Secret Service - Couple Photo Shoot / November 9, 2021 by Jan

“We’ll have to come back to Ireland again in the future, so you can propose to me!”

Kelsey only had to wait a couple of minutes for her dream to come true.

This photo shoot made me feel like a spy! Secret Instagram messages, code words, mapped out targets... Was I overreacting by feeling way too secretive and borderline guilty? 100%, yes. I quickly came to the realization that I, just a regular Cork Photographer, was not made for the secret life! Hats off to any legitimate spies out there.

A couple of months ago Bryant contacted me via Instagram, all the way over from Arkansas, USA. He and his girlfriend were planning a trip to Ireland and Bryant, being an opportunistic person, chose this holiday to finally propose to her. What did he want from me? He wanted me to secretly photograph the proposal and do a couple shoot with them afterwards.

After some suggestions for locations around Cork city and even further abroad in Ireland, we settled with the Blarney Castle. “I really like the idea of Blarney Castle I think she’d lose her shit hahaha” were the exact words. Well shit was most definitely lost!

I sent Bryant some photos of the Blarney Castle grounds, different spots and backgrounds where he could pop the important question. Since everything had to be done in secret and without her noticing, we decided on using a wicker basket with a bouquet of flowers in it as an “X marks the spot” kind of marker. Since Nic Flanagan, the second photographer who joined me on this shoot, and I would be hiding in the bushes, far away with telephoto lenses, their positioning had to be exact so that we could get the iconic photo of the proposal with the castle in the background. At the same time, we planned it in a way that they did have some leeway with it, after all, it’s the proposal that comes first in this situation and not the photo shoot.

On the special day, Nic and I arrived a little earlier, checked our positions and made sure all the angles lined up as expected. But no setting up yet, as Kelsey and Bryant would be walking straight past this spot to the castle in about 20 minutes. They would continue on their tour of the castle and while checking that out, we finally got to set up the wicker basket with the lovely bouquet of flowers by @gypsywhatever, then sent Bryant a coded message, letting him know that he could come back for the proposal at any time he felt comfortable.

It felt like forever until they finally came walking down the path again. I was stressed out! I was worried Bryant might have misunderstood where he was supposed to go to. That he might be frantically looking in another part of the grounds or already proposed but in the wrong spot. Wedding photography is a piece of cake compared to this! Haha!

Down the pathway they came. Kelsey oblivious to the entire situation. Gingerly she walked forward to the basket, daring almost not too touch it. This was when Bryant got to have his moment, with him eventually getting on his knee to ask the big question. Things were going perfectly, everyone stood at the right spot and even the sun came out a little. Our ‘Secret Service’ operation, hidden (almost) in the bushes with our ambush style photography had worked splendidly. They had fallen right into our photography trap!

Having a second photographer there was great. It’s not the first time that Nic and I have worked together on photo shoots. Having her there allowed us to capture the surprise proposal from two angles. It worked really well to have different sets of photos, one focusing more on the overall setting with the castle and another closing in more on the couple themselves. Plus it’s always good to have two photographers in a scenario like this, just in case another visitor walks in front of the lens or something unexpected happens.

This is the moment Kelsey realized we were there! Utterly surprised she was.

After the couple had a few minutes to themselves and Kelsey had a few moments to compose herself, we finished off the day with a couple photo shoot, so that they could make their fantastic news public to their friends and family back home!

What a memorable trip this will have been for them! Both Nic and I wish the couple all the best for their engagement and hopefully they’ll return to Ireland to have a destination wedding. I already suggested the idea, might be a bit of a stretch to get all the family members from Arkansas here. But they were such a lovely couple that I would gladly photograph their wedding in the future. Or maybe Save The Journey travels to Arkansas??

If you are looking for a wedding photographer or looking to do a couple photo shoot in Cork city or county, contact me here!

Friendly Chaos - Family Portrait Photography / October 10, 2021 by Jan

It’s days like these where I wonder to myself why I live in Cork city. Yes, it is incredibly practical from a photographer’s point of view. After all, a lot of my photo shoots are within walking distance. But with ever bigger lenses and cameras and more lighting equipment than ever, that walk is becoming a bit too sweaty nowadays.

The windows are rolled down, and the landscape is whizzing by. The way that evening sun is bathing this scenery... It is so incredibly golden today! It’s making the countryside look so beautiful and inviting. And it is quiet... I’m the only person driving on this road. No city traffic here. “I bet homes are cheaper here too.” I think to myself. Ahhh... Fresh air. It’s so quiet, have I mentioned that?

The silence wouldn’t last.

Not when I met these three chaotic monsters! I jest. They were the loveliest monsters I have ever met. Three children, aged between two and five years old. Absolute cuties, but there will be some chaos and some ups and downs that I, as a family photographer, have to be prepared for. Within chaos, there is beauty. And I had the perfect opportunity to capture that beauty and fun. There were so many beautiful corners within the garden of the family home. And since this is the children’s daily playground, they felt so at ease and relaxed. This definitely helped with them feeling very at ease with me; a complete stranger. In fact, after just a few quiet minutes at the start, they soon were excited to show me all the corners of the property; from the little stretch of forest, to the playground, to them showing off how fast they can run. Remember the days when your whole value seemed to depend on how fast you could run? Those were the days.

“Not now Bailey!” I laugh, as Bailey, the dog, is trying to play with me again in the middle of the photo shoot. He’s already brought me individual toys, several times. He’s a gorgeous dog though, one day I’ll adopt one too.

