IN TRANSITION!

Got very close to the heart of the city last night ,shooting by the G.P.O. Arcade on Princes street.
No body egged us but there was one large gang ,security,Garda,and several contract cleaners to contend with,
and trying to keep invisible whilst hanging around a corner with a photography rig is not easy.
But we did it
Ryan Cronin-Neillin was the subject tonight, A student about to graduate and get out,(how nineteen eighties is that!) the fate of many a student to come i fear!!
His location had a memory for him of two weeks spent working in independent newspapers whilst in a transition year in school.
Ryan a final year photography student at G.C.D.on the S.C.R.(very buzzy).he is off to Philadelphia in the summer for a year to start with and I wish him the best.
Artur Sikura and Brian Daly again maintained the peace by helping all to stay invisible between flashes.and a late shower proved my mac and camera to be watertight to a point
it is my intention to continue this project for some time so rather than it loose its momentum or indeed that it may stagnate right here on the pages of this weblog I shall endeavor to move it off to a dedicated site of its own.
once done i will continue to advertise it where i can in the hope of attracting more prospective emigrants to pose before parting.
So far its been very rewarding meeting,scouting,aranging,scheduling.I have enjoyed it very much and have already met some really interesting people.I was thinking of opening an account on viewbook
and was wondering if any of you used their portfolio pages to build projects?
opion on a good spot to continue to build this project on the net would be a great help.
Thanks for all the support for this and keep spreading the word about the lilliputian-its a photoblog for this our small world.
Please comment as it really helps my head!!

THE CITY IS YOUR STAGE

GO PLAY!!
I ts amazing how ones environment can look so different just by the way in which you approach it.
If you take a fresh perspective all viewers will be stunned by the look of what you have created out of the normal.
Such is the magic of photography.
I was joined last Sunday night by Julie Mitchell, A graphic designer from dublin who is out of work and heading to Vancouver Canada soon.She has been very committed to the process of making this work ever since we made contact some weeks ago.
From suggesting a location,reviewing location test shots,to costume,and even as far as helping with the final edit,Julie has been amazing and its been a pleasure to work with her.Although Julie is currently located in carlow,the shot was made near to her home of some years,Smithfield,Dublin.Her location did not hinder our wish to get this shot edited and up in a flash and we used the public folder of the fantastic idisk from mobile me to pass the full 145mb file back and fourth no problem.

Brian Daly and Artur Sikora were on hand again to handle the lighting stuff and make shure i was not flattened by a luas tram(tripod position very close to tracks)
the shot was lit again using the bowens esperit head and travelpac battery system
All editing was done in photoshop cs4 and final contrast was added by using the color efex pro bleach bypass filter on a layer set to about 20% opacity
So the LEAVING DUBLIN project project continues.I am hoping for some male participants in the next few weeks.
But again if any of you know anyone male or female who is about to leave Dublin for another country please direct them to this page.
I woud be delighted to receive comments on this and all postings

WORK IN PROGRESS

I would like to start this posting by giving a very big thank you to Aoife McMonagle
for coming onboard my leaving dublin project.
She left Dublin 6 days ago for Toronto,Canada.
She was photographed on Portabello her favourite part of Dublin.
She had worked in Marketing and P.R.
for the Royal Irish Academy in Dawson street Dublin until her contract expired!!
So she hopes to work in Canada and return to Dublin
in a few years.
The shot is a combination of several flashed exposures made from a tripod and merged in photoshop
click on the title for a gallery of the components.
Thanks again to Brian daly and Artur Sikora for help on the night(great flashin!!)
In Other news I have 2 more shoots scheduled for this project,
I am awaiting two 10x8 sheets which i shot on my street last week,
(had to send them to newcastle for processing)
and I am about to go to print with my first limited edition potfolio "Trees"
It looks like its going to be a busy month!!
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FINE ART PRINTING

TIME FOR A SPOT OF SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION!!

