Dublin - Street shooting

Deirbhile getting to grips with the waist love view finder on the Mamyia. Photo Taken with a Canon AE-1 with a Canon 50mm ƒ1.4 lens on Kodak T-Max 400 (TMY) 

Myself and a few friends decided to meet up to go street shooing and introduce one of the girls to the wonderful world of film photography.  Myself and Colin also decided to swap cameras, with Colin taking my Hasselblad 500C/M and me taking his Canon AE-1. I handed my Mamyia M645 to Deirbhile and quickly showed her how to use it before losing it with a roll of tri-x. 

Being a typical Irish summer day it rained nearly non stop for the whole day. With everywhere grey and dull I decided to shot a medium speed black and white film.  I had a large choice of films from Fuji, Ilford and Kodak. I took a roll of Kodak T-Max 400 to see what the modern equivalent of Tri-X was like. 

We had planned to do a "one roll of film" style project using my Hasselblad. The project entailed taking 12 frames and be proud to keep and print each one. However this didnt happen as we all were shooting very carefully, which made us take out time with our shots. Along with this it was difficult to shoot all 36 exposures on the 35mm Canon AE-1, and manage to get 36 shots that I would be proud to keep and print with in the time we were shooting. 

Knowing that it was going to be a difficult day shooting I decided to try and get at least 12 of the 36 shots at a standard that I would be happy to keep and print.  All the shots below have been taken with a Canon AE-1 with a Canon 50mm ƒ1.4 lens on Kodak T-Max 400 (TMY) 

through the window of The Butcher Barber,  Just off Grafton street.  Colin's reflection as he was spectating me shooting. Photo Taken with a Canon AE-1 with a Canon 50mm ƒ1.4 lens on Kodak T-Max 400 (TMY) 

I set out to capture some of the interesting things I seen when walking around. After running between rain showers, in and out of buildings and 4 hours of walking I shot all 36 shots. above and below are some of the shots I liked and would be proud, these shots are from the first part of the roll of film where i was striving to make each shot count. 

The monk at the church door. I feel like this was an ominous scene compound with the grey, rainy day.

The decisive moment, a quick shot as the woman explores the lanes of dublin

Through the arch at Trinity College Dublin.

The Spire between the buildings of Temple bar

To me this shot feels very metropolitan, encompassing many of the things we associate with european city. 

My reflection, taken in one of the many Gino's Ice-cream parlors around Dublin. 

Necklaces hanging in georges st. arcade 

The radio tower, from Grafton st. 

An interesting celling in Trinity College Dublin

Lines and people on Grafton St. 

A quick portrait of Colin and Deirbhile

My Photography Journey so far...

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 

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 . 

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 

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

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. 

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

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. 

Forme et la forme - Portraits of a Ballerina

After working with two fantastic ballerinas back in late 2014, I decide it was time to revisit the idea and project to shoot with dancers. This time I wanted to be a bit more free with ideas, I went into this shoot thinking I'd like something more moment based and dynamic.

Choosing a location to suit this shoot was an easy task to do, this was because I wanted to continue a common theme through from my last shoot of. The area we chose to shoot in this time was Smithfield in Dublin city center.  I found that the city architecture in this area really helps contrast the many of the aspects of the clothing, along with the shape and form of the dancers poses and movements.

This time I also decided that I wanted the dancers to tell their stories and why they started to dance and what they love about it. I set out to capture their love for the art while showing how strong but elegant they looked at the same time.

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Caitríona:

 I first started ballet at the tender age of three in Myrtle Lambkin School of Dance. There I was trained in ballet, tap and jazz until the age of 19 when I completed my professional ballet grade with a distinction. It wasn't until I started college in DCU that I began choreographing both ballet and contemporary, the most recent success coming third in Ireland in 2015 after choreographing a piece with my contemporary squad.

