Devious Theatre’s production of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting’ has unfortunately come to a close (for now anyway). I had hoped to blog throughout our third production, but as usual, time always disagrees with my best intentions. I’m still completely overwhelmed by the whole thing, I’m not sure I could ever capture it all in a mere blog post, but I can easily say the past week has been one of the best weeks of my life. (This is going to be a very, very long blog post!)

Following on from weeks of intensive rehearsals, learning lines, mastering Scottish accents, practicing monologues, researching drug-use, and countless other things, we hit the Watergate Theatre last Sunday in final preparation for the show we hoped would firmly imprint the name Devious Theatre in people’s minds (and veins). I’m not sure any of us expected the reaction we’ve received, the overwhelming response we’ve had and the “buzz” that spread throughout Kilkenny leaving a whole new wave of “devious” junkies screaming for “one more hit”.

I’ve done a lot of shows over the years, I’ve walked the boards of the Watergate stage many times, it’s hard to explain the awesome feeling I get when I return to do it again, but to do so simply; I love it. And clearly I’m not the only one; all day Sunday we were buzzing around the Watergate, trying on costumes, music blasting, make-up and prop tests, people dancing, the set being constructed and giddy smiles all around. This was easily the biggest role I’ve ever played, an enormous challenge for me. Trainspotting was easily the biggest thing Devious have ever done (so far), and was hopefully going to be the show that displayed the broad range of talents, skills and abilities that Devious Theatre has to offer (so far). The tech-rehearsal and dress rehearsal flew by, myself and John Morton had our hair bleached and then dyed ginger (me) and bright blue (John), everyone laughed, our opening night came on Tuesday. I can easily say I’ve never been so nervous.

People piled into the theatre, the curtains opened, the lights came up and we let fly with our barrage of Scottish accents, monologues, syringes and “the C word”. The audience laughed at the highs, during the lows you could hear a pin-drop. Some people left in disgust (clearly naive and repressed). During “the toilet scene”, people gagged and moaned as their stomachs turned. Near the end, I looked out to see people crying in the audience. And when the lights finally went down in the finale, there was a stunned delay before the audience erupted with cheers and claps for the curtain call.It was hard to get feedback after the show, people were speechless. Countless hand-shakes, pats on the back, hugs, stunned smiles, praise and a lock-in followed.

Wednesday night, less than an hour before the curtain opened, Michael Murphy tripped coming off the stage (damn you Batman Trailer). Within minutes his ankle had swollen to the size of my head! Playing several different characters ( I think 8 in total), Micheal appeared throughout the story in various roles from the opium suppository dealing “Mikey Forrestor” to a “foostie minged auld c**t”. It was hard not to panic. Plans and scenes were re-arranged frantically, some actors took on any roles they could, I’d have to do some scenes on my own and refusing to give up, Michael did any scenes he could. Word of the show was spreading, the second night crowd were bigger than the first. The curtain opening and we “slammed the life-giving, life-taking-away elixir home”. Again people were stunned, the buzz continued to grow (and “rumour has it we went to Morrissons”).

On Thursday morning, my voice was gone, my whole body ached, everyone was exhausted and Mick had surgery on his ankle. I had completely given up on the possibility of being able to reply to the flood of txt messages, emails, bebo and myspace comments about the show. With only hours to go, we hit the Watergate to properly re-work and rehearse scenes. Micheal’s roles were divided up, again with some actors taking on extra roles and Devious Theatre committee member (and legend) Paddy Dunne learning lines to take-over the remaining parts. Our first review was published in the Kilkenny Advertiser, with John Cleere praising the show (I’ll post the review later). We were expecting it to be our quietest night, technically it was, but still over 130 people planted themselves into the Watergate seats for what so many people have described to me as “the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!”. Again; countless hand-shakes, pats on the back, hugs, stunned smiles, praise, some quickly scribbled congratulations notes and “rumour has it, we went to Morrissons”.

