Sinead Duffy – Miss Irish Sun 2013

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Sinead Duffy

Lisa Nolan – Sunday World

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It has been a while since I last shot with Lisa Nolan. As I said previously, Lisa was one of the very first people I shot on my own back in the day. Those old shots have long since been confined to the archives…. never to be seen again 🙂 . Back then she was with the Bscene Agency She is with Assets Agency these days doing great for her self. You would have seen her on the TV last year on the ICA Bootcamp along with being a presenter for the online “The Guy Show” on YouTube.

This time we were shooting a piece for the Sunday World back in May. You can check out some of my other published work also.

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We were shooting in one of Dublin’s top night venues, Krystle on Harcourt Street, under the Russell Court Hotel. It has been a popular venue for photo shoots in the past, the large green leather chair has been the backdrop for several pictures. With that in mind, I was trying to use other parts of the venue as a backdrop. One such part on offer with this curtain at the side of the VIP room. It match in well with the corset that Lisa was wearing. I love the shot of Lisa above, it a cute laughing shot.

The style team consisted of Laura Mullet as stylist and Julie Caulfield on Hair & Make-Up. This was the first shoot I worked with Laura and I was very impressed with her work. We got on great and have since worked together on a lot of shoots, which will be up on the blog her in good time. Julie of course is no stranger to the blog  and needs no introduction at this point. But if it is your first time here, Julie is a top class Make-up artist.

After the shoot, Laura had to head off to do drop backs to Ann Summers, i.e. dropping the clothes she borrowed for the shoot back to the stores where they came from. This is one of the jobs of a stylist… one of the tedious parts for them no doubt. While Laura went away, Lisa and myself headed down to the Hotel for a carvery lunch ( great value for tone of food) and we went through some images.

Below is a shot of me hard at work. This is a behind the scenes shot from Laura’s phone taken pretty close to the time of the actual shot used above. You can’t see it in the set up, but I had a light just behind my left shoulder with a bare reflector for a hard light. You can read more about the shoot from Laura’s point of view on her own blog, Lipstick Gossip.

Any comments or questions, leave them below.

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Orlagh McGee – Miss Donegal 2013

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Meet Miss Donegal 2013, Orlagh McGee. The Donegal lass took the title this year and entered the prestigious Miss Ireland. Unfortunately she didn’t win the main competition, but that didn’t stop her from enjoying the experience and having a great time at it. She got signed to Assets Agency also with the competition. Orlagh dropped down to me for this shoot before the big final with make-up artist, Julie Caulfield.  Julie herself is no stranger to the blog here. She has done Hair & Make-up for me on numerous shoots now…. as well as done a spot of modelling.

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It was a very last minute shoot now that I think of it. I think there was only a day or two from organising it to shooting it. We had a cancellation for a portfolio shoot slot and Julie got in touch with Orlagh to come down. Due to the short period of time, Orlagh styled her self for the shoot and brought a load of stuff down. Here are the best shots.

I particularly like the shot above for two main reasons. The first being that Orlagh looks fantastic, from post and the “hint of the squint” expression. Secondly, I like the lighting setup I am trying out here, it’s the backlight look. This is where basically the light at the back is a few stops brighter than the main light in front and wraps around the model. It gives a slightly bleached out look, which I think suits the image.

Below is the same setup, only with an outfit change and in black and white. I kept the shot above in colour as the red really pops against the white. Likewise, the shot below was converted to black and white as I like the contrast with the black hair and  black underwear against the pale skin and white background.

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An interesting part of this shoot was in working with some showgirl costumes as shown below. Julie has recently started a sideline business called “Love Jewels“. From her blurb, “VEGAS SHOWGIRL costumes, RIO carnival costumes,Custom made dance costumes. A huge array of fantastic jewels and sparkles.Based in Dublin.All pieces available for purchase or hire”. She needed to get a few pics of some of the outfits for FaceBook, so today was a great time to start.

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This particular piece matched Orlagh’s black underwear. The piece itself is fairly fantastic. At first glance it gives you a Victoria’s Secret vibe. You can see another piece on a shoot with Sinead Duffy (coming soon)

Below is a quick behind the scenes shot of one of the looks, taken on my iPhone. It shows Orlagh on my Cyclorama and a basic two light system that I was trying for this particular shot. It consisted on a key light from the 70cm Octobox high right and fill light from the 135cm Octobank on the left. This particular set up was not the ones use to make the final image, but it gives you a quick look at how they can be used.

As usual, any comments or questions, you can leave them below.

