43 Headshots in 6 hours. Not easy, but very enjoyable. Irish Distillers are a subsidiary of the French drinks conglomerate Pernod-Ricard S.A. They were great to work with from the very start. A meeting 3 weeks before the shoot gave me a chance to check out the location and ask any questions I had.

On the day itself, everything moved fast, but the preparation before the shoot paid off, and everything went smoothly. I was assisted by the very talented Will Rolfe. It was great to have someone to help, and Will was excellent with the lighting, the equipment and the staff.

We were blessed with the weather. It was bright, dry and not too windy on 2 sides of the building. The building was ideal for this shoot, as the client wanted a variation of backdrops, with a casual feel to them. I had picked out about 10 different locations in and around the building, but on the day we found plenty more spots that were interesting

The setup for each shot was pretty straightforward. natural light with some fill-in flash in the shadows. I used a 7D, with a 70-200mm 2.8 and a 50mm 1.4. both these lenses provided razor sharp detail and super depth of field. The other very useful equipment was an ipad mini, which was great for keeping track of the schedule and recording the file numbers.

There were no problems on the day, which was very surprising, considering there was so many people to be photographed in such a short time.

The post processing was the longest part of the job. I had over a thousand photographs, and I had to go through each one. Lightroom is excellent at organising photographs. After about an hour, I had tagged them, titled them and sorted them into collections. Once that was done, it was case of resizing and some adjustments of colour balance, exposure and levels. All that was left was to sharpen and export for print and web.

All the files were transferred to the client by dropbox. I also met up with the client to give them a contact sheet folder of all the files. They were extremely happy with the shots, and I hope to be working for them again in the future. Here are a few of the shots from the day..

If you enjoyed this blog post, please share it using the buttons below. If you are interested in hiring me to take headshots for your business or for yourself, you can contact me at rob@rocshot.com

A lot of my work in 2012 was event photography. I’m glad this is the case, as I love shooting them. I have been lucky with the clients that I have had, especially South Dublin County Council. Most of the events I cover are for them. They don’t get in my way and they trust me to get the shots. I have the freedom to go where I want, take what I want and edit the way I want. Obviously I get the few set up shots that are needed, but mostly I am shooting with a long lens (70-200mm 2.8), from a distance. The results are usually photographs of people in relaxed poses and natural expressions. I would recommend this style to any event organiser over the formal staged shots that you see everywhere.

The other bonus of shooting events is the variety of photographs you get. Every event is so different. Different people, locations and props. I had the pleasure of shooting some well known personalities in 2012. President Michael D Higgins, Katie Taylor and Bernard Dunne to name a few. I have picked out 10 of my favourites for this post. Just like my last post, I will add a few images at the end, that didn’t make it into the top 10.

10. St. Patrick’s Day. Tallaght Stadium

A fun photo to kick this Top 10 off. This was taken at the St. Patrick’s Day Festival in Tallaght Stadium. I like this shot, as it captures the evening event perfectly. Everyone had a great time, and it was excellently organised by Tallaght Stadium. For more images of the event click here.

9. Catherine Fulvio Cooking Demo

Minutes after the demo was over, there was a stampede for what she had cooked. Catherine Fulvio is a celebrity chef, who runs the internationally acclaimed Ballyknocken Cookery School. This event was excellent. The hardest thing about shooting it was that I hadn’t eaten before it! The photo itself shows great energy and enthusiasm from the crowd. There was nothing left on the plates a minute later. For more images from the day click here.

8. Kevin Keeley. Spirit Festival

I ended up photographing Kevin about 5 times in 2012. Kevin was a contestant on the RTE hit show The Voice. He was a nice guy to deal with and was good with his fans after the gigs. He got knocked out of The Voice in the quarter final. i like the simplicity of this shot. There is nothing distracting, yet it also has a sharp feel to it. The event itself was excellent. The Spirit festival was a free event for 12-18 year olds, providing information on mental health. It was organised by South Dublin County Council.