By Friday, I was reconsidering what I had previously considered the terms “exhausted” and “sore”. My throat was swollen, I gulped down endless amounts of hot-water, honey and lemon (Gollum Juice) and Difflam throat spray. Bookings were continuing to rapidly increase, people were constantly approaching me in the street to talk about the show, my Carlow crew flooded me with messages, they had booked out a whole row and had never seen me act, my stomach was doing somersaults. Mick showed up back-stage, he struggled on his crutches, profanities were written big and bright on his leg-cast, hugs were had all around.

The curtains opened to our biggest crowd yet, before the lights had even come up; myself (Rentboy), Ken McGuire (Tommy), Stephen Colfer (Spud) and John Morton (Sickboy) perched ourselves at the front of the stage in the dark, the opening music began and suddenly people began clapping and screaming, within seconds it had spread throughout the crowd, you could feel the energy in the theatre, we whispered to each other in shock on-stage, the lights came up and revealing the awesome set with four iconic characters bobbing their heads to ‘Blue Monday’, the crowd erupted. There you have it, the moment that myself and John Morton now call one of the greatest moments, ever! The even more amazing thing was, that this moment lasted nearly two hours, and when we finally took to the stage for the curtain call I was completely blown away as I watched audience members jumping to their feet. The ripple spread and we were standing on-stage staring out at a standing ovation. No words come to mind to describe this. It is a sight and feeling I will never forget yet never manage to put into words. Again followed by; hugs, stunned smiles, countless hand-shakes, pats on the back, praise (and rumour has it that we went to Morrissons but it was full of scum so we went to Anna Condas instead.)

Still managing to re-invent new meaning for “exhausted” and “sore”, drinking sickening amounts of “Gollum Juice”, overdosing on Difflam throat spray and energy drinks, we hit the Watergate early. Myself, John Morton and Suzanne O’Brien(Diane) got into costume and took to the streets of Kilkenny as junkies from the streets of Edinburgh, handing out flyers for the show and chatting to people in-character. People shook our hands, shouted Trainspotting quotes at us, stared, pointed, cheered and some stood completely confused by Scottish slang. Following my nightly warm-up/stretching session/freak-out, we had our nightly talk from directors Niamh Moroney & John Morton, we took to the stage ready for our final 8pm start.

8pm came and went, I paced the stage in anticipation. The usual sights of people hugging, smiling, people in trances as they ran through scenes in their head one last countless time. At 8:05pm, we could actually hear the crowd still growing, somebody passed on the shocking message; “holy sh*t, there’s even people in the balcony!”. Time continued to pass, it was hard to contain nervous giggles, we were visibly shaking and twitching with anticipation. When the crowd finally finished pouring in, sometime near 8:15pm, the curtains pulled back in the dark, we stared at the silohuettes of a full-house… “Blue Monday” began, the clapping and cheers began, the lights came up and there was that moment again, the one that lasts nearly two hours. Once again followed by a standing ovation. I was stunned, overwhelmed, amazed… you get the idea.

After that we hit Cleeres (again) for drinks, then we headed back to Ken McGuire’s house for quite easily the most anticipated party of the year. A Devious Theatre after-show party is very difficult to describe to anybody who wasn’t there, it’s kind of like the 60’s all in one night (without the drugs). Between four of us, we bought 96 bottles of beer. Following on from the week we had just survived, we deserved some epic celebrations and I can safely say; they were had. I have hundreds of hilarious photos, that make my sides sore from laughter, the cast continue to piece the night together on the cast forums, I’ve tried to keep up with the comments but I keep falling off my chair laughing when I read the thread. On Sunday night, we got together for dinner and one final time the rumour has it; we went to Morrissons.

On Monday, we entered the Watergate Theatre one final time (for now), the set was taken down, everything was packed away, John had his hair bleached again and went from bright-blue to “a light chestnut brown”, I think I’ll keep mine for a while. Still we were buzzing from the show. We went for dinner and still we couldn’t walk the streets without people approaching us about the show. I think I can easily say people will be talking about Trainspotting in Kilkenny for a long, long time. Any of us that were still able to hold back the tiredness went for a final drink, chatting about the week we had in pure shock and amazement. It has in no way sunk-in yet how great it was, it will take a while, and post-show blues on this one will probably make “coming off scag” more “like a bad flu!”.

I’m well aware that this is a ridiculously long post, but like I said, the past week has been of the best weeks of my life and I apologise but I still have a long list of “thank yous” and respect I would like to give to people. Where to start!? Firstly, with Directors Niamh Moroney & John Morton for their unbelievable work throughout this production. For having so much faith in me and seeing ability I never knew existed. For giving me the greatest part I have ever played (I thought you were crazy) and constantly encouraging me throughout. For awesome direction and constant willingness to expand on things and work on ideas. It was a pleasure from start to finish and I cannot wait to work with both of you again.

Thanks to Paddy Dunne, firstly for the awesome photo-shop wizardry on the posters that covered the town and initially set tongues wagging about the show. Then for plunging into the deep-end at the last minute when Mick got injured. And for so many other reasons; the countless times you make me laugh and feel the need to “high-5″ you. I’m so happy we finally got to do scenes together, that photo I have will always make me cry with laughter and seriously, I think you should dress as “Uncle Cha-Cha” all the time.

Ken McGuire, dude, I seriously don’t know where to start at this stage, quite simply; you rock. From endless encouragement to never slowing down, it’s both inspiring and tiring to see how much one person can do. And then to do so without ever complaining or not smiling!? I think he might be a Cylon!? It was awesome to share moments like we did on stage, you could nearly hear the tears hitting the ground in the auditorium. Thank you.

Thanks to Eddie “look out! he’s falling over!” Brennan, Murt Brennan and Ned Green for building the coolest looking set I have ever seen. Thanks to everyone who helped painting it and to Andy Harte for covering it with awesome graffitti. Thanks to Gerry Taylor for then lighting it and sorry for missing my marks, I think I covered it up well!? Thanks to Daw for the sound, yet another person who continues to provide me with endless encouragement in everything I do, and another person I could never thank enough. Thanks to the best crew ever; back-stage manager Colm Sheehan for your endless enthuasism and bad jokes, Thom Dowling for your crowd disgusting props and always running to get things I had forgotten, Kevin Mooney for your bad jokes and constant willingness to “get it out!”. Sorry I kept knocking the coffin over guys!

Thanks to Niall “he really is Begbie” Sheehy, for your constant energy, I’ve never seen anybody dance to “Cotton-Eye Joe” with such enthusiasm. When we were on the stage together people laughed so hard and when we went out into the auditorium screaming “The Road to Nowhere” you could see the fear of god in people. Thanks to Stephen “Spud” Colfer, for always making me laugh and endless batches of “Gollum Juice”. See you next time for the “Hour of Power” but remember to bring more beer Spud! Thanks to Suzanne “Dropping Lyrical Bombs” O’Brien for being crazy, please don’t tell me about your dreams, they hurt my head. Thanks to Maria Murray for her willingness to be bent over a coffin and generally put in positions somebodie’s parents should never see them in. To Paul “Mother Superior” Young for awesome chats and to Simone “I can’t believe she’s in Australia now” Kelly for your hilarious scumbag voice and falling over during the lock-in. Thanks to Mairead “Meet Mister Fist” Kiernan, who without a doubt destroys the fact that “girls aren’t funny!”, damn France and it’s luck! Thanks to Aileen Johnson for ruining my hair, doing my make-up, constantly poking me in the eye and trying to kidnap me to Belgium. Thanks to Kate St. John for the awesome costumes and Aoife Bambrick for more make-up. Thanks to Shane Hatton for the awesome photographs throughout and to Alan Slattery for shooting the video and agreeing to add all our crazy extra features ideas. I can’t wait to see it.

Thanks to Micheal “Too Excited by Batman ” Murphy, for all his hard work throughout rehearsals, I’m so sad you got injured dude. I’m glad we shared the boards on Tuesday night and look forward to doing so again. Thanks for making everyone awesome Trainspotting t-shirts, for never wanting to quit even when you couldn’t stand and for getting out of hospital to come back-stage providing me with encouragement.

