Recent PR Work – 2015 Opel Astra
Client: Opel Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media. Date: November 2015. Location: Dublin, Ireland. Further Information: www.opel.ie
RECENT PR WORK – 2015 SEAT ALHAMBRA
Client: SEAT Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media. Date: November 2015. Location: Waterford, Ireland. Further Information: www.seat.ie
Recent Editorial Work – Volkswagen Jetta VR6
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: November 2015 Location: Waterford, Ireland. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – Toyota Starlet EP70
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: October 2015 Location: Waterford, Ireland. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent PR Work – 2015 SEAT Ibiza FR
Client: SEAT Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media. Date: October 2015. Location: Waterford, Ireland. Further Information: www.seat.ie
Recent PR Work – 2015 KIA Cee’d GT Line
Client: KIA Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media. Date: October 2015. Location: Wicklow, Ireland. Further Information: www.kia.ie
Recent PR Work – 2015 Audi Q7
Client: Audi Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media Date: August 2015 Location: Wicklow & Dublin, Ireland. Further Information: http://www.audi.ie
Recent Editorial Work – HGK Motorsport Nissan PS13
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: July 2015 Location: Rudskogen, Norway. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – KS Motorsport BMW E90
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: July 2015 Location: Rudskogen, Norway. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – 2JZ Powered BMW E30
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: June 2015 Location: Mantorp, Sweden. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – A 2,200HP Nissan GT-R
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: May 2015 Location: Doha, Qatar. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – Milestone71 Porsche 964
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: May 2015 Location: Wörthersee, Austria. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – Volkswagen T5
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: May 2015 Location: Wörthersee, Austria. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – Gepfeffert’s Carbon Volkswagen Golf GTI
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: May 2015 Location: Wörthersee, Austria. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent Editorial Work – Rotiform Audi R8
Client: Speedhunters Intent: Editorial Date: May 2015 Location: Wörthersee, Austria. Original Feature: http://www.speedhunters.com
Recent PR Work – 2015 Audi A1
Client: Audi Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media Date: April 2015 Location: Dublin & Wicklow, Ireland. Further Information: http://www.audi.ie
Recent PR Work – 2015 Audi Q3
Client: Audi Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media Date: April 2015 Location: Wicklow, Ireland. Further Information: http://www.audi.ie
Recent PR Work – 2015 Volkswagen Polo GT
Client: Volkswagen Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media Date: March 2015 Location: Tipperary, Ireland. Further Information: http://www.volkswagen.ie
Recent PR Work – 2015 Kia Sorento
Client: KIA Ireland Intent: PR & Social Media. Date: March 2015. Location: Wicklow, Ireland. Further Information: www.kia.ie
Moving People, Moving Lives – Volkswagen Caddy Sportline
I guess I can only speak for myself but I would hope that a lot of you can relate to this. No matter the vehicle, I think we will always have a life long attachment with our very first car. It doesn’t matter if it was a good or bad one, there’ll always be a part of us that will have a fondness on some level for the first car we owned. It was that first car that gave us our taste of what true freedom really was. It might have been a banger or it might have been brand new, but the association we retain will be the same. There’s no love like your first love, right? But my first car wasn’t a car. It was a van. And what a van. I remember driving it home for the first time, still wearing the previous owner’s dry cleaning business’ graphics on the side. It was a 2005 Volkswagen Caddy 1.9 TDI, which affectionately became known as ‘Sudsy’. This was entirely due to the graphics staying on the van longer than intended, which would take several hours with a machine polisher to finally remove them. My Caddy taught me a lot of driving craft. With 105HP, I needed to learn how to carry speed and to be as smooth as possible if I wanted to retain any sort of momentum. It was also the van that helped me get on my feet when I went into business as a sole trader. It reliably carried me and my camera equipment all around Ireland and the United Kingdom. I have a lot of fond memories of adventures in it. On the other hand, there were some bitter sweet ones too. It was in my Caddy that I helped move my girlfriend to London, where she could finally start the career […]
