Big Brother is Watching

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These images were taken as part of my first  project In IADT. The images are based on John Szarkowski essay, "Introduction to the Photographers Eye." In which he talked about the five issues apparent with the medium of photography. Below is my final exploration of the five issues. 

Kells - A Portrait of A Community

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Kells, A quaint, picturesque village in the heart of the Kilkenny countryside. Set on the banks of the Kings river and back drop to the 12th Century Augustine priory. I spent the summer taking photos of this wonderful place so this blog has been a few months in the making, I want the photos to do the talking in this one. Fore the techies and photographers like me all images were captured using a Hasselblad 500C/M with various types of film both in date and expired.  All images viable for print on request. 

My Photography Journey so far...

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Photography is something ingrained in me, since the very first timeI shot my first photo at the age of three or four on a Minolta Maxxium 7000, I have enjoyed taking photos. It wasn't until in 2008 when on a trip to Australia and on to india did I start to get into it again. Up until then I hadn't done much in the line of taking photos as it was, (what i felt at the time) quite cumbersome with film and not really knowing what I would get, how to go about it and film wasn't cheap. With the advent of digital it all became easy, with the click of a button and suddenly you had instant gratification in the form of a picture on the LCD of the camera. 

Looking across at Mumbi, India, Taken on a Sony A300 

Looking across at Mumbi, India, Taken on a Sony A300 

Im not going to lie, I though I was the bees knees. Although looking back I was downright awful but we all do have to start from somewhere. The shot above would be one of my better shots from back them, the others I never want them to see the light of day.  For the next few year I would dabble not really paying much attention to what I was doing, until the heavy snows hit Ireland and the county looked like something out of a fairy tail. For the first time I went out with some intent to try and capture what I was envisioning . 

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Fast forward a few years to (2011)  when I was in Dublin City University studying pharmaceutical chemistry. At the end of my first year there I traded up to a canon 5DmkII from my Sony A300, Early in my second year there I started to work with another photographer out side of the university, along with covering a multitude of event for the student union. I covered events from concerts with the stripes to shave and dye to raise money for charity and everything in-between. The fire and passion for photography had well and truly been relit and burned even more intense this time.  I started testing the waters of different areas of photography and began to develop my photographic style. During the middle of that year I decided to join   the photography society there (DCU Fotosoc). 

The next year I began to teach some basic workshops and passed on what I knew to people while still leaning so much myself. 

My favourite area of photography has to be portraiture and fashion, why? Well thats simple, because it lets me tell my own stories and work with some amazing and interesting people.  One of the first shoots I did was when I went on a trip to Berlin with DCU Fotosoc,  Myself and two of my friends decided to go on a walk to the Brandenburg gate at 3 in the morning on what i can only describer as a baltic night, -3Deg C. On the way we talked and shot some street photo of the completely empty streets. The shot we took that nigh were the most memrobile shots from the trip. 

Unter Den Linden, Berlin at 3am 

Unter Den Linden, Berlin at 3am 

The portraits I shot were of my friends who were with me, I was trying out the Brenizer Method of portraiture in the first shot below, which involves taking loads of photos of your subject, stitching them all together to give a shallow depth of field. The others were all shot normally using a 50mm lens.  I found that using a 50mm lens forced me to be more creative  as it was so limiting. But it also helped me to understand how to isolate my subject making the images much more striking.

Since then I have organised a few of my own shoot around the country all of which can been seen in my blogs. But the biggest thing to happen to me so far was my trip to delft where I bough my first film camera, a humble Mamyia M645 medium format camera with a standard 80mm lens. This bring me back to the very first photo i remember taking on that old Minolta Maxxium 7000. I For anyone who has never used a film camera I urge you to try it out. After spending years leaning everything on digital, film suddenly didn't seem so daunting. I knew if I put what I had been practicing into use I should get some useable shots.  I did get some however it was a totally new learning curve, as each film behaves differently when shooting, I'm not saying it was hard to learn, it was just well... different. 

A church and clock tower in the centre of Delft. Taken with a mamyia M645, 80mm ƒ2.8 Sekor lens on Fuji Reala 100ASA

A church and clock tower in the centre of Delft. Taken with a mamyia M645, 80mm ƒ2.8 Sekor lens on Fuji Reala 100ASA

The Canals of delft. Taken with a mamyia M645, 80mm ƒ2.8 Sekor lens on Ilford Delta 100ASA

The Canals of delft. Taken with a mamyia M645, 80mm ƒ2.8 Sekor lens on Ilford Delta 100ASA

So Dabbling with film, researching different film stock and with the help of my Friend Colin (Check our his blog and photos here >> colintonge.com  ) I started to get results that I was happy with. A big decision that I recently made was to purchase a Hasselblad 500C/M, which is one of my dream cameras. 

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Since I have started to shoot film, I have found that I slow down and think about my shots much more, making each and every shot count.  There is something about shooting on film that just feels right, each shot feel more connected and more alive then anything I have ever shot on a digital camera. Now that I have the film bug I am the look out of interesting cameras, lens and films that I can use to tell more stories. 

Taken on my Hasselblad 500C/M with a Zeiss 80mm ƒ2.8T* Planer lens using Kodak Portra 100

Taken on my Hasselblad 500C/M with a Zeiss 80mm ƒ2.8T* Planer lens using Kodak Portra 100

My outlook is very different now to what it was when I first started out. I am still leaning and constantly improving what I do and what I want to show people.  This leads me on to my next chapter in my photography journey. From September I will be back in University, this time to follow my passion in photography. 