I’m very worried that I’ve left somebody out, it’s hard to remember everyone for every awesome thing they have done. So if I’ve missed anybody then I really apologise, I’m exhausted and I’m still completely overwhelmed about this experience. I’ll no doubt be still blogging about Trainspotting for a while and the last week will always be firmly planted in my head and heart. It will always make me smile. I’m so proud of all of us for what we have achieved and so grateful to you all for so much.

Finally, I have to thank any person who came to see the show, especially those of you who came several times. Thanks to everyone who has sent us praise and compliments in messages, phone-calls, emails, comments on bebo or myspace. Thanks to all the people who have come up to us in the street, those who have blogged about the show, talked about it in the newspapers, on the radio, everywhere… thanks to you all, I’m so glad you enjoyed it and can safely say there is plenty more to come from us at Devious Theatre. So there you have it, one of the greatest weeks of my life and an insanely long blog post. “Awesome… awesome to the max!!!”

College results were released on Tuesday and I’m very proud to announce that I now hold a BA Honours Degree in Communications and Public Relations, receiving 1st Class Honours.

Over the course of the last four years (I also have a Diploma in Print Journalism) I’ve studied a very broad range of subjects; Journalistic Research & Writing, Public Relations, Media Analysis, I.T, Shorthand, Publishing, Law, Marketing, Social Psychology, Management, Politics, Communications, Cultural Sociology, Visual Communications, Contemporary Irish Literature, T.V studio practice, radio studio practice and of course my thesis; “An investigation into the use of MySpace as a P.R tool for independent musicians in the Irish music industry”.

During that time I’ve also gained extensive experience working with countless musicians, theatre companies and film-makers. Along with podcasting, blogging and of course photography. So please, somebody, GIVE ME A JOB!!!!!!!!!!

I’m currently working with several bands and musicians at various levels, everything from gig & promo shoots to E.P launches, management and national tours (I do believe you’ll find one of our press releases in the latest edition of HotPress). If your want to hire me to work with your band then just get in touch, either here or send me an email or send me a message on MySpace or Bebo.

I’ve worked with tattoo artists, body-painters, models, makeup/special FX artists and event managers. In the next few weeks you’ll be seeing a whole new batch of my work appearing from local to national levels. If you want to work with me on a project or just step in front of my lens then please just let me know. Finally, to once again repeat the point of this blog, please, somebody, GIVE ME A JOB!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Oss237.com - Ross Costigan Photography celebrates it’s second birthday today. Looking back on the last couple of years I’m amazed by how quickly it has flown by and how far my adventures behind the lens have taken me.

Three years ago, I started getting really into photography, with a background in film-making I got frustrated by the long process of creating things and photography meant I didn’t have to wait. Around about the same time, KenMc was setting up KilkennyMusic.com and asked me to come on board as the Resident Photographer. Combining my passion for music and my growing passion for photography, I’d never shot a gig before but how could I say no!? And in return he set up Oss237.com. He later went on to give me a loan of his Nikon D70 (for over a year) and continues to give me technical support and listen to my stupid questions on a daily basis!?

After countless hours; thinking, day-dreaming, cursing to myself, thousands of shots, hours of practicing, trying to figure things out, learning rules and trying to break them, I’ve slowly but surely developed as a photographer. I now have over 1000 live shots on display in the KilkennyMusic Galleries. My shots have been used by hundreds of bands and musicians on websites, myspace & bebo profiles, albums, E.P’s and posters. I was short-listed for an Irish Blog Award. I’ve gotten regional, national and international publications. My work with KKM has expanded into PR work, podcasting, blogging and generally being surrounded by awesome music and musicians every day.

Today Oss237.com reached 62,000 hits. Over the last two years I’ve posted just over 200 of my favourite shots, capturing not only my adventures and work, but my progress as a photographer. I’ve received hundreds of comments and feedback from people all over the world. I’ve worked with bands, musicians, other photographers, models, tattoo artists, makeup artists, fire-dancers, teachers, students, film-makers, artists, bloggers and generally got to meet the most awesome people from all over the country.

All the time just doing something that I love doing!? And whilst I’m well aware that I still have an awful lot to learn, I’m just looking forward to it and wondering where it will take me next.

