Playing with emotions

Happy Valentine’s Day… love comes in many forms and should be shared with the world. This day means many things to different people, I like to show people love most days, so Valentine’s Day is just another day to me. For others, it’s a smile on ones face when they receive a card from a secret admire, a young couples day for opening up to each other and being affectionate, the every day couples excuse to dine out and buy each other expensive gifts, a married couples only chance of a babysitter and a catch up or an older couples time for reminiscing. sometimes we all need a day to make an effort wether it’s any of the above or simply just thinking about or being around a loved one. ❤️

“There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.”
George sand

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a chilled day today and that’s why this post is a little later than normal. Ive been going through a recent shoot and picking out my favourite images. The idea behind this shoot came from our recent lockdown here in Scotland, New year, new lockdown. I wanted to capture an image that portrayed how the lockdown plays with our emotions. I captured the images I wanted with the help of my son (again 🙈) and then I played about with a few editing ideas. My first idea was a puppet hand (the virus) and each puppet showing a different emotion. “Playing with emotions” is the look I was going with, I will include the image but for me it just didn’t work. I couldn’t pull off the image in my head with the pictures taken, I do plan to do another shoot and execute the idea much better.

Never wanting to waste a shoot I decided to use the images and created a passport photo idea. The images capture different emotions and has a wee touch of humour to it, I enjoyed the whole creative and learning process. Every day is a school day ☺️ can’t wait to get out again and create new pieces of work. Until the next time 😘 …..

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14th Feb 2021 0

Comfort zone

I am fortunate enough to have tried various genres and types of photography during my time at college. In doing so I found there were things I liked and things I didn’t, genres I was ok with and genres I wasn’t ok with. I found that I enjoyed portraiture and developed a keen interest, this was a genre I wasn’t originally keen on. I always thought I wasn’t much of a people person and yet I found that when behind the camera I loved people. Each person with their own expressions, their own character and mood helps make every image unique and I love that each one tells its own story.

Since leaving college I have concentrated solely on portraiture and unable to capture peoples portraits right now I have been pushed to explore other ideas. Ive been looking on social media at other photographers work and what’s been keeping them active during lockdown. In doing so I’ve found that self portraits are quite popular, this may be because its achievable within the house, photographers can be really creative or it may be that it’s easier to instruct ones self than instructing another person. Whatever the reasons were I did think about giving it a bash.

Anyone that knows me well, will know that I love a selfie. I have no issues taking a selfie, I’ve perfected the angle over the years lol, I know my best side and I’m fond of a filter or two to hide every insecurity.

The camera on the other hand is not my friend and I have never been comfortable having my picture taken. The stress of no filters and every flaw being magnified freaks me out, I know how I look when I look in the mirror but I really do prefer the catfish look, lol. All that aside I have enough knowledge within photoshop to create a flawless look so I did eventually decide to give self portrait a bash. I chose to concentrate on my favourite type of photography…..close up portraiture, and have included the final result below…

This image was taken during the first Scottish lockdown and has a wee story. I felt it was appropriate to capture a self portrait with a wee creative touch that would incorporate the lockdown that we were all living in. I know by now we are all sick of hearing about covid 19 but its taken over life as we know it and its hard not to talk about, sorry. The title of the image is…. “Inside looking out” the title speaks for itself really. I’m portrayed as being inside and looking out through a gap in an ajar door or through a gap in the curtains, the list could go on but the message being Stay home, stay safe.

My second attempt at a self portrait (captured during the 2nd Scottish lockdown) wasn’t creative in the slightest and I found myself just taking extremely close up portraits and using shadows and highlights to enhance the overall look.

Im going to be honest and it may hold me back due to lack of subjects with this current situation, but sadly Self portrait isn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy this type of photography and I’m far too critical as it is without being in the image myself. It was now time to explore other ideas ☺️ watch this space.