7. Sam Maguire Visit

I always love working for The Irish Blood Transfusion Board. They always have fun events and their headquarters are one of my favourite buildings. This event was held for competition winners to get photos taken with the Sam Maguire. For those of you outside Ireland, the Sam Maguire is the trophy awarded to the All Ireland Football Champions. I like the composition of this photo. The placement of the logo in the background also keeps the client happy.

6. Mayor Cathal King 

It took me a while to get this shot, as he kept moving around. I wanted to get the eyes on either side of him. It actually summed up the event pretty well. It was a Monster Doodle event, where kids drew a massive drawing in all the different libraries in South County Dublin. It was run by Children’s Laureate, Niamh Sharkey and all the events were streamed live on google hangouts. Sinn Fein Councilor Cathal King was elected Mayor of South Dublin County in 2012, and I have had the pleasure of photographing him several times. To see more images from this event click here.

5. Timebank

The launch of the Lucan Adamstown Time Bank by Mayor Caitríona Jones took place in Adamstown Community College. It was a very colourful and musical affair, organised by Educate together and South Dublin County council. The Timebank was setup to encourage school kids to get involved in their community, and they would be awarded credits in return. More info on that here. I love the colour in this shot. Its so bright and fun.

4. The P.C Players

The P.C Players are an amateur drama group from Lucan. They have performed over 11 productions and are in the middle of No. 12! Check them out here. I enjoyed this so much. The energy form all the participants made for some great photos. The lighting was a challenge, but also led to some great photos without the flash. To see more shots from Cinderella, click here.

3. TEDx

This was the second time covering this event. Organised by South Dublin Libraries, it features a variety of speakers. I love the lighting of this event. Very dark in the auditorium and nice bright light on the speakers. This gives you lots of opportunities to get interesting effects. The show was hosted by Internet blogger Darragh Doyle and Magician Shane Gillen.

2. Book Bake Off

I love food related events! ..and so does everyone else, so it’s always a great event for photos. Everyone is in a good mood. This was a bake off competition held in Tallaght Library, so all the creations had to be book related. There were some amazing entries. I chose this photo because of the girls concentration. There were people everywhere, all trying to taste the delights, but this girl didn’t move. She just took her time and didnt move for anyone. More shots from this event here.

1. President Michael D Higgins

This shot wins for me because of its lighting and composition, but also because of who it is. I like that his character is brought out through the hint of colour in his tie and the smile on his face. I photographed him twice this year, but at this event he spoke for a good 30 minutes and was excellent. He had everyone listening to every word. It was at Reader’s Day in The Civic Theatre. I also saw one of the strangest things that day when President Higgins decided to have a coffee in the cafe next door, after the event. His security guards were noticeably uncomfortable as people started streaming into the small coffee shop! More photos from this event are here.

That concludes my list of Top 10 Event Photos of 2012. I hoped you enjoyed them. If you did, please share this on whatever networks you use! Cheers

My next post will be live later in the week.

Rob

Edit*

Here are some of the images which just missed out on this Top 10. Click on them to see them larger..

10. First Up..William Porterfield

Sorry to start with a negative one, but lets get it out of the way! William Porterfield was dismissed first ball, for the 5th time in 2012, when he missed an inswinging yorker from Fidel Edwards. Just before taking this shot, I had joked with the photographer beside me that he should be ready to get the first ball. They both missed it, but to be fair to Porterfield, it was some delivery from Edwards. To see more photos from this game from the T20 World Cup, click here.

9. Clontarf Crowned Champions

Bill Coughlan gets drenched in champagne by his Clontarf teammates, after beating Pembroke to win the RSA Leinster Senior Cup. It was a great match to photograph. It had everything. Great pitch (especially considering the weather), large crowd, quality cricket, and unfortunately some unsporting behaviour. Fortunately for me though, all these things make for good photographs. You can see other photos from this game here.

8. Stirling Effort

What a year for Paul Stirling. This might be the only thing that got away from him in 2012. Stirling ended 2012, with a batting average of 32 and 21 wickets at 19.3. He picked up the Player of the Year award at the Cricket Ireland Awards. He signed a 3 year contract with Middlesex and also found the time to win the CricketEurope Ireland Award for Outstanding Performance for 2012. The photo is from the T20 World Cup game versus Australia. You can see more from that game here.