Two years in, I have to say a huge thanks to KenMc for everything basically. I also have to thank my long suffering housemates Sla and Daw (Happy Birthday dude!), they complete my technical support and also answer my stupid questions on a daily basis. Finally, thanks to all the people who have visited the site, checked out my work, continue to do so and the people who have commented and shared their opinions or thoughts. Your feedback is always welcome and provides me with a constant encouragement to learn more.

I’ve been waiting three weeks to be able to announce this, as Devious Theatre release individual character posters for our third production; Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting‘, my poster came out this week.

I’ll be playing greedy, self loathing, nihilistic anti-hero Mark ‘Rentboy’ Renton in the WaterGate Theatre the 24th - 28th of June. In the Devious tradition, a truly awesome series of posters are being created for the show, once again due to the skilled hands of Paddy ‘that was from Jaws!’ Dunne. The man behind the posters for ‘Heart Shaped Vinyl‘ and ‘Cannibal! the musical‘. His work continues to amaze me.

Tickets are now on sale for the show and booking is starting to pick up so make sure and book your tickets early through the WaterGate Theatre: 056 77 61674.

I’ve spent the last few weeks getting to grips with my character; reading the script, reading the book, listening to the audiobook, watching the film, working on my Scottish accent, reading about how to do Scottish accents, talking to myself out loud in Scottish, reading about heroin use and generally transforming myself into a Scottish junkie. It’s easily the most challenging role I’ve ever played, but I love a good challenge.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting updates on rehearsals and P.R work we’re doing for the show, and make sure to keep an eye on the Devious Theatre website for more updates, news and of course more character posters.

Book tickets for Devious Theatre’s ‘TrainSpotting’ on 056 77 61674.

Okay, so college is over and aside from looking for a job and in between TrainSpotting rehearsals (more on this very soon) and various other projects (loads more on these soon), I’m slowly but surely catching up on my huge backlog of work.

First up is a couple of promo-shots for session bassist Tanya O’Callaghan, taken all the way back in January (told you I had a huge backlog!). Nothing too complicated, trying to avoid tacky conventional in-your-face promo shots, I’m quite happy with these considering I’ve seen a lot of crusty promo shots lately. Some people seem quite happy confusing nice shots with retarded unflattering snaps!? I for one try my best to make people look good when I take their picture, a point that has been mentioned to me several times over the last few weeks! I mean seriously, imitation is boring. Especially if you can’t do it properly! And now that several readers are thinking “I wonder who he’s talking about?”, several more are thinking “oh, nice burn!” and one in particular is thinking “shit, is he talking about me!?” I leave my rant at that.

This series was taken under a standard household lamp, directing light and adjusting settings so the background darkens out. Spending some time to find “interesting” and “flattering” angles for the shots (final pot-shot, I promise). The shot of the hand and the string was just a test, playing around and testing things out in photoshop. I have several ideas I want to try out, I just wanted to see would they work, they will.

Loads of news, project updates and photos coming very soon.

Disclaimer

The above blog post contains several pot-shots, if you were confused by them then my apologies, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you were offended by them then that’s what you get for being sneaky and uncreative. =P

Ross Costigan as ‘Jack Street’. Photograph by Shane Hatton

Vultures Episode 2: ‘The Scarlet Lady Vanishes‘ went online last Sunday, following the Cast & Crew premiere in Cleeres Theatre on Saturday Night.

For anybody not in the know, ‘Vultures’ is the flagship production by Mycrofilms, it’s a web-based sitcom, that’s FREE TO WATCH on www.vulturespi.com. It follows the adventures of the three hapless detectives of Vultures Private Investigators.

The pilot episode, ‘The Kris Kringle Konundrum‘ premiered Christmas Eve and now Vultour, McGrain, Tennyson and the gang are back, with a few new characters in tow as they ‘get up in the guts’ of an Agatha Christie style murder-mystery, once again written by John Morton and Paddy Dunne.

Aside from providing behind-the-scenes shots for the show, I’m also the 1st A.D and play urban preacher ‘Jack Street’. As shooting for episode 2 took place just before my exams, it meant I wasn’t around for a lot of shooting but I did manage to get some behind-the-scenes snaps, with plenty more to be added to Vulturespi.com very soon. I don’t want to give away any of the plot until people have seen the show.

