Archive for December, 2009

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justresting

Just to let everyone know I have been out of the office this week and don’t plan to be back until Jan 4th. So if you have been phoning or emailing I will be in touch soon. This past year has been incredibly busy for me so I’m very happy to have a week off to rejunvenate and snuggle up with the family before 2010 begins. Thank-you to all the fantastic people who asked me to be their photographer in 2009 and I’m hoping that we will meet again in the near future for some more shared moments.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Dear Santa…

Here is a little pic I took of Seanan and Niamh’s note to Santa tonight (wrote by me, dictated by Seanan!). They went to bed so easily, the realisation that Santa would actually be arriving soon hitting Seanan in a rush of excitement. His last words before sleep were, “I just can’t believe its Christmas Eve and Santa’s coming tonight! Do you think he’s too heavy for the roof? How will he fit through our stove?, Will the doors open on my helicopter? Will he come down to my room? Does Rudoplh like catfood? I’ll wake you first in the morning mummy”. Thats going to be an early one! I notice he only left Santa the Quality Street toffees that nobody likes :)
We are just about to get to work here now. Dessie has already started reliving his youth with a giant Skalextric set beside me here. He’s only been planning this for months! Anyway I have a date with a mince pie and a glass of milk. Goodnight and Merry Christmas to you all.x
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Woodbank

Its wonderful to be able to do a shoot every now and then which is purely for creative purposes. It means as a team, you have the freedom to style and theme a shoot to your own taste without ever having to worry if the paying customer will be happy. I had an idea for a rural/gentry-styled editorial shoot involving the right model, a horse, a dog, a big manor house and lots of land. A tall order I know and I didn’t expect to get lucky on any of it! I thought it would also be interesting to have a shoot were our Irish weather here would be a plus instead of a disadvantage. So instead of wishing for sunlight I was hoping for soft, muted, mossy tones, atmospheric, misty and magical.

There is a whole team of people who were really helpful in making this happen. It was wonderful to be able to work with Olivia and Collette again and to work for the first time with Jennifer. The clothing was supplied by Debenhams. My sister, Tracey, who is the personal shopper over at the Rushmere branch, put these items together for me. There were lots of other gorgeous pieces supplied by her, but because we have such a small amount of daylight at this time of year, I didn’t get the chance to try them all.

Also, by pure chance, we found a fantastic gem of a place on the Moyallon Road, Portadown. Woodbank is owned by Maynard and Joy Sinton. They were so generous in opening up their beautiful home to us for the day. (If I could live anywhere, it would be Woodbank!) They are planning to hold marquee weddings here on their grounds from 2010 onwards so contact Joy if you are interested. Imagine my excitement when I found out that Joy had a chestnut coloured horse and ‘Finn’ the great dane also!

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Hair: Olivia Muldoon, Make-up: Jennifer Ireland, Model: Collette O’Neill, Clothes by Tracey Toman at Debenhams Rushmere, Shot on location at Woodbank, Moyallon.

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I had a full session with the gorgeous wee Nicole and her twin brothers the other day. I might not have a chance to go through all the pics before Christmas but I thought it would nice for her mum to see the ones under the tree of her little angel! She is so full of expression and chat telling me all about what Santa is bringing. Love those curls of course too!

She is definitely used to the camera as every time I pointed it at her she stopped what she was doing and had the practiced smile ready…
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So we played a game to see how long you could last without smiling…
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Nicole didn’t last very long.
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Helping the boys open presents…
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First snowfall

The kids were enjoying a bit of snow this morning. I didn’t get many photos as I was too busy wiping noses but there is nothing like a bit of the white stuff to make you feel all seasonal. They were wondering if this was a sign that Santa was on his way. Seanan keeps asking how many more sleeps until Christmas. Only five more to go!

Straight out of bed to watch the snowfall…

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