life Magazine.
As usual, any comments or questions, you can ask them below.
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Nicola Hughes, the stunning Andrea Roche model and Miss Irish Sun 2012 makes her second appearance on the blog this time around. It was no accident that Nicola won the Miss Irish Sun title last year. The blonde bombshell is in fantastic shape these days as the pictures show….. thanks of a lot time dedicated to the gym and eating healthy.
Nicola got in touch to get some new shots for her book and also to get some shots for press. The main goal of this shoot was to get some high class lingerie shots and also some sexier shots for press. Nicola had a few inspiration images that she wanted to try and recreate, with our own twist of course. The shots that we took looked great, however as times are changing, they were a little too sexy for the press. Since the Irish Sun have stopped doing Page3 ,then are looking for a different kind of shot. There is indeed a fine line between trashy and classy sometimes. But hopefully I manage to stay on the classy side of it. If I don’t feel free to let me know in the comments 🙂
Nicola styled her self for this shoot. The looks were not that complicated and she had the bits her self. Aimee Connolly was in studio to apply make-up and Edel Jones was in studio to work her magic on Nicola’s Hair. Hair is one thing that I never really mention much on the blog, or specifically extensions. Nicola’s extensions are by Great Lengths Ireland. Hair extensions are not cheap, so one of the ways that the models can get them at highly discounted prices, or even for free is by getting the hair mentioned in press credits and in the media where possible. Fair deal really, you get a product in return you promote the product.
In the image just above, you can see my cyclorama in background. Although it is painted white, is drops off to gray due to a lack of light hitting it. Reduce the light even more and it would appear a darker shade of grey and eventually turn black. For those of you who are not into photography… that can blow some minds. It blew my mind with I first started to learn about lighting. “Why is this appearing grey even though it is painted white“, used to be the question I would ask my self. It was not until I started to experiment with lights and take test shots, that it all started to make sense. If you’re looking to learn more about lighting for photography, one book that you need to check out is “Light, Science and Magic” from Amazon.
Sinead Duffy is a relative new kid on the modelling block, but already is making waves. The teacher from Dublin won the prestigious title of Miss Irish Sun for 2013, beating off competition from fellow finalist Kate McGlennon and Sarah Jane Dunne. She now joins the ranks of former Miss Irish Sun girls such as Nicola Hughes, Kate McDaid, Karena Graham, Georgia Salpa etc. Sinead will now go onto represent the Irish Sun in this years Miss Universe Ireland competition later in the year.
This was my second shoot with Sinead, the first being the Flutterby shoot. That was a busy day and I didn’t get a chance to chat to Sinead properly and go through some of my usual pep talk stuff before a shoot. This shoot though, we had plenty of time to chat and to work on some looks and posing advice. Comparing these shots with the last shoot and you can notice the difference.
It was a great shoot, the shots turned out great. Sinead is a pleasure to work with and I will be working with her again soon. No doubt she will do great in the Miss Universe Ireland finals later in the year.
The shoot was for a spread in the Irish Sun and it was her hottest shoot yet. The shoot was styled by the fantastic Laura Mullet. She pulled some fantastic clothes from Harvey Nichols and other shops in Dundrum. For a full rundown on the styling of the shoot, check Laura’s own blog post about it on her site HERE.
Julie Caulfield was down for the day to provide her fantastic skills with a hair and make-up brush. It was a busy day for my self and Julie as we were shooting for Darcy clothing straight after. Julie also have some of her showgirl pieces from her “Love Jewels” business. Remember you seen them first on Orlagh. Below is a different piece that Sinead modelled.
Karena Graham is one of Ireland’s most experienced models. She has worked alongside all of Ireland’s top models, Modeled for Ireland’s top brands and shot with Ireland’s top Photographers …*cough cough*. She is Miss Irish Sun 2010 and joins the ranks along the other Miss Irish Suns that I have shot. Speaking of shoots, check out these images from her portfolio shoot recently. She has recently just move to Andrea Roche Agency to become even bigger and better. She came down to me to update her portfolio along with her friend Leah O’Reilly ( her shots). Contact me to book in your own photoshoot to start or update your portfolio.
No doubt as you can spot the obvious that she is the image of Claudia Schiffer. Karena even done a shoot before appearing to be Claudia her self, while Georgia Salpa was there as a Kim kardashian lookalike. On our shoot, Aimee Connolly was at hand again with her wonderful Make-up skills. We were looking for some classic black and white looks. As you can see, I think we pulled it off. Karena is fantastic model and is great to work with, she brought plenty of ideas to the shoot and is not afraid to try things out…. which always makes the photographers job easier.