7. Super Women

2012 was a very good year for Women’s Cricket in Ireland. The senior team won the ECB Division 3 league and were promoted. One of the most exciting thing to happen was the Super 3′s competition, held in Rathmines and featured all the top players in the country. The experiment of playing with the pink ball and in coloured clothing was a huge success, and is now being introduced to the Leinster leagues in 2013. This photo shows all three teams after the tournament. For more images from the day click here.

6. Leinster Rugby Triumph

The Leinster Rubgy team had a taste of success this year, on the cricket pitch. They won the inaugural ‘Battle of the Big Hitters‘ back in July. The game was played between The Cricket Ireland XI and the Leinster Rugby XI. The game raised over €20,000 for Spinal Injuries Ireland. Over 1000 people attended the event in Pembroke Cricket Club. I was pleasently suprised at how good the rugby lads were at cricket. They had either been in the nets or cricket isnt actually that difficult! I really hope it wasn’t a once off. For more photos from this event click here.

5. Rankin Retires

2012 saw the retirement of Boyd Rankin from Irish cricket. This was taken minutes after being told he had failed a fitness test, and would miss the T20 World Cup game v West Indies. I have never seen someone so gutted. He walked around, looking lost and staring into space. He obviously realised that his time with Ireland was up. Players retire all the time, but what made this big news was the reason given. Boyd said that “I feel I probably have a two-year window to break into the England side and, to give myself the best chance of doing that, I had to give up playing for Ireland” (cricinfo). I say fair play to him. Everyone should aim to be at the top of their chosen sport or business and I wish him luck.

4. Trent Fired Up

I could be wrong on this, but I dont think I have seen Trent Johnston play with as much passion and intensity as he did in 2012. Maybe it is because he knows his days are numbered on the international stage, or maybe he has found a new lease of life. This is not to say that he was missing any passion before now, but for me, I noticed a shift in gears. This shot is from the ODI v Afghanistan in Clontarf, back in July. For more photos from the game click here.

3. Lucky Break

I love this shot, even though there are so many problems with it. You cant see the batsman’s face and the background is distracting. But who cares, when you get a stump smashing into pieces! You very rarely see this happen, so to be lucky enough to be taking a photo at the same time is pretty unusual. I actually have a few frames on either side of this one which are pretty good also, but this one was the most clear. You can see those other shots here. Alex Cusak is the bowler and it was taken in Rathmines, at the Intercontinental Cup match v Afghanistan.

2. The Rainy Season

2012 was wet. Very wet. This shot summed up Ireland’s T20 World Cup campaign. We were knocked out of the competition after playing less than a game and a half. We played more warm up games than tournament games, and our game against the West Indies was the only game to be abandoned due to the rain. Very unlucky, but we were used to it. The summer back home was worse, with almost every game being effected by the weather. Even the South Africans went home early because of it.

1. The Evolution of Irish Cricket

And in first place.. ‘The Evolution of Irish Cricket‘.  This wins for me, because it says a lot about Irish cricket at the moment. Trent Johnston looks tired, like a man who has given everything. A composed Kevin O’ Brien, in the middle of his career, shows his passion and excitement. An energetic Gary Wilson, who has cemented his place as keeper during 2012, leaps into action in the background.  It captures how much Irish Cricket has evolved so quickly. As an image its an ok one. The background is very distracting and broken up, but the arrangment of the players and the moment of intensity makes up for it. The shot was taken at the Intercontinental match v Afghanistan in Rathmines. More of these can be found here.

That concludes my Top 10 Irish Cricket Photos of 2012. I hope it has reminded you of some good memories. Please feel free to share this post with your friends and families. There are handy links below.

My next post will be live later in the week.

Rob

Edit*

Here are some of the images which just missed out on this Top 10. Click on them to see them larger..

My first few posts are planned out already. They will be Top 10′s of 2012. Hopefully these will help to summarise my work over the last year. They will try to be fun but also informative.