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7th Feb 2021 0

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

2020, the year the world stood still yet surprisingly the quickest year ever. Autumn has arrived and the colours outdoors are changing. I love Autumn, the air feels cleaner, it’s not too cold nor too warm and the world becomes colourful.

Autumn is always a busy time of the year for me socially and 2020 seen my son turn 16. I still can’t believe I’m a mum to a 16 year old 😂 we celebrated his big day with a family gathering outdoors and a movie night. Happy 16th to my baby boy 🥳

Autumn also seen out the last of my outdoor shoots as the dry days became less. This shoot was captured in the clients gorgeous garden and included mum, dad, daughter and gran. The family were fantastic and we had some fun and laughs throughout, even got a postman involved 😂 (needs must). Obviously I’ve included a few images from the day, a good end to my photography year.

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12th Oct 2020 0

Back to school

With the schools returning after five months off and some schools unable to accommodate a school photographer, gave me an opportunity to capture a few school images.

Now… under normal circumstances school shoots are pretty straight forward, mums want nice tidy images shot within the studio. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Well… I don’t have the use of a studio and unable to enter anyone’s home under government guidelines meant it had to be carried out, outdoors.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely had my doubts regarding all the things that could go wrong using studio equipment outside, but it was worth a try. I also had to work in a safe way for both myself and the client, keeping a 2 metre social distance, wearing a mask where necessary and cleaning hands and equipment before and after the shoot. I’ve included some behind the scene pictures of the setup that show how I achieved my final images, and the final results. This shoot was for the McCluskey girls, Caoimhe and Madelyn.

I was happy with the result and the girls mum was over the moon. Always nice when everything works out ☺️ “happy client, happy photographer”. I was asked to do another two school shoots because that one went so well and both clients were soo happy that they will be coming back for more. First set of images are of Brother and Sister Erin and Shay.

And lastly we have Sisters Mia and Kara.

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27th Sep 2020 3

Preparation

At last I was able to get out to capture images. It is the middle of Summer 2020, restrictions lifted slightly and the weather is not too bad. The first shoot I had planned was an outdoor sitter shoot. My baby step granddaughter had just turned six months and I wanted to capture that milestone.

The shoot itself was hard work, the little madam decided she did want her photo taken lol, but I managed to get a few shots before she threw the towel in. I decided to try something a little different in post production with this set of images, I wanted to try and create an oil painting effect without them actually looking like they had been painted. Im still not 100% sure about the edit but it was nice to try something different.

“Outdoor sitter shoot” with Sofia Irvine

I enjoyed the outdoor shoot and was happy to have my camera back in my hand, so I decided to do some promotion work for outdoor shoots. I used the images I captured from the above shoot, and designed a promotion leaflet offering clients an outdoor shoot at a discounted price. The promotion leaflet was displayed on my social media platforms in order to grab peoples attention.

To my surprise there were loads of people interested in this shoot but unfortunately the weather changed quickly and I was only able to get one more done that year (will post the shoot in a blog post soon). Preparing promotions and eye catching leaflets definitely pays off and i will be preparing a few different promotions for 2021 (praying for the better weather). until the next time 😘

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31st Aug 2020 0

Motivation

Three Months into the lockdown and I am struggling to feel inspired. My camera was starting to collect dust, and my creative mind was slowly evaporating. In dire need of motivation and searching for inspiration, I turned to a friend for help. They gave me a photo challenge where I had to create an image that would interpret a single chosen word. The word I was given was “conscience”.

I instantly had an image within my head and I took a few days trying to think outside the box. Most of my ideas weren’t obtainable within my available space and I only had my son as my model (poor boy 🙈). I wanted my idea to work around my models character and look. I decided to photograph my subject with the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, I then added a pastel effect to the image with the intentions of creating an outer body feel. This is how I would interpret conscience, and here is the final outcome…..

