Competitions

This year I thought I would enter some competitions. I've won an award at my camera club once but have never entered anything in a few years.

One competition I have entered is the Professional Photographer magazine awards and I was pleasantly surprised when my friend Paul Crawford  caught the following image in his inbox

To get picked out of a few thousand images is great. I'm not sure if it will have any reflection on the competition itself but it's nice to know people are liking my work.

Interestingly I never got the email myself, being subscriber to the magazine and an entrant, so I might have missed this completely. 

The original blog post is HERE.

Brendan

2011 in Photos

I've created a slideshow to show some of my work from the last 12 months. Each year my business gets better while still working with companies I worked with when I started my business.

I hope 2012 goes the same as the other years.

Brendan

Sophie

Before she headed off to America to study I got a shoot in with Sophie, a cousin of Julie from my Enchantment shoot last year. Sometimes I just shoot to try lighting and posing ideas, Sophie was a willing model for this.

The light I used was just a Maxi Reflector and a softbox, I had never used Maxi Reflector before and sessions like this allow me to test lighting in less stressful situations.

The light was up high and to my left. The softbox when used was to my right and a bit lower. No lighting was on the background, this allows it to go to the grey as seen.

Letting the model free with their own ideas and poses allows you to play around a little bit more. I can focus on lighting and camera settings and the model can look after themselves with clothing and posing. In the above photo Sophie put on the American flag dress, it went down as a great Facebook profile photo when she was in the USA.

Sophie was great fun and a great poser which helps immensely when creating images, even just test images. Hopefully when Sophie makes her way back she will come back to the studio for more photos. :)

B

Peter and Laura

At the start of the year I photographed the wedding of a friend. I knew Peter from my university days (a long time ago). To do a wedding of a friend or family is easier in some ways, in that you know them, but harder in others, if it goes wrong you lose a friend.

Peter and Laura got married at Lisburn Cathedral, it was the first time I was ever there for a wedding. It's off the street behind a lot of shops and buildings, so yes I drove past it once or twice :)

The Reverend was nice enough to let me stand behind him to get shots during the service. These extra images really help in an album.

After the service I took a few images in front of this great stained window, with the rain outside using the service location is a necessity.

The reception was in the Old Inn, Crawfordsburn. As it was raining we had to do all the images inside. A wet wedding really pushes you as a photographer to get great images for the bride and groom.
A great portrait of the bride is always important. In the following shots I just used the light coming from the  window in the bridal suite.

The groom also has to play his part.

The light was just nicely falling on Laura and I just asked her to look out the window with a thoughtful look. 

We got some really nice images on the day and Peter and Laura are still my friends.

B

Autumn update.

After a busy summer (by name only not a matching description) doing weddings, PR and fashion shoots things have slowed down slightly.

I am in the new studio 1000sq foot studio, called Catchlight studios, which I share with another few professional photographers.

I have bought myself an iPad which for a mobile business like mine is a god send. I can read my emails anywhere, can book people into my diary and also entertain my daughter with Peppa Pig apps.

Going to post a few pictures from photoshoots and a wedding or two over the next week or so.

Belfast Fashion week is on its way back in October, 13-16th to be exact. As usual I'll be there covering it from the bottom of the catwalk.

B

Running the business

Most people would be surprised (I'd imagine) that most of the work in a photography business is not actually taking images. A lot of photographers would say their business is based on the Perato Principle (80/20 rule). 20% photography, 80% business and various parts of the business part within are based on the same 80/20 rule e.g. working on a wedding day you could say photographers time is 20% taking the pictures and 80% people skills.

So if the photographer is not photographing what are they doing with all that "free" time?

For all intents and purposes one thing, trying to make a profit or a living as most people would call it.
Very very few photographers make a huge amount of money, some of course do better in their market area than others and that can be down to their business acumen than photographic talent.

So generally speaking while not photographing we are:

• Marketing - making customers aware of our existence and products.
• Consulting - calling/emailing the people who have seen our marketing and may become a customer.
• Image editing - working in Photoshop and wedding album design.
• After care - meeting and calling customers to make sure they are happy with our services.
• Accounting - paying our bills and making sure we are getting paid.

