Prints and Things

So I said in my first few posts that I would put up some of the prints that I've been working on in college. I never actually did put them up though. But I can finally say that I've gotten around to scanning them, so they will now finally be unveiled!!
These are the first film prints that I've ever done and I can honestly say that I am pretty proud of them. I went into college not knowing a single thing about film and I'm realising just how much I've learned over the past 9 weeks or so. I've grown to like film and the proud feeling you get knowing that you have done everything involved in the process of film photography. Saying that, I can't wait to get to work on digital because as well as the feeling of pride film gives you, there's also a feeling of severe annoyance from the very time consuming process involved in developing and printing film. The process has made me grow to appreciate digital photography and how instant everything is with digital.
Anyway, that's enough rambling, on to the prints!

This is a pretty simple shot of a candle holder taken from above. To take this shot I had to climb onto the kitchen table, being short is a bit of a problem for things like this!!

This is a ring that I own. I had left it on the windowsill and I thought the shadow it cast was kind of interesting.

Yes, this is a cooker! I thought the way the light fell on it would make a nice shot and as you can see it did. Well I think it did anyway!

I did this photo as part of my mimic shot for an assignment for college. I was doing it in the style of Eugene Atget, a french photographer. Look him up he has some nice shots, here's a link for you!

This is a very old barometer that I found hiding away at home. I really love this shot as I think it is simple but dramatic.

So Much Work

I think there's only about 3 weeks left of this semester before I can go into my winter hibernation and recover from a serious lack of sleep. But, unfortunately, I have quite a few assignments to get to work on before then. Stress, stress, stress!!
Between all these assignments I need to find the time to go out and shoot some more stuff for my practical photography assignment too, that shouldn't be too hard though, it's just finding the time to get everything done that's hard!
I have done my self portrait for my photographic techniques exercise done. It's got a bit of a creepy vibe about it though. My scanner is broken at the moment but I took a picture of it on my webcam. It's not actually got a blue hue, that was just my webcam.

Anyway....back to try and chip away at this workload!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

So I went into town a few hours ago to check out all the Christmas lights and to do a bit of present shopping. I had forgotten how stressful Christmas shopping is!! I'm halfway done now though, not that anybody's interested.
I was walking along looking at all the different shops's Christmas window displays and I came across the Brown Thomas windows which are absolutely fabulous! They are all themed around different ballets such as the Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Cinderella. I was going to take pictures of them all but my ever so trusty camera battery decided to give up after I took one photo. But I thought I'd share that one photo anyway.
I really, really like the photo because it actually looks like I was on a big budget professional shoot. Except of course that the lovely people of Brown Thomas decided to set up the whole thing for me with proper studio lighting and everything.

And now that I'm in the Christmas mood, who knows?! I might even do a Christmas themed blog post tomorrow!

The World in Black and White

Contrary to the title of this blog post, this won't be about the whole world in black and white just a very small portion of it. I just thought the title sounded artistic!
Just thought I would post a selection of a few black and white photos I have taken over a few years. Thought it would be an appropriate post seeing as this semester is about black and white film photography. These photos are all from the digital camera though.
There's nothing particularly special about these photos I just quite like them. I like the black and white look as it's a little bit more dramatic than color tends to be.
Enjoy!

This is one of my favourite photos that I've taken. I say that about a lot of my photos actually. I love how soft the lily looks and how dramatic it is.

This is an attempt at 'abstract' I guess. It's a water fountain. It's in black and white (obviously!) but I used photoshop to give it a blue tone to make it a bit more interesting.

This is a photo of some sort of climbing thingy in a playground near where I live, it was taken during the winter so you can see the snow on the ropes.

This is my friend Chloe, who acts as a mold for a lot of my photos.

My lovely cat, Oli, who is great at posing for the camera, occasionally! I took he colour out of everything except his eyes because I really just love the colour of them so I thought I'd make them stand out a bit.

I took this on Christmas Eve last year. I just think it's a very dramatic shot.

A tiny stream in the park beside my house, I just thought it was cool because of all the piled up snow it looks like some glacier or something. 

I had to take this photo really quickly because I have this horrible fear of wasps and bees! I left this colour in just the wasp because I love the yellow against black and white.

I really love this, it's almost like a very classic photo or something. I love the lamps all the way along the path.

A Little Something From This Time Last Year

These are a selection of photos I took at a show I was at almost a year ago. The band is a  English band called Young Guns who are a really lovely bunch of guys who were sporting some lovely mustaches for last year's Movember.
It was a really small gig so there was a lot of pushing and shoving involved, mostly on my part!! It was a lot of fun taking pictures at this show as the band were very lively, despite the tiny stage and worryingly low ceiling.

Amazingly for a lot of these I didn't actually zoom in too much for a lot of these, that's the great thing about tiny rooms!

I changed a lot of the photos into black and white, no real reason why except that I like the look of it.

This was me trying to be a bit artsy with my live shots. I only left a tiny bit of colour in.

Mix of Live Photos

Continuing on with the music photos except this time, a mix and match of photos from different concerts i've been to.

I was all the way up on the highest balcony in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin when I took this. I had to zoom all the way in, but I'm pretty proud of this one.

All Time Low '11

All Time Low '10

I took this from the balcony beside the stage in The Academy, Dublin. I love the lighting in this.

All Time Low '10

This was also side stage balcony.

Blink 182 '10

This was taken from the seeing area of the o2, Dublin. I love the colors in this.

Paramore '10 

(I posterized this photo in photoshop in case you're wondering why it looks a bit odd)

A little something I spotted on one of the giant speakers at a festival I was at in Wales recently. I think they enjoy stating the obvious!

A Few Live Photos

So if you've read my little 'about me' thingy, you'll know that I like music photography. You'll probably have noticed that I've only posted one set of photos I've taken at a concert. So I thought I'd better post a few more from smaller shows that I've been to over the years.
Unfortunately I've never managed/tried to get a press pass for these shows so I've only brought a little point and shoot camera because I think I'd have to cry if anything happened to my dslr.
With that said here's some of the photos I've taken of a Welsh band called The Blackout at three different shows in May '09, January '10 and Aprill '11:

This was from the first time I ever saw the band back in May 2009

Also from May 2009

...and again, same story here

This was from January 2010, I was on the balcony side stage for this.

This is from April this year. I thought I'd have to contend with the strong lights, but they turned out some pretty good shots.

Again with the lights.

Bright yellow guitars are always fun!

Soebody always manages to stick their hand into my photos at some stage!

Again with the lights here!

London Calling!!

During the Summer I went over to London. I plenty of shopping done while I was there but more importantly myself and my camera got a little bit snap happy. Sadly, most of the photos turned out very touristy and not very interesting. BUT! There were a few exceptions. And here they are:

Queen's Walk

Irish Guard

Rainforest Cafe

London Eye

London Bridge (in case you couldn't guess!)

Picadilly Circus

Woodlands Falconry, Rathwood Co Carlow

Could have sworn I'd posted these photos already but apparently not! About this time last year I visited The falconry in Rathwood. I managed to take some really nice photos, if I do say so myself!!
One of the photos I took that day, the one with the owl winking into my lens, is possibly one of my favourite photos that I've taken to date.
I must admit, I was a bit intimidated when I was shooting the beautiful golden eagle who appeared to be considering if I was worth attacking or not!! Thankfully he decided I wouldn't be worth his time!
Anyway here our a few of the photos from the day:

Absolutely love the colour of this guy's eyes, even if he does look a bit angry.

Speaking of looking a little bit angry!

This guy would not hold his head still for too long. Reminds me of the owl in Harry Potter though...

A shy little guy.

This is one of my favourite photos that I've taken. Absolutely love the winking eye as well as the lighting in this photo.

The feathers of this eagle look almost as if they're painted on. The eagle was fantastic at posing for the camera but I was a little scared about the way he was eyeing me up!