The Safe House.

From the road, it may not look like it’s much more than a few old barns on the top of the hill – however, if you go around to the back, then you will start to realize​ it’s a lot more than that – as you can see here…

.. which is the renovated farmhouse of Dominic & Louise, which they call ‘The Safe House’ near the village of Cooraclare in County Clare.

And inside – with the help of Swiss Architect, Jean Claude Girard – well as you can see here…

.. it wasn’t quite what one would expect to see neither in this part of the world.

Anyway, after Marie had done her thing and I had done mine – we were ready for our first main shot of the day, which was of Louise and her little Jack Russell dog…

.. in the living room – before turning around towards the dining and kitchen area…

.. which really did look pretty amazing…

.. as this huge window…

.. the largest I believe in any home in Ireland – and that huge amount of white, did make it feel very spacious – as well as make even this large dining table look quite small…

.. and then there was the stairs…

.. and kitchen…

.. which believe it or not, required me having to use every light I had with me, as I wanted to draw your eye through the image.
Because even the bathroom didn’t look like what one would expect to see inside a few old barns on the top of a hill…

.. especially over on the west coast of Ireland.

Anyway, impressive to say the least – as was the rest of the place – but to see that you will have to wait for it to appear in a magazine, as this is what I’d also call a Safe House for us to shoot

So big thanks to both Dominic & Louise for inviting us into their Safe House – and we will keep you posted once we know more.

From Marie & me @ ampimage.com having fun in County Clare.

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Natural direction of light.

Back at Marie’s once again to finish off the series of images that we plan to submit to various magazines over the next few years – so while Marie added the finishing touches to the kitchen…

.. I set about lighting it up…

.. which actually didn’t take that long, as those windows are perfectly placed.

As are the windows in her sitting room – which I at first tried lighting from the left…

.. but then decided it would be more natural looking if I lit it from the ones on the right…

.. as that was where the natural direction of light was coming from in the first place.

The master bedroom was for me a doddle to light – but due to some new bedding arriving the day before – it was like a complete make-over job for Marie here…

.. which I must say looked very well when she was all done…

.. and I stopped walking on her little striped rug

About 20 images in the end produced, which should be more than enough for any Editor – so now it time to submit and keep our fingers crossed.

From Marie & me @ ampimage, producing images just for you, as we would say.

The Ming Dynasty – Irish style !

The second stunning home we shot last week on the…

.. 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 a few years ago. The house still retains many of its 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 🙂

From Marie & me @ ampimage.com

Producing images…

.. for others to use – that’s all we do.
And today was no exception, as we once again successfully turned things upside down…

.. in an attempt to create the look…

.. that we were after.

So it was all hands on board throughout the day…

.. and the fires were lit to help create the sort of images that we believed we were going to need here…

.. to get a good result, i.e. create the sort of images that an Editor would want to use in their magazine.

Anyway, another amazing home in the bag – and some great images of Charles Drumgoold too…

.. who it seems totally renovated this three-story waterfront terraced in Bangor – and did much of the work himself, including furnishing it with all sorts of stuff that he had pick-up on his travels around the world.

So hopefully we have successfully produced some images here, that others will want to use – and use a lot for years to come.

In the meantime, I would just like to say huge thanks to Charles for all his help throughout the shoot – and to Marie too… thanks for everything 🙂

Cheers,
Ashley
www.ashleymorrison.com

Added note on 17th January 2011: 25 Beautiful Homes magazine said ‘Yes’ – so you will be able to see the full set of images in their magazine soon.