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Greici Rosa – Rock Chick

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Greici Rosa is a Brazilian fun-loving rock chick who booked a shoot a few months ago. Greici loves her piercings and tattoos, which you can see from the pictures. She had just finished off her latest tattoo and wanted to do a shoot with her new leg ink….. which looked like it was painful to get done. I’m not sure if I could ever go down that route of piercing or tattoo. If her leg was painful, then the tattoo show below must have been agonising. It reads “Give me Love ….. Like never Before” , which is an interesting piece of text….read into that what you will.

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It was great working with Greici. She is a super confident person and comfortable in her body. Before she shoot we talked about all the ideas that she wanted to do  for her shoot, some of which we managed to do and some we didn’t. It makes such a difference when you have a plan going into a shoot. I always try to have a good exchange of ideas with people before a shoot to make sure we are all on the same page etc. A lot of Greici’s ideas revolved around a music theme. We were not able to get a guitar for the shots she wanted, but she did have some drum sticks and a t-shirt of a band who she is friends with.

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Greici has got on the Books with Fraser Models & Actors to try her luck at the commercial model and world and acting.  She is also currently in a competition for Chunk.ie FaceBook competition to be Ireland’s Next Top Alt Model ( Vote Here). You can also check out Greici’s Tumblr Here. Greici’s

Hair and Make-up for this shoot was done by the lovely Julie Caulfield, check her out.

Darcy SS 2013

Darcy Clothing Spring / Summer 2013

 

You may recall from a previous post, I work with local clothing company, Darcy Clothing with their photography needs. They have just launched their Spring / Summer 2013 college and they brought it to my studio to shoot it. The SS ’13 collection is a great range of dresses that will have the ladies looking great, as Julie shows us below.

 

Darcy SS 2013

The Wexford  brand is really starting to take off. The fact that there are only 120 pieces of each dress made means that when you purchase one, you are getting something exclusive, yet affordable. I am not an expert on fashion and clothes, so you are best to check out their facebook page to get in touch with them to enquire about your nearest Darcy Retailer:

https://www.facebook.com/darcyclothing

You can follow them on Twitter also: @Darcyclothes 

Orla Murphy in Studio

Orla Murphy was back in my studio recently for some fresh shots for her portfolio with Assets Book. It was a great opportunity to try out some new ideas while perfecting old ones. It has been over a year and a half since my last shoot with Orla, things have changed a lot for me since then in terms of now having a studio. It was great working with Orla, Julie and Umit on that shoot. This time around, were going for  an “on white” look . On white being a simple white background and putting all the focus on Orla.

 

Shooting on white seemless is very easy and hard at the same time. It’s easy to do, lighting wise that is. You have a few options in which to do it, but it usually goes along the lines of blasting the background with light to blow it out and then adding a key light. Another way to do it is to just use one light and allow the background to drop to a shade of gray and allow a shadow on the background. The option for this shoot was the super bright white one.

Julie Caulfield was onboard again this time for hair and make-up duties. Julie is doing great these days. She is doing a lot of Make-up work for tv and she has a little fashion business on the side also, selling Vegas Showgirl Costumes. Check it out: Love Jewels

 

Aisling’s Make-Over

 

Here is a small selection of shots from a recent shoot with Aisling.

The job of a photographer in my niche is to create beautiful images of you, the person in front of my lens. It is not enough to capture the physical beauty, but also to draw out the inner beauty and confidence that  is buried inside everyone, some people have it buried deeper than others. Once this confidence is exposed and a connection is made with the camera, the result is beautiful. This is what it is all about for me and it is what I strive to achieve. It’s what separates an image that is just nice from one that captivating. A small change makes a big difference.

If there is one message that I want to try to get across to the masses, it would be that you do not need to “be a model” to book & experience your own  photoshoot. You don’t have to be signed with an agency… you don’t have to be entering a beauty pageant….. You don’t need any excuse to have beautiful pictures of yourself.

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Some seem to think that if you have professional photos of you on FaceBook where you are looking beautiful and glamorous, that you have ambitions to be a model. This not always the case…… although for some it can lead to an unexpected calling. There is nothing wrong with wanting the experience, the attention and the empowering feeling what comes along with getting a make-over and some fantastic photographs. A photograph captures a moment forever, so why not capture a moment with you looking your best.

