Delores O'Riordan

Just finished a shoot with Delores O'Riordan from The Cranberries. We shot it in The Westbury Hotel in Dublin, for the next issue of Hot Press. Delores was lovely, very down to earth and looked amazing with her blond hair. I found a corner of the bar and set up a light. I think the colours of the background and what she was wearing worked really well together.

She gave me all the time I needed, about 15 minutes, and even gave me a kiss on the cheek at the end!

New Commercial Website

I have just launched my new commercial website http://www.nixfoto.com/ It's aimed at the advertising, editorial and fashion business. I am using my old nickname for this kind of work, Nix. I have always liked the idea of having just one name!

My First Hot Press Cover

This was tough. No time, no light, no pressure!

I was thrilled to be asked to shoot The Script for the next cover of Hot Press. I got the call on Sunday evening and it was off to Belfast the next day. Myself and Jason O'Toole, who was to interview them, went up together. We got there about 3.30pm. No sign of the band. I do a quick recon to see where I could shoot them and picked out a couple of locations, one on a roof at the back of the venue where the band were going to be playing that evening and one in a disused room with a red wall. About 6.30pm the band show up to soundcheck, Jason grabs Danny the frontman, to interview him and I shoot some individual shots of Mark the guitarist and Glen the drummer. They then have to soundcheck. I take some live shots of them onstage. Then it's cover time! Off we go to the roof, the band, the manager, the guy from the venue, Jason and me. I start taking shots, but I don't like it, the light has gone, it just doesn't look as good as I wanted to. So, I move them to another part of the roof, even worse. Plan B, the room with the red wall. I had set up a light earlier so I kick aside some empty boxes and bits of rubbish and start shooting. The pressure is on, the guys need to go! Not exactly how I imagined doing my first Hot Press cover shoot, but this is it, make or break. 10 minutes from start to finish. I get another 5 minutes to shoot Danny on his own and that's it. Phew!

Glenda Gilson Shoot for Hot Press

It's a dream come true for me, shooting for Hot Press. In my past life as a singer/songerwriter, Hot Press was my bible, I can't believe I'm working with them now as a photographer!

And what a brilliant first shoot to get too!

Glenda was amazing and really into doing something good. I wanted to be sexy and beautiful, also not obvious who it was immediately. I didn't expect her to go for some of the ideas I had, but she did and I am really happy with these shots.

Hot Press just came out today and they gave our shoot 5 pages. In the interview, Glenda said "These shots were cool" she smiles," but I wouldn't be like, "Dad, look at these!" The shoot was very, very risqué." "I haven't posed in about a year" she says, "But when something is done tastefully it can be sexy. It helps when you feel comfortable with the photographer"

Thank you Glenda!

Titanic

I have always been fascinated by Titanic.

Coming from Belfast, where Titanic was built I suppose it's not unusal to feel drawn to it. The 1958 film " A Night to Remember" with Kenneth Moore made a deep impression on my young mind as I watched it on TV as a child too.

While jogging in Las Vegas recently, I spotted an ad on the side of a cab that said, "Titanic at the Luxor" "Imagine the ride they had"? Good old Vegas, as tasteful as ever.

Anyway, I had to go, if even only to see how tacky it was. But I have to say, they did it really well. They had recreations of first class staterooms, third class bunks, the grand staircase and even the deck with real iceberg you can touch!

I know, it sounds funny, but it actually makes a serious point about just how cold the water was that night. As we know, water freezes at 0ºC, but when it's salt water it freezes at -4ºC or lower, so the iceberg is actually warmer than the water! They ask you to see how long you can keep you hand on the iceberg, (about 10 seconds before it feels like it's on fire!).

At the end of the tour, you turn a corner and there before you is a huge piece of Titanic, which I never knew they had brought up. They didn't rip it off the wreak, it had been lying in the debris field. It is massive and they have it lit very atmospherically, it's quite amazing to see it there in front of you.

There is a rope around it, with warning not to touch, but I just had to, regardless of consequences, I didn't care if they threw me out, I just had to touch Titanic.

What shocked me was how rough the plates were riveted together, overlapping in places, not smooth or even at all. I stayed just looking at it for a long time.

At a family lunch a few weeks ago, my great uncle Harry, who is 92 and still going strong, told me something that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. His father, my great grandfather, worked on Titanic, as a riveter!

Easter e-newsletter

e-newsletter #2 hits the web! All the news that's fit to print and lots of nice special offers!

Sign up! here to receive it.

Sign up!

I am just about to release my first e-newsletter. It has a €15,000 Mother's Day giveaway in it, plus all the latest news.

Believe it or not, it is the first promotion I have done for the studio, so it will be interesting to see how it works. I have a poster for it in my shop window and I have taken out an ad in The Northside People, our local free newspaper.

If you would like to sign up for my, what will hopefully be, monthly newsletters, please click here!

Back with a bang!

Just back from WPPI 2009. What an amazing week it was. My sold out Masterclass went amazingly well. Everyone was very complimentary, apart from some complaints from next door about the volume! Ooops!

It took an awful lot of work getting everything ready and the 2 hours went by in a flash, but it was well worth it. I love being on stage, brings back lots of good memories from my band days. Many thanks to everyone who attended and a very special BIG thank you to my best buddy Mark Griffin "The Wedding King of Ireland" for all his help and the above photo!

Here is some of the great feedback I have received so far.

"Hey Mark, Thank you for your master class. I got some great information from your class and am looking forward to integrating it into my studio. If your ever in Vancouver Canada, look me up". Len Grinke

"I attended your Master Class yesterday and I was inspired by your photography and also your personal style. You were so endearing, that it showed me how to slow down and let my clients show me who they are. I would love to do a portrait sitting with you, but I live in California. I am from a fast paced world and generation and you were a breath of fresh air. And you work is stunning. Hahaha That was some off camera flash that I didn't expect!" Kat Willcox

"I also attended your Master Class at WPPI and absolutely loved your portrait work and sense of humor! Your photography inspired me to see in-studio portrait work in a whole new light...just beautiful. I'm excited to give it a try. Thank you for sharing your insight and talents!" Jessica Hanaumi

Sold Out in Vegas!

