Just one more time?

I had a lovely bunch of spring crocuses ready for this week's blog, then on Monday morning we woke up to snow.

We were on our way to the National Concert Hall. The Gloaming a group of musical wizards led by Martin Hayes, were about to play to a packed house. It's like Irish traditional music, jazz and trance blended into a new genre, uniquely theirs. 

When Martin, the King of the Faeries takes off with this wild fiddle playing, the rest of them follow, barely hanging onto his coat-tails.  And then the audience is swept away with them, until we are all circling the lofty hall soaring through these dramatic riffs, in the flow of the old stories from the time before time. 

Even their opening piece of about 15 minutes long, got a standing ovation.....

Then afterwards, fan that I am didn't I run into Martin standing beside the cloakroom just as I collected my coat, twas still sleeting and snowing a bit. He held out his hand and I told him about my favourite quote of his "knowing the wisdom of what's all around you and playing that" and how it relates to contemplative photography. (I now KNOW he has a set of gossamer wings hidden under those clothes) 

They play in Australia and New Zealand next week.  Never, ever pass up a chance to spend an evening with them.....

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Studying light

I'm going to write more about contemplative photography and unravelling what it means. How it can enrich your life and your creative practice, no matter what that is. How it can help to infuse more soul into your work. How it can help to develop your visual sensibilities and enhance the quality of what you do.

Its just like any other contemplative practice, a very personal experience. But the inklings I am following for 2015 suggest that my own developing practice might be something worth sharing. I'd love to know if there are questions you would ask about either improving your photography or about a contemplative approach to photography? Just leave a comment with your thoughts or questions and it will help me greatly in knowing where to begin with this.....or even if to begin!

Light is everything, and I once spent a full year studying nothing else. It is a wonderful starting point for observation; for seeing everything with new eyes. These rare icy mornings can be overcast and misty. But sometimes there is a delicious combination of ice and sunlight which creates little rainbow coloured bubbles. Known in photography as bokeh, it's from a Japanese word meaning blur or haze.

Today it's like the morning sun just spread handfuls of silvery bokeh glitter on everything.....

These photos were taken at ground level with a fully open aperture and very particular conditions that don't happen around here too often. That moment when the ice softens and the moisture picks up the light just enough to shine.

If you are interested in beginning a photography practice then start by studying light. Where the sun rises and sets. How subjects alter at different times of the day. The way the seasons influence the shadow falls on the landscape. How light falling softly on a child's face creates a special radiance.

Meanwhile in the spirit of contemplative photography look out for what is going on around you and above all else open your heart to it......

Seeing red

It's not something we see around here in the dead of winter. Red, the colour of vibrance, heat, attention. So any little pop of red here on the lane is precious and impossible to ignore.

I've gone through most of life not wanting to stand out or be too brash. The (so called) worst thing a girl can be, is a bit of a show off. And yet when I meet a young girl with a twinkling sense of her own mischief I love it. Don't you?

Look here how a bit of showing off cheers up the day, sparkles in the greyness of January and brings such happiness? And anyway for a photographer, one of the ground rules is always photograph RED!

An icy road trip

Our Celitc Tiger motorway from Waterford to Dublin, the M9, bypasses Thomastown, Kilkenny, Carlow and all the narrow villages we used to know so intimately. Unfortunately it's also now against the rules of the road to stop and photograph the landscape. 

This part of Ireland has it's own story; gentle rolling hills, the flat plains of the midlands, and lots of old trees. A journey through an inland maze of fields, all sky and agriculture.

So on this eerie early morning road trip, I shot these frosty trees and fog as the sun came up, just because I was a passenger and for once and I could..... 



PS 

Thank you so much to everyone who shopped here in the Foxglove Lane Studio over Christmas. While it was a very busy time it was also good to connect with so many of you who are becoming like old friends at this stage! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, it has been very encouraging.

I'm having a short SALE at the moment and while the hardback book is still available you can now get the download version of the book here  here reduced to 1.99 euros.  

In other news I have just begun to sell a new range of Limited Edition Fine Art Prints  Each one is a result of layering paintings, textures and photographs and is something I hope to explore much more in 2015. 

Here's to a fresh New Year!