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Sinead Duffy back in Studio

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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.

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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.

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

Catch me on Twitter and Instagram also: www.twitter.com/richiebuttle and www.instagram.com/richiebuttle

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Madeline Mulqueen Sunday World Shoot

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Madeline Mulqueen is a stunning actress and model. I had the pleasure of working with a great team of Laura Mullett, Aimee Connolly and Madeline on this shoot for the Sunday World.

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Madeline is a cool chick, great fun to work with. And as usual, working with the dream team of Makeup artist Aimee and Fashion Stylist Laura, we always have the craic on set. After we got the shots we needed for the papers, we then turned to a spot of experimenting and testing. I can’t remember who had the paint with them in the car, but Madeline for the idea of putting it on her face… and sure the rest is history… in pictures.

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Follow Laura on Instagram, Aimee on Instagram & Madeline on Instagram

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Nicola Hughes – Press Shoot

Nicola Hughes

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.

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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 Hughes --4Nicola 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.

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Patricia Olufemi – Zen Africa

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It was nearly a year since I shot this Vintage Bridal look with Patricia from Distinct Model Management (distinctmodelmanagement.com). It was shoot for retailer, Dirty Fabulous and for the July 2013 edition of online magazine, Zen Africa. We shot it in fabulous surroundings Carton House. Unfortunately the weather was….. pretty awful to say the least on the day of the shoot, so we would not able to make any use of the spectacular grounds. We were confined to this room. It’s a fantastic room, but unfortunately it has been the location for many, many shoots before so it’s always a challenge is those circumstances to try to get shots that at least look a little difference that what has been shot before. Hopefully we achieved that.

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The Make-up Artist on this shoot with Anita Adetoye, check out her FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/AnitaBrowsBeauty. It was my first time working with Anita and she done a great job as the pictures show. Hair styling was not needed on this shoot since Patricia cut her.

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Jane Lyons – Date with Fate

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A few months ago, you might have seen a show on RTE2 called “Date with Fate”. It was a pilot for a new kind of dating show that shows you how your potential suitors would look when they are a lot older. Tipperary girl Jane Lyons was the female interest in that show. She has the tough job of picking a suitor from judging them years in the future.  The blurb goes as follows:

“Imagine you were single and you had the unique opportunity to take a look in a romantic crystal ball and see how life might possibly look 30 years down the track with a potential partner? It’s the ultimate speed date. Well RTÉ Two is giving one singleton that unique opportunity, in Date With Fate, the new dating show that takes the chance out of romance.”

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The shoot was a press shoot for the Irish Sun to coincide with the show airing. Unfortunately I don’t think the show was a success and it didn’t get past the pilot stage…. but at least we got to shoot with it 🙂 . The Flutter On By Styling  (http://www.flutteronby.com/)  Team of Nicole and Shauna Spain can take the credit for pulling this shoot together. They organised Jane, the styling and Make-Up artist, Emma-Rose Howard. Some of the lingerie was from Change Lingerie and some was from Dolls & Dreams.

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The dresses for the shoot were supplied by Glitterati Boutique. They are a dress hire company based in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, which is just out the road from me. So it was great to be working with local people on shoots. The dress above looks stunning on Jane. We ran out side the studio for a quick shot while the Sun came out to play for a few minutes. Being Ireland and being early February though, it was very cold and we only stayed out for less than 5 minutes.

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It was great working with Jane.  As well as being stunning, she is also currently a model with Primadonnas Agency, so that made the shoot very easy. The rests of the team were great also. Shauna was her usual fantastic self with Hair and Nicole worked her styling magic.  I have worked with Nicole and Shauna a few times now on various shoots, but it was the first time I worked with Emma-Rose and she done a great job.

If you want to check out the show, it is available to view on YouTube. You can find a trailer for it below 🙂

Hazel O'Sullivan by Richie Buttle
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Hazel O’Sullivan St.Valentines Day Shoot for the Irish Sun

Hazel O’Sullivan is back in the studio for her latest photoshoot. This sexy St. Valentine’s Day photoshoot was shoot exclusively for the Irish Sun. The theme of the shoot with a good bride / bad bride, it worked out pretty well.  Here is the behind the scene video by Alan Farrell / Timeline Production. You can see all the shots in tomorrows paper *edit* you can see them here: http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/news/article4787433.ece

 

This is not the first time I had a camera crew with me on a shoot. The first time was was on a shoot with Rachel Wallace as part of her ICA Bootcamp appearance. It was good meeting Alan & Andy on the day to film Hazel for her behind the scenes video. Make sure to check it out here .

The Team
Styling // Deborah Bux
MUA // Sharleen Collins
Hair // Hotloxs & Deja Vu Hair Design
Video // Alan Farrell of Timeline Production
Assistant & BTS Photos // Andy Petterson

Layla Flaherty by Richie Buttle
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Galway Girl Layla Flaherty

Layla Flaherty by Richie Buttle

If you like your reality TV shows, then Galway Girl Layla Flaherty will be no stranger to you. She was one of the stars of the E4 show Desperate Scousewives, which was based in Liverpool. She was also one of the contestants on the Irish Reality Show, Celebrity Saloon on TV3. Layla dropped down to my studio to get some new shots for her modelling portfolio as she is currently with Assets in Dublin.

Layla Flaherty by Richie Buttle

Layla is stunning and in great shape. The first thing you notice about her when you meet her is her height… she is a towering 5’11 (without heels), just a shade taller that me. She also has fantastic skin also which made Aimee’s job of Hair & Make-up even easier. Aimee did a fantastic job as usual, make sure to check out her FB page Here. As I work with Aimee a lot, we have a good system going and work well together on a shoot.

Layla Flaherty by Richie Buttle

Layla styled the shoot her self, picking up various bits and pieces. One of the sets was from a company called Sexy Smalls ( @SexySmallsxx). Of course, one of the best shots from the day did not require any styling, the nude shot.You can see from the behind the scenes shot below, how it was set up. The lighting consists of 1 main light ( above centre) and 2 rim lights (rear left & right) to add a hint of separation light. The lights are in pretty close which kept the fall off pretty short and let the white background drop to a dark grey. Add in some light smoke effects ( not really seen here) to add a little something something to the background and presto. The black thing on the left of the image is an iPad which I shoot tethered to. This brings up the images as I shoot them within a few seconds. A great tool for checking focus, hair, make-up etc.

Layla Flaherty by Richie Buttle

  Aimee  making some adjustments to Layla’s hair

It was a super fun shoot (as always) and it was a pleasure to work with Layla. If you are on twitter, you can follow her here @LaylaFlaherty and you can check out her own website, http://www.laylaflaherty.com

You can check out the shots in the Irish Sun today: http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/showbiz/4780882/Knock-Sean-off-his-feet-Layla.html

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Dana Arikane in Studio

Meet Dana Arikane – Football Lover, Diva Next Door, Latvian Export, Andrea Roche Model and an avid Tweeter. Dana has been living and working here for a few years now, she is practically a local. You can get a bit more about Dana from Independent interview here.

Dana dropped by the studio recently for a shoot. She came down make-up artist Ann-Jean Fitzsimons (AJ Make-Up) whom I have worked with a few times before. Dana had also worked with AJ and worked with before, so it was going to be a great shoot.

Dana Arikane by Richie Buttle

We had a few rough plans for the shoot…. well guidelines. We done the usual thing of exchanging ideas via email etc, sample images that we would use for inspiration. This has to be one of the things that most teams to nowa days when organising a shoot. We were aiming for a general sexy look that would include some full length shots. Full length were specified as Dana has plenty of headshots from recent her recent work with Hotloxs which are concentrating on the hair.

Dana is great to work with. Along with being stunning, she is easy going and good craic on a shoot which is very important. AJ was her usual bubble self also, so all in all it was a good days shooting.

Dana Arikane by Richie Buttle

The couch made another return on this shoot. We last saw it on Christina’s shoot. I really like this shoot of Dana on the couch. It’s all in the facial expression in this shot and I caught it just right. Props like a couch however, I am trying not to use too much as it will get boring rather quick. You could say that a white wall can get boring quick also, but not so much. The white wall is more of a blank canvas that paves the way for the style, pose, make-up and the model etc. to be the hero of the picture, not the background.