Shout out to Aimee Connolly for the fab hair and makeup work as always.
September 2013 – CLick for Nicola’s NEW Shoot: http://www.richie.ie/shoots/nicola-hughes-press-shoot/
* April 2012 Edit *
April 2012, Nicola has just won the title of Miss Irish Sun 2012. Congrats Nicola on the new title! Nicola will head onto Miss Universe Ireland later in the year now – See HERE
Nicola Hughes is busy model with Assets Model Agency, Andrea Roche Agency, whom I have the pleasure of shooting with recently. She has been modeling for a while now and is doing great for her self. She is great to work with and has fantastic skin, which makes the MUA’s & my job easier…… which we like.
I organised a test shoot just before Christmas with Nicola & Alyson. We wanted to get some Christmas themes shots as well as trying out some new looks for our portfolios. It was a short day, but we managed to squeeze in some varied look in the two hours shooting with the two girls. Here are are some of the best shots of Nicola from the day. I look forward to working with her again.
The style team on the day were Danilo Taveres on Hair, Ann-Jean Fitzsimons on Make-up and Gill Keogh on styling. Check those talented guys out.
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Kate paid me a visit recently to check out the progress of my new studio and also for a quick test shoot. Its great working with Kate and it was a pleasure working with her again. This is the second time shooting with Kate, who is the current Miss Irish Sun and is signed with Andrea Roche Model Agency. You can read about our first shoot together that was also published in the Irish Sun HERE.
Kate brought along her friend Aimee Connolly, who is a talented Make-Up artist down for the trip and to look after the make-up for the day. Aimee done a great job in creating the look that we were after, which was a natural feeling. Check out her FaceBook page in the link above.
The aim for this shoot was to get some nice simple, natural looks. Styling was kept minimal, make up was toned down and the lighting was not too fancy or dramatic (while trying out some new things). The ultimate aim being to put the emphasise on the model, Kate in this case. As Matthew Jordan Smith says, Kate’s natural beauty is the hero of the shoot, not the cloths or the make-up.
The shot on the right is my favourite from the day. I am happy once I get one great shoot from every shoot, thats what I aim for. if I get more than that, then its a bonus. I like this shot because it’s all about the expression in Kate’s face. The expression, the moment is key. As I grow and develop my photography, I realise more that although you need to know the technical aspects of photography, you also needs to know what actually makes a good image. You could have the best lighting in the world, but if the model does not work well for you, then the image will suffer. Conversely, you may know nothing about lighting but you may take great photos of people because you can capture them at their best.
We had a pre-shoot meeting a few days before the shoot to go over ideas and to put together a shoot plan. We had a rough idea as to the looks that we wanted. Inspiration for this shoot came heavily from the work of Gilles-Marie Zimmerman and his Simply | Project. Being able to create such great images while giving the impression that the work & effort was minimal is fascinating.
Although we had inspiration, the aim was never to copy another photographers work intentionally. The idea is to use others work as a canvas and then make it your own, put your spin on it etc. It is healthy from an educational point of view to try to copy other people’s work, in order to learn new things. You don’t necessarily have to show this “copied work” to anybody. Once you know how you created the look using the lights a certain way etc, you can then go onto creating your own images using those techniques while putting your own twist on it.
The next shot is another favourite of mine from the shoot. Again, it’s all nice and simple, but for me its the expression that make the shot.
Thats all now for now. The studio is coming along nicely. Once its all done I will post up about it and give details on its availability for renting etc.
The shoot team was the same as the last few shoots. Gill Keogh was on the styling end. She knows the area around Howth and found this cool little location that we used. Tassia Fitzimons was on hair duties again. Lastly, the lovely Ann-Jean Fitzsimons was on make-up duties.
With the human team members assembled, I have some new members to my camera team. These being my new Canon 1D mkIVand Pocket Wizzards. No longer will I be bloging about poverty wizards or Nikon gear, its it onwards and upwards from here on.
Testament to Canon and Pocket Wizards, I literally picked up the new camera and all the gear, drove to the shoot, put the card and batteries in and started shooting. Coming from using 1D mkIII’s from my weekend Sports & Events work with DE Photo, I was familiar with the Canon. I set it to RAW, Flash WB and set the exposure in manual mode and started shooting. For the pocket wizards (Mini TT1 & Flex5’s) I just put in the batteries, attached the appropriate PW’s and turned them on. On the whole the PW’s worked great, but there is some little nags that I will sort out once I read the manual and master them.
Back to Kate though. Between the rain and the lack of light, we didn’t get to finish the shoot in the second location. Which was a pity because the last two looks were going to be even sexier. Keep it here though as we will be finishing off the shoot soon.