Emily-Jean Designs at Glamour at the G 2011

My friend Emily-Jean O’Beirn of Emily-Jean Designs asked me to cover the ‘Glamour at the G’ event for her again this year, and needless to say I was only too happy to give it another go.  Well from the outset let me say it went a lot more smoothly than last year!  I was running slightly late arriving, only leaving myself about 15 minutes set up time, but that turned out to be fine as the whole show was delayed by about an hour on the back of sound issues.  I set up at the end of the ‘runway’, which worked out much better than my disastrous decision to set up halfway down last year.  The atmosphere was really pleasant and I had a nice chat with the chap filming for TV3 and photographer Martina Regan who was also shooting the event.  Martina was really nice, and we all made sure we set up in such a way as to not block anyone else.

Emily-Jean also provided headpieces on Demora Outfits

I’d picked up a few new bits of equipment which helped make the job way easier too.  I had bought a new Nikkor 105mm f/2 DC which is an absolutely beautiful piece of glass, razor sharp with the creamiest bokeh I’ve ever seen.  When I heard about the show I also hightailed it into town for a new monopod and monopod head, to save my arms from holding up the gear!  Once again I used my d80 with SB600 and home made bounce card, I shot at ISO 400,  f/2, 1/125s this year, so the noise wasn’t as bad as last year, I definitely need a new camera for events like this, and the Aussie Rules though, hmm, maybe when the d400 eventually comes out I’ll have saved up enough!

Some of Matt Doody's pieces were pretty 'daring'!

Shooting actually went completely without incident, there was a sea of tungsten from the floor lights, but I mostly shot when the models were in the dark spot at the end of the runway, and another one half way down, so it wasn’t an issue, it just provided a nice warm background when contrasted with the flash lit model.  I decided to shoot all the designers this time, as much for the practice as for the most likely futile hope that I might make a sale for someone’s website!  Emily’s pieces were very much towards the end of the show, so I had more than found my rythm and was well ready for her section.  The only minor issue with Emily’s pieces being on second last was that the ambient light from outside had faded a little, so the AF took a little longer to lock, not too much longer though, so it was grand.  All in all it was a much more pleasant shooting experience than last year and I’m already itching for the next one!

You can view all of Emily’s pieces on her blog or facebook page.

You can view the rest of the photos from the event on my website.

Hugh Hamill | Photography | 2011 Calendar

Simply follow these steps:

1. Copy and paste this to your facebook status: ‘ Win a free Hugh Hamill Photography 2011 Calendar, follow the instructions here to be in with a chance: http://hughwphamill.wordpress.com ‘
2. ‘Like’ my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/hughhamillphotography
3. ‘Like’ the Calendar post on my facebook page wall.

On 31st December I will use a random number generator to pick 1 lucky winner from everyone who has ‘liked’ the Calendar post on Facebook who will have their Calendar posted, free of charge, anywhere in the world!

Can’t say fairer than that, get going, and don’t forget to suggest the facebook page to all your friends!
* Note that I don’t offer any guarantees, and am not responsible for any disappointments, this is just a bit of fun, and someone will get a nice calendar at the end of it, don’t sue me!!

** Up to €10.00 postage costs from Ireland

The world famous 'CHICAGO' sign on State Street.

I recently returned from a brilliant holiday in Chicago, visiting my girlfriend’s brother and his wife, they showed us an absolutely brilliant time, what a great city!  Of course when we decided to go I had a dilemma, what would I bring to shoot with?  I must admit that I didn’t know a huge amount about Chicago, except that it was famous for it’s architecture.  What I did know, was that I was very much working on a size/weight budget, so I would have to be clever about what equipment I would bring.  Obviously my d80 was coming with me but what lenses would I bring with it?  I started out thinking about my Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 which is my usual walkabout lens, so I popped  it in my trusty Lowepro Slingshot 200AW, and popped that in my carry on.  Problem: I had just about enough room to fit a pair of shoes left over.  The Slingshot was full of air, and the carry on bag was full of the Slingshot.

Ah well, I thought, I might as well stock up so!  Back out with the Slingshot and in went my Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6 and sure while I was at it I thought, I might as well chuck in my Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 fisheye.  Right, one bag full of camera stuff, and one bag full of the other bag.  I was just reaching for my tripod, when I thought wait, this is crazy, I need to get back to basics!  Then I was hit by the spark of inspiration – my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4!  Out came the Slingshot, and in went my trusty d80 and on it was the nifty fifty, all wrapped up in a hoody!  Perfect, I can walk about with this lens, it’s light as a feather, and the glass is sharp, as in sharper than the devils razor blade sharp.

Hanging in the Dairy

To tell the truth I’d forgotten just how good this lens is, since I moved to the 17-55 it hadn’t gotten too much love, only being brought out occasionally for it’s stunning depth of field.  I saw this as an opportunity to get creative, 50mm on a full frame sensor is a great focal length, really good for ‘normal’ photography, but on the dx sensor of the d80 it’s slightly into the telephoto range.  I knew it would be slightly restrictive, and I was looking forward working within that restriction, as it would mean I would have to get creative when trying to capture this urban landscape.