Out of the Darkness – Audi A6 Ultra
I’ve never made a secret of this, but I do love a good saloon. Where my friends own and lust after quick coupes and hatches, I’ll always prefer a good more door. It’s quite likely a family thing. My grandfather and my father were always saloon men and that preference has continued for another generation… Late last year, I was commissioned by Audi Ireland to shoot some PR shots of the the face-lifted A6, now with the added suffix of Ultra. With the car in high demand, my time was limited to a couple of days including collection & return from Dublin. With the weather staying consistently in the middle of the scale for a change, I was able to maximise shooting time. Even the night shots were unseasonably mild, but those are only fond memories at this stage… I did get the time to try out some techniques which were new to me, and a couple of ideas that I’ve waited a while to try when all the requested shots were in the proverbial bag. For me, this is when I both learn and enjoy photography the most. Experiment, shoot, learn, repeat. As for the car? Well, it’s very good indeed. But you probably already knew that. www.audi.ie
Rain, Cobbles & The New Škoda Fabia
You have thought that by living in Ireland all my life, at some stage I would have gotten used to the rain. As it turns out I haven’t and I probably never will. However, I’ve always been of the opinion that if it’s going to rain on a shoot day, then it has to rain. I guess I should have been careful what I wished for… When I picked up the new Fabia from the amazing crew at Automotive Team, the skies were threatening but I thought we might just get away with it. As it turned out, I was quite wrong. Exceptionally strong winds brought rain shortly after collection and in turn, completely changed the dynamic of the shoot. Luckily though, I think it actually worked in my favour. When the weather can’t make its mind up and you get showers followed by brief sunshine followed by more showers, you end up with inconsistency in your backgrounds and more often than not, dirty and grungy looking roads with random dry spots. But when the rain comes and decides to stay, it brings out a whole new colour palette from the city’s streets. You get reflections and shine that you don’t get on a dry day. You have consistent soft lighting throughout the day and the benefit of water droplets beading off the paint work. The only issue on this shoot was the strong wind, which kept rocking the tripod and made the task of getting sharp exposures quite difficult, particular when trying to drag the shutter out just a little longer to blur those passers-by. The car itself? Well, pretty much like the rest of the VAG cars, you know it’s going to be a good one before you even drive it. I really liked it. This particular car featured a 1.2 […]
Ready For Anything – Seat Leon X-Perience
Standing at the crossroads at the top of Sally Gap allows an almost unrivalled view of the surrounding countryside. It was late January, and a particular cold spell had gripped the country. The roads up at this altitude were precarious enough, with snow decorating the edge of the road and some sly ice patches which concealed themselves in the shade. With a limited amount of time and quickly fading light, this made the task of navigating the Wicklow Mountains at a brisk pace more challenging than I would have liked. Luckily, the Leon X-Perience’s 4Drive provided a reassuring solid grasp of the road all day, and the awesome dual clutch gearbox – with steering wheel mounted paddles – allowed me to focus on keeping the Seat pointing in the right direction. However, as the last of the light dropped behind the mountains, a darkness began to creep across the country from the east. Taking this as my cue to head to the relative safety of lower grounds, I begun the decent towards Blessington. I was maybe five minutes on the road before the darkness released a light flurry, which quickly evolving into a full on snow blizzard. I still had a lot of ground to cover with limited visibility and on summer tyres. Wicklow County Council didn’t have the foresight to prepare the roads either, so it really was a case of the Leon against the world. With its all LED headlights piercing the weather, visibility was reduced to around 20 feet at this point, the car never really felt as if it was uncomfortable with the conditions. Traction was no issue, but with unprepared roads, stopping distances were greatly increased. With this consideration allowed for, the Leon made exceptional progress down the mountain and back into relative civilisation. With soft roaders and lesser […]
