My first attempt at taking a photo of a lil'en. Again, I would have liked to have taken more of these images, but I was distracted by a party happening behind the scenes.

Taken at a recent family party. I would have liked to capture more of these images, only people kept arriving and were particularly thirsty on this hot summer's day.

Interesting how removing a key feature such as the face does not detract from the picture. Specifically, the boys parents would know immediately who this is.

@martincahill

My Sister was sat in the sun over the weekend, so 'snap'; here are the results.

I like the warmth in these shots, but there are problems all over the place.

1. Too much squinting,

2. Shadows on the cheek and mouth lines,

3. And, the eyes don't pop in a way that I'd like them too.

A reflector could help here, so I might look into that and try again!

Snap. Heat.

One or two shots from the weekend, in particular a social gathering at Greygarth, Manchester.

I was shooting in particularly low light, so I adopted my flash gun, but was keen to keep the power setting low, particularly with such close-up shots. I also had my 50mm lens, so I could keep the f-stop at around 1.8/ 2.2 so relying less on the flash.

I hope you like these images. Interesting characters and stories to be told here, I think.

There is something about the light that comes from a window. I believe a number of photographer's recommend window light over flash for portrait photography. This was a chance capture, but possibly illustrates the point.

I also wish my camera bag wasn't in this particular shot, but ah well.

martin cahill

Launching into the foreboding world of portrait photography. In both these instances a dedicated flash unit would have significantly enhanced the image, not to mention up'ing the f-stop ever so slightly. 1.8 is probably loosing too much of the sharpness where it is most needed - the eyes, cheeks and nose.

Both shots were taken early evening, just as the light was beginning to fade.