So while from the outside the job of a photographer looks glamourous (and it sometimes is) the real work is usually at our computers until some ungodly hour (I've emailed clients back at 3am).

The point of this post is to show clients what photographers have to do to be there to provide their services and to show other photographers they are not alone in doing these things. Talent alone does not help in this game. The starving artist saying springs to mind.

B

Business as usual

While my blog posts have not been so active recently I have had some good reason.

Business has been busier over the last few months, which of course in this economy is a good thing. Weddings have kicked off again and its a key PR time with fashion shows, and Miss Northern Ireland recently.

At the moment I am trying to re-evaluate the business plan and marketing plan. So while things look quiet on the outside they are just busy on the inside.

I hope to bring the blog up to date with some new images soon.

B

Blogs I read

While sometimes too busy to keep this blog up to date I always make time to read other blogs of interest.

Here (in no order) is what I'm reading right now:

Photography

Black Star Rising - The business of photography
Planet Neil - Using your flash (mainly on camera) to create better images
Strobist - If you want to create better images there's few places better to start
Wonder of light - Dublin photographer Ciaran Whyte's stories of shooting and some technique articles

Model

Model bitch - A great resource for models (and hence photographers ;))

Fashion

Fashion Rogue - Latest fashion Ad/magazine campaigns in one handy link

I read a few more but for general interest these are what most people are (or should be) reading.

Brendan

LRPS Success Part 2

Continuing on from yesterdays post (not quick enough for some people :))

The second part of the panel was a bit more bridal than the first five images.

The next image was taken during a shoot for a Deborah K.

This image too was taken during a (different) Deborah K shoot. More of a fun shot than the others in the panel.

This is the last one on the panel from the Enchantment shoot. There were so many images from that shoot that could have been put in the panel, in fact I could say I could have easily done a panel on that shoot.

This is the last one from the Deborah K shoots, taken at the same shoot as number 6. I have a few variations of this one as you can see at the top of this blog.

The last shot is from a bridal shoot a few years ago. I just love this image.

The panel layout as the judges would have seen it is shown below. With the LRPS you can be more loose how your panel looks, but this benefit does not extend to the ARPS and FRPS panels. I have already thought about the ARPS, but thats a while ahead yet.

You can view the whole panel better HERE

Thanks for the models (Julie Doherty @ Style Academy, Amanda Capote Miles, Jacqueline Kernaghan, Caroline Reid @ Style Academy, Ruth Jackson, Beccy Milne, Catherine McAteer (3 times!!), Christina Mclean and Britney Lee Banks.)

Also thanks to the MUA, hair and stylists I've worked with on these images.

Oh and for Paul Crawford for keeping me on track with the panel.

Brendan

LRPS success!! Part 1

Recently I headed over to Birmingham to visit the Focus on Imaging event but more importantly to put a panel in for assessment with the Royal Photographic Society.

The Licentiateship is awarded for competence in practical photography which in layman's terms means you have good knowledge of camera work technically and artistically. It is still only one of three awards offered by the RPS the next being Associate and the highest being Fellowship.

It is nice to be recognised by your peers and gives some motivation to get better at what you do to hit them new levels. Photography is always a learning game and awards like this help keep you pushing for yourself and your clients.

The panel is shown below.

The first is an image from the Enchantment shoot last year.

The second image is from a fashion shoot in Fuerteventura in 2008, this has recently became a favourite image of mine after sitting on my hard drive for over 2 years.

The third image is from the Enchantment shoot, a fantastic image (if I say so) but better in print.

The fourth image was from a strobist evening, but you can always create something unique with a great model and some good thinking.

The fifth image is from a model portfolio shoot, this was taken in Zen restaurant Belfast.

Part 2 coming soon...

B

Lucy Evangelista Part 2

Continuing from my last post about Lucy Evangelista I'll show some images from my personal work with Lucy.