Future Now – The Volkswagen XL1
Every now and again, a job pops up that you literally have no choice but to drop everything and go do it. When Volkswagen Ireland contacted me at short notice to ask me to come to Dublin for the day to shoot something ‘special’, my interest piqued. When I was told that they planned on driving the ultra-rare XL1 on Dublin’s streets, I knew I had no choice but to drop everything haul myself up the M9. The XL1 is a limited run production car, which showcases Volkswagen’s abilities in one neat and very futuristic package. It’s powered by a small diesel engine and an electric motor, allowing it to achieve almost unbelievable levels of fuel efficiency. Pictured below is the car’s OBC after driving around Dublin city all morning, 0.8L/100KM which equates to approximately 353.1MPG. You didn’t read that wrong. The most impressive thing about the XL1 for me, is not the efficiency, but rather just how incredibly striking it is. I’ve had the pleasure of shooting lots of cars but I honestly can’t think of another which could spark such universal attention. And all of it positive, where your typical supercar may polarise people. People wanted to know more about the car and weren’t afraid to approach and chat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many camera phones brandished so quickly either. This is the sort of car I was promised as a kid, raised on a diet of Back to the Future and The Jetsons. Please manufacturers, can we have more of this sort of thing? Photographed exclusively for Volkswagen Ireland
Daily Driver – My 2006 BMW 3 Series
Although I spend my time shooting cars, it’s a very rare thing that I get time to shoot my own car. Earlier this year, after months of planning & preparation, I was finally at a stage where I was happy to take the time out to shoot it. I’ve owned the car for three and a half years now, but since day one I’ve always had in mind just how I wanted the car to look. Some of it was simple, whilst other parts took a lot longer to come together. My main aim was to create something that didn’t look modified. I wanted it to look like a car that BMW could have released. To achieve this, a lot of genuine BMW parts were used, albeit cherry picked from other models. The wheels comes from an E63 7 Series, the brakes were an over the counter option available from my local dealer, Brembo for BMW Performance. The boot lid is a full carbon CSL style trunk, inspired by the E46 M3 CSL whilst the front splitter is a rare Hartge Japan item, and took two years of searching to find. Not long after this shoot, that splitter met an untimely demise which resulted in the car being raised on its KW suspension whilst another splitter was sourced. The real reason I wanted to shoot my E90 was for posterity. I spent so much time agonising over such small decisions, researching part options online and trying to come up with a unique look that I just wanted something to look back at in years to come and say ‘I’m proud of that.’ Since ‘completing’ it, I’ve mostly been staying on top of maintenance and ensure the car is running 100%, all of the time. There’s just over 140,000KMs on the clock now […]
Electric – The 2014 Volkswagen e-Golf
To most of my friends, the idea of an electric car is abhorrent. We get our kicks from the good ol’ fashioned internal combustion engine, whether piston or rotor powered, and powered by fossil fuels. It’s all we’ve ever known. I was the same until the very moment I released the brake on the new Volkswagen e-Golf. As the age old saying goes, it’s just like a Golf. Both inside and out, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the e-Golf and a regular Golf, save for the blue detailing around the car. To drive one is definitely the most surreal motoring experience I’ve ever had. You take off and travel in complete silence. Sitting in traffic, you can hear people having conversations on the footpath and even in other cars. You become acutely aware of the idle of other engines and for the first time in my life, I was conscious of the pollution we’re putting into the environment every day. You also learn to drive in a completely different manner, as you’re aware of the energy being consumed to propel the car. With all of its torque available immediately, the car is a lot quicker off the line than some might expect. I don’t think the gentleman in the MKV Golf GTI was quite expecting such a silent and rapid getaway between traffic lights on the N11. With a maximum range of around 200KM (for a paltry €2’s worth of electricity), I’m genuinely excited about an electric future. I’m now looking forward to the day where I can commute in silence and with a clear conscience. Of course, there’ll be something louder tucked away for the weekends… Photographed exclusively for Volkswagen Ireland.
