Lorraine Keane VIP Cover Feature

Really enjoyed this cover shoot for VIP Magazine. We shot it in the presidential suite of The Westin Hotel in Dublin. Lorraine is great fun to work with and very down to earth. Her 2 sisters are a Hair and Make-Up team and both very beautiful too. They did some great work with the different looks they created. My favourite is the smokey eyes look against the curtains and on the couch. For a bit of fun, I hired a smoke machine. At one stage it was pouring out the window and I expected the Fire Brigade at any minute, but worryingly no sign of them!

Jennifer Maguire

Jennifer Maguire was on The Apprentice with Alan Sugar a couple of years ago and has now re-invented herself as a TV presenter. She told some great stories about her time on The Apprentice, most of them unrepeatable, but as an insight into the way TV works and the way they edit things, very interesting.

Sleep deprivation seems to have been part of the plan to wear down the applicants. Jennifer told me, after being up since 5am and going on to win the task, the "winners" had to return to the house and get into their party gear so they could shoot their "reward", a dinner cooked by Jean Christope Novelli. Sounds good, doesn't it? This was at 3am! and they had to be back in the boardroom at 6am. Nice.

This was shot as a fashion shoot for Hot Press, out today.

Caprice

Just finished a very quick fashion shoot with Caprice for Hot Press.

We only had about an hour of shooting time and we still managed to shoot 6 different outfits in 6 different locations! How did we do it?

Well, we shot it in The Dylan Hotel in Dublin, which has lots of different areas close together that look very different. Caprice was a pro and was right into it, no warming up, she delivered a different pose for every click. Amazingly she didn't blink in a single frame, which I have never seen before!

The last shot was in Caprice's bedroom and at one point everyone else, the stylist, make-up artist and hairdresser all disappeared to get one thing or another and so that left me alone with Caprice who was lying on the bed wearing one of the very fetching bras from her lingerie range and not for the first time I thought, I have a very varied and interesting job!

Hot Press is out on Thursday.

Nude for Thought

The latest fashion shoot for Hot Press. The theme was "nude" clothing. Really great team this time. The stylist Karl Smith did a brilliant job, all the ladies especially loved the shoes! Lorraine Browne did the hair beautifully and Naomh Kirwan did her usual superb job with the make up.

The model Leah Duff really got into character and produced some fab poses!

Shoot Happens #2

The second of my fashion shoots for Hot Press. This time I wanted some flesh, to be more specific, I wanted a breast in at least one shot. As usual, it was all a bit last minute, I contacted some model agencies and told them of my request. The only one that responded positively was 1st Option, who couldn't have been more helpful. The beautiful Irma agreed to do the shoot on one condition, "no nipples". a bit disappointing, but it actually made it more of a challenge.

The shoot went very smoothly, I kept the lighting low and the studio warm! There is a fine line between genius and madness (only joking, that's Spinal Tap), there is a fine line between a fashion image and a page 3 or Tennents can (for those who remember) and it all came down to the pose and Irma's expression. I wanted the shoot to be of a powerful, strong, proud woman at ease with her sexuality and hopefully I achieved that?

Hot Press is out tomorrow.

Shoot Happens #1

Hot Press have asked me to shoot some fashion spreads for them, which is great fun. I love fashion photography, you can really play with different ideas and processes.

For this first shoot, I thought it would be appropriate to do a fashion shoot of a fashion shoot!

So we have a cool photographer and a hot model. At first she has no interest in him, then slowly she falls for his charms and finally they fall in love, with each other, but mostly with themselves!

Diffusion Fashion Shoot

Just finished my first fashion shoot for years! It is an editorial shoot for Diffusion a beautiful fashion boutique in Clontarf run by Kate Gleeson.
I teamed up with top fashion stylist Tanya Grimson and together we came up with the idea of doing something high fashion with an edge. Tanya and I used to work together on magazine shoots when we were both just starting out, so it was great to work with her again. She is now one of the top stylists in the country and so busy, I was lucky to get her.
The shoot is going to be published in the Weekend magazine of The Irish Independent, which has a circulation of over half a million, so it's a nice calling card to say I'm back!

The Team. From L to R
Tanya Grimson (Stylist), De McKernan (Billy's assistant), Billy Orr (Hair & Make-Up), Anne Hobson (Tanya's assiatant), Me, and in front, our very own supermodel Karen Fitzpatrick