I’m sooooo excited I could burst!!

Getting Married in Northern Ireland’s Winter edition is now out on the shelves and I’m very happy and pleased to say that the cover was photographed by yours truly!.

I’ve worked on the magazine as senior designer for a few years now but this was my first ever fashion/commercial shoot from behind the camera so needless to say I was a little apprehensive about it.

We shot on location at a castle in Co. Tyrone. I thought the weather was going to get the better of us when we headed out. It was raining heavy, windy and bitterly cold in typical Irish fashion. Our model had welly boots on under the wedding dress. lol! Luckily enough there were lots of hidden archways and windows in the ruins so we could get the shots needed.

We wanted a vintage, romantic theme with a bit of a dark, gothic twist. Emma (our ed) did a wonderful job on the styling for the shoot sourcing an antique cameo pendant, a vintage hairpiece, and a wonderful sequined bodiced dress in creamy/chocolate tones which went wonderfully with the models colouring and frame. She also spotted the perfect girl for the shoot. Caroline Davis of Style Academy, Belfast has that elegant, timeless beauty with wonderful bone structure, steely blue eyes, porcelain skin and dark hair. Lucky for me she was an absolute professional and knew exactly what mood we were hoping for, how to be creative and how to work it. She must have been freezing in that dress but I didn’t see her even shiver once! The styling on hair and make-up (especially those lashes!) was amazing too.

The canon 400d was used with the old faithful 50mm f1.8 attached for most of this shoot. I used natural light with a silver reflector to bounce some of that light back onto the model and add luminosity to the skin.

It was both challenging and thrilling to work with all these talented people and see it all come together so well in the end. I didn’t mind walking into the newsagents and seeing that my magazine cover siting up proudly with all the others either!

The final cover choice.

Behind the scenes snippets.
The girls work fast to perfect the elaborate hair and makeup.

Priceless…
The look on the shop assistant’s face in a dungannon grocery store when Caroline walked in with big raincoat, tracksuit bottoms tucked into a pair of giant wellies, still sporting full hair and make-up from the shoot! :)