I recently moved studio from Lurgan to Belfast, this makes a difference to my time away from family and for business. Lucy was the first model I shot in the studio and this was the first time we shot outside our work. Lucy wanted to do natural light shots (no flash or other photographic lighting) and with the new studio having huge windows that just let the light fall in I was happy to oblige.

The image below was one of the first, with Lucy sitting we just photographed some natural portrait type images. Lucy has a fantastic natural look and its hard to take a bad image. Shot with a 70-200mm, the new studio is long enough to allow me to use such lenses. I kept the cool tone to this image for no other reason than I liked it.

With this image I put Lucy on the wall between the two windows then used a reflector to bounce some light back in to her eyes. Just some RAW processing was used for editing.

The image below was shot against a white breeze-block wall. The wall itself acting as a reflector. I used a 50mm lens for this shot wide open at f1.8. As the day progressed I had to up the ISO to 1600, with today's cameras (Canon 7D in this case) those values are more than do-able. This is one of my favourite shots of Lucy on the day and very little editing was needed.

This is one of the last shots of the day. Using a plastic board I had Lucy lie on her arms to create this reflection shot. ISO moved up to 2000 and by then end of the day 2500, still shooting at f1.8.

Lucy is one of the those models that you could photograph all day. The camera loves her, you just can't go wrong. There is minimal editing to them (Lucy wouldn't let me anyway) and when working with a lot of models that is time saved when you need little post production.

For more information on Lucy you can visit her site at http://www.lucyevangelista.com/

I've more blog posts coming soon, I have an interesting 2011 ahead....

B

Lucy Evangelista

I've worked with many models over the last few years but Lucy has to be the one I've worked with the most in PR work. As an ex-Miss NI and Miss UK she would be generally popular for work, but it took me a few years to get her into the studio on a one to one.

Some of our image of working together (not our one on one):

Shot for the Ivory Restaurant in Belfast.

Shot for Victoria Square (during a hot summer)

Shot for Castlecourt shopping centre, for Santa Grotto 2010.

These image show what I have to do with work, in my next post I'll show my personal work with Lucy. It's very different.

Brendan

Busy

It's been a while since I updated my blog, not for the fact of not wanting to but since October I have been busy with work. Plenty of fashion shows have kept me busy and at the moment I am working with Coca-cola on their "Designated driver" campaign. A worthy cause of giving free coke to drivers for a Christmas anti-drink driving promotion.

Hopefully will bring you up to date with more photos and news soon.

B

Belfast Fashion Week 2010

Belfast Fashion Week is back with it's Autumn/Winter show.

Running from the 13th to 16th October, it starts in Victoria Square's underground car park then moving to the Europa Hotel.

More information is available at www.belfastfashionweek.com

My images from the last few years are available HERE

Sugahfix Enchantment shoot

Sometimes I get the privilege to to work with people on top of their game, and on the "Enchantment" fashion editorial shoot that's what I got. With Katrina Doran from Sugahfix doing the styling (and the publication), Julie Davidson doing make-up and Olivia Muldoon doing hair it the results could only be great.

Our models for the day were Julie Doherty from Style Academy, Christina McLean from Pose models and Catherine McAteer.

I was assisted by John Hanvey who done more than was asked.

Some images from the shoot:

The Sugahfix blog about the shoot is available HERE

A video of Behind the Scenes on YouTube is available HERE

Brendan

Miss Northern Ireland 2010

Last month I covered the Miss Northern Ireland final for the 2nd time covering for the main sponsor Rushmere shopping centre, Craigavon. The event had 26 girls trying to take the title from last years winner Cherie Gardiner.

As usual the dress code is very glamourous:

The eventual winner Lori Moore:

More images are available HERE

B

Value for money?

If anything has changed over the last 2 years it's how people value their money and how they spend it. Even as the economy seems at the start of a recovery it will be a long time before the confidence is back with the consumer to spend like they did before the Credit crunch.

The knock on effect of these spending cuts have been job cuts, if the businesses are not making money they can't afford to pay the staff who work for them. With these people having no jobs to go to they pick up the easiest (or only) thing they can find to do. Many become taxi drivers (with the car at the door its an obvious choice), but on occasion some decide to become photographers and with digital cameras that some has become many.


