one-of-a-kind vintage brooch bouquets...

A few weeks ago I posted about how I had started making some vintage brooch bouquets
that I was planning on selling on Etsy. I only had one had done at that point. A couple of days before the Etsy shoot at Burtown House, I had finished the second one. The second one is composed of mainly gold brooches and little blue vintage paper flowers that had been made in Occupied Japan. Here they are in a former blog post.

And here is the bouquet held during the Easter Etsy Shoot we did recently. I think this bouquet really has a French 18th century feel to it. I could imagine Marie Antoinette having one at her wedding!

This one has delicate little butterflies and gorgeous brooches and earrings from 1930s-50s designers such as Coro, Lisner, and Hollycraft.

The stem of the bouquet is wrapped in understated ivory grosgrain ribbon. Have a look in my new Etsy shop Starry Flower Love

I can't wait to see the photographs of the brides who carry these!

my first styled shoot at Burtown House, County Kildare with Pearl from Pearl & Godiva and Rodolphe from Best Day Productions

Last Wednesday I did my first styled shoot. I thought up the idea a couple of weeks ago and got the shoot done all within a week and a half! The theme was to be Easter DIY Bridal Party in the Garden, and the challenge was to use all items from Etsy Ireland sellers. I frantically convoed a bunch of Etsy Ireland sellers and asked them to send me things. And thankfully people trusted me and sent me their beautiful creations. A full list follows some of my pictures from the day.

While Pearl from Pearl & Godiva styled the main part of the shoot in the orchard and Rosa from Rosa-O Makeup did the girl's hair and makeup, I set up a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. I had dyed eggs previously (with dye my mom sent over from the US because it can't be bought in Ireland), and hid them in a beautiful little rock garden under a cherry blossom tree at Burtown House, which will soon open for outdoor weddings and wedding photography in the gardens.

 Pearl brought along a mama bunny and her two little babies and you can see the kids were more than delighted with the whole thing.
But the real stars of the shoot were Tara and Eva, the two transition year students who agreed to model in a trade-off for me teaching them photography earlier as their work experience.

Aren't they gorgeous? They really worked hard to "model" for the shoot and did a fantastic job.

I have so many images from this fabulous shoot so have a better look here http://www.lisaodwyerweddings.com/Other/Easter-Party-Etsy-Ireland/16554975_kJqsb#1246824010_Pdqye

All of the Etsy sellers are listed there so you can shop for all of the goodies we've introduced in the shoot. More images from the shoot detailing my brooch bouquets soon to come.
And can you believe this beautiful video Rodolphe of Best Day Productions did?

secretgarden from 3550 lux studio on Vimeo.

easter eggs...

I grew up in Pennsylvania, and so like any other American kid, I dyed Easter eggs with my family. You can buy the dyes in pellet form and then you just add them to water, and plop the egg in. White eggs make a purer, brighter colour, but I couldn't find ANY white eggs in Ireland, and so our dyed brown Easter eggs have a more muted hue.

 

If you've been following my facebook or Twitter, you might have seen that I did a styled Easter DIY bride theme shoot using items from Etsy Ireland this week. It was a fantastic shoot at Burtown House near Athy, and I'm looking forward to sharing the pictures. I had a couple eggs left and used them to take some photographs yesterday. Enjoy!

how to make group shots interesting, fun, and different?

When I first started shooting weddings, I absolutely dreaded the group pictures. It's so easy to line everyone up and shoot (with my camera!), than to organise an artfully composed shot of unruly, hungry people at a wedding. But if the group really trusts my creativity, and the people themselves are relaxed and willing to break the line, we can create some inspiring group images. I think the above wedding party group shot I took in Dublin last Spring has to be one of my all-time favourites. A great way to loosen people up and get them to pose is to have a drink. And there's no better drink in Ireland than Guinness!

I like this one too at Cabra Castle from a wedding I photographed this past year. Who says the bride and groom and have to be up front in a group shot? And having a person or two sit on a chair arm really breaks up the balance a bit and adds visual interest to group shots. They all look as if they've been sitting having a chat in the drawing room. Pre-Guinness obviously!

Bridesmaids go really well in a beautiful bathtub if there happens to be one in the room like there is in The Morgan in Dublin. Use interesting interior or architectural features to your advantage.

And if you have a big family group and stairs to pose them on, put them into little groups. It adds much more interest than just standing them in a line.

Pay attention too while other people are taking photographs of the groups. Often a group is more relaxed if they know the "official" photographer isn't snapping away at them. You are sure to get some natural shots as the observer.

Any group shots that you've done that were really successful? Let us know!

Talbot, the British inventor of the calotype...3rd in the series of the history of photography

On the other side of the sea from France and Daguerre, a British man was inventing a photographic process called the calotype, which is an early precursor to the modern process of photography. This man was William Henry Fox Talbot, as can be seen above in a portrait by John Moffat from 1864. There's an interesting story in the development and subsequent patent of Talbot's negative/positive calotype. Daguerre, the French contemporary of Talbot who had secured the patent for his daguerrotype process which was secured by the French goverment and was offered "free to the world", actually patented his process in Britain only. This meant that the British would have to pay a license fee to practice the process. It's thought that Daguerre did this so that Talbot's process of calotypes wouldn't compete with the daguerrotype. Talbot's calotype process was much more successful however, and the daguerrotype fell out of use by 1865.

Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey by Talbot, 1835 (the oldest photographic negative in existence)

The calotype process produced a paper negative through the use of chemicals such as silver nitrate, and the negative could be used to produce numerous copies of the image unlike the daquerrotype which could only produce one copy. Because the calotype negative was on paper, it wasn't as sharp as the daguerrotype though. Further improvements on the process such as albumen (egg) glass negatives, ambrotypes, and the collodion glass negative (which required dark-room tents on location!) process developed the popularity of photography further.

The Footman by Talbot (calotype, the earliest photo of a human on paper, 1840)

There is some interesting history of Talbot and his licensing of his patents to professional photographers of the day. In August 1852, The Times published an open letter by Lord Rosse of Birr Castle in Co Offaly (his wife Lady Rosse was an avid amateur photographer!) the President of the Royal Society, and Charles Lock Eastlake, the president of the Royal Academy, who called on Talbot to relieve his patent pressure that was perceived as stifling the development of photography. Talbot waived the license for amateurs but charged professionals from £100-150 a year. And he actively sued people who didn't secure a license or he felt threatened his process by developing something similar such as the collodion process.
There is a museum dedicated to Talbot at the Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. There is a great explanation of the calotype here and you can even experiment on make your own in Photoshop or on paper

Newhaven Fishwives, Scotland by Hill & Adamson 1843-47

Part Three of Pauline and Mark's wedding at Clanard Court, Athy...the dancing!

There were lots of happy people at the wedding to photograph before the meal and speeches started. And a very yummy-looking cake!

 After some shocking stories and lots of laughs during the speeches, the real party started when Ireland's Number One soul band started playing:  Santoria 

 I could have gone on and on with dancing shots from the night. Pauline and Mark's guests had so much fun dancing to this really cool soul band. If you are looking for a band that will get people on the floor and will get them to boogie down, I don't think you can go wrong with Santoria.

To Pauline and Mark, I hope you enjoy re-living your gorgeous wedding through the photographs I had taken on the day. Thank you again for choosing me :)