I’ve decided to move this blog back over to my main website. From now on I’ll be posting at http://www.dylanmcburney.com/blog so please update your newsfeeds as appropriate.

This particular blog has been great to maintain and I’ve had a lot of fun sharing with you some of the absolutely fantastic weddings I’ve photographed here in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe. I’ve shared some of my personal family history on here too and I’m sure in the years to come these photographs will come to mean more and more. Caroline is expecting baby number 2 and we’ll keep you all posted on how that goes too.

So there you have it – see you all over on the new blog (once a week – I promise!).

I spent much of August in France and for most of September I have been shooting some fantastic weddings here in Ireland. As it’s been a while since I posted some wedding photographs I thought I’d just share with you some of my favourites from my last five weddings.

As always, none of these moments were prompted, arranged, setup or fictionalised by the photographer. All the elements contained within are real – I was merely passing by…

Here we go!

“I think about photographs as being full, or empty. You picture something in a frame and it’s got lots of accounting going on in it–stones and buildings and trees and air–but that’s not what fills up a frame. You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.” – Joel Meyerowitz

Here’s a few of my personal favourites from Tori and Steven’s wedding.

Someone asked me recently if I thought that my photographs were in some way a form of self-portrait. Which I thought was funny because the boy in this picture is also called Dylan! :D

What a pleasure it was for me to cover this one having photographed Kathryn’s sister’s wedding at Larchfield Estate back in September. It was wonderful to see so many friendly faces once again.

Although people and relationships are the focus of my photojournalistic approach to wedding photography, I consider light, colour and form to be equal ingredients. So with the guests enjoying the beautiful summer weather during the reception it was fantastic to have the challenge of taking pictures in the strong directional light at the front of the Museum.

It was great to be able to document this important part of the day rather than going off into Botanic Gardens for some posed pictures. With Kathryn and Brian deciding to forego posed photos altogether, my role, as ever, was to seek out the real gestures, expressions, glances, whispers, and colour and form that make a wedding day so special.

These are my favourite photographs from the day.

If you’re interested in photographs that are a little bit more interesting than a lot of the ‘picture perfect’ posed pictures you tend to see today have a look at the fantastic 591Photography Blog.

It’s run by a collection of photographers dedicated to photography, pictures, life, love, facts, fiction, imagination, people, places…

They’re currently showing some of my street photographs from Morocco 2009 and I gave them a little insight into what drives me as a photographer.

Here’s a link http://www.591photography.com/2011/07/on-city-streets-and-elswhere.html

You can also see more of my personal work over on my main website here.

One of the great things about shooting wedding photographs for a living is the people you meet. And sometimes you discover that you may have actually met them before in a previous life! As it turns out Ricky and I traced the same path through primary school, grammar school and university. We grew up together just streets apart. Yet, as he was four years my junior our paths didn’t actually cross until Laura and Ricky booked me for their wedding.

So it was a real pleasure for me to photograph the wedding for them. As I looked around the room later in the day I saw some familiar faces. Their ceremony took place at St Comgalls in Antrim followed by a reception at the Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, County Down.

Here’s a few of my personal favourites:

I love photographing weddings at Belfast Castle. My sister married here in 2007 and the earliest photograph we have of my Mum is from a wedding here in the early 1960′s where she was a little flowergirl – so it’s a place that holds great memories for me.

Tara and Mark had their wedding ceremony at the Castle and then relaxed in the gardens with guests before heading down to La Mon Country Club for the evening reception.

Tara sent me a lovely email after seeing her pictures online:
“Hi Dylan

Thanks for your email and link to the gallery.

Mark and I absolutley LOVE the photos, they are even better than we imagined, thank you so much!

We sat down together to look through the slideshow and the photos brought back so many memories from moments we had forgotten (or missed on the day!), every time we look at the photos of the speeches we remember what was being said and laugh all over again.
You really captured the story of our day, we cant thank you enough.
Many thanks again,
Tara & Mark”

Here’s just a few of my own favourites from the first part of their day:

It was another fabulous marquee wedding in Northern Ireland for me a few weeks back as I photographed Joanne and David’s wedding.

I always like photographing weddings where the location has a strong personal connection to the family. Joanne and David married less than a mile away from where Joanne grew up at Grange Chapel near Cranfield whilst the reception was held at David’s family home near Aghagallon in County Antrim. Both venues provided stunning backdrops for the days events.

Here are just a few of my favourite images from the day.

Last month Caroline and I had some professional family photographs taken with Corrina over in France. I also had some new profile shots taken for my new website.

For the shoot Pierre-Yves suggested we go for a walk in the beautiful location of Les Haras in Hennebont. With lots of trees, horses and stables in the background we knew he’d be able to capture some lovely natural unposed photographs. And that’s just how it was!

It was a strange experience for me as I’m normally the one behind the camera but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! P-Y didn’t give us any direction – he just allowed us to be ourselves and got some really lovely portraits.

Check out the 2nd image below of me in full ninja mode (taking a picture of some horses)…. :D