Family living

We shoot some wonderful homes right across the spectrum – which means, the style of homes vary enormously, depending on which magazines we are aiming at.

The owners of this recent home which we shot last week…

.. had great interior design flair – but above all else, they said they wanted a home that would suit them and their young family – relaxed, colorful and easily maintained – which we felt they had successfully achieved, by modernizing this Edwardian semi in County Down.

However, when it comes to what we do, the trend is increasingly towards homes being “picture perfect”.
How often do you pick up a magazine and see a home with a badly made bed or a sofa that needs to be plumped or an untidy bathroom?

So our role here was to not only capture this beautiful home but to also capture that really nice sense of family living…

.. in a “picture perfect” way.

Anyway, albeit a tough one, it was a lovely shoot – so many thanks to Amy here…

.. as well as to Gareth and their young family for making us feel so welcome – and we’ll keep you all posted on what the Editors have to say.

From Marie & me @ ampimage.com

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Mix ‘n Match

Is the title of our latest published work in the April 2012 issue of Ireland’s Homes Interiors & Living magazine…

.. on pages 62 to 74, plus on the cover too – featuring Mairead and Owen Moore’s Mid Century house in the University area of Belfast.

“Mairead and Owen transformed a period terrace in Belfast with their quirky, classic, retro style.”

Which we talked about when shooting it here: How good… do the images need to be to help sell a home ???

The quality of this magazine is beautiful, which means the images always look totally amazing – which is fantastic to see, after all the hard work has been done.

So a huge thank you to everyone involved for their hard work – and congratulations once again to Mairead & Owen – especially for making it onto the cover too.

From Marie, Mandi & me @ ampimage.com

So what do you think…

Is Imitation is the best form of flattery?

I guess if it is, then we should be really flattery here, to see this image of the bar which we produced 2 years ago…

.. has now been recreated by someone else:

Or this one of the reception area, which again we produced 2 years ago…

.. now has been recreated too:

So what do you think: Would you be flatter or would you be really annoyed here?

Personally, we find it amusing – so we’re kind-off flatter in a way – but as Marie said: Wouldn’t you think they’d live dangerously and maybe try a new angle or something !!

—
ampimage.com – specialising in providing images which you can then get someone else to try and recreate to meet your advertising & marketing needs 😉

Bring more to the table…

.. than just a few small finishing touches.

Most of the time when Marie is styling for an interior photo shoot, it’s just about adding finishing touches and generally making a home look as good as possible. So once Marie has done her bit, I then swing into action – and between the two of us, we tweak things for the final image.

However, on this occasion, Marie did a lot more than just tweaking for the shoot – she actually did more of a full-blown interior design job for a friend – which you can see below:

Before…

.. and after…

.. of the sitting room in this ground floor apartment of a Victorian townhouse in the Malone area of Belfast.

Before…

.. and after…

.. of the kitchen.

Before…

.. and after…

.. of the master bedroom.

Working with a surprisingly modest budget too – I have got to say – the transformation was pretty amazing !!

So well done Marie – a huge pat on the back goes out to you here – as you most certainly brought a lot more to the table, than just a few small finishing touches on this one 🙂

From me @ ampimage.com

Simply splendid.

Is the title of our latest published work in the March 2012 issue of Period Ideas magazine…

.. on pages 26 to 31 – featuring Sarah and Edward Bird’s annexe for guests in Surrey.

“Sarah and Edward Bird found the ideal space to create a charming annexe for guests.”

Simply splendid indeed…

.. so a big thanks to everyone involved and especially to Steve at Chilli Media for this one.

From Marie & me @ ampimage.com

All Kinds of Everything.

Is the title of our current published work in the March 2012 issue of 25 Beautiful Homes magazine…

.. on pages 67 to 69 – featuring Janet and Ken Hamilton’s 1930’s semi-detached house in Belfast.

“Janet and Ken Hamilton furnished their home with a stylist mix of retro, modern and antique pieces.”

Which we talked about here:Hamilton’s 1930′s semi.

So congratulations to Ken and Janet here…

.. once again – from Marie & me @ ampimage.com

American Irish style.

We had a busy few days down at Doonbeg – but whilst we were there, we took the opportunity to shoot one of the many holiday cottages…

.. for a possible future Editorial feature.

Plantation shutters have become very desirable in recent years…

.. and this place shows just how well they really work…

.. in a relaxed casual sort of setting.

So all in all, we felt this was a very stylish home and a good one to shoot – with a nice mixture of American and Irish styling – which hopefully some of the interior magazines will like too !!

Fingers crossed – but as the saying goes: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth ! – when the opportunity arises – especially when it looks this good.

For Marie here…

.. and me in Mary and Paul Kernaghan’s holiday cottage near Doonbeg in County Clare.

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 White Horse 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 lots 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, we also shot their bar and restaurant in the golf club, which they call Darby’s bar.

The black wooden ceiling look great to the eye…

.. however, 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 – which needless to say was a challenge…

.. as we pieced the image together…

.. while their guests looked on

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

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

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

From Marie & me @ ampimage.com