Tag Archives: Sumi-Anna

2014: My favourite images

Dec
26
2014
by Brendan Ó Sé | Comments Off

Each year, I like to take some time and look back at the photographs I posted to Flickr. (Here are links to previous years – DSLR &  iPhone) Being a nostalgic sort, this is something I enjoy very much. The thing that surprises me is how much I forget and how distant these scenes seem from now. The old saying – it seems like yesterday –  is one I have never been able to connect with. Yesterday seems an age away for me. Heading back and seeing what I posted twelve months ago seems like another life.

It has been a very good year. I got to see new countries: Taiwan and Denmark; and revisit places I love: Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, London and Berlin. Really cool. I like this little exercise of looking back, mainly because it is an exercise all about believing in the future. Twelve months ago none of these images had been realised. One of the reocurring feelings I get as a photographer is that I will never create another photograph worth anything. It is something experience each time I head out with the camera. But I know that I will. I know I will learn and get better. I will be here twelve months from now looking back at 2015 and getting excited about 2016.

In 2015, I posted 241 photographs on the DSLR account and 248 to my iPhone account, making a total of 489 images. That is a lot, by any standards, and to whittle it down to one image from each account for each month is not an easy task. But here we go.

We started the new year visiting a beach to the east of Cork. It was a wild and windy day and darkness was settling in almost as soon as we arrived. There is something about the sea which is so quietening. I could stare at it without any awareness of time passing. When I lived in Spain, in Badajoz a city whose river had dried out, I missed water so much. Coming from Cork, with our city centre an island that the River Lee surrounds and only being a stone’s throw away from the sea, I need water. I need to hear and smell it.

This image I have chosen as my favourite for January is one of my little girl, Sumi-Anna, staring out to sea. I stood behind her as she stared. Captivated by her, wondering what ran through her mind as she looked out. Wishing for her all she could ever wish for herself. As a parent, I find I take so many images of my kids with their backs to me, walking away, bravely, without me. Not waiting for me, not needing me to hold their hand. The first steps of independence. This is preparation of a sort. I know one day it will come that I will not be wanted. They will need to express their independence. For now, there is still some hand holding and I will hold tightly while I can.

January

January

And now on to my beloved iPhone. Fun! That is what the iPhone is all about. It puts the phun in iPhunography. Don’t get me wrong, I like photography with the DSLR too, but it is too heavy, too complicated and too  visible. The iPhone is light, fits my hands, does not require too many calculations and it is discreet. And did I say it was phun? It is!

A series of images that has got me a lot of attention is the one of people walking in the corridor where my office is. I have gotten some beautiful images there. Check this and that. The one I am choosing for January is a little different to the others in that the colour is brighter. I love the faint outline and the sense of motion.

January

January

Have I chosen your favourites. Check these links to see. iPhone – January  & DSLR – January

Posted in A Flickr Year, iPhone, My own favourite photographs, photograph posts, Street Photography Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

August 28 2014

Aug
28
2014
by Brendan Ó Sé | 8 Comments

August 28 2007 is a day I will never forget. I became a father on that day to a beautiful little girl we called Sumi-Anna. Sumi is Korean and Anna, well Anna is international. Growing up I had many dreams, ambitions, desires. But the one that burned and burned was to become a father. I had to wait for this for what seemed like always; what seemed like never. But it came like that old cliche – when I least expected it. And that moment when we left the labour room, my wife with our newborn in her arms and us holding each other’s hand was the greatest feeling I have ever experienced in my life.

Before becoming a father, I read and was told by everyone that it would change me; that I would not recognise myself when I became a father. I looked forward to that so much, eager as I was to leave my old life behind. Around the time she was born I remember checking to see if this was true and honestly, then I felt no different. Fast forward a few months and I could not recall how life was like before she was born. Everything had changed.

Being a father is the hardest job I ever have had. She is seven today. She woke at 6 in excitement. She and her brother played as quietly as exuberant little children can as their parents try to get just that little bit extra sleep. As I am writing this, she is singing around the house.

We have a little birthday tradition. We get a double decker bus into the city centre and sit at the front on the top deck. We go for a smoothie and a little cake and after that we head to Waterstone’s where she picks out some new books. Along the way, I will try to get photographs of the two of us together. Today, I let her take photographs. She loves it when I give her the camera. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she tells us ‘ a photographer!’

On the bus, I ask her will you remember this and before she responds she looks at me, tilts her head a little, gives me a smile and shaking her head from side to side she says: “Daddy, of course I will. How can I forget my birthday? On the way home, we try to get the seats at the front upstairs again. Luckily, we do. The bus bobbles along and Sumia is non-stop chatter. I hold her hand and wait until next year. I won’t forget these days either.

The photograph I chose to post on Flickr today is one of my very favourites of Sumi-Anna. It was taken when she was just over two years old. Taken in the back garden of my parents’ house. My mother (Sumi-Anna’s bestest friend) was sitting on this little bench reading Candide. Sumi-Anna was playing in the garden. Granny was reading. This caused curiosity. She toddled over, took the book, turned it over and over in her hands and then sat down, opened it up upside down and stared for the longest time at the indecipherable text. As fortune would have it, I had the camera with me.

