It’s all in the detail

Shooting a home for a magazine is usually quite different to shooting for real estate – the latter is primarily about showing as much of the space as possible – whereas magazine editors want their readers to be drawn into the home and take inspiration from the decor and accessories.

So when we’re shooting homes for magazine features, we tend to spend almost as much time setting up the tight “lifestyle” shots as we do the bigger shots – but we know it’s the combination of the two that result in an overall appealing feature !!

Anyway, Marie worked hard setting up some stylish tight shots in yesterday’s shoot…

.. she tells me, she drew inspiration from one of her favourite stores – Pottery Barn !!!

I’m pretty clueless about stuff like that – so it’s great to work with a stylist like Marie…

.. as it means I can focus on f-stops, ICC Profiles, Colour temperature readings, light levels and those sorts of fun things…

.. when I know it’s really about the attention to detail – as that is actually the all important thing here.

So good team work – thanks Marie – and a big thanks to Ciara here too.

Capturing the atmosphere.

There are some stunning Castle hotels in Ireland and we have been delighted to shoot several of them over the past few years.

Last week brought us back down to Dromoland Castle Hotel & Country Club – a luxurious, elegant 5 star hotel in County Clare – where they needed some new images produced for their marketing & advertising material – to show not only their newly decorated top-end bedroom suites, but also the new look of their adjoining Country Club.

All went according to plan, at first; however, the little snug/library area in the clubhouse proved a waiting game for us – as we felt it was important to capture a cosy relaxed ambience…

..but of all times, the weather was sunny. And so we just had to sit it out, while Carl poked the fire a few times, as he acted the part of the would be model…

.. until the sky darkened.

But hopefully it was well worth the wait…

.. as who wouldn’t want to relax in front of that roaring fire – especially at this time of year, here in Ireland !

The following day, as well as shooting many of their luxury bedroom suites – which are simply stunning – the new Presidential suite had a suitably luxurious new bathroom fitted. So once again, it was all about team work…

.. and getting the right sort of ambience – lighting, candles, roses, champagne, etc, etc – all of which played their role, to achieve that all important result, where potential guests look at the final image and comment…

“I want to be there“.

So a big ‘thank you’ to Mark, the Manager, and all his highly professional team for looking after us so well – it truly was a wonderful shoot – and we hope we managed to capture not only the decor but also the atmosphere, for all the world to see what an amazing place Dromoland Castle is famous for.

From Marie, Carl & me.
www.ampimage.com

You love a challenge!

We were back down last week to create some new images for our long standing client Doonbeg Golf Resort. It has been fascinating to see how they keep adding to their guest experience – and each time they bring something new to the table, needless to say, they want it captured for all to see.

Their latest offering is a very stylish beauty salon which is ideally located beside their luxury Spa.

With no natural light and lots of mirrors, Ray (Marketing manager) simply said: You love a challenge!

Anyway, as always, it was a pleasure to work with them on the various images…


.. so we wish them every success with this latest venture.

We have shot several Irish style bars over the years – the key is to convey a sense of warmth and atmosphere – a cold empty looking bar is never going to make potential clients say “I want to be there”.

So when we were down last week at Doonbeg, we shot their bar – Darby’s.
The black wooden ceiling looks great but it sure didn’t make my life easy from a lighting perspective…

.. so a serious number of lights had to be used for this one.

But I think in the end we managed to capture the warmth of this very appealing bar…

.. without disrupting to many guests, which is always a factor when doing this type of shot !!

Anyway, a big thanks to Ray and all the staff at Doonbeg, who worked alongside us to create these wonderful & challenging images.

From Marie & me.
www.ampimage.com

East meets West…

.. or in our case, it could actually be the other way around.

Over the years, we have worked all over Europe and the East Coast of America – and needless to say, we love working abroad – so now that the Christmas festive period is over, it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead. A road trip perhaps to somewhere warm would be nice – but believe it or not, it would appear all roads will be heading towards Russia this year !

Yes, we recently received a request to shoot some luxury properties in the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea – which is located on the north coast of the Black Sea – so needless to say, that really brightened up our day. Because only a few months back, our work for the first time appeared in an Eastern European magazine and last week a Russian magazine commissioned some of our work too.
So maybe there’s a whole new world waiting for us over there – in Eastern Europe and beyond.

The big thing of course, is the logistics of getting there – which we are currently looking into. But it would certainly be a great opportunity, as well as a great adventure to work in the Ukraine – especially if we decide to go overland in the Land Rover – which we usually prefer to do, because of all the gear.

So we may need to brush up on our Russian this year – but in the meantime, имейте чудесный год, от Мари и меня.

www.ampimage.com – just for you.

Festive cheer.

Most of our work these days tends to be interior based – be it homes or hotels.

However, we do occasionally get asked to shoot other things, like products for example.
And like so many other things in life, we are very aware the buyer has become used to products being beautifully presented, styled and lit!
Who hasn’t looked at those M&S food ads on the Television and mentally added that apple strudel or Thai prawn to their shopping list!

Yes, the product is great but the adverts sure sell the sizzle!

So here are just a few recent images we produced for the Lodge Kitchen at Doonbeg in County Clare, of their Christmas products…

.. with only about 80 days to go to the big day !

Christmas seems to start earlier every year – so it was time to spread a wee bit of the festive cheer.

Marie & Ashley.
www.ampimage.com

Shannon’s Victorian mid terrace…

.. town house in Belfast gets a very quick thumbs-up from the Homes Editor.

This was basically a massive ‘gut job’ story for Janice & her husband Billy, who is an Joiner – which we decided to shoot and submit to Style At Home magazine today.

It seems the previous owners had kept motor bikes downstairs and created a make shift kitchen upstairs !!
So Janice & Billy had to replace joists, ceilings and floors as well as the usual re-wiring, re-plumbing, new windows etc etc. Billy and Andrew (their 21 year old son) along with a few friends did the building work themselves whereas Janice did the decor and re-vamped bits and pieces such as the black coffee table which had been dated mahogany –she also restored and painted the original fireplace in the main bedroom.

Which clearly the Editor liked the look and sound off…

.. so we were delighted when she said ‘Yes’ so quickly to this one.

A great result for everyone – congratulations – and one to look out for on the book shelves next year.

Marie, Mandi & Ashley
www.homesinteriors.com

myhotel – day 3.

We kicked-off early the next morning in the ‘myplace’ bedroom suite…
at myhotel Bloomsbury.
This was a superb penthouse suite complete with an excellent office space and the latest Apple iMac computer. We felt it was important to show this within the shot, so a little bit of furniture removal was therefore called for…

.. to create the final image.

The tricky shot of the day for me, was always going to be the lobby shot…

.. as it was always busy with guests coming & going.
So besides trying to set up lights, which people wouldn’t trip over, it was all about timing.

And in London, timing is something you need to be very aware off, as parking can be very expensive. So with minutes to go, we finished of the last shot in the merkaba bar & restaurant…

.. and then headed home.

Which just leaves me to say a big thanks to Imran for making us feel so welcome – and a huge thanks to James for all this hard work.

Marie & Ashley.
www.ampimage.com

myhotel Chelsea – day 2.

After having the wheel clamp removed – due to the parking ticket machine seemingly rejecting one of my coins, which then meant only 12 hours rather than 24 hours – it was of to London. This time to shoot a number of areas at myhotel Chelsea – Sex in the City style.

First up was ‘East Meets West’ with this incredibly stylish suite, with a distinctive Thai theme…

Our concept report on this one read:

We feel that this says “suite” and could be a superb shot. We’d move the chairs to the left of the coffee table … perhaps terracotta scatter cushions to balance the colours in the room for the camera ?? Perhaps remove picture above bed ?? Possibly place the screen where the dressing table is – it might perhaps be more photogenic than the dressing area. Lifestyle on coffee table that is colour balanced – coffee table books, flowers in red/orange/cerise tones – not too tall. Candles.

To which they agreed.

So once again James was called upon to adjust curtains – poor guy…

.. and never once did he complain !

