I’ll start with Karen and Paul’s, a warm, fun and colourful affair in Ballintaggart House, Dingle, Co Kerry.

There were so many great details – Karen’s bright blue vintage dress, adorable hand-made bunting, incredible details, pretty mis-matched china (from the ever-incredible Pearl & Godiva), soft and natural floral arrangements and a mouth-watering dessert table.

Some pics from the day below.

Karen and Paul, thank you so much again for making me feel so welcome and for letting me be a part of your day. Also, major thanks and props to Ben for shooting alongside me, and making the day a whole lot easier.

The former home of Charles Stewart Parnell, it’s a vast, really gorgeous spot, surrounded by woods, a river walk, a cute picnic area, and, luckily for us, loads of gorgeous light.

I can’t wait to share the rest of the shots, and some deets about the day, but for now, here’s a little sneek peek –  how much do you love the bride’s blue dress and red shoes combo? And don’t get me started on the bike. Heart.

Hola! My poor camera and blog have been a wee bit abandoned these past few weeks but I’m delighted to be back hanging out with both.

I absolutely love this time of year. The leaves, the gorgeous golden tones, the pretty autumnal bokeh. Drool, the bokeh…

Anyway. Some shots from a recent trip to Phoenix Park with Ben below.

There are still some lovely flowers to be spotted around the park.

Other autumn tones  – my beauts new camera bag from Ona and tan knee boots from Office.

And finally, another seasonal highlight – Oktoberfest! Those giant pretzels were delish.

The annual Irish Blog Awards are on this evening, and I am delighted to report that this wee blog is one of the five finalists in the Best Photo Blog category, sponsored by Pix.ie.

I can honestly say that no one is more surprised than me to have made it this far, and to be in the very talented company of FlixelPix, Roger Overall, John Smyth, and Shane  Murphy. Best of luck tonight guys! And while I’m at it, please do check out two of my other favourite Irish photobloggers – Julie and Éadaoin. I’m a huge, huge fan of their work and their style, and it’s a good thing they don’t sell all their pics on Etsy, or I’d be broke (see Julie’s shop here, and Éadaoin’s here).

Sadly, despite going the last two years,  I can’t make it to the awards in Belfast this year (you can blame all my lovely new camera gear, which I’m still paying off). I intend on celebrating the nom by having another of these utterly amazing tacos, from the Mexican stand in Temple Bar on Saturdays. They are truly delish.

I hope everyone has a brilliant night, and takes lots and lots of pictures. I look forward to hopefully meeting all of the nominees on a photowalk sometime soon.

P.S. I picked the top photo because those blocks are what I used when I found out I had made the shortlist for last year’s awards, so it seemed apt!

I love, love, love seeing spring’s first daffodils peeking out. They’re a sign that yes, there is a grand stretch in the evening. That soon I won’t be getting up in darkness and walking home at dusk. I’ll be able to get in after work, grab the camera, go off for a wander and find lots of pretty light.

Props to the lovely neighbour who is planting these in our estate. I hope it wasn’t the same neighbour who had the unfortunate luck of hearing me sing tunelessly along to Taylor Swift as I took these shots.

And while we’re all happy and cheery, I want to say a huge thank you to anyone who nominated this blog in the Best Photo Blog category for this year’s Blog Awards. I made the shortlist! It made me want to take a running jump at this:

But I managed to restrain myself. Couldn’t bear the thought of freaking my neighbour out any more than I already had.

And these are two of his favourite things – Mr MacBook Pro (or GlaDOS if you’re on first name terms) and Minecraft.

When Photowalk.ie announced a photowalk at a flower warehouse, I registered as soon as my dodgy typing skills would let me. A couple of dozen photogs headed to the FlowersMadeEasy.ie depot in Sandyford on a grey and drizzly Saturday; basically, the best kind of weather for an indoor photo session.

I knew there would be loads of gorgeous flowers, and lots of pretty macro opportunities, but I wasn’t prepared for how lovely Eamonn and the Flowers Made Easy team would be. He let us take flowers out of their packaging, create custom set ups, remove price tags and basically mess everything up in an effort to get the shot we wanted. As per usual, I fired off loads of frames, but was too busy chatting/wandering/getting distracted by a €600 bouquet or red roses (I kid you not) to take many decent shots. I like the subtle tones of the arrangement above though, and brought it to the edge of the warehouse to try and flood the back with some natural light.

I came to the long, stony clearing that’s often frequented by the young and the restless. It was a fairly littered, depressing sight, but I was itching to use my new lens, so decided to give myself an assignment: try and shoot things that weren’t meant to be there. It started with the obvious – bottle tops and beer cans, wrappers and old newspapers. But there were a few surprises; one of those trays used for deep fat frying, a circuit board thingie, a couple of shells, and, weirdly, a lone carrot.

They might not be my prettiest pics, but it was a good way of learning that there is always something to shoot.

If I moan about being broke, being sick of eating tuna and water biscuits, or, yes, being broke, these two bad boys are the reason. Good thing this gear binge is coinciding with a few weeks of hibernation so. Shots from a recent wander coming soon.

Oh and Happy New Year!