After Marie and her husband Alan returned from a holiday in Cyprus to Aphrodite Hills near Paphos, she was on a mission to return there as soon as possible.
And so that became our next assignment – which to achieve, meant we would need to find at least 3 homes in Cyprus to shoot, that the Editors of the various UK magazines would then want to use – if we where to succeed in meeting our goal here… which is obviously to make money doing this
So based on us managing to come back with 3 sets of images, which would then get used by 3 national magazines and 3 local magazines, then no problems at all – as that would more than cover our basic costs.
Easy!
Well not as easy as it would appear of course – but nevertheless, Marie was on a mission here – and so before I knew it the flights were booked.
Anyway, as chance has it, the night before we were about to fly out, there was a party at my old school – the Royal Belfast Academical Institution or INST as we called it – as the current swim team had just won the Bath Cup for the first time since I captained their first winning team back in 1979…
.. which is another story
Anyway, we all had a great night-out remembering old times, as well as congratulating the members of the current winning team – and of course, my old swim coach, Con O’Callaghan, was there smiling as always…
.. and asked naturally what we were all currently doing.
So I mention we were about to leave for Cyprus in the morning, to shoot some of the villas at Aphrodite Hills, etc.
Well it turns out he had just returned from here – as his son John, who was also a very good swimmer, had recently bought a villa there – and that his daughter, Karen and her husband would also be flying out tomorrow too, on the same flight as us, to stay for a week.
Wow – we’ve got ourselves a home – and an Irish connection too – which is even better
So that’s the story behind this story here – which a few days later we went to shoot – and this was their villa…
.. at the 5 Star Aphrodite Hills, nestled in the hills above Paphos in Cyprus.
Which is were we meet Karen and her husband…
.. enjoying all the comforts of home – as well as the sort of things one doesn’t see often back in Ireland, such as this…
.. or this…
.. out by the pool.
Beautifully decorated inside – and so for Marie and me, this didn’t take long to shoot…
.. however, a wee bit of styling and lighting was still naturally required…
.. just to be too sure it was right for those magazines we were aiming for – especially the national ones, as the standard of photography in those is pretty high.
Anyway, we finished up early as a result- however, I returned later to catch the sun at the back of the villa, only to find Karen and her husband out in the pool enjoying the last of the sun…
.. so naturally, the Hasselblad was out again to capture that – and then I waited for it to go dark, before capturing this final night time image…
.. which I think was my favorite, being an ex-swimmer and all of that – as it really did say: I want to be there
Anyway, the main reason why I’m writing about this one now, is because like Tia’s villa which I talked about here a few days ago: Living la Dolce Vita – this one is about to be featured again too, after all these years.
And on top of that, John has recently been in touch to say he now wants to rent Villa Thalia out – so has asked for the use of these images too – which he is currently using on his newly designed website here…
.. should you be interested in a wee holiday to this most beautiful part of the world – which Marie & I can personally recommend
So there you have, the story behind the story on this one – which you will be able to see and read more about it in next month’s Ireland Homes Interiors & Living magazine – which should be out next week.
Mission accomplished Marie – so that just leaves me to say a big Thank You to everyone involved here and especially to the O’Callaghan family – not forgetting Con, who once again after all these years, pointed me towards a great pool
Thank you – from Marie & me remembering our time at the beautiful Villa Thalia in Cyprus.