Clara - Baby Naming Photographer Cork /  by Jan

Baby naming ceremonies are becoming more and more popular these days and I think they’re great occasions to have!

It’s always so sweet to see the godparents stand in front of all the friends and families and declare their support to the child. The parents also have the opportunity to formally introduce their newborn to everyone that is important to them. To just have that moment where everything comes to a brief stop, where we aren’t just focused on the day-to-day chores, work and groceries. But a moment where everyone can acknowledge their support for the newborn. It’s a lovely tradition!

Cork County Cricket Club

The naming ceremony took place at the Cork County Cricket Club, a place I know well as I photograph Cadence’s annual summer BBQ party there. And for those people who regularly read my blog, yes, it’s not only a familiar venue but also a familiar face! That’s Geraldine, the officiant from the Inchydoney wedding that I posted just a few weeks ago. It’s always great to bump into familiar and friendly faces again, and Geraldine especially is great at her job and I always enjoy catching up with her! We’ve had the opportunity working together at several weddings, and now, a baby naming ceremony.

Group Photo!

The sunny weather that day allowed us to take these beautiful family photos with Clara, the main attraction that day, with her grandparents, parents, godparents and other friends and family members. I especially love the big group photo we took, with all of the guests on the porch. With the sunlight and the distinct facade of the Cricket Club, it made for such a unique photo that couldn’t have been taken anywhere else. And I love that! Everyone was there that day just for Clara.

 
 

Clara’s Baby Shoot

Parents Emma and Tony, also had me over at their house for a baby photo shoot, several weeks before the naming ceremony. It’s always such a pleasure to witness these different stages in families’ lives over a couple of months or years. Just like I’m now so fortunate to see couples go from a maternity shoot, to a few months later when I’m seeing them again for a baby photo shoot. It’s incredible to be a part of that!

We did the baby shoot predominantly inside, as it was a cold and miserable day but with my lighting equipment, I was able to create these bright and sunny looking indoor shots! A break in the weather also allowed us to go outside for a few minutes to add more variety to the gallery of photos.

Baby Shoot

“Parents Emma and Tony, also had me over at their house for a baby photo shoot, several weeks before the naming ceremony.”

Clara was amazing, with her big eyes and cheeks, she seemed so unfazed by the camera! I love the photos and moments I was able to capture both at their home and at the baby naming ceremony!

Google Review

Emma and Tony were also delighted and they even left me this lovely 5-star Google review:

 
“Wonderful photographer and wonderful photos for my daughter’s newborn shoot and naming ceremony. Jan was so lovely and made us all feel so comfortable. Highly recommend!”
— Emma
 
 
 

Baby Naming Ceremony At Home

Emotional

“…it even made for some teary eyes during the ceremony.”

Another baby naming ceremony that was so beautiful, was for Eve. The parents Darren and Laura hosted the ceremony in their own home. They were able to clear a room for the ceremony and with a personalized cake and the decorations, it made for a very inviting environment. And again, it was lovely to hear the everyone’s commitment and intentions for Eve. It was so emotional that it even made for some teary eyes during the ceremony.

We then had the most beautiful natural light for these family photos, while the nosy neighbours were curious and wondered what we were doing.

Nosy Neighbours

“…while the nosy neighbours were curious and wondered what we were doing.”

Another Google Review

Darren and Laura were also delighted with the photos and also wrote me a lovely 5-star Google review:

 
“Jan photographed our daughters naming ceremony in our house. The photos are stunning. Jan captured the day beautifully. We couldn’t be happier with the photos.

We will be using Jan again and would recommend him to anyone looking for a photographer to capture their special moments.”
— Laura
 

Contact

If you have a christening or a baby naming ceremony coming up that you would like to have photographed, say hi to me here. I’d love to send you my baby naming and christening photography packages and most importantly, photograph your ceremony!

Samyang AF 75mm f1.8 Review Sony FE /  by Jan

I think this is a fantastic lens! That’s my summarized opinion. Why is it fantastic? Price and size!

