03/9/10

Voice

I’ve been emailing Maurice O’Mahony, marketing manager at Karwig Wines, a lot these past couple of days. He hosted a private tasting of German dessert wines last week, to which I was invited.

It was a wonderful evening, and I offered to write a guest post for Karwig’s blog about it.

Turns out, my style of writing and Karwig’s house style don’t blend well. It’s a bit like mixing a Shiraz with a Chardonnay. Nothing inherently wrong with either, just not in the same bottle.

To be fair to Maurice, I can see his point. This was my opening to the post:

My mouth is quicker than my brain.

The words “I’m getting vomit” had passed my lips before my cognitive faculties had had a chance to apply a filter.

It went very quiet around the table.

We were, after all, talking about a half bottle of wine that goes for €14 retail.

Maurice didn’t bat an eyelid. “That’ll be the cheese,” he said.

The cheese, as the original post went on to explain, was an unctuous, gooey Brie de Melun provided by Paul O’Mahony, around whose dining room table the private tasting was taking place. While it was polluting my palette, delivering flavours akin to vomit, O’Mahonys Paul and Maurice (not related) were enjoying green apples, pineapple, a bit of lemon, that sort of thing, the erudite stuff.

Thing is, the Karwig Wines blog is a quality place. Not the kind of venue that’s going to let that sort of writing in. And who can blame them?

The whole thing got me thinking about voice – voice as in the distinctive voice of a writer or, more pertinently, a photographer.

My career as a photographer is starting to take off now that I have found a distinctive voice.

A distinctive voice means my photography speaks clearly.

A distinctive voice means my photography is heard.

A distinctive voice means it is heard by the right people.

A distinctive voice makes it easy for people to decide whether or not it is a good match for them.

Just as my photography isn’t a good fit for everyone, my writing isn’t either.

That’s a good thing.

It’s also a good thing that Maurice knows what is best for Karwig. He is also the consummate diplomat when it comes to telling guest contributors when the blend just doesn’t work.

A bit like chocolate and wine, as I learned the last week.

O'Mahonys Maurice (left) and Paul inspect one of the fabulous German dessert wines that Karwig stock. (c) Roger Overall 2010

[***UPDATE*** Maurice has blogged about our evening here: KarwigWines' Blog - Eiswein Tasting. It's a great piece. I'd forgotten about the Spike Milligan story. That's ironic. I told it.]

03/7/10

Unique Selling Point – 6

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I process my images in a very particular way

I spent a lot of time in February visiting advertising and design agencies in Dublin. With only two exceptions, my portfolio was met with great enthusiasm. That was a very uplifting experience, having previously doubted that my work was good enough to show in the capital.

[Incidentally, having overcome that silly mental block, I'm working on plans to meet agencies outside of Ireland - two countries in particular are very obvious targets for me. More on that in the weeks ahead]

Back to my Dublin experience. At least half of the creatives I met commented on the feel of the images. All of them struggled to put it into words. “Depth”, “Silver”, “Three-dimensional” were all used, along with “Different”, the most commonly used description.

This is important. Digital post-production has given photographers great freedom and control over the final look of their work. Previously, we’d have all sent our work to the same labs and the post would have been pretty much homogenous. Wealthier photographers would have collaborated with individual printers to get the look they wanted, but most of us didn’t have that luxury. Now we do. That gives us another way in which to set ourselves apart from our colleagues.

A friend of mine, a fellow photographer, once gave me some of his files to run through my post-production cycle. When I sent the images back, he initially didn’t recognize them as his own photographs. That’s how powerful developing a personal post-production discipline can be.

03/1/10

My Wife – Without Whom I Am Nothing

There are many rewards in life.

A daughter’s goodnight hug.

A cheque.

A cheque that doesn’t bounce.

A bottle of wine from a client.

An award.

Last night the winners of the 2010 National Photographic Awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Ballymascanlon House Hotel in Co. Louth.

For the second year running my wedding photography won the award for Best Reportage Wedding Portfolio. I was thrilled beyond words, and today I have a very sore head to help mark the achievement.

I also received the award for Best Pictorial/Travel Portfolio. That really only made the head worse.

Yet while people were congratulating me and shaking my hand, I can only claim half of the credit. Professional photography is a hard career at times. Occasionally, it beats me down. When it does, Anne picks me up, dusts me off and gets me straight again.

Were it not for her, I wouldn’t have been standing on stage last night. Let alone twice.

She’s also very considerate in the morning when my brain feels like a pin cushion.

Best Reportage Wedding Portfolio 2010: