Another shot from Sunday’s photowalk. I peeked in to have a look at the Dublin on Ice set up in Smithfield and well, it’s no Rockefeller Center. Still the red, white and blue caught my eye.

I’ve been suffering with Photo-Block, I go out with the camera and come back not having taken a single shot, I’m not sure where it came from but I’ve definitely been in a rut. That’s why an email that I got last week from Lauren from Simply Zesty really cheered me up. It was to invite me along to a Photowalk around Dublin with the theme “Cheer Up Ireland” which was being organised to promote Vodafone’s “Cheer Up Ireland” competition on Flickr (€3000 voucher prize so well worth entering!). I’ve not been on a Photowalk for ages and I always find that they’re a great way to shock me out of my comfort zone. We met up in town yesterday morning and we all agreed that having seen the brown slushy streets and grey skies it was going to be a challenge to find anything cheery to photograph. We set off for the Phoenix Park where it was still a Winter Wonderland and I started to wander away from the group to see what I could find. I spotted a family with some sleds and decided to follow and see where they were off to, I mean, what’s cheerier than a family having fun on sleds? Well, after a lot of walking I came through some trees and discovered a whole hill of people of all ages insanely throwing themselves down the slopes on everything from boogie boards wrapped in plastic bags to car bonnets. Perfect!

So, after about an hour of photographing all the fun I realised all the other Photobloggers had already moved on so I hoofed it over to Smithfield where I found them all on the Ferris Wheel:

After an impromptu snowball fight with the mischievous guy below we were all feeling a little bit cold and hungry so we headed back to the Odessa for a delicious lunch laid on by Vodafone. It was great to see all the familiar faces and I really enjoyed taking photos for the fun of it again so thanks to Simply Zesty and Vodafone, it was just what I needed!

Happy Christmas! I hope Santa brought you everything you asked for.

Just a quick post to say that I will be taking part in my very first art fair showing some of my newborn photography at Christmas at Clermont in Rathnew this weekend.

It all kicks off tomorrow evening at 5pm in Clermont House and will be running all weekend with free admission and lots of local artisans and craftspeople showing and selling their wares. Might be a good place to do a bit of Christmas shopping. If you’re there please stop and say hi.

Claire and I have been friends since we were kids. My family moved from Ballinteer to Killiney when I was 11 years old and I wasn’t too happy about it at the time. I loved the new house (I had my own room at last) and the garden was amazing but I’d left all my friends behind not to mention starting a brand new school in 6th class just in time to finish primary school. Needless to say it was a huge opportunity for pre-teen angst! On our first day in the new house I was hanging out in the front garden, cautiously sniffing the place out when two girls my age, Claire and Mary wandered up the road and asked if I’d like to come and play. In that wonderful easy way that happens with kids I just slipped into the group and we remained friends throughout our teenage years. They introduced me to U2 and we’d spend hours listening to War and Unforgettable Fire in our bedrooms, I remember staying up to watch Self Aid and us all wishing we could be that girl that Bono brought up on stage. I was into Larry Mullin, Mary had dibs on Bono and Claire fancied Adam Clayton. Mary moved away at some point and I didn’t really keep in touch with her, although Claire did. She has always been brilliant at keeping in touch with everyone, she even came to visit me when I was living in Mexico and is the only person I have on this side of the world who knows first hand about my life over there.

We also have a coincidental connection. Way back when our grandparents were teenagers her great-uncle and my grandmother, Christy and May, lived in Dun Laoghaire and they were sweethearts (as they used to say). They wanted to get married in fact but, as the story goes, Claire’s great-grandmother didn’t approve of my grandmother, she being of a lower social standing, so the relationship was broken up and they both went on to marry other people.

[I knew this would happen . Edited to correct a couple of details that my family were on the phone to me about this afternoon. It was actually my great-grandmother who didn't approve of Christy, not the other way around. Also, another little tidbit, many years later Christy's family home was sold and turned into a nursing home and it was in this same nursing home that my grandmother spent her final days. Funny aul thing life!]