This image we have printed and it hangs in our bedroom.

Happy Birthday, Sumia! Juah!

15061453595_1efe34869b_z

Happy Birthday

The iPhone image I chose for today is one of her playing in the garden on the swing. This summer has been fantastic by Irish standards. It has been raining the past few days and makes you realise how few days of rain we have had this summer. I hope as she gets older exuberance is never far.

photo (2)

Sumi-Anna

 

 

Posted in Daily posts to Flickr, iPhone, My own favourite photographs Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

My little angel

Mar
13
2014
by Brendan Ó Sé | 2 Comments
13100734895_3acf8017ae_o

She makes stillness dance and silence sing

 

 

Posted in iPhone, Words Also tagged , , , , , , , , , |

A year of iPhone photographs

Jan
03
2014
by Brendan Ó Sé | Comments Off

Mobile photography? Hasn’t all photography always been mobile? I have never had a camera that was not portable. OK, only in recent years did I get a camera that also had other functions, but photography has always been mobile. If you check the statistics for uploaded photography, you will see that nowadays the most commonly used camera is not a stand-alone camera, but a multi-functional device that has an inbuilt camera. More people than ever before are enjoying photography, and predominantly this is in the form of a smart phone that has a camera. In an effort to understand and deal with this phenomenon, the term mobile photography has been coined. But is it time to drop the mobile part? I think so.

There is irony in that on my part, seeing as I separate my traditional photography and mobile photography with two separate Flickr accounts. But hey! Contradictions and hypocrisy is what makes us humans interesting.

I completed my end-of-year review for my DSLR images last week and now I am beginning to look back at 2013 and choose my favourite images taken with my iPhone. You know, I will enjoy this more. The iPhone is more fun. Shooting with the DSLR, I feel more of a responsibility to adhere to and to achieve photographic standards; to manipulate the settings of the camera to good effect. But with the iPhone it is liberating. I point, I shoot, do a little post processing and very often upload immediately. Just fun! And what is the point of a hobby if it is not fun. I am not saying the DSLR is not fun, but I prefer the iPhone. It is lighter, more compact, less intrusive and it is a damn fine camera.

Looking back at the year of iPhone images, I am really pleased. There are a lot of good memories in those photos. The one I am choosing for January was taken on second day of the year in 2013. It was a cold, grey wintery day, but still all the family got together and headed to Inchadonny beach, which is about 50km from Cork. Kids love the beach. Last year we were lucky to have a good summer and many happy days were spent at the seaside. The image below shows my beautiful little girl, Sumi-Anna, playing on the sand, drawing figures. The sky expands above her and the Atlantic appears calm in the distance. The start of a new year with possibilities as vast as the sky, with love as forever as the ocean. Kissing that future…

8336956779_6b1d93d9b1_c

January

Posted in A Flickr Year, iPhone, My own favourite photographs, photograph posts Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , |

Rebel, my little rebel

Aug
17
2013
by Brendan Ó Sé | Comments Off

There is something about arrows I love. There is something about going against the tide I love. There is something about breaking rules I love. There is something about rebels and rebelling I love.

There is everything about my little girl I love. Here she is – rebelling.

IMG_3109

Break those rules

Posted in photograph posts Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , |

She puts them in bags in the clouds

Feb
17
2013
by Brendan Ó Sé | 4 Comments
Sleeping homeless man in Busan, Korea.

Sleeping homeless man in Busan, Korea.

The photo below is a coloured-in version of a previous upload. See it above.
This was taken in early April in Busan, South Korea. I was in a public park. Alert to photographic opportunities. This man was sleeping; sleeping soundly. I sat beside him. Surveyed the scene and built confidence to photograph him as he slept.
I took one more of his hands which he clasped together, in restful repose. See it below.

Hands

Hands

When I viewed the image I saw the tear running from his eye. This week I was looking through older images, running them through different processing. This one seemed perfect.

Tooth Fairy Infidelities

Tooth Fairy Infidelities

This week, when in work my wife sent me a text message with a photograph attached. The photograph was of my little girl with her mouth wide open, wide in glee. Her first tooth had fallen out. Her eyes too were fully open in wonder.
I was walking along when the text message came through, but seeing the image, seeing her excitement at this step in her life, stopped me in my tracks. My little girl, my baby girl lost her first tooth. An adult tooth will come and replace it.
That night the tooth fairy came and took her little baby tooth and in its place left a shiny coin; a coin which upon discovery elicited a scream in the early morning.
“Did it hurt you when the tooth came out?”
“NO! it just fell out, well into my mouth and then I spitted it out. The hole, look at the hole. I can put my tongue through it. Do you think the tooth fairy was watching me when it fell out? How could she see my mouth in the dark? What does she do with all the teeth, Daddy?”
“I don’t know lovey, what do you think she does with them?”
“I think she puts them in bags in the clouds.”
” In the clouds?”
” Ya, or maybe she makes little crowns with them to wear when she goes to parties.”
” Does the tooth fairy go to parties”
” Of couse she does. Look, look I can put my tongue through the hole.”

Posted in photograph posts, Words Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , |