Fitzgerald's Family Fun - Family Portraits /  by Jan

I love these kind of family shoots!

Often when people hear that one of their family members has booked a photographer for their family reunion, I think they often just expect the following kind of posed photos. And those photos can be great to have as well! I very much know, because my family is spread across two continents and four, sometimes five or six countries. They’re important but not very fun photos.

And that’s why I like to take the following photos as well on my family photo shoots! I think these are really the photos that you end up cherishing.

With the Murphy’s, this was a common narrative. A first reunion after many years of travel restrictions. Kids grow so much in half a year, nevermind two or three years! So having the whole family come together for this photo shoot was not only great for the photos, but also a fun day out in the sun. Kids were running around, and the adults were trying to keep up. Even if some, *ahem, family members were a little hungover that day from indulging themselves in some lovely Irish whiskey! Haha, I’d be guilty of that too!

“And that’s why I like to take the following photos as well on my family photo shoots! I think these are really the photos that you end up cherishing.”

I am very proud to say though, that such a common feedback I get after these family photo shoots is either, “Wow, that was so much fun, I didn’t expect that at all!” or “That was so uncomplicated!”

And that’s what I love to hear. These shoots are great memories for the family, but they also need to be fun and it’s always nice to look at photos of people enjoying themselves.

If you’d like to make a booking or enquire for a family photo shoot in or around Cork city, you can contact me here. Otherwise, check out this family photo shoot I did at the Castlemartyr resort, or this family and baby photo shoot I did here.

And remember, besides family portrait photography, I also photograph the following:

• Couples Photography in Cork

• Newborn Baby Photography in Cork

• Wedding Photography in Cork

• and more!

Coming Full Circle - Newborn Baby Photography /  by Jan

 
 
Professional Newborn Baby Photographer Cork

Coming Full Circle

It started as a couple shoot, now we’re here.

I think my photography blog clearly shows that I have enjoyed photographing all sorts of different projects in the last couple of years, and I think I must be one of Cork’s most versatile photographers at this stage! I know a lot of other photographers like to specialize on one specific type of photography, be it wedding photography or sports photography, but I really enjoy photographing (almost) everything.

Which is why I’m so delighted to finally be able to officially announce that I, Jannik, under the Save The Journey Photography name, am now offering newborn baby photography as well!

I have to say a big thanks to Billy and Paloma for giving me the opportunity to photograph little Elijah. I photographed them initially last year, before Elijah was born. I did a pregnancy / couple shoot with them. They used those photos to give them the chance to announce to friends and family across the world that they were expecting little Elijah. (Check out their couple shoot here!) And now he’s here! Healthy and (mostly) happy! Haha!

I really love that I got to go full circle with them in that sense. It really rounds out the whole journey in a lovely way and I can’t wait to continue photographing their family in the future and watching little Elijah grow.

But back to the baby photo shoot! The most important aspect of it all is: timing. This is where the moms are really important to help advise me what time their baby will be the least cranky. Usually this would be post feeding. Although that of course doesn’t mean that the whole shoot will continue without a hiccough!

Just like with other portrait or family shoots, this is why I like to make sure that I have a lot of time to spare, and to use the opportunities that are presented to me. So when Elijah was getting a little cranky, I decided to just let him nap for a little bit and take some close up shots of him then. Or other natural moments are lovely to capture when they appear and would be such a shame to miss out on! Like when dad is laughing at his son, see below. It all belongs as part of the day! I think at least.

“Like when dad is laughing at his son, see below. It all belongs as part of the day!”

But I must say, Elijah was such a good model for the day, and I’m delighted at what lovely and natural family and baby photos we got.

Billy and Paloma just moved into their new home, and are now collecting photos to fill all their empty walls. And I really look forward to helping them do that!

If you would like to know about my newborn photography baby packages, you can contact me here. I look forward to hearing from you!

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

• Couples Photography in Cork

• Family Portrait Photography in Cork

• Wedding Photography in Cork

• and more!

Samyang 12mm f2 for Real Estate Photography /  by Jan

I already wrote a review about this Samyang 12mm f2 lens here, but I totally glossed over the real estate photography that I do with it. More and more photographers are getting onto me if this lens is any good for that, so I thought I’d write a little summary of my experiences with it thus far.

Quick and Dirty Bullet Points

Positives:

- The Samyang 12mm is very affordable
- It’s very versatile and can be used for other types of photography too
- Great image quality (definitely best value lens in the super-wide category)
- Great colours and contrast
- Vignetting is minimal when closing down to f4-5.6

Neutral:

- Since it’s a prime, I often (but not always) take a second lens with me
- Manual focus is love or hate

Negatives:

- Has a bit more distortion than I would like for this type of photography (see below for more info)

The Long Explanation

Let me expand on the above points; this lens is very good at photographing real estate. I live in Ireland where buildings and homes tend to be a bit on the smaller side, so that 12mm focal length is extremely important to me. I wouldn’t really be able to photograph half of the houses and apartments with even just a 16mm. That would be to tight already. For larger kitchens and living rooms it would be fine, but it’s very surprising how little you would be able to photograph of a standard sized 9m² bedroom for instance, nevermind a small en-suite. For the latter I often find myself squeezed up against the corner to be able to take a good, representative shot.

From an image quality point of view, this lens delivers more than enough for that. On that front I wouldn’t be worrying about anything.

The one re-occuring issue that I do have is straight lines. Getting straight lines when photographing kitchens for instance can be more difficult than you’d think. The super-wide nature of the lens exacerbates every slight degree you’re off, making the photo look much skewer than it would with say a 35mm or 50mm. This is normal for super or hyper-wide angles. So take your time setting your shot up and double and triple checking all angles and lines are as they should be. Then we get to the distortion. I usually don’t mind distortion at all. But for real estate photography, it can be a bit of an issue at times. Yes, you can remove it in Lightroom afterwards, but you do end up missing out a bit on the wideness. I also find that with this lens I can’t seem to get rid of the distortion 100%. I have read elsewhere that it has a more complicated ‘moustache shaped distortion’. Don’t know if that’s true. It’s not a deal breaker especially since there aren’t many viable other options in this price group (unless you want to go down the cheap, Chinese lens route), but something to be aware of.

Then there’s the matter of it being a prime. Sometimes I wish I had the Fujifilm 10-24mm so that I could zoom out to 10mm and also not need to take with a second lens for the outdoor shots or close ups. I will either take with my Samyang 21mm or Fujifilm 16-55mm to compliment the Samyang 12mm. Although often, I will just use the 12mm on its own. But photographing real estate isn’t my one and only photography gig, and my clients have all been really happy with the work I have delivered thus far with the 12mm. But I might upgrade in the future just to have the option to zoom, have a slightly wider end and have less distortion (I think the 10-24mm has less distortion but correct me if I’m wrong).

Bottom Line

I hope this helps. Bottom line, if you need a lens to photograph real estate, this is the one to go for if you don’t want to be spending as much money as on the Fujifilm 10-24mm or 8-16mm. You might need to put in a little bit more effort in regards to the manual focus and distortion and possibly bringing a second lens but it from the results, it won’t look much different. Lighting the rooms is a much more important aspect than if you’re using the Samyang 12mm or one of the Fujifilm zooms.

For more photos, check out my blog post on a house I photographed here, using the Samyang 12mm and the Fujifilm 16-55mm, or check out my real estate photography page here.