Combo

I use my 35mm lens the most. I’ve made it no secret that that is my favourite focal length of all (like here, here and here)! And subsequently, I needed a secondary lens to compliment it. I’ve always felt like an 85mm is too tight and too big a gap to 35mm. I know I’m probably in the minority when it comes to that opinion, but it never felt comfortable to me. So in came the 75mm. Spoiler alert, it felt better but not perfect and I eventually replaced it with a lens that felt perfect for me.

But when I do a couple or family shoot, I’ll use a 35mm lens for 70-80% of the shots, and a more telephoto option for the rest. So this is truly a secondary lens. And for being a secondary lens, it’s nice and small, and lightweight. If it was my primary lens, I would look into getting the best and biggest 85mm lens, like I did with my 35mm, but not here.

The Good

For the price, it delivers fantastic image quality, and I do really like the bokeh too, with just a hint of swirl. It also gave you that typical, fast telephoto look and compression, that’s so iconic with 85mm lenses. Colours were good and matched the Samyang 35mm f1.8. It just works really well!

  • The size and weight

  • The price

  • Image quality

The Bad

The only criticism was that the autofocus was a bit slow so that I couldn’t use it for wedding days or events, the lens had no actual aperture ring, and the build quality was very plasticky. The latter made me worry how well the internals were built and how long the lens would last. A Sigma lens in comparison (different price range of course), does give you that confidence that it will be working perfectly during a wedding ceremony. This didn’t. Although I’d love to hear other people’s experiences with it though! And it was more than adequate for portraits. A really amazing little pocket rocket!

I also found the ‘fake’ aperture ring to be a gimmick, as well as the custom modes. I’d have preferred to have had a real aperture ring and no custom switch.

  • Autofocus

  • Build quality

  • No real aperture ring and pointless custom modes

Uncomfortable

As great as this lens was and as much as I enjoyed the extremely compact bang for buck nature of it, I just still never felt truly comfortable with the 35/75mm combo. Traditionally a very popular combo, but one that I struggled with. The difference in focal length was just too stark for me, not only during the shoot but also afterwards. When looking at a gallery, I could immediately tell which photo had been taken by which lens and I felt the difference was too jarring.

Would I recommend it?

I think this focal length issue is a very personal issue that I will probably not share with a lot of other photographers. So to those photographers I say, get this lens if it interests you and you don’t necessarily need the best of the best!

Read more gear reviews here.

And my favourite lens over here.

C&P - Elopement Photography Cork /  by Jan

Elopement Photography at the Registry Office

You will often find me down by the registry office on Grattan Street photographing elopements. They’re really fun to shoot and it’s always interesting how each couple structures their day and communicating to me what they find important.

Elopement Packages

This is why I have three different packages:

  • The Ceremony Package – Which includes photos of the ceremony and group photos.

  • The Couple Shoot Package – This includes group photos and a couple shoot.

  • And the ‘Complete Package’ - Which includes the ceremony, group photos and the couple shoot.

Extras

Couples can then also book me for an hourly rate at a secondary location afterwards.

So this would be if the whole crowd is booked in for drinks at a hotel. I would then take candid shots like I would do at the reception of a full wedding. Which is what Clodagh and Paul booked me for.

Clodagh and Paul

But we started off at the registry office. Clodagh and Paul didn’t want the ceremony itself to be photographed but I met them there for the couple shoot and we started with the classics; the mural at the registry office and the courthouse steps! The sun was shining so beautifully, and Clodagh looked amazing in her white dress! This was one of the first, properly sunny days, of the year which is always such a joy for a photographer like me.

We then headed up to the Hayfield Manor for more couple photos, the family group photos and some candid photos of the whole family celebrating and enjoying their drinks and having a good time. I then left them just as dinner was served so that they could enjoy the rest of the day without me.

Couples choose to get eloped for a bunch of different reasons, and my aim is to make your day feel as special as a wedding day should. I really enjoy capturing these beautiful moments to a high standard and allowing you to personalize your big day however you’d like, so that you can look back on these photos fondly!

The couple were so happy with the experience that they wrote me this lovely 5-star Google review:

 
“We couldn’t have asked for a better photographer for our registry office wedding. Jan made us feel completely at ease from the start, which made the whole experience so relaxed and enjoyable.

The photos came back sooner than we expected, which was a lovely surprise, and there were so many amazing shots to choose from. He captured the day perfectly, from photos of just the two of us to group shots with our family and friends.

Jan was a pleasure to work with. We would 100% recommend him to anyone for any event.”
— Clodagh
 
 
 

Other Elopements

The following photos are some of my favourite moments from other registry office elopements.

 
 

Inclusion

Shirley and Tony only wanted their ceremony photographed. It was also very important to them that their son Ethan would not be left out on their big day. So he got to be the ring bearer and we made sure that he was in plenty of photos too!

First Off; The Couple Shoot!

Most of the time we’ll do the couple shoot after the ceremony. But some couples, like Darragh and Rachel prefer to do the couple shoot beforehand, so that they can then just relax after the ceremony and go for drinks and food, or whatever the rest of the day has in store.

In this case we didn’t do any city shots, but just went to the nearby Fitzgerald’s Park.

Thanks to Rachel for this amazing 5-star Google review:

 
“We can’t thank Jan enough for being available to take photos for our wedding at such short notice! (24hrs 😅)

The photos are fantastic, Jan really knows what he’s doing and had them back to us in just four days! Super service ***** ”
— Rachel
 

Port of Cork

Erik and Greice

“They fell in love with the Port of Cork and really wanted some photos there and by the city hall.”

Both Erik and Greice moved to Ireland for work and met each other here. They fell in love with the Port of Cork and really wanted some photos there and by the city hall. They went the extra mile and booked a wedding car to drive us around to those locations which we could then also incorporate into the shoot.

I think we got some lovely shots and Greice seems to think so too, with this 5-star Google review:

 
“We had a fantastic experience with Jan as our elopement photographer!

Jan was so easy to communicate from the start, quick to respond and understood what we wanted and worked to make it happen. In our special day he was there ahead of time, present during the whole ceremony and after discussed with us the best places to go, that were meaningful to us and would create beautiful photos taking advantage of the great weather.

Jan suggested great poses and locations. The whole experience was smooth, stress free, fun and a real joy and pleasure. The photos are absolutely stunning and we will treasure them forever!

We fully recommend Jan to everyone looking for a photographer for their special moment!”
— Greice
 

Spray the Champagne!

I’ve never had this before, but Dáire and Jessica were so happy to get married that they celebrated with a bottle of champagne. This was so fun to capture and a great photo opportunity!

Dáire kept it short and sweet with this 5-star Google review:

 
“Would highly recommend!! Thank you!”
— Dáire
 

Full Circle

When John and Louise contacted me, they had one non-negotiable; they absolutely had to have photo shoot on the bridge they met on! This is always so lovely when a love story comes full circle. I’m always happy to take requests to make your elopement uniquely yours!

Louise was a gem by writing me this 5-star Google review:

 
“Jannik photographed our registry wedding last week and we could not have been more impressed with how the photos turned out.

He was so accommodating with our requests and ensured we got all the photographs we wanted.
A really lovely man, who helps you to feel relaxed and confident while photographing you.

We would highly recommend him.”
— Louise
 

Surprise Visit

Abbie’s colleagues surprised the couple after their ceremony, cheering and congratulating the newly married couple. It was totally unexpected and a really sweet surprise.

The couple were also great sports with the rain that we had that day. I mean, they say that if it rains on your big day, it’s a sign of good luck. So Abbie and Lee have a lot of good luck to start off their marriage! Although a drink or two will warm you straight up again!

Thanks to Abbie for taking the time to write this 5-star Google review:

 
“Jan was our photographer for our wedding in January. From the first point of contact he was so lovely and helpful.

Even though it was raining all throughout our photo session it didn’t phase him at all. He was such a great presence to have around and so positive. He gave us great direction on how to pose so we didn’t look incredibly awkward!

We absolutely love the photos and can’t thank him enough. We would 100% recommend him to anyone!!”
— Abbie
 

Let’s Cut Some Cake!

We were lucky with the weather on this winter’s day! Look at that gorgeous yellow sunlight! I took Conan and Zeina to St. Finbarr’s church for some very striking photos. To them it was very important to also book me for the hotel afterwards, so that they could get some cake cutting photos and the obligatory pint shots!

Contact

So if you’re planning an elopement at the Cork registry office and you’d like something similar to this, say hi to me here. I’d love to hear from you and send you my elopement packages!