Ive also been trying to keep my social media platforms unto date. I’ve been working away in the background on a few things regarding Facebook and instagram. I decided to revamp my instagram page as it looked rather messy with various images, genres and colours scattered all over the place. I still have a few old images still to repost but it definitely looks much better already. Have a look for yourself, by clicking on the icon below.

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29th Jun 2020 0

A strange year

Well its been a while since I last wrote a blog post. I don’t even have any excuses for not keeping my blog up to date, especially under the current circumstance. I suppose I didn’t have much to write about lol. I will go back to where I left off last April and write a few blog posts this week regarding the last year, bare with me.

Covid 19 has changed life as we know it and not for the better. I can’t speak for everyone, but it has certainly played havoc with my emotions and I’ve spent a whole year being all over the place.

As a photographer I have been unable to interact with others and capture the images I love. This time last year I was just starting out as a professional photographer and trying to establish myself in a world full of various photographers. Feels like I took one step forward and 41 million steps back lol. However, the current situation and worldwide pandemic didn’t stop me from picking up my camera and trying to have some lockdown fun.

The first thing I tried was working with water, never worked with water before and thought it would be fun. was it fun??

yes lol. I used my son as my model and I had soo much fun soaking him. Stressful doing it in the smallest space in my house (the bathroom) but still fun. I’ve attached a few of the finished images below…..

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18th May 2020 0

The world stands still…

Well its day 19 in quarantine for myself and I’m slowly beginning to lose my mind. For health and safety reasons I am unable to continue working with my clients and unable to finish any personal projects or portrait work.

Below is a few images from my most recent shoot featuring a lovely baby girl named Sofia. This was my first ever newborn shoot and the little madam caused havoc as she stayed awake until the last five minutes.

I managed to get a few decent shots but this shoot was a learning experience and I did learn a lot. I will be participating in a newborn course soon and hopefully be able to take bookings for newborn, when I do I will advise clients to have the shoot done within the first 7 days of birth for the best results.

Until the next time. #StayHomeSaveLives. Thank you for reading, please subscribe for future posts and mind and click Like! 🙂

1st Apr 2020 0

Something a little different…

This week I was asked to capture images of a few potential wedding cars. The client had recently invested in a few vintage style and modern cars as part of a new business adventure and asked me to photograph six of them for advertising purposes. This style of photography is all new to me but just another experience to add to the ever growing list now.

The weather was terrible and the rain was on and off, I spent two hours in the freezing cold to capture a series of images that related to each other. The client wanted the images taken of all cars to look similar, a similar angle and similar tone. An hour into this shoot and I honestly couldn’t feel my fingertips lol. here’s a wee sneak peak behind the scenes… minus an umbrella lol.

With little knowledge of this type of photography I did some research of angles and composition and shot the cars using the clients brief of what they wanted. I learned a few tricks on this shoot that will help achieve better images for the next time and I hope I get the chance to do so… would be great to do some work for Audi 🙂

now here’s the final shots…

Unfortunately the images this time weren’t exactly what the client had in mind and won’t be using any of the images taken. However This is all experience for myself and I aim to deliver the best service and product I can. Thank you for reading, please subscribe for future posts and mind and click Like!

17th Feb 2020 0

Patience pays off…

Ive been pretty busy over the last few weeks editing, printing and trying to keep everything up to date between my social media sites to remembering to update my blog.

I love nothing more than a delivery day of prints and it makes my day to see a client happy with my work. My most recent shoot was with the McCluskey family, three beautiful girls who all looked amazing in their images. Working with kids is great fun although if they don’t want to corporate, they won’t lol. In this case it was the youngest of the girls that posed difficult, she is only 11 months old and was going through a clingy stage with her mum. The meant that she was reluctant to leave mum without crying and running away and resulted in only 1or 2 usable images with her sisters. I spent two hours with these girls and I wasn’t leaving until I had at least one.

“Patience is a Virtue”

Here is a look at a few of my favourites…

A few more shoots to do before my next set of project images. Click subscribe and never miss a post. 😘

10th Feb 2020 0