Here’s a number of images I shot for various hair salons throughout the year for competition work. Unfortunately no outright winners this year but many of them made it through as finalists. The last three images were shot for Dublin salon Lunatic Fringe, and all three images brought their respective stylists through to the finals of the Wella Trendvision competition.

I like shooting hair as it’s always a chance to come up with an interesting concept with the hairstylist and experiment with lighting. It’s always intensive work, right through from concept and production to retouch, but very rewarding when the hairstylist’s concept and vision is realised.

I was commissioned last month to shoot this year’s Graduate Recruitment brochure by international accountancy firm Deloitte. Known as one of the “Big Four”, Deloitte are among the biggest auditing and accountancy firms in the world. Each year their graduate brochure aims to attract the brightest and most talented young graduates to the firm, for a three year programme with Deloitte.

I suppose we all have a certain idea of how an accountant should look or should behave, so when pitching to the client, I wanted to take the images for their brochure in a slightly different direction. As the brief was “a day in the life of a graduate” shot in a reportage style, I wanted the images to have a lively and upbeat feel while at the same time appear smart, professional and international. A high dynamic range retouch was added to give the pictures that extra edge, and hopefully appeal to the young potential graduates looking at the pictures.

All the pictures were shot in and around the Dublin office on Earlsfort Terrace. We cast the models from the Deloitte staff, all great fun on the day and brilliant at taking direction.

Here’s a selection of the images that will appear in the upcoming brochure.

Some images of Amanda Brunker, photographed in Bentley’s, Dublin in June, and featured in the Sunday Independent’s Life Magazine (Sunday, 11 July 2010). Amanda is a great character and was excellent fun to photograph.

Photography: Brendan Duffy

Styling:   Liadan Hynes

Make up:  Seana Long

Hair: Trevor Hynes @ Peter Mark

Photographic and styling assistance: various

Posting this from the beautiful surroundings of La Cueva, a bar in Tarifa, Spain, owned by my friend Scott MacNaughton. Wanted to get a post in for June, before the month runs out.

The light in Dublin has been great lately with the recent good weather. Here’s a beautiful daylight shot of classical pianist Finghin Collins, which we shot for his upcoming album artwork. Finghin recorded his album in the National Concert Hall and the image was taken in an old part of the building which is now unused. Looking forward to seeing the finished artwork for Finghin’s album, which will be produced by Claves Records from Switzerland (my first client from Switzerland!).

Will post up some shots of the stunning locations in Tarifa, there are amazing locations here for so many shoots. Tarifa is a old Moorish town at the southern tip of Spain, well known for it’s beaches, bars and kite surfing.

Hoping to shoot some test fashion (swimwear) around Marbella later this week. It’s a tough life……

I was asked to photograph the recently refurbished restaurant The Beach House on the seafront in Bray, Co. Wicklow (formerly Barracuda). It’s got a cool interior with beach hut booths, stunning views of the sea and great food. Here’s a selection of some of the pictures which will be used in the restaurant’s new website.

Here’s a shot from a recent job I photographed for Murphy & Gunn BMW in Milltown, Dublin, introducing the new 5 series BMW range. I combined some dodging and burning with HDR in the retouch or a more dynamic image. Beautiful car too…..

The full fashion editorial (with extra pics) as featured in Hot Press magazine, 6 May 2010 issue 9.

Photography and art direction:   Brendan Duffy

Styling:  Karl Patrick Smith  (www.karlpatricksmith.com)

Make up and hair:  Jill McKay  (www.jillmckay.ie)

Photographic assistance:  Nina Szymanska

Model: Sam @ Compton’s  (www.compton.ie)

Just love this pic…completely random. Taken from the dash of a 1974 Ferrari 308 in Connemara. I thought the fire was just the result of a local farmer burning back the gorse on his land, but turns out the fires have been burning down half of Galway as the land is so dry at the moment. Still makes a good pic….reminds me of a scene from Easy Rider or something….

Photography:    Brendan Duffy

Stylist:                 Roxanne Parker  (www.roxanneparker.com)

Hair:                   Jacqui Fay    (www.kazumihair.ie)

Make Up:           Naomh Kirwan  (www.naomhkirwan.com)

Stylist’s Assistant: Emily O’Donnell

Photographic Assistant: Noel Phelan

Model:              Rachael   (www.assetsmodels.com)

Special thanks to Leonora O’Brien for providing the location

Shooting a lot of hair at the moment due to competition deadlines coming up in the next few weeks (Wella Trendvision, IHF, L’Oreal, etc.) Here’s one of the more complicated lighting set ups from shooting with the brilliant Wayne Partridge of Wayne Lloyd Hair from Cork. One of our models, little Momo in the middle of the lighting, cables and fluorescent tubes. Will publish the finished images soon, here’s to a few more awards this year….