Pageant – Richie.ie

March 21, 2016February 6, 2019

Sacha Livingstone – Miss Ireland 2015

I have been fortunate to work with various Miss Ireland’s over the years. It is always great working with such beautiful, elegant and hard working women. Sacha is no different. The Hillsborough beauty worked her way up from the Miss Antrim title to the goal of Miss Ireland. She is currently with CMPR so is no stranger to the fashion world and presenting herself well. Unfortunately success wasn’t to be had at the Miss World event, but she was a great ambassador for Ireland.

We had a great day shooting in studio, with a nice early start for Sacha for her drive down. We were aiming for a easygoing test shoot, natural makeup, nothing major. Sacha looked after her own hair and makeup for the shoot and what a great job she done. We shoot on my usual white background and we also tried out my new black corner set. It is a still work in progress and there is lots of testing to do with it to see what kind of light can be achieved with it, but so far so good.

The bodysuit look against the white wall was the more striking of the looks. It showed off Sacha’s 5’9 figure perfectly. The shots were featured in the Irish Sun in March 20th. Screenshot shown below also.

As you can tell, I have not been posting as much behind the scenes posts as much anymore, that is purely a time issue. Social Media is the best way to see what I get up to on a shoot. Click on the links on the top right. Also, if you have any questions on anything, post them in the comments below.

Don’t forget to check out and follow Sacha on her social media also: https://www.instagram.com/slivingstonee/

February 5, 2015July 12, 2018

Roisin O’Driscoll

Recent shoot with Roisin O’Driscoll, Diva Next Door contestant from Wexford.

October 16, 2014July 12, 2018

Jessica Hayes – Miss Ireland 2014

Say Hey! to Jess Hayes Miss Ireland 2014. The cork gal dropped down to my studio for a test shoot to update here book a little. As you can see from the pictures, Jess is stunning… and tall! She stands 5’11. She has recently just signed with Andrea Roche Model Agency, so expect to be seeing her out and about fairly regularly.

Jess is the 5th Miss Ireland that I have shot now. You can see all my other shoots with Former Miss Ireland’s and finalists here: https://www.richie.ie/tag/miss-ireland/ . Keep an eye on my Instagram or my FaceBook Page to see my next shoot with Jess before she jets off to Miss World in November 2014.

March 21, 2014July 12, 2018

Sinead Noonan – Miss Ireland 2008

Sinead Noonan, Miss Ireland 2008 in Studio for a quick test shoot.

September 11, 2013July 12, 2018

Orlagh McGee – Miss Donegal 2013

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.

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.

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.

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.

September 10, 2013July 12, 2018

Gemma Fowler – Miss University 2013

Gemma Fowler is the current Miss University ( 2013) and will go on to represent the colleges in this years Miss Universe Ireland competition. Can Gemma become, Miss Universe 2013 … we will have to wait and see. No doubt she will do great though!

I first met Gemma at the DIT Fashion show where she rocked the catwalk. After entering the Miss University competition and winning it, she got signed to Assets Agency She then got in touch to get her portfolio started and to get some tips for the competition. I don’t have any experience really with these competitions, so I am not the right person to be asking for advice. What I told her was to make the most of the experience and to enjoy it. Opportunities like this don’t happy every day and when they do come, all you can do is your best.

For Gemma’s shoot we shot a wide range of looks on various backgrounds. I have some new colour background papers in the studio now so I am been using them a lot lately to try them out and see what works best. We shot basic headshots, natural looks and went right through to the wet hair, sexier look as show above. Gemma styled her self for this shoot and Aimee Connolly done her make-up and hair.