With children and their dog running around like this, you have to be on your top performance as the photographer. This kind of photography can be tougher and more demanding than photographing MMA or other sports. Kids run around in an unpredictable manner. And it doesn’t always necessarily go right all the time. Which is why I included the following bloopers into the final edit as well. My thinking was that if these photos had me howling during the editing process, I’m sure the parents can see the funny side in it too.

Bloopers:

It was also only in the editing process that I realized the effort the mother had made to dress them all in matching white dresses, a touch that really helps make these photos a little more timeless and give them that next level in quality.

And just as quickly as the mayhem began, with 750 photos waiting on me on several SD cards, it was time for me to leave again. Just in time for the five o’clock traffic. I can’t remember the last time I was stuck in this. I head home, pick up my partner, we head off to our favourite restaurant, wander home.

“Maybe the city isn’t that bad for now...” I drift off.

“We should call our future dog Declan!”

If you would like to do a family portrait shoot like this one with your family, a really natural, fun photo shoot, get in contact with me here and we can arrange a fun afternoon!

B-Ball - Sports Photography / September 25, 2021 by Jan

Who knew that basketball was this popular in Ireland? Turns out Douglas has two teams. I didn’t even know. I mean, I’ve seen the basketball courts in the Ballincollig Regional Park and this one in Douglas. But I just always assumed they were those ill fated decisions the council always seem to make, similar to the skate parks that always seem absolutely unskateable for beginners and children. The exact reason they were built in the first place.

I guess if you build the facilities, people will come and use them. Especially post lockdown. I feel like I am seeing way more people use those outdoor workout machines as well. Maybe I just notice it more these days as I’m actively looking out for it. Though Ireland seems a little more active these days.

This basketball court is a great facility though! Although a disgruntled player did say that the hoops aren’t regulation height. Much to my friend’s dismay, who felt he was just two inches too short to do a proper Michael Jordan dunk. Well Billy, unfortunately you’ll have to grow more than two inches now!

This was a shoot just for fun, not a paid, professional shoot, yet I was still taking it somewhat seriously enough. I knew exactly how I wanted these photos to look and honestly, they came out even better than expected.

I wanted to use my flash in this bright sunlight. Create a more film like look, as if it was photographed with a simple point and shoot camera. This means, vibrant, strong colours, high contrast, and no shallow depth of field (ie. no background blur). Everything had to be in focus, and I wanted that harsh flash look. This was really pushing my flash (the Yongnuo 560IV – review here) to the limit. Although it is one of the more powerful flashes on the market, in this Irish summer sun, it was struggling to be as bright as I wanted it to be. I wanted it so bright that the background drowned into shadows.

With the flash set to 1/1, ie. max power, I had to be conservative with the amount of shots I took. Reload time for the flash is around 3 seconds I think. I can’t wait for my Godox V1 to arrive! It recycles in just 1.5 seconds. Though three times more expensive than Yongnuo, I probably would take the Yongnuo again next time for a non-paid shoot. Especially since, in a moment of distraction, the basketball made full contact with my camera, lens and flash all at once. Everything seems to have been fine, but the flash does sit looser on the camera now. I’m going to look into the possibility of replacing the hotshoe mount on it. No biggie though. I’d rather break my gear while getting great photos (or trying to get great photos), than leave it at home in pristine condition.

This day was a funny mix between some sports photography and street photography. With it just being a friendly game of mostly banter, I was able to enter the court myself and stand right next to the players. Something that would obviously be impossible in a professional setting. In that case I would have to take my 50-140mm telephoto lens, stand on the sides and be happy with the positioning I was given. Use a flash, and in a flash you’re outta the arena. Instead, I used my Samyang 12mm f2 lens, much in the same way as in the party photography style I did here (Samyang 12mm review and photos here). Set the aperture to f8, set focus to about 2m (this will cover everything from 0.5m to infinity to be in focus), blast the flash and just kinda guess what you’re photographing. For not a single one of the action shots did I look through the viewfinder or at the screen. That’s the beautiful thing about this 12mm. And with the manual focus, the shutter is instant. You can leave it right to the last millisecond to fire it off. It’s fantastic!

I did try my Fujifilm 23mm f2 as well, but I just found the 12mm to work better for this situation and I thought I’d rather not risk my 16-55mm f2.8. If it was a more important shoot, than yeah, of course! But for this, the 12mm was perfect.

I didn’t know most of the guys there that day. So having a bit of a street photographer’s energy was important. Be open, inviting, unintimidating. And enjoy the sun yourself! We have so little of it here in Cork city.

It always surprises me how easy it is to meet strangers through photographing. Even in today’s world, when the novelty of being photographed has worn off somewhat and people tend to be a bit wary about cameras, if done right, it can open up situations that wouldn’t be obtainable in any other way.

There’s no real point to this post and there doesn’t always have to be one. It was just a fun day and I just wanted to share that fun and excitement. And maybe this is my way to encourage others to try something completely new or a bit different.

I have never really had any contact with basketball before in my life and didn’t expect to have that connection in Ireland of all places. This whole day reminded me a lot of my MMA photographing days. You can check those photos out here, they’re actually class! Or don’t. You can just leave your device now and just do that new thing you always wanted to. Or don’t listen to me at all. I wouldn’t even know the difference!

Till the next post, see you then!

Oh and if you need a professional photographer in the Cork city area, give me a shout! I’d be happy to not destroying more of my gear in basketball related incidents!