All About Portraits

Get in touch and we organise a date, time & location that suits you. If you have little ones it’s really important to aim for a time that suits them, i.e. lets avoid nap time or when they normally eat! You will need to pay a deposit and sign a contract to confirm all bookings. I also have a questionnaire I will send you. This is designed to get you thinking about what images you might like to get but it also helps me get to know who is in the shoot, likes & dislikes etc. Of course a good ol chat over the phone usually covers most of this too.

I am an on location photographer which basically means I come to you! If appropriate I can come to your home (perfect for maternity, newborns or young babies) or we can choose a beautiful location like your favourite beach or park. Mayo has some amazing locations to choose from but if you have a favourite spot please do let me know.

Some of my favourite locations are: Turlough house, Breaffy House Hotel, Westport House, Raheen woods, Mount Falcon, Bertra beach, Old Head, Westport town, The Mall in Castlebar, Raheen woods, Mulranny Beach (any beach in Mayo to be fair!)

This is always a potential in Ireland so the reality is sometimes we have to reschedule. However as I only even take a limited number of session a week, I do my best to fit you back into the calendar as quickly as possible. I just ask for a little bit of flexibility from you too. If you have limited time then we should discuss a back up plan like an indoor location, this can be your home or hotel or a sheltered spot at your choosen location.

However, so long as we are not dealing with weather alerts, fear of flooding or young babies, I would encourage you to be open about giving it ago anyway! Some wellies, umbrellas and a good coat and we can get some incredibly fun images. If you are brave enough I will be too!

Natural, relaxed, fun.

My style is a bit of a hybrid style I guess. I will direct to get those classic portrait shots but I love capturing natural candid shots too. I may give a gentle prompts here and there but mostly I will go with the flow, especially when kids are involved. A shoot can involve taking a walk along your favourite beach, playing in the waves or it could be at home where your kids can show me their favourite toys and play their favourite games. My aim overall is to capture the best of your relationships and connections to loved ones.

Yes but not strickly as I will also direct. Which I guess makes me more of a lifestyle photographer. My aim is always to document your family as they are. These involve a little direction or very simple prompts. This is especially important if you want the classic set of family portraits. You just won’t get them if they are not organised and set up. However I love to keep these as uncomplicated and natural as possible. I promise any set up photos will still be capturing the best of your loved ones and will not feel stiff or formal. If you are interested in doing a completely documentary style session then please do let me know. I love them and will always be up for this.

No I like to concentrate on just photography as it is where I have specialised all my training & equipment in.

Everyone says this!! Very few people are really comfortable in front of the camera and thats ok. My job is to help create a setting where you will feel comfortable. I can give gentle promts and offer direction when needed but really I want you to think of this as a chance to hang out with your loved ones and be yourselves together. That’s what I really want to capture, your relationships and connection. I promise it is beautiful and well worth capturing. You are important to your family and they will grow up cherishing images with all their loved ones in it.

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This is the digital file that is basically your image. A high resolution file is high enough quality that you can print from it.

You will also notice that there is an option to download low resolution files in your online gallery. These are best for online use. They are lower quality so I don’t recommend printing from them, but they take up much less space on phones etc and will upload faster.

This is up to you. It is set to be private but you can share with as many people as you like.
There are heaps of really cool features that enable you to hide any shots you may not want people to see or you can create scenes for sharing certain parts of the day e.g. family shots.

I have a B.A. (Hons) degree in Photography, which I graduated from in 2007 & have been working in the industry ever since. I have worked for a number of high end photography studios & was expected to regularly attended training. I still regularly do courses to keep up to date with industry standards and push myself as a creative. As a member of the IPPVA, I am expected to produce work of a high standard but can also avail of regular training events.

Yes I am fully insured.

No, while everyone loves to have the digital files from there shoot, I believe it is incredibly important to print your images. I offer a complete range of products from fine art prints, framing and beautiful handcrafted albums. While I completely respect this is not in everyones budget I really do encourage you to print your photographs, with me or at your own favourite printers.

The products I offer are a very high quality, often hand crafted products that will stand the test of time. I have plenty of sample products so just let me know if you would like to see these at the time of your shoot and I can bring them along.

Firstly decide where you will download and save the images. If you are downloading a full gallery please note this can take up a huge amount of space, potentially a few gigabytes if it was an extended shoot.

Saving these on your phone, will take up a lot of memory so a laptop, external hardrive, cloud storage are all good options. Then back them up somewhere completely different. And review every so often. USBs and external hardrives can get damaged, lost of even just become obsolete. (I was providing images on CDs/DVDs when I first started these, no one uses them anymore!) so update your backups every so often.

However I highly, highly recommend printing all your images. Whatever size or in whatever material you want but print print print! There is nothing like holding a physical photograph. If you have kids it is so incredibly important that they can see their image proudly displayed and even better if they are surrounded by their loved ones. It genuinely increases confidence and a child’s sense of belonging.