Mycrofilms have just received funding from the Arts Office, meaning we’ll be able to shoot four more episodes to complete the 1st series. Pre-production has already begun on episode three and it’s looking like we’ll be shooting it in July (more on that later) after Devious Theatre’s production of TrainSpotting (more on that later).

But for now check out check out ‘Vultures : The Scarlet Lady Vanishes‘; it’s got action, it’s got suspense, it’s got love, it’s got hookers. “And it’s still better than that film, the one with the bugs in space!”

So college is officially over… it still hasn’t really sunk in. I’ve tried several times to write this blog post, but it’s hard to capture how I feel right now. I’m overwhelmed with thoughts, memories and mixed emotions.

Four years ago, if somebody told me that I would have completed a Diploma in Print Journalism and then a BA Hons Degree in Communications & Public Relations, I would have thought they were crazy. I wasn’t the academic type. Going back into education as a mature student, I was worried I wouldn’t fit in, hell I have trouble fitting in most places, let alone because of age.

On my first day in I.T Carlow, I hesitantly walked into a room with 60 complete strangers, people from all over the country and different walks of life. I nearly died when we all had to stand up and introduce ourselves. I didn’t want to go back the next day… but I’m so glad I did.

Aside from studying a broad range of subjects and finally getting an idea of what I want to do in life, I’ve spent the last three years with the most amazing people you could ever wish to meet. I have so many different stories and memories of time with them, that I could probably set up a new blog with daily posts (maybe I will!?).

Although we were all completely different, I was accepted by them for who I was and formed friendships that I know will last my entire life. I doubt any of them actually know how much of an impact they made on me. It’s hard to pick a favourite memory from the past three years, but I can safely say I have at least one fond memory of every single person in my class, and so many people I met through them. Days spent in the TV studio or in the canteen, endless days in the library studying or trying to avoid study. Insane nights out, pub crawls and parties. The laughter. The tears. The stress. The relief. The sessions. The moments. The whole thing!

This year was easily our most stressful, as we went from projects to essays, PR Campaigns to design projects, presentations to speeches, radio adverts to video documentaries, interviews, a thesis and then finally exams. 13 hour days in the library, reading novels, plays, poetry and endless amounts of notes. By the end, we spent a lot of time wishing it would all be over, in hindsight, I can see myself spending alot more time wishing it had never ended.

I can safely say the reason I got out of bed every morning, spent hours commuting and stuck in traffic, spent days hungry because of the lack of vegetarian options, or the reason I even managed to complete the course at all is because I was doing it with these people.

Now that it’s all over and we finished it off with the expectedly awesome celebrations, I’m kind of lost. We’ve said our goodbyes, we’re all heading off in different directions. Only the 2nd class to complete the course, we’re a new breed. My class was packed full of people with different interests, talents and skills. I have no doubt I’ll see my classmates changing the ways things are done in every area of life from politics to sports, music and entertainment, you name it and somebody was good at it. I feel privileged to have spent time with them.

The above class photo was taken at the Portal statue outside I.T Carlow, just after we finished our first exam, the beginning of the end. Although not any type of artistic shot I’m posting it on the site because I want to share it with people. Firstly for anybody who wasn’t in my class, I want you to see the faces of all the people who changed my life and where I’m going in life.

Secondly, for my classmates to have (thanks for all the memories). I have a list of contacts but not all of you are on it, so if you want a large version of the shot for printing or want to meet up in the real world, then just let me know. I also have thousands of photos from the last three years and now I have time to go back and sort them out, so make sure and add my bebo or myspace profile. Finally if any of you do read this then leave a comment, I’d love to know you favourite memory or thoughts.

I’m already looking forward to the class reunion…

This week was Road Safety Awareness week in I.T Carlow, with a whole host of activities and things going on to promote and raise awareness of road safety.366 people died on Irish roads last year, it’s the equivalent of 1 in 8 students in the college. Having travelled up and down to college every day for the last three years I more than welcomed the event. It’s ridiculous some of the stupid risks people take on the roads and the amount of times I’ve seen people nearly kill themselves and others because they won’t slow down.