If your interested in seeing the rest of my work make sure to head over to my main site (Here) and check out the rest of my blogs of the shoots I have done. 

Serenity Fashion Editoral

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Serenity.
The state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.
"an oasis of serenity amidst the bustling city"

Serenity, The state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled. Being a free spirit and one with nature allows a feeling of pure unrivalled piece and calm. Mixing the pureness and simplicity of a white dress, in the fantastic picturesque location of the mine, Glendalough Co. Wicklow, Ireland, helps to create this serene mood.

I started by sketching some ideas, then I creating a mood board with the concept of the shoot in mind. With the Ideas and feeling of the shoot set in my head, I then went out on a location scout. I have wanted to shoot in Glendalough for some time, so this made my choice of location much easier. The feeling of calmness there really suited the ideas I had. I then contacted the model and stylist, sending on the mood board, and then began to source a dress, the make up look we would use and simple jewellery to complement the dress and location.

I decide early on that I was going to shoot film on this occasion. I began to research different film stocks and deciding if I should shoot in colour or black and white. After doing a large amount of research and testing out a range of films I decided that Kodak Portra 160 colour film would give the look and I was working towards. The next choice I had to make was whether to shoot square or rectangular format. I choose to shoot square format, as it isn't seen as much and would help the photographs to stand out.

Dress: Forever 21 kimono - €32
Foundation: luminous silk foundation number 5.5 from Giorgio Armani
EyeShadow: Estée Lauder pure colour eyeshadow palette using 'Sugar Biscuit' (no.60) 'Riviera Rose' (no.11) 'Ivory Slipper' (no.10) and 'Hot Cinnamon' (no.35)
Jewellery: Hand crafted by designer Heather Marie Baldwin

Location: Glendalough Upper lake and Mine, Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
Photographer: Conor Palin-Stewart - website
Assistant Photographer: Colin Tonge, Mark Finn
Model/MUA: Loren-Katie Logan
Stylist: Naiose Jo - Facebook
Assistant Stylist: Jessica Brennan

Dalkey Vintage Fashion - Revist

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Looking back through my photo I realised that after this made it to publication in Ondine magazine, I never released my own blog of the editorial. So nearly a year later here it is. For this shoot I shot both Analog and Digital, Make sure to have a look down the end where the Analog shots are, Which were taken using a Mamyia M645 with 80mm ƒ2.8 Sekor lens on Ilford Delta 100ASA film. 

Dalkey is an area of Dublin that I have always found to be very picturesque Whether it’s castles, sea side scenery, theatre or markets, Dalkey  seems to give a moment to capture and scenery that takes your breath away. That’s why I have always wanted to incorporate the area into one of my shoots and took this opportunity to do so. Especially the striking rock faces of the near by quarry that tell a simple but magical story of their own. With the help of the talented Carina from Cherie Styling Studio, we were able to make this vision became a reality. With the amazing scenery we decided a vintage inspired shoot would be most fitting to capture the raw beauty of Dalkey.

For this first look, we decided to go for more of a traditional luxury winter feel. With Tweeds, wools and hats that glimmer with vintage glamour, with a just touch of antique fur that emphasises the feel of luxury. In this first look, colours such as camels greys, browns and creams were used to enhance the raw beauty of Dalkey, making the outfit and scenery compliment one another. With such colours, one knows that they will forever stay fashionable and bring that touch of class to any outfit, for any age, for any gender.

The second look, we decided to have a little fun with, we wanted a fight to happen with the colours the models were wearing and the natural colours of the scenery. One might say battle to be noticed. This look is more of a raw and edgy one compared to our first look. . To do this we used classic black and white  houndstooth. This holds an ageless quality and has the ability to always looks fantastic when mixed with shades of reds, blacks and whites! We used red pain tent ankle boots and fur trimmed ankle boots, to tie in our luxury vintage feel, with the addition of hats from Rosemary Keating helped to finish the outfits giving it more class and definition. Timeless fashion captured in an Iconic Location.

Models: Ally Archbold, Ben O'Beirne and Síofra Ní Chléirigh.
Styling and Clothing by Carina Cunningham, Cherie Styling Studio.
Hats Supplied by milliner Rosemary Keating.
Assistant Photographer: Lauren Thomas.
Videographer: Colin Tonge and Assistant Mark Crabbe.

Bee Keeping

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Earlier this year I got my hands on a Hasselblad 500C/M medium format film camera, I decide to test it out and shoot some places and activities that happen in my local village. I started off with something very close to home, my dad; and his bee keeping and egg farming. 

Taken on Fuji Neopan 400, Carl and Cormac getting ready to go into the hives and inspect the bees, Carl lighting the smoker while Cormac takes a look at the tools and metraials for making frames. 

Taken on Fuji Neopan 400, Carl and Cormac getting ready to go into the hives and inspect the bees, Carl lighting the smoker while Cormac takes a look at the tools and metraials for making frames. 

All the different parts that go into making frames for the bees. The frames contain a foundation wax which the bees use to build honey comb.

All the different parts that go into making frames for the bees. The frames contain a foundation wax which the bees use to build honey comb.

These pictures show a small glimpse into what goes into both making parts of the hive and maintaining the bees to get a good yield of honey.  With over sixty thousand bees per hive, and not having a suit I decided to be quick and get a few shots before the real work began, and the bees became agitated.

Taken on Kodak Tri-X, Carl and Cormac talking about what they are going to do, Carl holding a nuke box with some empty frames already inside.

Taken on Kodak Tri-X, Carl and Cormac talking about what they are going to do, Carl holding a nuke box with some empty frames already inside.