The first question most photographers get asked is "How much they charge?", below I'll break down why that question should be the last question on your mind. I'm taking this from a wedding photography perspective as most approached to a photographer would be related to wedding photography, but it goes the same for all types of photography and some points even in other industries.

1. Personality - Not the first thing most people think about, but if you are going to pay someone to do a job getting on with them would be a big part of getting the best from your photographer. Like wise they should like you, otherwise it's just going to be a long day. I've heard more complaints from people about personality clashes than a photographer's work. When I ask people to come see me on a booking enquiry, its not just my work they see but also who I am.
2. Work ethic - A hard one to find out without recommendation but let's be honest you want them to turn up on time and do what's expected below.
3. Work quality - Don't just phone a photographer if you know they have a website and haven't checked it. This may actually save you a call if their work is not up to standard that you want (we'll come to that). All photographers put up their best images for people to view but seeing a whole album is a must. So many people shoot over the professional's shoulders now its easy to get a nice shot with no input of their own and pass it off as their own (this happens).How do you know what a good standard of photo is? Look around at a few different photographers websites and look at images carefully, good work can speak for itself very easily. It has been well known that some photographers use a certain style of photography called "photojournalism" to hide their technical ability behind the camera and their interpersonal skills. Paul Crawford, a wedding photographer based in Northern Ireland has a blog on the different styles of wedding photography. 
4. Experience - Any form of photography requires experience to be good and even more to be great. Don't punish a professional of 20 years for charging more than someone who's being doing it 6 months, there's no comparison, honestly. A friend of the family offer? If your aunt hasn't baked the cake then its probably best uncle doesn't do the photos. I've been doing this for 5 years FYI.
5. Presentation - CD, Prints or Album. In film days there was one option only and the pricing structure was a lot more simplified, making price comparison a lot easier. Today people have a huge choice and that's good, but....you can't really compare someone selling a £200 CD package to £600 album package, surprisingly it happens, A LOT. The quality of albums can vary hugely too and that affects the end price. Prices up to and over £2500 is not out of the ordinary for bespoke albums.
6. Equipment - You don't have to have the latest equipment to take the best photographs but it helps. A working photographer should really have no less than two cameras, and backups of the most important equipment needed to work. This of course affects the over all price. The last thing a bride wants to hear on her wedding day is "My cameras broke....".
7. Insurance - Equipment insurance, Public liability insurance and Public indemnity insurance. A working photographer knows what these are and more importantly have them.

If you only have a certain budget this is going to restrict the type of photographer you can get, but just remember sometimes that an extra £100 on a photography budget makes a BIG difference. Ask yourself "Why is that photographers so cheap/expensive?." The best advice is to shop around but not on price but value for money.

B

Miss NI at Rushmere

Once again Rushmere being key sponsor to the Miss Northern Ireland event held its own heat in the centre on the 24th April. Over 30 girls turned up, with 2 eventual winners, Miss Rushmere and Miss Craigavon.

These are the eventual two winners:

The final is held on June 21st, I'll be there covering for Rushmere.

All photos from the Rushmere heat are HERE

For more information on Miss NI contest go HERE

B

Face of Bar Seven

I recently covered the first round of the Face of Bar 7 in the Odyssey Arena.

The event was for a male and female to be the face of the club for the next year, there must have been around 40 entrants:

The contestants had to show some "talent" to the judges, we had a Michael Jackson fan:

and for those with no "talent" there was always the Baywatch run:

More photo on my Flickr.

The final is on Saturday the 24th of April.

B

New site

Finally got the new site up somewhat.

Both domains www.brendangallagher.com and www.brendangallagher.net point to the new site.

Hope you like it

B

Earth Hour

Following my last Earth Hour post, the world event seemed to have went very well.

All major cities around the world put out the lights of their famous buildings and in Belfast we did the same.

I covered Queens University going out last night (27th), thankfully the rain stayed off and the coldness lifted.

For more information on the Earth Hour event go here http://www.earthhour.org/

B