Around the college, all week you could see the remains of cars that had crashed on the roads. All of them ridiculously crushed and tour apart, leaving little hope for the thought of the driver actually surviving. Inside the college there were various stalls, video displays, reaction tests and general road safety activities.

On Wednesday I was asked to take promo shots for a car crash re-enactment in the college car park. With hundreds of people gathered to watch, various speakers including model Vivienne Connolly opened the event, followed by the release of 366 white balloons, one for each road death last year.

After that I made my way to the roof of the college library (I’ve always wanted to get up there) to get some shots looking down on people lying, covered in white sheets, in the shape of 366. Then quickly back down to snap the road-crash re-enactment scene. I had also been asked to get some production promo shots for a group making a road safety video who would be filming the re-enactment and for the Carlow Fire & Ambulance Services.

The re-enactment began with the arrival of the Gardai, Fire & Ambulance Services on the scene of the crash, with two victims trapped inside a car which had been hit by another. The driver of that car lay dead having come through the windscreen because he wasn’t wearing a seat-belt.

It was both scary and awesome to be so close and shooting the car crash scene, as the firemen secured the cars and set about saving the survivors. It was also pretty eerie with hundreds of people standing around watching in silence. I need to get rid of my manners when trying to shoot something at the same time as other photographers. Whilst trying to stay out of the way of all the fire and ambulance crew doing their jobs, I was trying to compete with several other photographers and film crew for the best angles. With only seconds to get shots before something/somebody gets in the way, I found that being polite obviously isn’t high up on the list of things to worry about (at least with some photographers).

Slowly but surely the crews secured the vehicles and took them apart piece-by-piece, always ensuring the victims were safe. Constantly moving and thinking, some were cutting the car apart, others were talking to the victims and holding their heads securely, they were always working together. It was amazing to watch them removing the roof of the car and then slowly removing the survivors on spine boards before treating them on the road. Finally, it seemed to get even quieter when the hearse arrived and the body was removed from the other car and placed in a body bag.

I’m still in awe thinking about the amazing jobs these people do everyday. That firemen who don’t get paid, volunteer their time and witness horrible things to try their best to save complete strangers. It’s sad to think how many times they have to do this because of stupid things like people not wearing seat belts or simply driving too fast (as for drink drivers; don’t get me started on those selfish/stupid bastards!).

Hopefully this demonstration will make people think and be more careful, hopefully people will look at my shots and take every precaution so they don’t end up just another statistic of Irish road deaths.

Finally I have to say a huge thanks to I.T Carlow P.R Officer Paula Pollard who always thinks of me when she needs a photographer and of course to Niall Walsh for getting me to and from college safely for the last few years. You can check out all of my photos from the car crash re-enactment here.

I met up with Clive Barnes (legend!) for a photo-shoot yesterday morning, with Clive looking for promo-shots to use for upcoming tours and me only too happy to get him in front of my lens.

As we’ve said on the Sound System Podcast, myself and Ken will be providing some P.R services for Clive’s upcoming tour with Australian legend Jeff Lang this July. We had initially planned to do the shoot last weekend but with the unpredictable weather we had to post-pone, giving me time to do some research and get some practice before the shoot.

Over the past few months I’ve been looking at a lot of different music promo photographers, with so many different styles and techniques to try. One of the great things about this shoot was Clive knew exactly the kind of shots he wanted and was able to give me plenty of suggestions on work to check out. The only problem being that he wanted some black and white promo shots, which firstly I’ve never done and secondly I tend to stay clear of black and white when I can.

It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that I think it’s very hard to do well. A lot of photographers tend to simply shoot normally and then change an average shot to black and white to make it look a little better. It’s more attractive to the eye. But it just isn’t the same as shooting with the intention of getting good contrast black and white shots!?

My next problem being that we’d be doing the promo-shoot outside in natural lighting, yet another thing I hadn’t done. So with the shoot being delayed a week, it gave me time to get in some practice. Taking short breaks from working on my thesis, I played around with shots using natural light coming in a window to get a feel for how to go about the shots.

