Caitlin & Nathaniel from Ontario came to Ireland this summer to get married. They were looking for a fairytale wedding and they found the ideal location at Cloghan Castle in Loughrea, Co. Galway. They brought 40 guests from Canada, most of them had never been to Ireland so it was a great to watch them immerse themselves in a place that is very Irish! Kate Deegan from Co-Me looked after all the planning.

Caitlin and Nathaniel said “we wanted to thank you for doing such a phenomenal job at the wedding. We really appreciated how professional, respectful, and helpful you were that day (even amongst all the chaos!), and we had an absolute blast hanging out with you!”

Here are some of my favourites:

congratulations to Val & Rob, married at Bellinter House Navan, Co. Meath, Ireland in March 2011. More images from this wedding can be seen on the Best of Wedding blog.

The blaa has a very unique place in Waterford culture. The small, square roll dusted in flour has been produced in Waterford since the 1600s but, because it is preservative-free, it has a very short shelf life and has not travelled beyond the county. This morning at 7.30am I photographed blaas being made using traditional, handmade methods at M&D Bakery on Mount Sion Avenue in the City. This bakery is named after two brothers, Michael and Dermot Walsh, who are third generation bakers in the family, recently won the prestigious Eurotoque award for uniqueness and quality. Here is look at the process:

Some favourite images from Claire & Paul’s wedding. Married in the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore Co. Waterford.

Some images from a recent wedding in Carraigaline in Co Cork. Congratulations to Lorcan & Michelle. Rain is not always a bad thing for documentary wedding photography. It often adds an unexpected dimension to the story telling process.

The legendary “Bard of Salford” was in town on Thursday to perform as part of the Imagine Arts Festival. I made a call on the off chance that he was free for a few shots in the afternoon. He was and kindly agreed. What was supposed to be a quick 30 minute shoot turned into 3hrs! John was as generous with his stories as he was with his time. He talked about everything from Ian Curtis & his favourite band The New York Dolls to his gratitude to Alex Turner, whom he attributes to his current popularity. Throw in a few random poems and curious onlookers who thought I was photographing Ronnie Wood - it’s an afternoon I won’t forget in a hurry. Big thanks to Sinead Flynn and Ollie Breslin for organising it all.

UPDATE: nice to see I made the FWA One Photo a Day with one of the above shots http://www.fwaphoto.com/#/2009-11-16/

I got lucky in Longford last week. The night before a commision, I was recommended Viewmount House just outside the town as a place to bed down.  I looked it up online and found out was on about every decent “places to stay” list there is. When I checked out the website there was an advert promoting an evening with Tom Doorley, a well known food critic for the The Irish Daily Mail. The resident chef Gary O’Hanlon created a set menu of five courses and Tom was going to select a wine to go with each. Normally when travelling, you end up eating all kinds of tripe so I was delighted to see that this event was on the same night as my stay. Except it was booked out! However I managed to strike a deal with the owner, they would make room for me in the bar at my own table provided I took a few images of the evening. Deal! This is what I got …   Viewmount House and “VM” Restaurant are worthy of the hype.