I wanted to post a good example of blending old and new in our built environment. I photographed Wexford's beautiful new Library last week, notice how well the modern building fits in with the narrow street. Also, it sits so comfortably with the church spire while the site retains a portion of the old town wall. A lovely piece of modern architecture!

This is one of my favorite parts of Europe, Potsdamer Platz in the heart of Berlin. The area was totally laid waste during World War II and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location. Since German reunification, Potsdamer Platz has been the site of major redevelopment projects like this one by architect, Renzo Piano

Ballybeg rocks! It’s simply one of my favorite wedding venues anywhere. What’s not to like? A colonial style house with a backdrop of the beautiful Croghan Valley, old stone ivy-covered farmhouse buildings or go inside to beautifully decorated rooms, all this adds up to a wedding photographer’s paradise. Guests arriving receive a warm country welcome from owner Paddy O’Toole’s handpicked team, while Dominique and Teresa never fail to make each wedding unique. So I want to share with you some of the images I shot there over the last year or so. 

Wicklow's Clara Vale has all the elements of the quintessential 'picture postcard'setting: the whitewashed church, the narrow stone hump-backed bridge straddling the fast-flowing Avonmore river. When you're a wedding photographer this is about as good as it gets; so I was chuffed when Roisin and James asked me to photograph their wedding there. Neither one of them is from Wicklow but they wanted to get married in the county. Inside the church was great for photographs; bright with lots of room to move about inconspicuously, letting me capture all of the key moments without being noticed. Outside for 5 minutes of pictures after the ceremony and we were off to the wedding reception in Tinakilly House. The crisp autumn day saw the arriving guests gather around the large welcoming fire. Meanwhile I did a some more pictures with the couple outside taking advantage of the magnificent grounds of the hotel.  Captain Robert Halpin, a Wicklow resident, constructed Tinakilly House in the 19th century. As commander of The Great Eastern he laid the telegraph cable connecting Europe to America. Tinakilly went through many incarnations before it was bought in 1982 by Bill Power who developed it as a hotel. Inside, the hotel is great for pictures; full of features from the magnificent sweeping staircase to the array of furnishings assembled with a tasteful eye and a 'zero tolerance' for kitsch.

Wonderful locations are to be found in my own Co Wicklow. I shot Anne and Colin with a backdrop of the Wicklow hills near Sugarloaf Mountain after their wedding in Kilquade Church. As Anne is a keen horse rider the setting couldn't have been more appropriate. With a location as good as this it took me just minutes to 'bag' some great images and we were off again to their wedding reception in the Summerhill House Hotel just round the corner.

Couples often ask “Can we go somewhere after the Church service to get some pictures?” Usually this means a trip to the likes of Powerscourt Waterfall, Glendalough or other beauty spots nearby. But when Cliona O’Flaherty and Chris Judge got married in the Merrion Hotel they opted to go to the Irish Museum of Natural History across the road in Merrion Street. After the ceremony we were just finishing a ‘walkabout’, grabbing pictures in Merrion Square (a great location, with Dublin’s iconic Georgian doorways as a backdrop), when the couple decided to check out the museum. Minutes later we passed bemused staff and visitors as Chris led us to his favourite exhibit, a huge Gorilla who acted as a backdrop to one or two of their wedding pictures.

I got a really great ‘buzz’ photographing this wedding. Apart from the pair being a joy to work with (OK you think…”you would say that anyway” but in this case I really mean it!), to be chosen by Cliona was a great honour as she herself is one of Ireland’s top Commercial and Advertising photographers with a string of clients to kill for.

We did not know each other before the wedding; she found me by googling photographers. ‘Why did you book me?” I asked her “I just wanted natural wedding pictures” she replied.