I will keep you updated on Gemm’a progress in the competition. In the mean time you can follow her on twitter also, @GemmaFowler

May 4, 2013July 12, 2018

Esmé Wallace – Miss Sunday World 2012

The title of “Miss Sunday World” is a prestigious one. It is one of the roads for a woman to becoming Miss Ireland. The Miss Sunday World crown has been held previously by Rachel Wallace, Niamh Cullen and the outgoing Miss Sunday World, Esmé Mansergh Wallace. Esmé won the title this time last year and done a fantastic job representing the paper. She has now just handed over her title to the 2013 Miss Sunday World, Emma Cronin who will go one to compete for the 2013 Miss Ireland Title, currently held by Rebecca Mcgauire

We organised and shot this back in January. The Lingerie company Dolls and Dreams provided us with some fantastic lingerie for the shoot. It looked great on Esmé and on another shoot with Jane Lyons ( coming soon). Check out their website http://www.dollsanddreams.co.uk to see their range and go pick treat your self to some 🙂

It was a great fun shoot. Esmé is such a lovely person to deal with. She was telling me how she had to take a few months out from modelling after she broke her arm/collar-bone when she fell off a horse. Horse Riding is a bit part of her life by the way.

Hair and Make-up was done by the Fabulous Make-up by Aimee. If you follow my little blog here, you will know that I work with Aimee a lot. She is fantastic to work with. She provides a full make-up service from big groups for parties right down to giving workshops.

Get in touch if you want to experience your own photoshoot where you can look and more importantly feel great 🙂 . There are limited studio dates left in June, so don’t delay in booking.

September 6, 2012July 12, 2018

Kyla Flaiani – Miss Buck Whaleys 2012

Here is a quick post about a recent shoot with Kyla Flaiani. She has had a busy few months on the press call scene. The winner of Miss Buck Whaleys 2012 and Assets Model, she Represented Buck’s in this years Miss Ireland competition. Kyla and her Mom came down to my studio recently to get some fresh shots for her portfolio.

It was great to meet Kyla and shoot with Kyla again. I had meet her previously when she also entered the Miss Wright Venue competition and made it through to the finals. Aimee Connolly was with us on the day done a great job on the Hair and Make-Up as usual.

From a photography point of view, I was wanted to try out some more shots with the Smoke machine. Smoke can be a great addition to an image, if used right. One has to experiment with it do see what looks good and what looks bad. Another thing I wanted to try out was new light panels that I got. I used them on the shot on the right to give a nice even light on both sides of Kyla.

Thats it for now, its a very short and sweet post as things are super busy here in the studio these days. September Portfolio days are all booked up but stay tuned to see when the October dates are announced.

August 31, 2012July 12, 2018

Miss Midnight – Emma Rogers

Meet Emma-Louise Rogers, the winner of the 2012 Miss Midnight competition. Miss Midnight is an annual pageant that is a entry qualifier for the Miss Universe Ireland pageant in October. Emma-Louse won the Miss Midnight title in Dandelion nightclub back in July. I knew Emma before she entered the competition through her Gymnastics work and my DE Photo business. We had been trying to organise a shoot for a while and when Emma won, it gave us that extra little push to get it done.

Technically speaking, this was Emma’s second shoot. We had a shoot ( Emma’s first) shortly before this one. The first shoot was kind of like a practice shoot and was Emma’s first shoot, so she was naturally nervous at the start. The shots that you are seeing here are only from the second shoot as the different between then is like night and day. It really goes to show how much of an effect that confidence has on the end result of a picture. All the nerves were gone on the second shoot and we were getting much better stuff.

We had a basic shoot planned out. We had our inspiration images, we had our clothes, we had Emma doing her own hair & make-up and we had an afternoon to shoot the breeze and get some interesting shots.

We got some cool images from the shoot and its a great start to Emma’s portfolio. We are planning the next shoot already which will be even better again as her confidence is building with each shoot.

Confidence is an interesting thing. Being a gymnast, Emma would have performed amazing physical routines while been watched by 100’s of people. Yet when it comes to being infront of one person and a camera, she was nervous at the start. This all comes down to experience. In the gym, she knew excatly what she was doing…. each routine was memorised and perfected to every beat of the music. Weeks and weeks of practice meant that it was the best it could be. In the studio, it was a new experience, being told to look a certain way, wear certain cloths, look towards a certain light etc. etc.