Aisling booked a shoot with me some time ago. She had done some photoshoots before and she really enjoys the experience of a photoshoot. She is a confident, beautiful woman who is not shy about letting her photos be seen. She had an idea of what she wanted in terms of styling and she got in touch with Nicole Spain from Flutter On by Styling to come down and style her. Nicole and Aisling  discussed the look that Aisling was wanting before hand and Nicole went out to source the cloths, or bring bits to the shoot that she already had.

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Aisling has also worked with Julie Caulfield before and loved her make-up and hair styling and organised for Julie to be there on the day. I have worked with and shoot Julie a few times now, it’s always a pleasure working with her. She did a great job with Aisling as expected.

The shoot went great though, we managed to get through all the looks we wanted. Aisling booked a Full Portfolio Shoot, to that got her 8 photos retouched and printed, but she loved so many that she ordered more. The average is between 10-15 images that people order. That is why I try to under promise and over deliver when it comes to the end product.

If you want to book a shoot, you can contact me HERE

 

A behind the scenes shot of Julie adjusting Aisling’s Hair
Behind the scenes with Aisling and Julie Caulfied

Aishling Alcock

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Meet Aishling, the 2011 Miss Buck Whaleys. Aishling represented the trendy Dublin night spot in this years (2011) Miss Ireland competition. Although she did not win, giving way to Holly Carpenter, Aishling put on a great show as she is genuinely nice girl and stunning also.

This is not the first time I have worked with Aishling. I shot her before for the Dubliner Mag shoot, along with all several other Miss Ireland contestants from Dublin. It was great to be able to shoot with her again and to get her some new pictures for her portfolio and to expand the range of it a bit more. She came down the same day as Niamh, which was handy. The two girls got on great with Julie and my self. So all in all, it was a good day and fun as always.

Aisling is a beauty therapist herself, so she is well able to look after her self makeup wise. Julie Caulfield was on site however to offer her expert advice and touch ups etc. Julie, as you can see I have worked with several times before and knows her stuff.

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Follow the team on Twitter
(Me) @RichieButtle
JulieCaulfield

 

 

 

Aishling was great to work with. She was up for trying new things, which is always great. The what you are seeing here are the best shots of the day. Stay tunes for post on the lighting set up soon.

Niamh Cullen – Miss Sunday World 2011

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Niamh Cullen is the current Miss Sunday World – 2011. Niamh won, following in the foot steps of Rachel Wallace and entering in the Miss Ireland Competition. Niamh came down to my studio recently with fellow Miss Ireland contestant, Aishling Alcock for some fun for the day and to get some new shots.

The wonderful, the beautiful, the talented Julie Caulfield was on Hair and Make-up duties for the day and she done a great job as usual. We styled it ourselves from various inspirational images combined with what ever cloths the girls brought down. The main aim for Niamh was to get some fun, sexy shots that were to be published in the Sunday World Newspaper.

Niamh felt that her image to date have been too cute, so her main aim from this shoot was to get some sexier images and to show another side to her. I think that we definitely achieved that. The shot to the right alone is a super sexy shot. This was actually the very last shot of this look, and Niamh nailed it.

The Shots that were actually used are shown below, they are the colourful, cutesy & sexy shots. Although the shot on the right is my favourite, it is unlikely to have ever been printed in the paper as the mostly want colour shots. I did supply this shot in colour, but the black and white just have that bit more impact and mode to it.

Niamh is a great, bubble girl as we had a great shoot.  Her reign of Miss Sunday World is nearly over and the search is on for her successor. Do you have what it takes?

Follow the team on twitter:

(Me) @RichieButtle
JulieCaulfield
NiamhCullen 

 

Holly Carpenter – Miss Ireland 2011

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Meet the current Miss Ireland, Holly Carpenter. These are a small selection of shots from Holly’s last shoot before she headed off to London to compete in the 2011 Miss World Competition. These images ran as part of a piece by the Irish Sun Paper ( Oct 17th 2011). The shoot was all about the swimware as she needed some shots for the Miss World Competition. Holly has a good chance of winning it for Ireland, currently 12/1 on PaddyPower.com.

I worked with Holly before for a Dublin Mag Shoot, along with the other Miss Ireland contestants. We had talked about a shoot long before that but it only came together a few weeks ago after she won Miss Ireland. Hair and Make-up for this shoot were the charge of the the fantastic Julie Caulfield whom I have worked with several times before now. Julie’s sister Serena was at hand to assist for the day and the location was the impressive Wright Venue, Swords.

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I would like to wish Holly all the best in the competition and I reckon that she will do great. She was great to work with and has the right stuff I reckon. I look forward to shooting with her again with the Miss World Crown 🙂 Good Luck Holly!!!

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