Our engagement shoot

On the 23rd April myself and Niall had our first ever photoshoot, for our engagement. We decided to go all out on it and bring props etc. We wanted to make it as much fun as possible. I think from the result you will see that we just so much fun. Our photographer Christina is so extremely talented and her photos are everything we expected and more. I just love this sneak preview on her blog and the photography is just one more thing that I cant wait for on our Wedding day. Wedding's are the most fun! We should do one every year! :)

Check out Christina's blog post of our engagement here:

http://www.brosnanphotographic.com/2011/05/sadhbh-nialls-beach-picnic-engagement-on-dollymount-strand-co-dublin/

A Cupcake Sunday

 

This Sunday we celebrated my sister Aideen's birthday with a family meal at home. I love these days when we all sit around the table and shout over each other to be heard. My Dad will often say something random and silly that has nothing to do with the conversation, or he will break into song due to a word someone has said that has sparked something in him to sing. My brother always starts his meal with "hey, why did she get more then me?" (He is turning 30 this year and will never change). My Mum who soaks up the feeling of having her family around the kitchen table together with a quiet smile, between her preparing, cooking and serving the dinner. And Niall sits back and enjoys the madness of another Ahern family dinner, a family he will soon be an official part of. :)

Aideen wanted to cook cupcakes for her birthday and I jumped at the chance to take pictures of something so pretty. So I followed her round the kitchen snapping her every move and here is the result. Some mouth watering pink, green, blue and yellow cupcakes. And to top the day off my brothers girlfriend sent down 10 cupcakes from Dublin for her birthday, so overall it was a Cupcake Sunday bonanza! :)

Its been a while since I last updated my blog (for shame).To get back into the swing of it, here is a picture of Niall on our first day skiing in Andorra. In this shot I wanted to bring all the attention to Niall in full concentration, while softening and boosting the whites in the background. 

Meadow Pipit - my competition winner

I entered my first monthly competition in my photography club this week and was delighted to receive a 20 for this shot. This is top marks in the club so as you can imagine I am absolutely chuffed. I had a smile from ear to ear. This shot was taken out of my car window up in the Cooley mountains on a very cold Sunday morning. This little fellow was hopping along the edge of the cliff for around 5 minutes giving me loads of time to setup my shot. I used all 300mm of my 70-300mm Sigma lens and with a little help from one of the other club members in post production we arrived with this composition.


I entered 3 other photos, the seascape of Blackrock featured in a post below, the man shoveling the snow and my New York cityscape. All of which did very well in the competition as well. A very encouraging evening where the feedback I received was fantastic and I am now really excited about the next competition.


I'm officially hooked. :)

Clearing the Snow

This man spent ages clearing a perfect path for the patrons of St Patrick Cathedral in Dundalk. The snow had only just fallen and it fell again not long after so I would say he repeated this job many times during that day and week.

The Snowy Season

Blackrock bay during the new snowy season in Ireland. Even the beach wasn't left out during the snow. The sea brought in chunks of ice each day like something out of the arctic eventually becoming like a slush puppy where it began creating sculptures of ice at the edge of the water.


This is something I have never seen in my lifetime and it wasn't seen during my parents lifetime either. A sign of global warming or the coming of an new ice age? Either way it is extremely beautiful.

Fire Hydrant in NYC

A psychedelic fire hydrant in Soho, NY. Obviously I've played with the colours a little but I really like this shot.

Snowbella

Taken during the snowy season we are having here in Ireland. I love that the only colour in the photo is Bella's big brown eyes. It almost looks like I have intentionally left only her eyes in colour but really this is a colour photo. I achieved what I wanted creatively in this photo as I used a f5.6 aperture so as I would have her face and ears pin sharp and have the rest of her body just slightly out of focus so as your eyes are draw to her face and then her eyes. I like this one. :)

Happy Holidays

 

Last week myself and some of my work mates made this snowman for the purposes of using it in the company Christmas card. Here are the before and after shots. Hopefully it will be used as the Christmas card. We are also designing an animated card so this is the backup plan if that one does not work out.

Happy Christmas xXx

Ice Hockey in action

I took this shot at an Ice Hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Calgary Flames in Madison Square Gardens from the 'nose bleeds'. It was taken at a great distance using a really high ISO of 560 at 300mm with a shutter speed of 1/250 so as to capture the movement but this was at the cost of the light quality. In the end I got a dark photo with quite a bit of noise. I like the pose of the Hockey player so much I really wanted to do something with this shot. Anyway, here I have tried two different approaches when post producing this photo. One was to go with the extreme and play on the darkness and noise, the other was to try and resurrect this photo. I'm not sure which works better if at all. Would be great to get some feedback on this one...

New York, New York

So we made it to and from New York in one piece, the legs are suitably aching from all the walking but it was a great trip as only New York can be. Here is a 0.62 exposure time with a 1600 ISO and an f22 aperture, this was so as it would be slow enough to pick up as much movement in the traffic but also quick enough that I could do this handheld. I love the guy on the side walk who is in great contrast to the speeding traffic.

My Flickr Photostream

Ah tissue

I love the movement in this picture, it is almost like I have caught this man in action as he is about to sneeze.

This photo was taken in a wee building at the back of the Charity Shop in Blackrock. This place is a dream come true for anyone who likes taking photos of old rustic buildings and artifacts, especially the toilet, it is so cute and old worldly (its also freezing). A hidden gem. There are a few other lovely surprises behind this shop... tbc.

Apple Berry on my new Flickr page

So, I'm stuck in work as always, waiting for renders. (snore) So I thought I may as well do something 'fruitful' with my time. I recently started a flickr photostream. This is just so as I have a nice link to send to peeps with a nice easy slideshow of my work. One of my favourites so far, which I felt it would have a nice home here too, was this one, "Apple Berry". When my Dad saw it he though it was an apple. :)

Check it out here.

My Photo of the week

This was taken after my first photography class. I am finally not relying on auto to take my photos. I took this at such a high res that I had to shrink the file to put it up here. There was some colour loss though as the green of the grass in the original is amazing.


This is my photo of the week.

The moon rise

My study of the night sky continues with this 30" exposure of the moon rising on Sunday night. It took a while to get the right exposure time, I think the trick is the longer the better to get great night photos.

Tis the season

A little bit of fun. I spent today carving this pumpkin and attempting pumpkin soup at the same time. The soup was a bit of a disaster but the carving turned out pretty well.

Happy Halloween :)

Bella, ever my muse

Bella hunting for birds on the beach.

Silver and White

Just for fun.

The morning sky

And in contrast here is the morning sun (with a couple of swans). What a gorgeous morning. I woke up early with Bella on Saturday at around 8am and when I saw this sunrise I ran outside in my PJ's to get this shot before it was too late.

The night sky

I spent ages trying to get a decent shot of the moon over the sea the other night. This was the best out of the bunch... although its hard to capture how gorgeous this moon was. I'm sure a few touch ups would make this photo amazing but I am leaving it in its raw state for the minute. This is the beginning of my night shots, I will get studying :)

Competition Entries so far

My entry into the GoIreland.com photo competition:
http://www.goireland.com/photos.htm

Bella chasing after the ball in Blackrock beach, Louth.

My entry into the Irish Met Society:

http://www.irishmetsociety.org/

Blackrock beach, Louth

My BBC Wildlife Magazine monthly competition entrants:
http://www.bbcwildlifemagazine.com/

September 2010 photo contest: your best wildlife holiday images

October 2010 photo contest: your best photos from Africa

Bring back the Sunshine

    Blackrock sky above my house in Summer

To brighten your day

Recently I received a beautiful bunch of flowers and I couldn't resist taking a few photos of these flowers with one of my new toys, an Opteka 10x macro lens. This lens along with my trusty tripod allowed me to capture the colour and vibrancy of each flower perfectly.

I have used the orange one to brighten up my desktop in work and it works a treat.

 

 

I've joined blog loving

Follow my blog with bloglovin
http://www.bloglovin.com

Ella Bella, who's got the ball

My wee puppy Bella has a wild obsession with her ball. I could take a million of these photos each day as it is never too far away from her at any stage. I have enough photos of her and her ball to fill an exhibition, although this has got to be one of my favourites.

My first blog

My friend Peggy shouted to me over a very loud Whelan's recently that I should start a blog. Now, me, I am usually very cynical about these things but I felt, she is right, it is the best way for me to share my photography. I hope people will read this and take the opportunity to view and comment on the photos I love so much. 

So enough about that.

This blog has been created for one reason only. To host my photographs. Enjoy. :)