This is no different to any body who comes to my studio for their first ever shoot. Working with people who may be nervous in front of the camera is all part and parcel of portrait photography. People come to the photographer to make them look good. Looking good however is not just about looking good physically, but feeling good is a big part of it, for me. It is much easier to get some one to project a certain look if you can actually make them feel it. If you can make some one feel like a super star, then chances are you will get some pretty amazing and confident pictures out of them.

It is a huge contrast from working with fashion models or for a client. In this case, a model is being brought in to do a job and they should know how to get the looks that are asked of them, without a photographer having to draw it out. A good model will light up the studio with confidence, fun, flair, energy…. things that makes them stand out from regular people. That is that they are used to advertise products and to make people want them and why they get paid so well. Obviously physical looks plays a part and is a requirement for certain types of job… but the personality has to back up the looks.

To book your shoot and to experience what a photoshoot is like, drop me a line

April 15, 2012July 12, 2018

Rebecca Maguire – Miss Wright Venue 2012

The “Miss Wright Venue” title is a highly contested accolade. It is one of the most popular entry paths into the Miss Ireland. The 2011 title holder was Faye Fooney and she represented the Night Club very well, so well she is now an employee in fact. The Belfast Beauty Rebecca Maguire was crowned Miss Wright Venue 2012 last month.

Rebecca is no stranger to the world of pageants or fashion. She is a hot favorite to win the 2012 Miss Ireland title as she came second last year after been beaten by Holly Carpenter. It was a tough contest last year as both were great contenders, but only one could win. This could be Rebecca’s year though.

I sponsored a photoshoot for the winner of Miss Wright Venue 2012. The shoot styling was also sponsored by Nicole Spain of Flutter On By Fashion Styling. Go check the out if you are looking to do a styling course. The Hair sponsor for the shoot was Shauna Spain Hair Styling. Go check out here great deals on a blow dry at the moment. Aine Cahill was on hand to provide her Make-Up artistry skills. Aine a graduate from LA Make-Up Academy did a great job. Finally, the dresses were provided by The Ivory Closet Dress Hire Limerick. The Ivory Closet are a popular name these days when it comes to quality dress hire.

I was delighted to meet Rebecca and her Mum (Hey Charlotte) and Auntie Karen in the Wright Venue Penthouse for the craic at the after party. We started to plan the shoot straight away to get the ball rolling on it. The aim for the shoot was to shoot some elegant shots with Rebecca modeling the fantastic dresses from The Ivory Closet along with some classic swim ware shoots as well as a lingerie look. Time was limited for the shoot and we had a lot to get through. I think we managed to cover the plan fairly well though 🙂

Rebecca looks great in these swimsuit and lingerie shots though, as I am sure you will agree. You can check these shoots out in the Irish Sun Paper .

We shot on location at the Wright Venue…. well Rebecca is the Misses of the place after all 🙂 . The WV is a fantastic venue and top class club. It has some lovely features and unique places that make for a great shooting location / background. However, here in lies the problem. It is now hard to shoot there while doing so in a creative and new way. The last thing a photographer want is to be shooting a model in the same way as 2 or 4 other photographers. That is a common problem when shooting at popular locations….. how do you make it look different? Well in this case, it’s not so much about making it look different persay but trying to shoot from either a different angle or by using different lighting.

For example, the Scarface room is a cool private VVIP part of the venue. It has been shot by so many different photographers with so many different models in many different ways… its hard to get a unique take on it. Coupled with that the time limit that we had ( there was a fashion show on later), it’s often under pressure that the solutions come about. My solution was to use my Magic light a.K.a the Orbis Ring Flash. Check out all the black and white shots to see the effect of that.

The Miss Ireland Final is on the 28th of April, so there is not long left for it now. I want to wish Rebecca the best of Luck with it…. I know she will do great.