My name is Claire Wilson and I'm an Irish photographer and animator living and working in Co. Wicklow, Ireland.
Welcome to my blog.
Poor Eve has been a little under the weather with a throat infection, she suddenly went quiet so I went to investigate (quiet children is something parents long for, but once we get it, we know something must be up) and found her asleep in her little chair in the lounge. I did move her, but of course I had to get a quick snap first.
Canon has a competition on at the moment caled the Assignment. I have entered one of my photographs into the Portrait section and so now I’m shamelessly pimping for votes. Please, if you have a few seconds, I would greatly appreciate it! The photo can be seen here and it’s one of the lovely Quinlin that I took when I was in Seattle.
The main reason for going to Kilmacurragh this weekend was to take some photographs of Eve and her cousins for my Mum, the doting granny (she’ll love that one). We’re going to get these ones printed onto canvas so I’m excited to see how they turn out.
Canon 5D, 28mm, f2.5, 1/400, ISO 100
And this is a little stone shed near the carpark, love this window:
On Saturday I went with my sister’s family to Kilmacurragh arboretum down near Brittas. It’s not that well known so there usually aren’t that many people there but this weekend the Irish Times wrote about it so the place was busier than I’ve ever seen it. Still, it was really pretty with all the trees in bloom. Eve was in pink heaven with all the petals everywhere.
I was photographing a birthday party on Saturday night. It was in the Yacht Club in Dub Laoghaire and was a really fun party with lots of cool touches. One of which turned out to be George the DJ. Such a character and really good at playing the right music to get everyone bopping. Thanks to him I got some great dance shots.
Just spotted this on one of my daily photoblog stalks. A workshop by two excellent wedding photographers, Melissa Jill and Arden Ward right here in Ireland in August. In Kinvara, in Galway to be exact. If I hadn’t already spent all my pocket money on ahem, other things, I’d be there in a heartbeat. I learned so much from attending the workshop in Las Vegas, I think these experiences are worth their weight in gold. Not just from the advice and tuition that the organisers pour into you, but also from being with all the other attendees and going out with them and shooting with them. Plus you’ll get some amazing shots for your portfolio.
Honestly, if you are a wedding photographer, are thinking about becoming one or just want to give your business and craft a boost, then I would say have a serious look at this. Workshops like this happen all the time in the States, but they don’t come over this way too often.
I’ve been a bad, bad blogger (I blame twitter!) but I just got some excellent news. I posted here about the project I was involved in to try and get an Educate Together school in our town. Well, the application that we made back in January has finally made its way through all the red tape and the Department of Education has today given us the go ahead and sanctioned our school!
There are a lot of people who have put a huge amount of time, work and energy into this and, although we still have a lot to do before the doors open in September, this is a day to pop the champagne corks. Well done everyone!
First shots from the new camera, and another Sunday party at the Happy Pear provided the perfect test. There was sunshine, live music and belly dancers all to raise money for a school in Peru and the place was buzzing. I was dying to see how my old 17mm wide angle looked without the crop:
Eve having a boogie and sporting her new boots:
And one with the 85mm to show Eve having a great time…she found some pink:
So, my verdict on the 5D is that I love the colour and the tones and getting back all of the image without the crop, but….I’m afraid I’ve gotten a faulty one. The light meter is underexposing by about 3 stops and just can’t cope with any high contrast conditions. It was actually a good exercise to have to use my brain to figure out exposures (ha!) but I’d rather have the light meter thanks! Hopefully the customer service from the people I bought the camera from will be just as good when you have to return something as it’s been so far.
…the FedEx man brought me a present 
This is Erik and Marci’s eldest daughter. Her name is Quinlin and she is such a beautiful, fun little girl. She is a wonderful big sister and I am so happy I got to spend some time with her. She uses a lot of sign language to communicate as she has a condition called Cri Du Chat which makes it difficult for her to communicate vocally. I took these photos in the evening, just as the sun was going down. Quinnlin was sitting in her mum’s lap and they were reading together. The light from the window as the sun set was like a spotlight on Quinlin’s face.
Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/500, ISO 400
Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/125, ISO 400
Sorry if you happened to visit earlier this evening and saw strange things happening. I was updating Wordpress (scary stuff!) and managed to have my account suspended along the way. Joy, joy. It seems to be working OK now…let me know if you find any gremlins still lurking.
Canon 10D, 85mm, f2.5, 1/500, ISO 200
One of the greatest and most exciting parts of my trip came right at the end when I got to fly up to Seattle and have a little impromptu reunion with some of the people I spent 2 years in Mexico with. It had been about 13 years since we’d all seen each other and, even though we’re all married with kids, we got to pretend we were 21 again for a little while. Good times. I did take the opportunity to take a few photos of Marci and Erik’s children. The photos in this post are of their two youngest, Zoey and Max. Zoey tagged along with us all weekend and was so quiet and laid back that you’d barely know she was there. Max is a little ball of energy who sings and dances wherever he goes. I had to crank up the shutter speed and even then I only caught a few that weren’t a blurred streak across the frame.
We did have models in the Boneyard on that last day and the poor things were surrounded by about 40 photographers all clicking away. They’re an actual married couple who are clients of AltF, although they might as well have been pros they were so good. This was our big chance to see how Chenin, Doug and John each approach a shoot in their own style. Chenin and John using available light and Doug using a lighting set up. One of the things that was stressed at the workshop that stood out to me was to find light and use it in ways that might not be typical. Such as using direct sunlight or shooting into the sun, things you’re not “supposed” to do but which can have a very dramatic effect.
Some of the other ideas was to have the subject do something, whether it be as simple as walking or playing with a necklace…or jumping of course:
Here’s a few behind the scenes ones…Doug and Chenin:
John and the paparrazzi:
I feel like I’ve only scraped the iceberg in telling you guys about the anti-workshop, but I also don’t want to be like the annoying person showing you their hundreds of holiday slides! The workshop was everything I was hoping it would be and then some more besides. I was so inspired and humbled by what I learned from everyone…not just the Coopers and the Boutwells, but also all of the other attendees. I was the newbie photographer of the group in comparison to everyone else but nobody made me feel bad for it. I spent the whole time wanting to just slow it all down because there was so much good stuff happening and I kept feeling like it was flying by too fast. I’ve never furiously taken so many notes in my life. Just a few random lessons that I learned off the top of my head:
- Don’t separate photography from other artforms, inspiration can be found everywhere and anywhere
- Become an avid hunter and collector of ideas
- “You don’t take a photo, you make it.”
- Don’t sterilise the scene, isolating things kills the story
- Light is the first priority…not setting
- Sunlight is not the enemy
- Be yourself
…and so much more to do with business and branding and Photoshop that I have a notebook full of it…now I just have to figure out how to apply it all!
On the last day of the anti-workshop we got to do one thing that I was really really hoping we’d get to do. This is a place called the Boneyard (or the Neon Graveyard) and it’s where all the old neon signs from Las Vegas go to retire. It’s actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be but everywhere you look it’s just crammed with cool images. We got to photograph a bride and groom in here too and I’ll post some of those images tomorrow.
Canon 10D 17mm, f4, 1/1000, ISO 100
Canon 10D 17mm, f11, 1/350, ISO 100
More here
I’m finally back in Ireland, I’m feeling a bit punchy with jet lag and a cold (courtesy of the wonderful recycled air on the airplanes) but I’m glad to be home with no worries about flights or layovers hanging over my head. I had a brilliant trip, I took so many notes just so I could have a hope of retaining all the information I’ve had poured into me, and I plan to review it all over the weekend. I apologise again for not being a better blogger while I was away, I just didn’t realise how busy I was going to be. I’ve learned a lot, not just about photography and photoshop, but also about business and marketing and (for me the best part) art.
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