Here’s a viral video I was commissioned to produce for Dulux Paints, for their “Let’s Colour” project currently happening around Ireland. Just a week before President Barack Obama arrived at his ancestral home in Moneygall, Co. Offaly, Dulux volunteers helped paint St. Joseph’s National School as well as providing local residents with paint to brighten up the town.
Interviewees in the piece include Canon Stephen Neil, who was the first to trace President Obama’s ancestral roots, Henry Healy, eight cousin of President Obama and now fondly known as “Henry the Eight”, Julia Hayes, owner of Hayes’s bar in the town and Eugene Ryan, principal of St. Joseph’s National School.
I had the great pleasure of recently working on the new Crystal Swing video for their single, a cover Bonnie Tyler’s 1980′s smash hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. I was asked to produce a number of new press images for the band that would be consistent with the video, and a possible cover image for the single.
It’s the first time I’ve shot still photography on a proper video production. It was a bit of challenge, mainly to get the three members of Crystal Swing in the one spot for any given length of time so they could be photographed together. Due to the tight schedule demanded by shooting video, one or all of the members were involved in shooting a scene at some point.
The video production took place over two days during Easter weekend in a derelict three storey mansion on Dublin’s northside. The video was produced and directed by Peter Foott. Peter and his team worked incredibly hard yet still created a great buzz on set making the whole experience great fun and hardly like work at all.
In case you’re reading this wondering who Crystal Swing are? They’re a singing family, featuring mother Mary, daughter Dervla and son Derek, from Middleton in Co. Cork. They became an overnight internet sensation last year when the video for their single “She Drinks Tequila” received millions of hits on Youtube.
Enjoy the new photography and video. Here’s to a Crystal Swing Number 1.
Here’s a video testimonial from one of my Dublin based clients, Tamar Chambers of the Robert Chambers Hair Group. It’s always great fun working with Tamar and the crew at Robert Chambers, and cool to hear some kind words about me.
Delighted to announce that following last year’s success at the OMC Prestige Club Awards in Paris, one of my images has again won “Global Stylist of the Year 2010″ in the “Long Hair Men’s” category for my client Wayne Lloyd Hair in Cork. Also pleased to tell you that two more images were selected as runners up in the “Long Hair Women’s” and “Short Hair Women’s” categories for Wayne Lloyd Hair and MOHH in Athlone, Co. Westmeath. Well done Wayne and Maeve!
OMC (Organisation Mondiale Coiffure/World Hairdressing Organisation) is the world’s biggest beauty organisation with over 60 member countries and 500,000 salon owners worldwide. Wayne Lloyd Hair is the only Irish winner of “Global Stylist of the Year”.
My first video blog! Here’s some video I shot back in August of “Get Back – The Story of The Beatles” sold out show, which ran for five nights in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin.
The video has been edited to a 30 second piece for promotion. If you like the music of the Beatles, then this show is an absolute must see.
“Get Back – The Story of the Beatles” traces the band from humble beginnings in the Cavern in Liverpool to LSD inspired Sergeant Pepper’s to the legendary performance on the rooftop, with all the classic tunes thrown in.
I shot all the live footage with my Canon 5D Mark 2 which handled the low light levels brilliantly. Looking forward to shooting more video in the future. Enjoy the show….
Some recent hair images shot for two outstanding stylists, Mary Kennedy and Louise Jordan. Simple clothes styling and lighting used to beautiful effect.
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.
Brendan Duffy is a photographer
based in Dublin, Ireland. Brendan specializes in photographing people mainly
for advertising ,design and editorial. He is agraduate of the Dublin
Institute of Technology, receiving a Diploma in Photography in 1995.
Brendan
has travelled extensively with his work, including commissions and personal
projects in Paris, Ibiza, Moscow, Tuscany and Cuba. In 2007 and 2008 he
lived in Stuttgart, Germany working for the DEBEOS Studios in Sindelfingen.
Brendan was recently awarded “Best Men’s Image”
by the IHF National Photographic Competition 2009, and runner up for “Best
Colour Image”.
