It was great to shoot with Paudge Donaghy from DDFH&B again, this time a new campaign for Dublin City Council's anti dog fouling campaign. Last year we shot the boy with the poo eyes (illustration by Paudge Donaghy) which they have been running again this year.
After an exhaustive search for the robot, food stylist Sally Dunneloaned us a vintage robot that she has at home.
We made use of our poo model which was made last year by Ben Millar in London and to add softness to the surface texture we concocted a delicious mixture of Jamaican ginger cake, a double chocolate muffin and a dash of milk, which is why you see me licking my fingers !
There is only one thing better than shooting food, and that's shooting food in close up !
So close in fact that, as you focus on a hazelnut or a piece of lemon rind, the delicious smell of the food becomes quite distracting, especially when Sally Dunne, food stylist, is the MC.
The art director is Ray Swan and he began this Dairygold campaign in London over a year ago. I'm happy to say has brought it all back home.
These 2 images have already run a few months back but watch out for the Christmas special !
They were shot using my Leaf Aptus 11 40mp back and the a Mamiya RZ 67 with extension tubes and a 250mm lens.
Following on from his successful TV ads for Dublin Bus, Stephen Rogers from Rothco commissioned me to shoot the outdoor campaign. Using the same cast we shot in Baggot street and Rathfarnham, with very mixed weather but got what we needed in the end. Everyone commented on how accommodating the South Dublin drivers were as we shot 'Purple Lightening' sitting in our self made traffic jam. "I can't imagine North Dublin drivers being so patient", said one commentator.
As part of a campaign by DDFH&B to promote Supervalu's own brand products and suppliers, we were briefed by art director Conor Swanton to photograph three suppliers here in Ireland and in Cordoba, Spain.
As you can see in the video, Cordoba is a beautiful place and Thomas and his business partner Jean Bernard were excellent hosts and helped us find the best place to shoot among hundreds of acres of olive groves. When we had our shot and the sun had finally gone we were invited to an olive oil tasting which was incredible. Apart from the variety of olives, I had never imagined the number of factors that effect the final product in the bottle. The olives Thomas and Jean Bernard use at Me International are pressed, filtered and stored in air tight vats within 5 hours of harvesting which is very important if you want to get great flavour from the olives and insure a beautiful extra virgin oil, which they certainly do.
Their top tips for preserving your olive oil in good condition are as follows.
- Air is the enemy of olive oil so treat yours like wine, keep air out & store away from bright light.
- Colour has no relation to the flavour flavour.
- Try to use olive oil without heating. It's great in the pan but when it smokes it's destroyed.
I am so grateful to all the suppliers we photographed for their enthusiasm (food producers always are enthusiastic and so passionate about what they do!) and also their generosity in allowing us to use up so much of their time.
Fran Power, editor of the Aer Lingus magazine CARA asked me to shoot a series of portraits for a story about the people behind Irish Rugby for the April / May issue. As many of my friends already know, I'm not a huge sports fan but I know enough to be grateful to Jonathan Sexton for making it to the shoot less than 24 hours after the re-scheduled Paris match. Despite having a stomach bug and feeling generally battered from the match he arrived and performed magnificently.
A big thanks to Mark Jones at the ERC and everyone who gave us their time, especially Claire Seale who co-ordinated the shoot on behalf of the Aviva Stadium and gave us access to this amazing facility. I also want to thank Jane Gribbin and Christine Lucignano for make up.
I recently met up with my old mate Jonathan Lovekin in London and we went to Red Europe to have a look at the the new EPIC and SCARLET cameras from RED. Based in Pinewood studios Red have a UK office where we met Alan who gave us an enthusiastic welcome and showed us both of these amazing cameras. He also gave us a pretty definitive run through about RED CODE and RED RAY, the ground breaking technology which makes the whole RED system possible. His description of how the RED camera came about reminded me of Steve Jobs and Apple. Basically if you cant find what you're looking for then design and build it yourself. Which is pretty much what Jim Jannard of Oakley sunglasses fame decided to do.
The reason we wanted to see them is in a month or two the Epic will start to ship to the rental companies including The Production Depot here in Dublin and for anyone shooting commercials it's a good idea to see what's coming down the pipe. The Epic is about $50,000 for a basic kit without lenses but the Scarlet which shared the same sensor is about $15,000 which makes it much more affordable if you want to step up the quality from say a Canon 5 or 7 D. The reason Epic is more expensive is the processing power of the engine inside. It's my understanding that with Epic higher frame rates of 60 or so are possible at full 5k resolution in RAW format! and 300 fps at 2k. So what does that mean for stills? The sensor in both these cameras is the same,14mp. Okay so thats lower in resolution than the Canon and Nikon cameras that we've been using since 2005 and a lot lower than any of the LEAF, PhaseOne or Hasselblad medium format backs, (80mp from LEAF and PhaseOne now) but considering how fast this technology has evolved since 2006 how long will it be before these cameras shoot 21mp at 100 fps? I dont think too long. When that happens it will mean that finally a frame from a TV shoot on EPIC can just about be used on a 48 sheet and certainly for most magazine and other press. Have a look at the RED website and you'll see how many Vogue covers have been shot on Epic or Scarlet with photographers like Bruce Webber.
