Some favourite shots from a recent colaboration with Buds and Berries on location at Bellinter House is Navan, Co. Meath. I used quite a bit of Polaroid this time around, the b&w images below are from a batch that expired over 30 years ago. It held up amazingly well.

Rodolphe from Best Day Productions was there to catch a look behind the scenes ..

The material was featured on the One Fab Day website and also was published in Confetti Magazine.

Credits:

PHOTOGRAPHER: Shane O’Neill www.aspectphotography.net
ASSISTED BY: Simon Curran www.iamacosmonaut.com
CINEMATOGRAPHY: www.bestdayproductions.com
CONCEPT ORIGINATION/STYLING AND FLORISTRY:
Felicity Brady/Paul Cullen, www.budsandberries.com
MODELS: Daniella Moyles and Neal Dempsey
LOCATION: Bellinteer House, Co Meath, www.bellinterhouse.com
MAKE UP: Hayley Mia McGowan, www.hayleymcgowan.com
HAIR:Lorraine Browne, www.lorrainebrownehair.com
DANIELLA’S CLOTHING: www.dirtyfabulous.com
www.larasfashion.com and shoes, www.rubyshoes.ie
JEWELLED HEADPIECE by Stacey Hannan, www.staceyhannandesigns.com
VESPA borrowed from John Martin Kenny at The Pit Stop Krew,
T: 085 7770048

On Monday 29th of September 2011 I received an email from the living legend that is Paul Giambarba - the man responsible for the branding of Polaroid. He is using one of my shots in his “Instant Talent” blog. To quote him “The aim of adding Instant Talent to this blog is to introduce very special talent from all over the world whom I discover as I search the Internet”

This is quite an honour! The image he chose was one my of first wedding polaroids, The shot of Éadaoin & Daniel on the steps of an old country manor in Tipperary catches people by surprise as it is difficult to tell when the image was taken. It could easily be decades old. Paul discusses this ..

He also mentioned that he was in my home town of Waterford in 1955. He did not start work with Poalroid until 1957 but I asked him if he shot any images. He responded “I was shooting 35mm Kodachrome, which surprisingly hasn’t faded much, with Hitler’s old Contax.” I think he meant Zeiss Ikon Contax not his actual property! He is looking for the negatives for me as I write this.

This was a great experience to interact with a person who was so instrumental in making Polaroid the brand it became. The architect of a photographic and cultural phenomenon that is still so strong years after the brand’s demise. A true living legend.

UPDATE

Paul kindly sent me some images from his honeymoon in Ireland in 1955. Shot of Kodachrome 35mm, they still look crisp over 50 years later. These are great scenes:

Ashford Castle Grounds.

Castlehill, Co Tipperary.

O’Connell St, Dublin.

Unknown

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.

On December 30th, Genevieve Sheehan from Tampa Florida & Troy Meyer from Brecksville, Ohio were married in St. Mary’s Church in Navan, Co Meath, where her grandparents had tied the knot 56 years previously. They met through the TV show Jeopardy! - the story behind how they met was so special that that New York Times sent a photographer and reporter to cover the story. Take a look here. These are some of my favourite shots from the day:

the above image was shot on a Polaroid 600SE with Type 100 “669″ film - out of date since 03/2009

Rodolphe from Mary Best Day Productions sent me brilliant video he shot behind the scenes at Bantry House for the Pearl & Godiva shoot. He called me a few weeks prior to the shoot asking if I had any interesting projects on the horizon which he could shadow as he wanted to test out a Canon 5D mkII for video. He did a great job, his take on the day can be seen here. The low dept of field looks great in video and it gives an insight into the approach we took. You can see me fiddling about with the Polaroid 600SE. There are so many things to check before you take an actual shot but thats why I love it. I should point out that I have since had a hair cut! I’m sure Kate Rose & Sarah will be delighted with this video too.

Well done Rodolphe.

http://vimeo.com/19250781

Last week I travelled to Bantry House in Co. Cork for a location shoot for Pearl & Godiva -a vintage china hire company. Accompanied by the sleepy make-up artist Kate Rose Crean, we had a two fold approach to the day - product and a seperate model shoot. The latter would be used to establish mood on the Pearl & Godiva website and it proved to be an excellent idea. Lockdown provided the models Maedbh & Ronan.

The shoot itself was almost entirely captured with the amazing natural light in Bantry House. I brought along the Polaroid 600SE and fired off some of the last batch of the legendary Type 100 669 bought from The Impossible Project. The surroundings were very conducive to the film, even if some exposures were 20 seconds+

Others involved in the shoot were:

Hair www.sobebrown.com

Flowers www.hanako.yolasite.com

Clothes and Accessories by www.dirtyfabulous.com

Beaded Bridal hair jewellery by www.staceyhannandesigns.com

Cupcakes by www.be-mycupcake.com

Macaroons by www.petitsfours.ie/

A big well done to Sarah from Pearl & Godiva from bringing it all together.

Here are some images:

(above - Polaroid Type 100 - 669 film - 20 second exposure @ f8)

(above - shot with a Camera Diana+ lens and Nikon adapter)

While travelling between meetings in East Cork yesterday I managed to shoot a pack of Polaroid Type 100 Blue Film (Paul Giambarba Edition) into my Polaroid 600SE. This film produces gentle monochromatic blue tones ranging from lilac to deep blue. My plan was to keep the landscape work minimal, this location worked great because it was pretty stark with plenty of lines in ground from the cut crops and farm machinery indentations. It was tough to compose with the viewfinder system, hopefully the acquisition of a Mamiya Press focusing screen will help take a lot of guess work out. Needless to say, the scans do little justice to the end product but it gives a good impression of the film’s capabilities. The polaroids were backward peeled to leave a paper border on the image.  All images were shot handheld - 1/60sec @ f16. Thanks to John Dunne for allowing me to access the land.