Canon 5D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/250, ISO 800

OK, I really tried to limit myself on how many photos I posted of this wedding…no, really! Everything about it was so beautiful that it was really hard to whittle it all down. The reception and preparations all took place in the wonderfully cosy Danby Lodge Hotel in Rosslare and the ceremony was in Our Lady’s Island . The weather on the day was possibly the worst we’ve had all year…the rain was horizontal! Still, nobody seemed to mind, least of all the bride…she was so chilled out she even took the time to sit down and watch a bit of Aussie Rules before the ceremony:

Canon 5D, 200mm, f2.8, 1/200, ISO 1000

Canon 5D, 17mm, f4, 1/200, ISO 1000

Canon 5D, 80mm, f4, 1/125, ISO 1000

A few in the church before the bride arrived:

Canon 5D, 17mm, f4, 1/80, ISO 800

The Best Man and the Groom:

Canon 5D, 73mm, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 1600

The rain calmed to a soft drizzle just long enough for the bride to get inside:

Canon 5D, 73mm, f2.8, 1/60, ISO 1600

My personal favourite of the day:

Canon 5D, 17mm, f4.5, 1/40, ISO 3200

Canon 5D, 200mm, f2.8, 1/160, ISO 3200

And I’ll leave you with this one. If you’d like to see more you can check them out on Flickr here.

Canon 5D, 195mm, f2.8, 1/320, ISO 3200

Canon 5D, 120mm, f2.8, 1/320, ISO 3200

My brother Peter is playing with Colm Lynch at the moment as part of his current band The Honeydogs. Last night they played the Button Factory in Temple Bar and they invited me along to take some photographs of the performance. I’ve never had the chance to do concert photography before so I jumped at the chance to have a go.

So here are a few shots from the night. I was having a great time and the music was brilliant too so I took sooooo many photos. I also got to meet a fellow photoblogger which is always a bonus. Kate‘s a bit of a veteran of concert photography having had photos appear in The Ticket no less, so it was very cool to meet her.

So here are just a few that jumped out as I was going over them all, I’ve put a few more up on Flickr. Thanks Donal and Phil for your tips, I can see why you guys enjoy doing this so much!

Canon 5D, 28mm, f2, 1/400, ISO 3200

Canon 5D, 70mm, f2.8, 1/640, ISO 3200

And this is my baby brother Peter looking all rockstar:

Canon 5D, 185mm, f2.8, 1/250, ISO 3200

Canon 5D, 70mm, f2.8, 1/1000, ISO 3200

Canon 5D, 29mm, f4, 1/10, ISO 400, Flash

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.

Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/45, ISO 400

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, 1/750, ISO 400

Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/500, ISO 400

Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/125, ISO 400

Click here to see the rest

Canon 10D 35mm, f6.7, 1/60, ISO 100

Nate was another of the fishmongers at the market yesterday. These guys really really wanted to sell people fish so it was quite easy to get them to pose for a photo.

Canon 10D 35mm, f6.7, 1/60, ISO 100

I’m in Seattle right now visiting some friends I’ve not seen in about 13 years. They were the people I lived with when I was a missionary in Mexico and we have been laughing and talking and reminiscing for two days now. It’s been the perfect ending to an amazing trip for me. Plus Seattle is the perfect detox after the glitz and noise of Las Vegas. Yesterday we went downtown to the Pike Place Market to buy some fish for dinner. I loved the atmosphere down there, just so colourful and bustling and full of character, I think if I was to live in America again Seattle is somewhere I would seriously consider. There are loads of different fish markets and the people selling the fish are like car salesmen competing to persuade you to buy from them. My portrait of the day is of Mike, one of the fish sellers.

Canon 10D 85mm, f8, 1/8, ISO 400

Canon 10D 85mm, f8, 1/8, ISO 400

John McAWilliams:

Canon 10D 85mm, f8, 1/8, ISO 400

Kieran Murphy in his chef’s hat:

Canon 10D 85mm, f8, 1/8, ISO 400

Canon 10D 85mm, f8, 1/8, ISO 400

A couple more are over on Flickr. I do want to say I had a great evening and I met most of the bloggers that I wanted to although there were a few that I missed (there always are, there’s just not enough time!). Everyone I spoke to…Rick, Twenty, Fiona, John, Steven, Annette, Dermod, Catriona, Sinéad, Ryan, Redmum, John, Elly, Colm, Owen, Grandad, Grannymar, Lili, Devin, Sam, Sabrina, Una, Aoife, Frank, Fústar…(OK, I’m in trouble now, I’m forgetting loads of people!) Congratulations to all the other winners, you can see the full list at this link. Do check them out because there are some real gems and quite a few of them are personal favourites of mine. Also (because I was so nervous I could barely remember my own name up there on the stage let alone those who I should have been thanking!) thanks to the sponsors of the Photo Blog category, www.pix.ie, without the contribution of the sponsors there’s no way we’d be able to have such a great night every year.

Canon 10D 35mm, f6.7, 1/60, ISO 100

Walking down the road after I’d photographed Milton, and feeling confident, I saw this wonderful face. Bobby was standing in the doorway of a pub and he said, “Ah sure, why not?” when I asked if I could take his photo.

Canon 10D 19mm, f6.7, 1/350, ISO 100

A good day for portraits today. I set out at lunchtime to explore the area around Smithfield and I spotted Milton from across the road, enjoying his lunch in a little pool of sunlight. Our conversation was via sign language but he was all smiles and happy to oblige the crazy lady. Even wrote his name in the dust on the window after I took the shot.

Edited to add that the short list for the Blog Awards has been made even shorter and Gingerpixel has survived the chop in the Best Blog and Best Photoblog catergories! I didn’t realise there would be another round so I’m thrilled to bits to have made it through.

Canon 10D 28mm, f3.5, 1/500, ISO 400

My nephew Sean celebrated his first birthday over the weekend. He’s such a good baby, always happy to observe whatever’s going on around him. While he was quietly enjoying his slice of birthday cake you’d never know it to look at this photo but there was a manic grass fight going on behind me.