I've been shooting a little bit of TV work for stings etc on 5D and plenty of stills for print campaigns during TV shoots which is never very productive for anyone, so I can really see how this is going to help when there is no choice but to shoot TV and print together.
Jonathan has been directing food commercials for Tropicana, Sainsbury's etc for some years now shooting both digital and film and we can both see how the new Red Cameras will most definitely be part of the equipment list in the very near future.
Interesting times.
Jonathan Lovekin, Director and photographer, at home
Epic and Scarlet together -(Scarlet with no monitor)
Looks a bit like An Apollo Hasselblad from above?
remote for controlling all functions off the camera
These ads were created by McCann in Paris and art directed here in Dublin by Shay Madden, Creative Director at McCann Erickson in Dublin, to be run in France as part of a global campaign. We shot the background images at the Tullamore Dew visitor centre and the portraits in my studio in Dublin. The retouching was done by Stefano Cherubini at Happyfinish in London. Paddy Daly at Yoke Productions produced the casting and Suzie Coen was the stylist.
O'Brien Publishing commissioned me to shoot the cover of Mary Byrne's coming book, which is coming out next week I think. Since then I was commissioned by universal music to shoot Mary for her forthcoming album. It's been produced by the brilliant Phil Coulter and I'm really looking forward to hearing it. Once again it was great spending time with Mary, she's a great woman and worked really hard all day to give us lots of options. My hunch is that they'll use one of the first images we shot that day. She's such a pro she nailed it in the first 20 minutes!
I'm afraid you'll have to wait until November to see the results though. As soon as the album is out I'll post some of the images.
In addition to shooting digital DSLR and HD video, I have purchased an Aptus II, by Leaf, which is a digital system that I can use with my Mamiya RZ cameras to create very high res files.
The system renders exceptional skin tone and highlights. Coupled with the Mamiya system which synchronizes at high speeds with my PROFOTO lighting, liquids can be photographed and captured at very high speeds which cannot be achieved with DSLR cameras.
When art director Adrian Fitzsimon from Chemistry, commissioned me to shoot an image for a BMW ad, I decided to shoot with my new LEAF Aptus 8 40mp digital back. It was great to be working with the Mamiya RZ again after 5 years and I was delighted that the incredible lenses were up to the job just as much as they were when shooting film. I love the skin tones the LEAF produces and in terms of composition so good to be shooting to the Aptus 8 format rather than DSLR. I'd like to thank Joerg Hagitte from Probis Media Solutions in Hamburg, where I bought the LEAF, for his excellent advice and speedy supply of the equipment.
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Fortunately we didn't need to buy 10 blow up dolls, just a choice of 2. We photographed 'it' in various positions around the hero of the piece and then Stefano Cherubini from Happyfinish in London put the images together for us. Lauren McCreery was the stylist who dressed the doll and confessed to being horrified by the fact that the uniforms were size 9-10!!! The final result is quite shocking but I'm glad to say the 48 sheet poster remained in place all over Munster without being banned! The art director was Nicole Sykes at Chemistry, Dublin.
The new edition of the Aer Lingus in-flight magazine CARA is out today and I'm delighted to have been commissioned by its new editor, Fran Power to shoot a series of photographs featuring key people involved in the Irish racing industry. We enjoyed two days of shooting at the Curragh in Kildare with a typical mixed bag of Irish weather. I would like to thank Lynda Fraher from Horse Racing Ireland who produced the shoot and worked with us throughout to help pull everyone together. Here is a selection from the spreads and a video of the shoot can be seen below.
A special thank you to Gary Carroll, Justin Carthy, Richie Galway, Lucy Stack, Jessica and Kate Harrington and Mariann Klay for giving us so much of their time.
Caroline Burton, Marketing Manager at Dr Oetker has commissioned Marco Roccasalvo, award winning chef and owner of Campo De'Fiori restaurant, Bray, to come up with 7 starters to accompany each of the pizzas in the Ristorante range.Myself and food stylist Sally Dunne photographed each of the dishes with Marco's supervision. If you're looking for a fresh alternative to garlic bread, check out their website for the recipes.
In addition to shooting digital DSLR and HD video, I have purchased an Aptus II, by Leaf, which is a digital system that I can use with my Mamiya RZ cameras to create very high res files. 
Fortunately we didn't need to buy 10 blow up dolls, just a choice of 2. We photographed 'it' in various positions around the hero of the piece and then Stefano Cherubini from Happyfinish in London put the images together for us. Lauren McCreery was the stylist who dressed the doll and confessed to being horrified by the fact that the uniforms were size 9-10!!! The final result is quite shocking but I'm glad to say the 48 sheet poster remained in place all over Munster without being banned! The art director was Nicole Sykes at Chemistry, Dublin.
Caroline Burton, Marketing Manager at Dr Oetker has commissioned Marco Roccasalvo, award winning chef and owner of Campo De'Fiori restaurant, Bray, to come up with 7 starters to accompany each of the pizzas in the Ristorante range. Myself and food stylist Sally Dunne photographed each of the dishes with Marco's supervision. If you're looking for a fresh alternative to garlic bread, check out their website for the recipes.