Still the end result…

.. was once again an image which hopefully they will want to use for years to come.

Beside the lobby & the conservatory, one of the other rooms was this spacious bright bedroom…

.. with the hotel’s strap-line being ‘Sex in the City’ meets ‘Brideshead Re-visited’ – which meant Marie had lots of fun sourcing some glamorous accessories, to help create the final result…

.. while James & I worked on the lighting.

We only needed to produced 4 images at myhotel Chelsea, so we were finished early – which meant we had time to headed across town to myhotel Bloomsbury for one last shot before the sun when down.

They say the camera never lies; however, things may not always be as they seem – which was very much the case with this shot.

The aim here was to shoot a couple standing out on the roof top balcony, which is a superb asset for the hotel – and we all knew it would look particularly good with a sun set. However, as there wasn’t one, so we aimed to create the same effect – and it’s a good job James had a head for heights…

.. as he balanced on a camera case to get the light in place.
But with the light in place…

.. it was time for the others to kick-in, as Marie stopped panicking and announced “I think he’s going to pull it off”…

.. which I believe we did – just before one of the highlights of this trip for me, which was to meet up with two fellow photographers…

.. Steffen Jahn & Paul Freeman – with whom I’ve liaised with over the years on a number of photography forums. So it was a great way to end the day – by meeting up with these guys in person after all these years – and enjoy a few beers outside the hotel after having something to eat.

Next up: myhotel Bloomsbury in London – day 3.

myhotel Brighton – day 1.

It was back down to the south of England this week – this time to shoot a number of areas at myhotel in Brighton.
After our recce trip the week before, where we looked at all their hotels, the number of images were quickly narrowed down – and it was decided that this very stylish suite…

.. was top of their list.
‘Creating the mood’ was our brief.

So our goal was to convey a subtle sense of lifestyle & relaxation with both lighting & styling. Marie felt it would be good to “frame” the shot with the fabric side of the curtains showing, rather than the lining, so James became a curtain hanger…

.. and the end result…

.. was an image which hopefully they will want to use for years to come.

One of the other main areas they wanted captured was the bar…

.. in ‘fun & funky’ way.

This has to be one of the funkiest bars we’ve ever shot – a real unique and fun place to hang out. And for once, James wasn’t asked to sort out curtains, but instead, he got to enjoy a cold beer with one of the “models”…

.. which was well deserved, as this was a tough enough one to create, due to a number of factors.

So only 4 images produced in the end of the day, as each took some time to create – but very pleased with the results – which is all that really matters, when one is trying to produce images that others will want to use, for years to come.

Next up: myhotel Bloomsbury in London – day 2.

The Ming Dynasty – Irish style !

The second stunning home we shot last week on the Antrim coast was owned by Stewart & Carolyn Moore – who also run an art gallery there, which they call the Stables.

It was a very elegant Georgian house, dating back to the 1830′s, which they renovated and extended just few years ago. The house still retains many of it’s period features, but part was brought up to date for modern convenience…

.. so it felt like a home that you would really want to kick-off your shoes and relax in.

Home shoots are actually hard work and we are usually pretty tired at the end of the day – but there’s always a bit of craic & banter throughout the day – which not only makes this type of work very enjoyable but we also tend to learn a few things too, along the way.

Needless to say, the artwork, antiques and sculptures in the home were stunning – but I think we might have lowered the tone, when looking at one of the porcelain bowls I asked, “who exactly was Mr Ming” – to which Marie quipped:

“ye know Ashley – he was married to Mrs Ming and they had a load of kids… the wee Mingers”

Anyway, another lovely shoot – so a big thanks to Stewart & Carolyn for making us feel so welcome – and for bring me up to speed on the period of innovation in Chinese ceramics – between 1368-1644. Which as you probably already know, was called the Ming Dynasty or the Empire of the Great Ming – quoted to be:

One of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history.

So there you have it – learning something new every day – it wasn’t just some old bowl that the wee Mingers ate from after all

Marie & Ashley.
www.ampimage.com