Apart from it’s razor sharpness the other great thing about this lens is it’s speed, f/1.4 really means being able to use it anywhere at a decent ISO.  We visited several museums and an urban farm and I was able to use the 50 to great effect here.  My poor d80 doesn’t cope so well with noise (praying to the gods of Nikon for a d7000 sometime next year!), so it’s great to have that extra light gathering capability that only something like the 50 can deliver.

It’s a great lens for walking around with too, nice and small, easily concealed and thanks to the BlackRapid strap I picked up in Calumet while I was in Chicago it’s out and taking pics in milliseconds.

We Serve and Protect

One of the days we were there we took an Architectural Boat tour.  A boat takes you up the Chicago river and the tour guide points out buildings of note, giving you a bit of history and architecture 101 rolled into one tour.  I have to say it was interesting in it’s own right, and definitely worth a go.  I was faced with a bit of a challenge as to what I would do with my camera though.  I started out thinking I would pan and shoot and then stitch the images afterwards, if not into panoramas, at least into 3:2 aspect photos which ‘got more in’.  I quickly gave up on this idea, partly because I dislike adding an extra task in post processing, but also because I felt it was against the spirit of my 50mm challenge. I then thought about concentrating on ‘details’, trying to pick out a corner or gargoyle which was interesting, but this wouldn’t work because the 50 just doesn’t get in close enough.  The only option was to go somewhere in between, to fill the frame with pure building, with these great skyscrapers.

Chicago: Stone Steel & Glass #3

I was glad I did!  I ended up with a collection of photo’s which I have entitled Chicago: Stone, Steel and Glass.  Some of the photos attempt to represent the pure elements which make up the building, the steel frame, the stone facade, and the glass windows.  Others attempt to place the building within the urban landscape by incorporating reflections from other buildings, a nod towards traditional architectural photography, an attempt to capture the person of a building, trapped within the essence of another building.  I chose to process this collection in a monochrome ‘cross processed’ style, which gives a sort of blue-on-cream effect when viewing them.  I think this works well as I didn’t want to go for full black and white, as I felt there might be too much grey in the frame.  In keeping with the anonymity of the buildings at this detail level, I have entitled the images simply with the numeric order in which they appear in the collection.

All in all I’m delighted with the choice to go minimalist and just bring the 50, it more than proved it’s worth on the trip. Stay tuned for the next post, when I’ll be talking about another collection which I made while in Chicago! In the mean-time, I’ll be catching up with an old flame called the nifty fifty!

Lake Michigan

Till The Road Rang by Danny Comerford & Hugh Hamill

This weekend I attended the months mind of my best friend Danny Comerford.  Danny was a writer from Kildare, we grew up together and had been best friends since we were about 10.  Danny lost a long fight against cancer in July, I have never seen anyone handle so much, so gracefully and so strongly, he will remain forever more than my friend, he is an inspiration.

Before Danny’s death we had been kicking around the idea of doing a collection of his poetry paired with some of my pictures.  The idea was to get our work out there in print, together.  We didn’t pick any theme, we just decided to match up the images to the text as well as possible.  Originally I suggested going out and shooting specific images to match Danny’s poems, but Danny (presumably from years of experience) knew it’d take me ages to get around to that, and suggested using pictures which I already had.

I put the book together using the blurb software, which allowed me to share the previews with Danny and take some direction from him on changes to be made.   I had just about put together the last draft when I got word that Danny had taken a turn for the worse, so as soon as I could I put the book into the printer in the hopes of getting him a copy.  I went to visit Danny that Saturday night and spent 4 hours chatting with him about all sorts of things, the good old days, things to come, Kildare football and the book.  I was so sorry I hadn’t got the copy yet to bring to him and share with him, but the idea of it definitely gave him a lift, and I know he was proud of what we had achieved with the soft copy.

Danny passed away the following Monday morning, leaving behind a loving family, a diverse collection of friends and a body of written work which I believe will stand the test of time.  I was at Danny’s family home on Tuesday afternoon when I got word that the books had been delivered to my office in Galway.

I gave Danny’s parents, Aidan and Cora, each a copy of the book we had created after the Months Mind mass on Saturday, and now that they have theirs I think it’s appropriate to share the book with a wider audience.

The book can be purchased and previewed here and I’m so glad I was able to help bring Danny’s dream of getting his words published in print to reality.

The theme of the competition was ‘Sunny Days Are Here Again’, aha! I thought, I have a natural contender in ‘The Days Go On Forever’ a picture of a beech tree I took somewhere in either Tipperary or Offaly, I’m not sure!

The Days Go On Forever

Perfect for the job, taken in April on a beautiful sunny day – green grass, blue sky, wispy clouds, couldn’t ask for better.  Or so I thought, it basically did nothing, came somewhere towards the end in the voting, c’est la vie!  Luckily though I’d entered another picture, almost as an afterthought.  A couple of days later I was thinking about the competition, and I thought, hang on there’s another picture which might just fit in – ‘Sailing at Rinville’, a picture of one of the Galway Bay Sailing Club catamaran’s off Rinville Point, near Oranmore in Co. Galway.  You’re allowed up to three entries so I stuck it in.  It started out low, and I mean low – it was second from the bottom at one point, out of a field of 600 entries, uh oh, but sure what harm, I never expect my photo’s to do anything anyway.  It recovered it’s position after a couple of weeks and next thing I knew it was in the top 5, on the last day of the competition – yikes!  The mpex competition is part judged on voting, part on staff picks, the #1 comes from a public play-off style vote and second and third are picked by the staff.  Every month there are a number of ‘honorable mentions’ picked by the staff too.  This month there are 19 honorable mentions and ‘Sailing at Rinville’ is one of them – fantastic, I’m chuffed!

It’s funny too because it nearly didn’t happen, I was out for a walk in Rinville woods one Saturday, and not getting much of worth, I find it difficult to shoot in woods, but that’s a different story!  On a whim I decided to take a walk out along the coast as far as I could go, it was late in the evening and the sun was just starting to set, colouring the water of the bay (the calmest I’ve seen it) with a wonderful pale yellow from the west, and the blue of the creeping evening sky from the east.  There were a number of catamarans from the Galway Bay Sailing Club out in the bay and one of them was coming by, closer than the others, I thought it had the makings of a lovely photo.  The whole scene was a bit too far away for my walkabout 18-55mm lens, but luckily I had my 55-200 kit lens in the bag.  I quickly changed the lenses, composed the pic and snapped a few as the closer boat came past.  It’s a lesson to always have as much of a range as possible in the bag with you, even though I’m not particularly good friends with my 55-200, I find it quite soft most of the time.  Well luckily enough it delivered in style on this shot, it’s pin sharp throughout the picture, in fact if you look at the picture fullsize you can actually see the rectangle of the black head lighthouse away at the end of the Burren coming in from the left.  Not much done in PP – just enhanced the yellow and blue a little, and upped the contrast, just brought the colours back to how they were when I saw them in the field.

Anyway, enough of the story, a picture tells a thousand words, so without further ado I present ‘Honorable Mention – Sunny Days Are Here Again’, ‘Sailing at Rinville’:

Sailing at Rinville

Emily Jean Designs represented at Glamour at the G

A description of my first time shooting a live fashion event…

Well it was a mixed evening, I arrived in plenty of time to check the light and pick my position. It was a ‘different’ sort of runway, in reality it was a corridor that passes between 3 rooms. I was told that the models would stop inside the entrance of each room before moving on along the runway. I picked a position which got me an unobstructed view of the entrance to the brightest room, great stuff enough ambient to use ISO400 @ f/2.8 with a little flash fill, noise was a worry going higher than that, so I was pretty happy with the situation. My “client’s” head pieces were out third, but a friend of hers was out second and she asked me to see if I could get some of them, lovely – practice on the first lot, then start in earnest on the second, and be perfected by the third.

First batch of models arrived out, the first one makes her way up the long runway towards me, gets to my doorway, hold… hold… then, oh christ, she’s not stopping – fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu- they’re walking to the end, and not stopping, oh sh*t! There’s no way I can relocate unless I’m prepared to srtut my stuff down the runway, as that’s the only way to the end.

My AF is hunting in the light, and by the time I’ve focused she’s moved on, a rash of models are out together and I’m starting to panic! Seems like they’re walking the runway twice though, so that’s ok, at least I’ll get two bites of each cherry. Start to get into it, but focusing is still a problem, up my ISO to 640, pump up the flash and change the shutter speed to 1/250 (max synch speed, thank christ I already knew that!). OK noise is going to be a problem now, but less of a problem than blurry pictures! My client’s friends pieces are out now, and they’ve switched to once up and down (Murphy’s law at work), it’s getting close to time and my AF is still hunting.

In desperation I switch to manual focus, something I only ever use with an f/22 landscape, this can only end badly. Shoot a couple of badly badly out of focus pics when I notice my client’s first pieces coming down the runway, crap! Switch back to AF, raise the camera as the first one gets to me, click, but no whirr, check the LCD – sh*t, I’ve left the lens in MF, and only flipped back on the body, switch the lens just in time to see the model heading back down the catwalk, disaster!

Settle down a bit as the next one levels, raise the camera and do my best to frame, focus and shoot as quick as possible, god damn my AF, seems to take a lifetime to find her. Lather, rinse, repeat for the next 5 or 6 models. Alternating between getting them coming down the runway, and coming back from the end. Then it’s all over, retreat a safe distance to check my shots. Thanking the gods of computing for Bibble 5.0, noise ninja and sharpening!

Anyway here’s a few that, hopefully, aren’t too bad. Valuable lessons learned, and in the end of the day it was me or no photographer for her, so she knew she was taking a chance on me but was ok with it, I’m very grateful for the opportunity. Definitely something I’d like to try again.

Results are here:

http://emilyjeandesigns.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/glamour-at-the-g/