So listen carfully as i will only say this once,
"I AM A FINE ART PRINTER"
For some time now i have been producing beautiful,archival prints on fibre based papers,
printed with the most up to date epson ultrachrome hdr pigment inkset.
My clients for this work have included such notables as the the National library of ireland,
I produced facsimile documents to replace delicate items on display in both the James Joyce,and Yeats exhibitions,
The National photographic archive have employed me to print 3 of their last 5 exhibitions on meeting house square.
And I am currently producing 40'x40 enlargements of Leabhar na hAiseiri for the National museum of ireland!!
Recently I printed an exhibition for michael Durand which hung in St johns Newfoundland.
Countless students of art and photography have come to love my commitment to quality and attention to detail when working with their presentations.
My print studio was described by one as a cottage industry(i really liked that!!)
Any how if you try it out you will see there is no smoke and mirrors here,
just a 100% commitment to best practise.
By the way thats me in the shot (just for scale)with a fine print by photographic artist Donal Sheenan
its from the series urbis modo.ItS 60x40 inches
printed on hahnemuhle fine art baryta.,
its behind true vue museum glass
its mounted on diabond
and framed in a handmade frame by Ian Monahan.
Its shot in natural light with the old self timer!!
I hope this post brings some of you my way!!
please comment as it will help shape future content

AND SO, WE GO

my leaving dublin project has started and I am delighted that I was joined Again by
brian,Artur,and Don,Iate one night last week to kick this one off.
I was even more delighted to be joined by Anastasia Herbert who had this to say.

"I came to Dublin in August 2003, in the boom years for the arts; I'm leaving now for London. Here, in Ireland I've had the great opportunity of working freelance with premier national and city cultural institutions on arts festivals and exhibitions, and on regional arts education and community dialogue projects, too. I will look back on these 6 and half years in Dublin as formative to my career and will miss the wonderful, talented people I've come to know in this busy capital city."

Anastasia was photographed by the backdrop of her choice,the Beckett bridge,from Sir John Rogersons Quay.
The project continues to gather pace with shots planned for tomorrow evening(march 23rd)
and april 17.For those of you out there who are new to my blog this is an art project with no intention other than to imortalise what is being lost to our country,and I am looking for people who would like to participate in making a statement about their imminent departure.
We lit this shot using a bowens esperit head powered by a bowens travelpack
and we carried the light all the way to the stackhouse behind Anastasia's head using the amazing pocket wizard radio tranciever
If you are leaving dublin and would like to join me on this project please mail me at dmon@mac.com.
for the full image please click on the picture above
Please comment on this piece as it will help to shape future posts

Revelation ii

In a previous posting I discussed the Idea of getting inside a photographers head and listening to what they had to say about their work.
what they say is not always what you expect. Because, what you bring to their work when viewing is always going to be different to what they brought to the place in time when they made the work.
A better understanding of any art is to be gleaned directly from the artists own statements!!
so here is a couple of video clips relating to Nadev Cander a fine photographer whose work has universal appeal and a wide variety of styles.
one is in the form of a music video,it covers the diversity of the artists work.
and the other concentrates on one piece of work and takes the form of an interview. Here is where we learn what makes the artist tick!!







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Attention to detail

It is interesting how small details can add so much or take away from the success of a shot.
Here is an example of such.
Click on the image at the head of this article for a closer look.
Here you can see how i forgot to move the fridge full of film from under the desk before taking this beautifully composed and Animated shot of the tenacious Gráinne.
Here is an interesting quoteI came across in the book ANNIE LEIBOVITZ AT WORK and its this"Arnold Newman said that photography was one percent talent and ninety nine percent moving furniture"
Now I see the wisdom of this quote.
The image was shot on a h3d mk11 50
and processed using nik softwares bleach bypass filter set to about 30% opacity on a photoshop layer.
Alienskin bokeh filter was used to give the shallow focus.
For a gallery of effective small details please click here

as always comments will be appreciated as they help to shape this weblog!!