Caelan - Newborn Baby Photography / October 15, 2022 by Jan

It’s been said a million times, but isn’t it amazing how ordinary human beings like you and me can create life? Everyone; meet Caelan!

Noreen, Caelan’s mom, contacted me just about a week before this newborn baby photo shoot. At first I wasn’t aware that her son was so young. In fact, Caelan was exactly three weeks old to the day, when we did this newborn photo shoot. So quite literally, a newborn. That makes him the youngest baby I’ve photographed so far.

Now, if you look at my website, you will see that I love to capture natural moments, outside in nature. Natural and nature. Those are the keywords for me. I love how the photos look in those environments. I know other newborn baby photographers do prefer a more studio based photo shoot, with very posed and constructed shots, but that’s not really what I’m about, here at Save The Journey. Even when photographing indoors, I still photograph in a more natural and joyful style, like Elijah who I photographed here. I like shots full of life and love! I was glad to find out during the pre-shoot phone call with Noreen, that she shared the same opinion.

When working in TV, they always say, “Don’t work with kids or animals. They’re unpredictable.” Haha! Well, this might not be TV, but for these kind of shoots, I make sure I have a lot of extra time in my schedule. Just in case. After all, at three weeks old, a lot of basic things can be overwhelming for the baby. Even just being out of the cot, outside! That’s where I have to rely on the parents to help me out during this portrait photo shoot. Sometimes it’s mom that gives the right snuggles to calm them down, sometimes it’s dad, and sometimes it’s the bottle that they’re looking for. Patience. There is no rush after all.

Some of my favourite photos of this shoot are these following ones, with the dad, Thomas. It’s great to see someone be so happy to be a father! It may not sound like much, but it’s also amazing to see a father allow themselves to be so vulnerable with their kid like this. It’s great to see more fathers, and men in general, being more open in this regard. You can tell that both Thomas and Noreen are, and will be, fantastic parents!

If you’d like to book a newborn baby photo shoot or some kind of family portrait shoot, you can contact me here. I look forward to hearing from you!

And remember, besides newborn baby photography, I also photograph the following:

•Engagement Photography in Cork

•Family Portrait Photography in Cork

•Wedding and Elopement Photography in Cork

•and more!

Ian and Miranda - Engagement Couple Photo Shoot / September 21, 2022 by Jan

“Quick, the sun’s come out! Drop your things and turn around!”

That’s how I ended up taking my favourite four shots of this engagement shoot. Read on to see them. :)

Ian and Miranda are a lovely couple from America. They contacted me because they wanted to do an engagement shoot in Ireland, on their holidays. “Cool, let’s do it!” I said. “Do you have a preference on where?”
“Somewhere by some cliffs!”
“Cliffs? I know some good cliffs!”
And that’s how we ended up in Ballycotton!

Now this wasn’t your usual ‘dash to the destination, do the couple photo shoot and then leave again’ kind of situation. No! It was my duty to show these foreigners our beautiful county! So this turned out to be half a guided tour with some photos sprinkled in. It was my first time doing something bigger like this and not “just” a couple shoot on its own. And it was pretty fun, I must say!

So we headed off to the cliff walk in Ballycotton, did a good section of the walk in some dodgy weather, while photographing cute couple photos here and there with different backgrounds. I was milking this scenery! That’s when they let me know; they’re getting married in a couple of months and want to use these photos for the invitations! Now this is perfectly acceptable and even recommended. So why was I suddenly sweating? The pressure was on to perform and take some top notch engagement photos, I couldn’t let them down! So I dug down a little deeper, to make sure they would have some ace couple photos, no matter what the conditions were.

At first, I was a little more trigger happy than usual, the rain was set to come back and it had been raining almost the entire drive to Ballycotton. I had packed rain jackets and even an umbrella as a back up. I could stand in the rain and take the photos while the couple look cute under an umbrella. That’s the ultimate back up.

Halfway through our hike Ballycotton really delivered. The clouds opened up and suddenly, we were bathing in the most golden rays of sunshine. That’s when I took my favourite photos of this entire shoot! It’s like Harry Styles’ song, “I’m so golden!

They are my favourites and I wonder which photos will be used in the end for this important wedding invitation card, although the rest aren’t bad either and would also be great candidates,

We reached the beach on the cliff walk. One of my intended destinations for this shoot. With cliffs in the background, just like Miranda had asked for, I used that lovely, soft sunset light. A gorgeous set of photos that I am also very happy with. They really are a lovely couple together! But besides the multiple, multiple locations and a hike, that wasn’t the end of our day out, no.