Ballet, and dance in general, is a huge part of my life. It sounds so cliché, but it really is a form of escapism for me. When I dance, the music just takes over me and I'm able to express myself in the most personal way. For me, dancing isn't about showing off what you can do, but telling a story through calculated movements of your body. The strength of a great dancer not only has to do with physical aspects, but also the ability to tell a story while looking graceful and poised at all times. As the saying goes, it takes an athlete to dance, but an artist to be a dancer

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Loren Katie:

I started dancing at the age of 4 and was extremely lucky to have had Shawbrook School of Dance located right on my doorstep in Legan, Co.Longford. My dance teacher Anica Louw contributed largely to my love of Ballet, Dancing and Performance. She was amazing and offered her time to provide intense training to all of her students. We were always kept motivated to dance and all of her students were included in every production. We were taught never to compare ourselves to other dancers and to set personal goals instead of following others. This has stood to me both in dancing and my personal life to date.

Ballet has opened my doors for me and it continues to do so. It was through my love of dance that I happened to meet Conor, whose fantastic photography skills have helped to open a new avenue for me. By participating in Ballet photoshoots Conor has given me the opportunity to portray my love for Ballet through pictures.
Dancing provides you with a new context for meeting people which gives you an opportunity to make life-long friends. Dancing helps to keep me focused on goals. It is a great outlet which keeps my head clear and helps me stay healthy and keep fit. Dancing has provided me with a different way to express myself and it has improved my confidence immensely over time. Dancing is instrumental in relieving stress which is exactly what's needed after a long day at work or college. It helps build self esteem and provides a positive outlook on life.
If you're not a dancer you will never fully appreciate the hours of practice and dedication that go into one performance but it is always worth it when it's time to go on stage. I am delighted to be a member of the dance society in my college now too which has given me the opportunity to continue dancing and to have met new people from different walks of life through our mutual love of dance.
I could never thank my parents enough for sending me to dance classes from such a young age. It is an absolutely amazing, rewarding past time to have that has been a major influence in my life to date. I genuinely couldn't imagine my life without it.

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Follow @conor_stewart

Berlin 2014

Berlin the capital city of Germany, the location of DCU FotoSoc's trip for 2014. Being to Germany many times before i expected a smililar expreancy to what Munich and Nürburg had given me. But what I got was far different, and the only way in which i can describe it would be alternative. Berlin is famous for its street art scene, its modern architecture and night life. On the first day we took an alternative tour of berlin, seeing some of the local street art, along with heading off to a street art work shop where were created our own stencils.

That night we headed out on a pub crawl getting to see bars that we wouldn't get to see anywhere else, sadly I don't have any photos other then iPhone shots that real don't do any of the places justice that we visited.

Day 2 and myself and another photographer got up early grabbed  a quick breakfast and hit the streets for some good streets shooting, trying to get no so touristy shots a tourists. The fun of jumping into tramlines to get shots and focusing on angles that aren't normally seen.

later that Day we all met up and head on a city tour of berlin, getting to see the berlin wall, checkpoint charlie and the jewish memorial and the brandenburg gate.  For this part I'm going to let the photos do the talking as really its best i show you what we seen.

As a portrait photographer, naturally i snook in time to capture some portraits during the day. The crisp cold, fantastic blue sky and historic setting really lent themselves to some spectacular shots not only on this day but later ib the week when we visited another part of the berlin wall.

The highlight of trip happened the second night, with a crazy idea to go out shooting during the night at around 2am, what happened that night really made the trip. Myself and two other decided to walk from our hostel to the brandenburg gate in -3 deg. C which took nearly an hour due to the constant stopping and starting to take photos. The brandenburg gate is rarely deserted enough to capture a shot that shows the whole gate and down the street on the other side of it. Taking the perfect opportunity to grab the shot I snapped off about 5 frames hoping that that would be enough as we had to move quick in the cold. I then decided to snap a portrait using a composite method taking around 10 photos for one portrait, Here are the results which really blew me away when i seen them.