local participation

I’ve apparently made enough noise about sofobomo this year that I’ve encouraged, cajoled and guilted a few locals into taking part. I’m not sure whether this is me claiming responsibility, or admitting blame…

Behold, the Irish contingent:

Danny O’Brien
Well known for beautiful landscape, wildlife and character shots from around the Valentia islands and their vicinity, and relentlessly producing visually arresting shots of anything and everything else that falls in front of his lens from hot air balloons to those gannets. Danny tells me he’s never done anything like this, and is looking forward to working on a project with a theme.

Darren Greene
We’ve known each other both online and in person for a couple of years now, and Darren’s style has overlapped mine now and again, when we share a like of flowers and falling-down-buildings – but he’s rather more adept with a wide angle lens than me! He hasn’t shared the details of his sofobomo project yet, unless the book title on his sofobomo page is more than just a reference to how nervous he is about getting started…

Tommie Lehane
Tommie is a bit of a quiet one and lets his photos tell the stories. Glimpses of everyday life, humorous juxtapositions and visual metaphors show a skill for spotting a picture that I’m hugely envious of, it’s an entirely different breed of photography from my usual so it’s lovely to have something different in my round of regular photoblogs. Tommie regularly works on projects so the interesting thing will be to see how he works in a more compressed timeframe rather than gathering along the way like I – and a few others I know – would usually do too.

Hugh Chaloner
I’ve been a long time fan his other worldly imagery that shows a world I thought only existed in my imagination, but it looks like Hugh has chosen to make use of his skill at capturing personalities in a spilt second, whether a stranger or family he’s definitely got a knack for it. I’m looking forward to seeing how he presents his photos in the pdf because he’s got something of a flair for graphic design too.

Louise Barnewall
A fellow flower and gnome enthusiast, and also recently dipping her toe into the world of film (and holga!) and soon developing chemicals (figuratively of course), Louise has been getting more and more into the birdy ways of late and it looks like she’s going to base her sofobomo project around a trip to the Saltees so there should be plenty avian activity there to provide enough book fodder. I expect pictures of birds flying, eating, fighting, loving and generally being otherwise birdly.

Ryan Whalley
He shares my love of details, quirky stones, old stuff, foresty goodness, indulges my standing under trees for what is probably longer than would be considered normal, as well as what is growing into some serious garden/flower geekishness but when we clamber up hillsides and through squelchy bogs he somehow manages to replicate not just the scene itself but something else about the place. I’m hoping he also shares a seat in the car every weekend during May so we can go and shoot plenty of material for our projects. I’d better help him pick one, seeing as how I made him sign up…

I think there are a couple others who are hovering on the edge of signing up too, so my encouraging/cajoling/guilting isn’t over yet.

So, keep an eye out for this lot when the sofobomo fuzzy month gets into full swing and see if you can sneak a preview of what they’re doing on their blogs.