Well, though we’ve both travelled and lived abroad at different stages, we’re both married with kids and it’s been 25 years since we met, we’re still friends and we’re now living in the same town again. Oh, and she has two of the cutest funniest kids I know and I got to photograph them in Powerscourt for her recently. Have I mentioned how cute they are? Ciara’s voice would melt your heart, it’s like the chipmunks on helium, and Michael is a performer, he’s always singing and dancing and he has the moves.

My mum brought Eve and her cousin (and me and my sister) to the Lambert Puppet Theatre for Eve’s birthday. It’s a really nice day out if you have kids of a certain age. Though I have to warn you, if you are an Irish adult of a certain age you’re likely to be humming this theme tune for days afterwards.

23rd February 2010: RIP Eugene Lambert. So sorry to hear the very sad news that the wonderful Eugene Lambert has passed away. I’m so glad I got to see him in his element one last time when I took this photograph, he was a very large part of my childhood and I know I’m not the only one who will be feeling the same way.

OK, you know you’ve been neglecting your blog when you start to get dubious comments like “Valuable thoughts and advices, I will become your constant reader.” The thing is I have loads of posts running around in my head including 3 weddings, some painfully cute babies, my thoughts on second shooting a wedding and I’ve also been thinking about a few more Photoshop posts. So when deciding which of these to do today it had to be Alicia and Conor’s wedding. I did a little sneak peek awhile ago but they’re back from honeymooning and have kindly allowed me to blog some more so thanks guys! This wedding was fun, the bride and groom are laid back and funny and I felt more like one of the guests at times. Plus they have brilliant taste in music and I knew when I realised that the classical guitarist at the church was actually playing an Elbow song that this was going to be a great wedding. Anyway, I’ll shut up now and show you some photos:

I love Alicia’s expression in this photo, I can feel those butterflies!:

OK, there’s this wonderful moment in most Irish weddings just after the bride and groom have had communion and the priest is down giving communion to the congregation. It’s like an intermission for the bridal party and everyone relaxes and has a bit of a joke and it’s the one chance I get to stand right in front of the aisle and photograph the whole scene:

and married!

Rathsallagh House is a beautiful venue for a wedding, you wouldn’t know it from the photos but the weather was a bit patchy that day, it didn’t matter, it was still gorgeous:

The bridal party were hilarious and we had the run of the grounds to wander around and take photos:

…and of course a few of the Bride and Groom:

Phew…take a breath…ready? OK, let’s keep going. The reception had a Beatles theme (an instant hit with me!) and the speeches were epic. I think I took nearly as many shots during the speeches as I did during the ceremony:

At one point after dinner I noticed the sunset across the lawns and had to get Alicia and Conor out for a few more portraits. Conor is into photography himself so he understood the call of amazing lighting

Then it was back inside to boogie the night away to the sound of the Classic Beatles. This shot makes me very happy. It’s pretty much straight out of the camera and I did a little happy dance when I saw it in my viewfinder:

Thanks for allowing me to post these Alicia and Conor!

I couldn’t let the day go by without posting a Happy Birthday to my little giggler Eve who turned 5 today. Our living room looks like the cast of High School Musical had a smack-down with Hannah Montana.

I took this photograph at a wedding on Saturday while I was second shooting with Christina Brosnan of Brosnan Photographic. I definitely have more to say about second shooting and this wedding but I’ll save that for another post. I’ve got a lot of images to go through first but I really like this one of the priest in the sacristy waiting for the bride to arrive. I didn’t grow up a Catholic and I have a bit of a fascination with the ceremonies and the traditions of the mass (”Smells and Bells” as my parents would say). I wish I could show you the photo I took in my head just before I took this one…does that ever happen to you? You see a scene and it’s the perfect photograph and you have it taken in your head but your hands and camera are just that tiny bit too slow? A split second before I took this one he was staring out the window with his head tilted upwards like he was praying. I really wish I could show you that photograph.

I was delighted to be invited along to a get together of the Friends Of Breastfeeding a couple of weeks ago in Collins Barracks in Dublin. While everyone chatted and ate delicious purple cupcakes made by Jo from Infantasia I mingled and took some photographs. Journalist Siobhan O’Neill White has an article about the group in the Independent today and one of my photos is featured. The group are really lovely and I think they’re striking just the right balance of encouraging and helping women to breastfeed but not pressurising or guilt-tripping anyone.