The 10 best things about being a Photographer
1.You dream it all up yourself
I started as a Photographer at 16, by 18 I was planning where my career could go. I’d go into O’Sullivans Graphics and look at the best Photography work in the Art Directors Index . I decided to go to London and call some of the people in that Index. I expanded my universe by going there to learn. Id seen pictures of Photographers with multiple cameras around their necks and fabulous studios and I know I wanted to be part of that. Visualisation works , you go with your own vision, but you need a clear picture , not a fuzzy one for your future !
2.You make things
We get to make photos which are all unique and special to each client, they are things people need for Ads, websites and digital campaigns. We get to be creative, and working to a brief, you can still add something. As an artist you take random elements and put them together into something more of their parts. That’s the skill. The scientist takes stuffapart, an artist puts stuff together. I get to be creative, to find solutions to our clients problems, sometimes these are how to shoot something so it looks a certain way other times it’s how to find a solution for a small budget. At other times it’s just being flexible, a key skill for any freelancer
3.You set your own standards
Ok so you have to be hard on yourself, you have to push yourself. You have no one set- ting the tone, it’s your career , it’s your baby .
I admired the work Bill Walsh, Pepijn Linders and Clive Woodward. They are Football, Soccer and Rugby coaches. They all had one thing in common , they have a set of standards for what they did. In fact I met Pepijn Linders in Holland before he went on to now
become assistant manager to Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. He had a philosophy, a methodology and a set of standards.
4.You get to meet interesting people like Slavoj Zizek , the Philosopher and Writer. I had to spend two days photographing him but he used me as his audience, he had me enraptured. He is worth checking out on You Tube. He was staring in a Film called The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, in which he examines the main ideas and reworks the main role in famous films like Titanic or Taxi Driver Sound of music and others.
5.You get asked to photography some crazy stuff like Sushi on a naked models body - it’s a thing they do in Japan. it doesn’t work as well on a cold beach in Killiney in November . Then their was the Grasshoppers - which I thought were easy things to Photograph until their bodies warmed up under the studio lights and took off, leaping maybe 10 feet away. Having live grasshoppers living in the studio is not something I wanted. One of my favourite shoots was in New York for Bank Of Ireland Student loans . A student has run out of money , has pawned all his clothes and is standing outside a pawn shop . My assistant agreed to be the model to save on costs but as he stood in his underpants on the streets in New York, he got some looks and I couldn’t contain my laughter.
6.You get to test your grit , see what your made of .
I’ve done the rounds, calling Art Directors, Designers, magazines, Book publishers, PR People and Clients, meetings after meetings , year by year . One Advertising agency I went to maybe 12 meetings over 9 years . I finally got some jobs from them, but it was hard graft. You have to have the brief and persistence . it’s the part of my job that I consider my gym - it’s hard work but it just has to be done. Once I’m at the agency meetings I love them, meeting new people and talking about the work.
7.You work with many talented people
I’ve got to work with other talented people, from Producers, Graphic Designers, Assis- tants, Chefs, Make Up artists, Printers, Art Directors, Retouchers, Food Stylists, Location finders, Clothes Stylists and Props people.
8.11AM.
11am is the time in cafes that I like best. At 11am the world is quiet. People are in their offices, the school runs are over, the students are in college.
At 11 am I can be anywhere , if I’m not shooting , I can be in one of maybe 10 cafes. One of my favourites is the little one in Killiney Dart station. 11am is the time us freelancers are there, the stay at home Dads, the underemployed or the retired people. People who can press pause on the day.
9.You get to eat the food !
I do a lot of Food Photography, and my wife Anne Marie is a top Food Stylist .
We create pictures and videos for Food Companies and Advertising and Digital Content. We do lots of seasonal shoots, Christmas, Easter, Mothers day and get to work on TV ads.
The amount of food we buy is crazy, Annemarie has to create from recipes, to be pre- pared for re takes and multiple repeats for camera. You have to go to several outlets to choose the best looking food. Anne Marie does the styling and cooking, I do the eating .
10. I can do other things to keep me fired up !
I have done my fair share of side projects. I had been teaching and coaching, for Sport . I studied Adult Guidance and Sports Coaching. I made short Films, one even got into The New York Food Film Festival in 2015. Recently I’ve created a 2 day workshop and 6 Week course that combines Mindfulness and Photography which has got bookings already for next year. It going to be great, I’ve very excited about it.
