Howya! I’m from Kildare town, in the midlands of Ireland. In 2011 I completed a degree (BA Hons) in photography From IADT Dun Laoighaire. I have been living in Calgary Alberta since 2012.
I think growing up in a lovely little town where everyone knew everyone… where we all looked out for each other in an honest genuinely interested and caring way… sparked a commitment to creating a comfortable and friendly approach to photographing people. It makes me really happy to be able to help people get over any nerves they have about being photographed. Whether it be a headshot, wedding, studio portrait, branding opportunity or even if I just see you on the street and love your look…I want you to be happy with the result.
I love to have a connection when making portraits. To be honest, I’m not crazy about having my own picture taken so I totally understand and empathize with the anxiety of handing a strange Irishman the power to interpret how you look. I’m kind of Old School in the fact that I hold the camera to my eye and not at waist level, for me, there’s a better connection to a subject/scene when i can close one eye and assess the framing. Its not lost on me that a big camera pointing at can be very intimidating, its something I’m very conscious of
Photography entered my life in 2001 somewhere in Vietnam. I was backpacking through South East Asia and Australia with my friend John. I didn’t own a camera and drove poor John crazy by constantly asking to use his one. In the end, I bought my own camera in Cambodia. It was a big clunky film camera and I had no idea how to use it, but I just couldn’t stop taking pictures.
When I got back home a year later, I built a darkroom in an old pig stye in our back yard. It was so small that you couldn’t even stand up straight in it, I spent months in there hunched over, developing negatives and printing pictures… happier than I could have imagined!
Eventually in 2007 I decided that I should go to college and study photography. It was a conceptual art based course and for the next 4 years I was encouraged to think outside of the box photographically while funding myself by playing music at night, it was an amazingly creative part of my life.
When I moved to Calgary life took a few twists and turns, the musical side of my life was able to stay but the photographic side had to take a step back.
Thankfully my life has regained its trajectory and I am now in a beautiful and supportive marriage to a woman I adore and in 2018 we welcomed our spirited and enchanting daughter.
Photography has returned to me now with a stronger and more rewarding presence than before, not just as a craft, but as a way of seeing - sharper, more honest, and more deeply rooted in who I’ve become.
Sláinte
Dave
