Ten years ago this year I moved to Kilkenny (Ireland) and it was there I met many people who have shaped my life in some way or another. It was all new and exciting at the time, what with the interesting people and their interesting ways. Artists, musicians, photographers. I envied them and admired them but I didn't want to be them. I was content to let them do their thing while I kind of just watched from the sidelines. A few years passed and I found myself going to college in Galway and even though I had never shown any real interest in the hobbies of my friends, photography and music still fascinated me. I bought a guitar but I have, as of yet, still not learned how to play. I joined the University's Photography society but never attended one meeting. Cameras are expensive. So are all the peripherals that go with them. I've owned a couple of cameras in my life but never more than run of the mill point and clicks that everyone has. Pretty much every photo I took while in I was in Italy was taken using my phone, yet there is something fun and satisfying about seeing a photo opportunity and taking what you think is, subjectively at least, a pretty decent photo.
Skip forward to just after my sister's wedding and browsing through the photos that had been taken, my family seemed to come to the consensus that the amateur point and click stuff my brother took was better than the professional my sister had hired. Well, some what better at least. So he and I, a few months later, are now ourselves trying our hands at this wedding photography craic just to see if we can make a go of it. However I find myself wanting to just go out and take pictures just because. I find myself looking at some of my friend's work, the actual 'went to college to study photography or have been with camera in hand for a decade' friends and appreciating them on a new level. Combine this with what I've been learning by playing around in photoshop and it's a like my brain has exploded due to creativity and inspiration. I'll add links here to the blogs/internetly homes of a few people who have inspired me and have added to this new hobby of mine which I can see possibly becoming an addiction even more pernicious than my already substantial reliance on midjit tranny porn.
Robin Murphy - My brother. Yes, it's shameless self promotion but the photos are pretty damn good none the less.
Aoife Blake - Friend of a friend of mine who I've just discovered due to her recent levitation photography project. Really great stuff.
Torino Daily Photo - I discovered this guy while living in Turin. I don't visit the blog often, but the stuff I have seen from him I love.
Hector Heathwood - A well respected, admired and loved photographer based in Dublin specialising in model photoshoots.
Scarlett Fro - (NSFW) A good friend of mine who randomly found herself in front of the camera a few months ago and has been growing in demand ever since.
Neesa Butterberry - A girl i found on Google +. I know! I was amazed to see people actually used that thing! I like her work a lot.
Carrie Day - Another friend of mine who, like Aoife, lives in Vancouver. A great photographer with some really cool ideas.
Ross Costigan - Becoming quite established in his field and rightly so. Ross has had a camera of some shape or form in his hand for pretty much the entire ten years I have known him.
Maik Sinkovec I've come across this guy recently and I really love his style. Dark, grungy, horror fetish. Some amazing work.
Well, that's all for now. There is also this guy, but he loves himself waaay too much, and also smells of wee and farts!*
*He's actually a pretty damn cool photographer. Who seriously smells of wee and farts.
