And now for something completely different…

I’ve just uploaded my latest series of photographs to my website, a collection of alternative body art portraits, once again working with the very beautiful Tanya O’Callaghan.

Keeping with my aim for 2008; of expanding into new areas of photography and developing my skills, the latest series of pictures are easily the farthest from my usual subject matter than ever before, so I have to say a huge thanks to Tanya, once again. Our first attempts shooting her tattoos was under a simple household lamp (but I’ll soon have a new flash and some proper lighting) using an 18-135mm zoom lens (I need a macro lens) but I think it worked perfect for black and white.

I tried out various techniques with this series, using selective desaturation to bring out the red in some parts of the tattoos, deliberately breaking framing rules and going against the “rule of thirds” in others and using tape to give forced direction in a couple of the pictures. And I’m very happy with the results.

All of Tanya’s tattoos, which include artwork by Alex Grey and a collection of symbols on her spine, were done by tattoo-artist Sean Boon of The Vibe Studio, Mullingar. I’m hoping to talk to Sean in the next few weeks about getting my sleeve started. The one thing I will say is that this series of pictures don’t do justice to the shading on the hip pieces.

For those of you out there with original and interesting tattoos (not just something you randomly picked from a catalogue in the shop) that are interested in sorting out some shots, then give me a shout and we can work on ideas, I’ve already got a couple of people interested. Tanya has already had further work done on her spine piece, with Sean currently finishing designs for a custom piece encorporating some bio-mech and more Alex Grey designs, to add to the existing hip pieces, so our series will hopefully become a collection of progression.

Since this shoot, we’ve already worked on more shots, once again completely different; a series featuring makeup and some bassist promo shots. With plans well in motion for a whole host of shoots involving more fire, more tattoos, more people, weapons, martial arts, bodypaint, hopefully a make-up artist and more.

All that’s left for me to say is; once again a huge thanks to Tanya, I hope you like the pics. And to the rest of you, your feedback and comments would be greatly appreciated.