Yesterday morning, Clive picked me up and we drove to a quiet railway crossing just outside Bennettsbridge, hoping the rain would hold off long enough. The sky was clear and perfect for what I wanted to do; getting it to completely white out. We were both kind of surprised by how quickly we got shots we were happy with. Shooting on a 50mm (cheers Ken. I’ll give it back…someday), using the small depth of field to throw focus on the background and using the train tracks for forced perspective, I got plenty of shots. Then I just removed the colour and adjusted the levels slightly for my first series of black and white music promo shots.

It wasn’t long before we were back in the car and on our way to Woodstock in Ennistioge, for the second part of the shoot. I won’t go into the exact details of conversations in the car but I have to say that Clive has some of the coolest and funniest stories I’ve ever heard and upon arriving in Woodstock I discovered that he also has a surprising amount of knowledge about trees!?

Our first stop was in an avenue of huge monkey puzzle trees (Clive told me!), with the idea to use the background like the train tracks for forced perspective. But the sun had gone on us and the trees were just too big to get the shots we wanted. So we moved on to a small wooden cabin type structure, just in time for the sun to reappear and provide great natural light beams and awesome colours in the background. Clive took out his guitar and did his thing whilst I got out the camera and did mine.

Waiting for bursts of sunlight through the clouds I once again got shots we were happy with, very quickly. Straight away dismissing the idea of black & white for these ones, meaning I could try out another completely different style of promo shots. I could have played around for hours but the clouds said no. We made our way home and just as I got in the door, the rain came down in buckets.

I ‘d really love feedback on these new shots (comments, criticism, anything) and you can check out the full series of shots here on Clive Barnes MySpace Profile, where you will also see a long list of gig dates all over the country. I’ve seen him live three times so far and he’s awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing him again over the summer and hopefully getting him in front of my lens again.

The last few weeks have been crazy with primary research due on my thesis, a long list of assignments as well as a whole host of photo-shoots and work. But, I’ve slowly but surely been making my way through my huge backlog of shots from my adventure.

And so I present the latest series of shots; full-body Bio-Organic designs by tattoo artist Sean Boon of the Vibe Studio, Mullingar.Once again transforming Ani’s kitchen into a paint shop (you’re a legend); with half-naked people walking around covered in paint, everywhere you looked (you’re all legends!).

It took Sean over 5 hours to paint the bio-organic design on Tanya (thank you both so much for your patience). As he began with the outlines; myself, Ani and Mark went on a separate paint-shoot in an amazing forest (photos coming soon). By the time we came back, Sean had most of the outlines done and had colour-coded areas so people could then lend a hand.

For the shoot, we once again moved to Helen’s house, and once again I rearranged the furniture in her sitting room, to try take advantage of the white walls (cheers Helen, I still want your cat!). Just like the Puzzle Shoot, all of the shots were taken using natural house lighting, shot using a 50mm lens at f1.5 (cheers Ken).

I did some initial test shoots using my 18-135mm lens and SB 800 flash, but like the Puzzle Shoot couldn’t get the “white out” effect on the background and the flash instantly killed the vibrant colours of the paint, so I had no choice but to shoot with the 50mm. The main problem being with the limited shooting space and lighting, I now only had a very small depth of focus, which made getting full-body shots with a background burnout next to impossible. And I couldn’t get a good shot of the awesome bone designs on Tanya’s legs.

To compensate for all of this we used a large mirror, which helped to bounce the light around the room and gave me a little more room to work. From then on it was just a matter of finding angles to capture as much of the designs as possible whilst still managing to get the background to burn out. I did have to remove one of two objects but overall I think the series looks like it was shot in a studio enviroment.

At this point I would like to say a huge thanks to Sean for his awesome designs and hard work (I hope you like the shots and I’m sorry I couldn’t get more of the leg patterns), and of course a huge thanks to Tanya, Ani, Helen, Mark and all the gang from the madhouse. You’re all legends and sorry about the huge delay!

There’s still plenty more body-paint shots to come, just as soon as I can get through them but for now comments and feedback on the Bio-Organic series would be greatly appreciated.