Only a week to go before heading off the Las Vegas to speak at WPPI and I just checked with the organisers and my Masterclass has sold out!

I'm really excited now, I was worried no-one would show up, just me and some tumbleweed rolling across the floor.

For those of you who don't know, WPPI is the worlds biggest professional photography convention with over 11,000 photographer attending last year!

I never got to play Vegas when I was in a band, but now I'm selling out with my photography. Isn't life strange?

Irish Professional Photography Awards

I was delighted to win the Family Portfolio Photographer of the Year and Fashion Portfolio Photographer of the Year at the National Photography Awards last Sunday night. These were the two categories I most wanted to win and I was over the moon when I did. The Awards were held in Carton House in Maynooth and Barry Murphy the comedian hosted the ceremony. He was very funny in a very understated way, pretending to be from The German Photographic Society. I was delighted when he mentioned me by name in one of his stories!

**** the recession

This will be the first image in my studio window for the New Year. The text to go along with it on the side window will say "how to deal with the recession". Since we have all been scared to death by the media about what the New Year will hold, I thought this was appropriate.

Des Bishop

Just did a brilliant shoot with Des Bishop.

Des needed a shot for his new tour "Unbearlable".

He wasn't sure exactly what he wanted, so I had a think and came up with a few ideas.

I was expecting him to say no to most of them, but he did everything I asked of him! Including getting into the sea in November!!! What a trouper.

As a result, there are loads of really great and different shots. (Even if I do say so myself)

I am really happy with this shoot. More like this please!

Clontarf Exhibition

After nearly 3 years of shooting, I finally had the opening of "Images of Clontarf". My exhibition of landscape photographs of the Clontarf Promenade, The Wooden Bridge and The Bull Wall.

Roddy Doyle kindly agreed to officially open the exhibition and said some very flattering things about me and my work. The studio looks even better as an art gallery than I could have imagined. There was a great turn out on the night and we sold quite a few limited edition prints.

The opening was on 6th November, 7 years to the day I had the opening of the studio and also my birthday!

The Exhibition will run until Christmas, so if you are passing, please drop in.

Halloween

Pearl wanted to fly and Calum wanted to chop someones head off!

Your wish is my command!

And the winner is...

What does it feel like to win a major photography award? 

Have a look at the video I secretly recorded when I won "Overseas Photographer of the Year" at The British Professional Photography Awards.

British Professional Photography Awards "Overseas Photographer of the Year"

Amazing! I can't believe it! What a night!

I just won "Overseas Photographer of the Year" at The British Professional Photography Awards for the second time!

The "Overseas" awards are for all the entries outside of the UK. There were over 3000 entries and photographers travelled to the awards ceremony from as far away as Russia and Singapore.

The image that won for me is a shot I took of entrepreneur Niall Shanahan. I always feel a good portrait is a collaboration between the photographer and the sitter. There is only so much the photographer can do with lighting etc, the rest has to come from the subject and Niall was great at giving me what I wanted in this shot.

I was surprised to win with this image to be honest, as it's what I would call a "quiet" portrait, it doesn't scream "look at me". But the judges commented on the power of the image to draw you in and the depth of the blacks and print quality.

The British Professional Photography Awards

This weekend sees the final of The British Professional Photography Awards. I was lucky enough to have won Overseas Photographer of the Year, Overseas Portrait Photographer of the Year and Overseas Wedding Photographer of the Year in 2006.

From the thousands of entries submitted this year, I am delighted to have had some of my images chosen for the grand final.

So it's off to Newcastle upon Tyne on Sunday, with fingers and everything else crossed!

Roddy Doyle

Roddy Doyle the writer, very kindly agreed to come in to the studio to let me photograph him. I had about 45 minutes and we tried several different lighting set ups. I think one of the keys to a successful portrait is to try and relax as much as possible, both the subject and the photographer. Most people have a dread of being photographed and before the shoot often compare it to a trip to the dentist, but usually by the end, they seem to have enjoyed the experience.
Even though I am sure he has been photographed thousands of times, Roddy was no different. We had a great chat about schooldays and some of the mad teachers we had (he used to be a teacher) and we both relaxed fairly quickly.
These are a couple of my favorite images from the shoot. The second one was literally the last shot of the session. He put on his manbag to leave and I called him back to take a shot with it on as I think it looks really cool. I had been toying with the idea of buying a manbag myself for a while and went out and bought one after the shoot.

He invited me round to his house for a cup of tea and to show him the results of the shoot. He seemed very happy with them and gave me a signed proof copy of Click, a collection of short stories about a photographer. What a lovely guy.

Jason Byrne in Vicar St

Universal Studios asked me to take some shots of Jason Byrne the comedian in Vicar St for his new live DVD. I had only ever seen him on his TV show Anonymous and had no idea of how funny he is. A really cool, down to earth guy, a pleasure to work with, no problem with me shooting him everywhere, apart from the toilet, I did try!
The show was amazing, he was absolutely on fire, so quick and one of the funniest comedians I have ever seen. The energy level was off the scale. It's no wonder he has just become the biggest selling act in the history of The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 24,000 tickets!
I bumped into PJ Gallagher backstage after the show, another very funny comedian and lovely guy. Jason and PJ used to work together in the same factory. That must have been a fun place to work.











PJ kindly offered me a lift home, but we had to stop and change a flat tyre on the way. Or rather PJ did, I was busy, taking photos!