I mean we can’t go to Ballycotton without checking out the harbour and having a closer look at the famous light house! And we can’t go to Ballycotton without having a quick stopover and a whiskey at the Castlemartyr Resort!

If you are planning on visiting Ireland and would like to book an adventure couple photo shoot in Cork like this with me, contact me here for availability. From simple, one stop locations to spending four to six hours touring County Cork and visiting several locations, with multiple photo shoots during the day (like here with Ian and Miranda), this will be an unforgettable holiday experience with gorgeous couple photos to take home!

I offer the following couples photography in Cork:

Check out Joe’s surprise proposal on unsuspecting Mae here. A dream proposal and engagement photo shoot at the famous Blarney Castle.

Niamh and Sean - Wedding at Courtmacsherry Hotel / September 12, 2022 by Jan

I don’t think I can post enough photos of this wedding! The location: The Courtmacsherry Hotel. Wow, what a spot! And having photographed this in early August, we got this amazing, sunny weather! If I remember correctly, this was just a few weeks after that dreadful heatwave we had, so the timing of this wedding was perfect. We could’ve had a fainting bride in that heat!

It was my first time photographing a wedding at The Courtmacsherry Hotel, in fact, I’ll go one better; I’ve never even been in the town of Courtmacsherry before. What a lovely, hidden gem it is. It’s one of those towns where, as soon as you drive in, there’s just this calm, holiday kind of vibe to it. Or maybe I was just feeling especially happy that day with all this sunshine.

Wedding Couple Shoot at the beach of Castlemartyr

Our bride and groom, Niamh and Sean, were such a fantastic couple. They were so relaxed leading up to their big day, it was almost disconcerting. They just let me just get on with my own thing, and didn’t really have any specifics that they really wanted me to photograph.

It’s always interesting how some couples have a set idea in their mind, and others, just like Niamh and Sean, just wanted nice photos of everyone having fun at their wedding. And that’s the great thing about the services I offer as a wedding photographer; the couple get to decide everything. You want a couple shoot? Let’s do it! You only want candid shots and no group photos? That’s no worries. You want individual photos of your niece, the flower girl? Sure thing! We can make anything happen for your big, wedding day! It’s all about you and I’m here to photograph it.

Wedding Ceremony Photos at the Castlemartyr Hotel

At this stage, I have started listing the three things that I really enjoyed or stood out to me about this specific wedding, not just as a wedding photographer but also as a guest:

1) The wedding ceremony was something that the couple really put a lot of effort and thought into. There were loads of lovely moments that made the ceremony very personal to them, and something I have never seen before, was a tree planting ceremony. They got a young, small tree, somewhere between a sapling and a large bush (I’m clearly no botanist), and planted it using soil they brought from their family homes. This tree will then go home with them, where, I suspect, it has been planted properly by now, in the garden of their own home. Such a lovely gesture, and the symbolism of the two soils coming together and growing a new tree... Just lovely and touching.

2) This next one isn’t really as deep, or symbolic or anything really... It’s just... Ice cream! For my own wedding, I actually discussed with my partner about having an ice-cream van or stall come to the venue as well for a few hours, but somehow in the stress of planning a wedding, this idea was lost and we never got around to organizing it. But it’s the funniest thing, when the ice cream van drove onto the property, initially the kids were all excited and overjoyed, but once the van had parked and opened shop, you wouldn’t believe how many adults were running to get their 99! If you’re having an outdoor, summer wedding, this is definitely a hit and worth having a look into. I actually thought it was such a good idea and so unique to their wedding that I even incorporated it into the couple shoot!
So, this was one of my favourite things at this wedding, purely because I wish my partner and I had booked it for our own wedding!

3) Third, this was my first outdoor wedding in the summer sun that I photographed, and I loved it! If you look at my website, if it’s the family portraits or even business portraits and headshots I do, I always love photographing them outdoors in nature. So to be able to photograph a whole wedding outdoors, was an absolute dream come true for me! The light might not always be perfect, though it is definitely not worse than in a standard church, but the whole vibe of the entire wedding was also just very relaxed because of this, and made it to me, a defining feature. People were really enjoying themselves in this beautiful setting, and for dinner, there was a BBQ! Very cool!

Here we faked a “band photo” between four friends who didn’t just want a normal shot of the four of them. The light was so beautiful this evening and I thought I’d use that to full effect!

I’d love to photograph another wedding here in Courtmacsherry. So if you’re planning on getting married here, please contact me and make my dream come true again! Alternatively, I can also photograph your wedding in other areas of Cork County.

If you’d like to enquire about availability for your own wedding, you can contact me here, and for my pricing, check out my wedding photography page here.