Dana Arikane by Richie Buttle

Speaking of backgrounds, as my studio is currently a little bit of a building site as I get the cyc wall / infinity wall finished off.  We put all the the timber lying around to good use. One of the inspiration images we  had was very similar to this one and it turned out pretty close to what we were trying to achieve.

 

Dana Arikane by Richie Buttle

I will finished up with the wet look shoot above. I shoot two versions of this. The one directly above was on a white background whereas the colour version up top was shoot against a white wall.  Which version do you prefer?

As usual, if you have any comment or questions on any of my shoots, you can leave them below.

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Lynn Kelly – Ninjamode

Lynn Kelly, the former Miss Universe Ireland (2008) has been causing a bit of a stir lately with her workout regime. Posting workout photos on her Instagram Feed was getting a Lynn lot of attention, and rightly so as she looks incredible. Lynn trains in No. 17 Personal Training, in Merrion Square, Dublin. Indeed since she started training there, a whole team of her fellow Assets models have started to train there, including Hazel O’Sullivan. If you follow Lynn on twitter, you will get the #ninjamode reference 🙂

Lynn had gotten in touch about a year ago to get some new shots for her portfolio, I was really looking forward to it as back then I was still getting my name out there in the photography scene (still am). To work with high-profile and experienced models like Lynn would have been a great addition to my portfolio. However, between different things happening and scheduling conflicts, we kept putting it off… until recently. I got in touch with her again and the timing worked out great for both of us and we made it happen. We planned out a shoot with the aim of getting it published and took it from there. I called up Aimee Connolly to get her on board for Hair & Make-up, she did an amazing job as always.

When planning out a shoot to get it published, what I have learned so far is that there are two main things to take into consideration…. back story and pictures. The back story is the text of the spread, the hook of the shoot. A spread being a double page spread, usually 3/4 of the space is pictures and text and the other 1/4 is adverts. Timing the shoot to coincide with something interesting in the models life will help with getting a shoot published, i.e. the ICA Boot Camp with Rachel Wallace or Tallafornia with Kelly Donegan. If there is nothing interesting happening with the model at the time and if they are not that well-known, then the chances of getting a spread are reduced… you might get a quarter page out of it. If the models are of a higher profile, then you have a better chance of landing a spread. Of course, it goes without saying that back story alone won’t land you a spread, the pictures are going to be the main part of it.  The main rules of thumb that go for the pictures is that sex sells and give the photo editor choice.

For Lynn’s shoot, we decided to focus on her super hot “ninjamode” body that she has been sculpting with the help of John Belton and Sophie Kavanagh… who are now known as #Team17. Initially we were going to shoot in My Studio but Lynn sent me some shots of the gym and I liked the look of, in particular the outdoor gym section. I liked the outdoor section as it is different to a normal gym shoot. There is a big climbing rope out there too and as soon as I saw it I knew the type of shot I wanted to do with it.

Shooting on Location is always a challenge…. but a fun one. It’s great to get out of the studio and to be able to have shots that are different from your usual studio stuff. For this shoot, I decided to keep it as simple as possible in terms of lighting. All of the shots were lit with a single speedlight in an umbrella. Using speedlights is easier and faster than using my Elinchrom studio lights when on location… and in particular when space is tight. Another reason for using the speedlights is that I wanted to shoot at 1.4 for these shoots and the studio strobes would not stop down enough to obtain correct exposure. Helping me out with the light and gear on the day was Jason Ennis. Jason works for me in my School, Sports and Events Photography Company, DE Photo Ireland, so it was good to have him on board and giving him some experience.

Big shout out to John, Kevin and Sophie for helping us out on the day. They have a great setup, go check it out if you’re looking for a gym in Dublin. Thats if for now on the shoot. It was published in the Irish Daily Star and Irish Daily Mail on November 29th. I will be hopefully shooting with Lynn again in January, in studio this time. Stay tuned for that 🙂

In the mean time, follow Team17 on twitter:

https://twitter.com/Lynnkelly_

https://twitter.com/No17PT

https://twitter.com/Johnbelton 

https://twitter.com/KevNo17

https://twitter.com/Courtneyohara

https://twitter.com/soph_no17