Who is that masked man?

Why it’s the one and only Des Bishop! Taken at a recent shoot for Des to promote his new tour, tentatively titled Des Bishop Bangs!

Des is a wonderful subject to photograph. He is game for anything because he understands the power of a strong image. Here are some of the other images we have created over the last couple of years.

Click on an thumbnail to view images

My third shoot with The Coronas and I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do with them that I hadn’t already done. The good thing is we are all more comfortable with each other, which makes for a more relaxed atmosphere, which in turn means you can try things that might not work, rather than sticking to what you know will work.

Hot Press wanted to feature Danny more in the cover shot, as a strong single person shot will always look better on the cover than 4 or 5 equally sized people in a band. I visualised exactly what would eventually end up as the cover and I’m very pleased and surprised how well it worked! Danny is the main focus, but the rest of the band still feature. the guitar slung to the side, with the hands gunslinger style and the diagonal of the strap add a tension and dynamic to the image.

After that, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I remembered I had bought a ringflash that I’d never used, so I decided to see if I could use that in a creative way. God help them , the ringflash is blinding and I’m sure they walked around for the rest of the day with a black circle in the centre of their eyes every time they blinked.

The last shot was a bonus. The band were leaving, Danny was the last in line. He’d put on his coat and pulled his hood up and I just had to stop him and shoot him like that.

Lovely bunch of lads, they’re playing 5 nights in The Olympia at Christmas and promised me a box if I want to go. Not sure if they were serious or if the management will be so obliging, 

photo courtesy TV3

The apprentice came to my studio recently to film a task. This episode airs next Monday 31st Oct at 9pm on TV3, Halloween night!

As soon as the episode airs next Monday, I can tell you all about what happened and show you some images, one in particluar, I really like. It was great fun to be involved and a real insight into the whole process.

Stay tuned!

Click on image to see more

This is Bob Howard (72), my wife’s uncle and he’s just back from North Korea where he was promoted to “Grandmaster” 9th Dan Black Belt in Taekwon-Do. He is one of only 8 people in the world at this level and the only one in Europe. He asked me if I could take a few photos of him for the press release. How could I refuse!

Like most people, I watched the events of Tuesday Sept 11th unfold on television. The only difference being, my television happened to be a giant screen in Times Sq, New York.

I was there to do a shoot in New York on Saturday Sept 16th. Lorraine, my then girlfriend, now wife,
and I decided to make a holiday of it and went for a week. We had been to New York once before, in March of the previous year, and loved it.
We flew in to JFK airport on Monday Sept 10th. The next morning, a beautiful warm sunny morning,
we were up early and having breakfast in a sidewalk cafe near Central Park. A man walking along
the street stopped at our table and said, A plane has crashed into one of the twin towers.
At first, we thought maybe he was mad, but when I went into the cafe to pay, everyone,
from the waitress to the chef, were watching the television. So, we walked, towards,
what in a few hours would forever more be known as, Ground Zero.
The streets were full of people, all the office and construction workers were down from the skyscrapers,
all walking the other way. There were queues six deep at every available telephone.
Everyone on their mobiles, trying to get through to relatives, the only problem, one of the main masts
for communications was on one of the towers. After about an hour, we found a pay phone to call home,
the guy in front, using it was covered in dust.
We walked as far as we could, to Greenwich Village; past the hospitals with queues of people waiting
to give blood that, in the end wasn’t needed. Past people just getting on with their days,
sunbathing and eating lunch in the parks.

To Thompson Street where I had taken a shot of the twin towers the previous year.
I wasn’t sure if it was the same street, because the towers weren’t there to guide me anymore.

You can view the New York images HERE

Another shoot with the lovely Miriam O’Callaghan. She always looks so glamorous, I thought we’d go for a low key, very natural look this time and focus on Miriam’s amazing cheekbones and eyes. As always, she was the true professional, very down to earth and cooperative and before you know it, you’re telling her all your innermost secrets! Time was tight as Hot Press were going to print later that day. We started at 2pm and I had to shoot, edit, upload proofs and send in the final images by 6pm. Hot Press is out now!

I really enjoyed this shoot with Paul Martin. It makes all the difference to the final images if the subject gets involved and game to try a few things. It didn’t hurt that he looked great too, very stylish, slim and dark.

The book on fire was Paul’s idea. He has just been made the editor of The Irish Sunday Mirror (the youngest ever) having previously been the Showbiz correspondent and this was him burning his contacts book with all the stories he couldn’t tell!

The smoke and flames are real. We had to work quickly before the flames reached Paul’s hand. I did a test first with flash, but the intensity of the flash overpowered the flames and made them completely invisible. So I turned off the flash heads altogether and just used the modelling light and a high ISO on the camera and that worked.

Another shoot with the most beautiful but camera shy man ever, Mr Paolo Nutini. His management and the record company were well pleased with the last shoot we did together, so they went all out this time to make sure I had everything I needed. The most amazing studio I’ve worked in, huge, with loads of interesting areas to shoot in. Infinity cove, daylight studio, blackout area and great stairs etc. The dressing room was about the same size as my studio! They laid on a stylist, hair and make-up and had all the equipment that I had asked for waiting for me when I arrived. They even sent a chauffeur to collect me at the airport in Glasgow. I could get used to this!

As I said Paolo hates having his photo taken and will do almost anything to avoid it. So he convieniently had a last minute doctor’s appointment on the day of the shoot and was a tad delayed. Let’s just say, I could have caught a later flight. so naturally it all became a bit of a rush to get everything done before my flight home.

The shoot almost ended on the very first shot. They had hired a vintage Vespa scooter and the stylist was told under no circumstances was she to give Paolo the keys, but with things running so late, the guy turned up to collect the bike just as I am shooting Paolo sitting on it. Next thing I see is Paolo tearing up the road, a taxi pulled out a side street and he just managed to swerve around it as he disappears in a cloud of vintage smoke around the bend. The manager and the bike owner ran after him and a few minutes later back they come, with Paolo on the back this time, explaining he had only ever ridden a automatic  before, not one with a clutch and gears. Apart from a few scuffs on his new boots, no damage done. The rest of the shoot went in a bit of a blur, as I tried to make use of as many of the locations as I could and then it was a mad dash to the airport, as usual, just making the gate before it closed.

Everyone was very happy with the results. Hot Press and The Big Issue in the UK have both used some of the images for covers and inside spreads so far. There are tons more, but here are some that have already been published.

Just remember, if Paolo comes calling, hide your keys!

My new wind machine seems to be working!

I haven’t laughed so much since Billy Connelly in his heyday. Jason is just naturally very, very funny. I don’t know what his ” Cirque du Byrne” shows in Australia were about, because he spent a lot of time talking about the Queen’s visit to Dublin and other things that had only just happened. Hilarious. We had a drink afterwards and he told me my photo of him had worked really well and got tons of press and magazine covers in Australia. It even featured on The Graham Norton Show last week when he was on with Lady Gaga, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeffery Rush!

If you get a chance to catch his “Cirque du Byrne” show, do yourself a favour and go!