Making Things Work – 2000 Honda S2000
Whilst I’ve been shooting a lot of manufacturer PR & commercial work as of late, I still get the biggest thrill whilst shooting editorial commissions. Because budgets are low, everything is nearly always shot in a run and gun sort of manner. It’s exciting though and ensures that no two shoots are alike. After being – literally – run out of the first location, we took to the streets to try and recover the time lost. It’s always tricky in these situations as you need to find a suitable location but also one that’s quiet enough to shoot in comfort and without background distractions. When your dealing with the streets in a capital city, these two requirements are quite often mutually exclusive. Through the sheer brilliance of social media, we were able to get suggestions from people within the locality. Within maybe half an hour of being ejected from the first location, we were back shooting on a street less than kilometre away. For me, one location is rarely enough and I’ll always try to get another in if at all possible. This time though, instead of social media, we relied upon the local knowledge of a taxi driver who advised us of not only another location, but where there was also a break in the bollards where we could get the S2000 through. You just cannot beat local knowledge. Photographed for Japanese Performance Magazine (UK)
Sunshine in October – The 2014 Volkswagen Golf SV
Ireland is a funny place to live and work. Especially, if you work outside and depend on the weather. Generally, no weather forecast is ever accurate. I generally try to take a car for as long as possible for this very reason. I can usually get the shots I need inside a day, but with unpredictable weather, I’ve often had to wait a few days before I can even get outside to shoot. Luckily my time with the new Volkswagen Golf SV, although brief, was constant sunshine. Born lucky? The Golf SV is obviously aimed at a market where practicality is at the top of the list of requirements for potential buyers. In typical Volkswagen style, the SV does everything it needs to do and does it very well. It’s comfortable, frugal and well equipped. The 1.6 TDI engine provides more kick than you would expect whilst easily returning impressive fuel economy figures. There’s also storage for days, and even as I was returning the car, I continued to find new storage areas which have been cleverly integrated into the cabin. From a photography viewpoint, I wanted to continue to develop my in-camera skills on this shoot. That is, I don’t want to depend on Photoshop or Lightroom afterwards. I want to try to get as close as possible to the final image in-camera as I can. This generally requires a lot of patience and improvisation when out and about, paying a lot more attention to small things like reflections, debris etc. Although it means more time shooting, it means less time in post production. I’ll take shooting in the sun any day over sitting in a dark room… Photographed for Volkswagen Ireland www.volkswagen.ie
Catching Up With Friends and a Mazda RX8
Every now and again, we need to set time aside to catch up with the good people in our lives. Similarly, we also need to set aside time to do what we love. The second of these can be especially tricky, if you happen to make a living from what you love doing… Waking up every day, with a smile on your face before work, does come with a risk. It’s a risk that by doing what you love everyday, there’s a chance that your love for your work may begin to fade. That for me is my biggest fear. The fear that one morning I’ll wake up, and dread getting in my car to go to a shoot. I don’t ever want that day to come. If it does, that’ll be the day I walk away from the industry. Life is too short to do be doing something that you really don’t want to do. It’s not something that’s exclusive to photography either. My friend, Flip, is chasing his dream too. By building and working on cars that he loves. Although our trades are practically incomparable, there’s a link between the two that we can both appreciate and understand. That is, of course, our love for cars. Flip’s RX8 isn’t even close to being his first neat project car. I photographed his amazing EK9 Type R back in the day, a car which would still blow people away today. He told me that his EK9 was refused several features because the rear was stripped out, and didn’t feature an overweight stereo install… Tastes change, style is permanent. His RX8 is testament to this. Subtle modifications, purposeful wheel fitment and finished in immaculate Lamborghini Grigio Telesto paint. A perfect and individual daily driver, built with passion and love. Regardless if […]
Welcome to Quattro Country – The 2014 Audi S1 Quattro
At the time of writing, I’ve been working freelance longer this year than I had been as a contractor. It’s only a small amount of time, but I’ve learned that it has been important to enjoy every victory that comes my way. Other victories that I welcome are invoices that are paid on time and messages from Audi Ireland to come and collect another ‘S’ series car… The S1 quattro is the latest new ‘S’ car to be introduced to the Irish market. Whilst it shares its name with the iconic Group B car, the similarities between the two are limited. As the top tier A1 model, the S1 features some impressive numbers and statistics: 230hp, 370Nm, 0-100 in 5.8s and an electronically limited top speed of 250km/h. All of which is transferred to the road via its quattro four wheel drive system. The model I had the pleasure of shooting was the Sportback variant, featuring an extra two doors over the three door hatch. Perfect for loading camera equipment into then. If you’re reading this from outside of Ireland, you might not be aware that – for a change – we’ve been enjoying a rather spectacular summer here. The downside to the great weather is that the rest of the population has the notions of going outside and visiting scenic venues dotted around the country. This makes finding a location quite difficult indeed… I collected the car on Friday morning before heading straight back to Waterford. With a harsh sun shining on the south east, I took this time to clean and prepare the car for an evening shoot. With any car, I’m always careful to ensure the paint is kept in its best possible condition and even more so with a brand new car. This means using cleaning methods that are […]
