I am a photographer, author and graphic designer based on the west coast of Ireland.
My professional photography career began in 2002, although my interest in photography and natural history goes back to my childhood. After settling in Ireland and starting to call myself a freelance photographer, my first self-assigned project was a photo book on the Burren, which appeared on the shelves of bookshops in 2006. 'The Fertile Rock – Seasons in the Burren' became the foundation of a long and still ongoing publishing career, which includes books like 'Ireland’s Coast', 'The Wildflowers of Ireland', 'Ireland’s Heritage Trees', 'This is the Burren' and the Irish Book Awards shortlisted 'Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way' and 'Wild Ireland'. While my first books were traditional coffee table style photography books, writing became an ever bigger component of my work, and in my latest publications words and images share the pages in equal amounts. When I wasn't working on another book, I undertook assignments in the Irish tourism sector for clients like Tourism Ireland and the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark, as well as for nature conservation organisations like the Irish Peatlands Conservation Council and the Irish Wildlife Trust. I also represented Ireland for the international Meet Your Neighbours biodiversity project, in 2020 I was appointed an AnTaisce Climate Ambassador and joined the writing team of Nature First. In the following year I was invited to join the Greensod Ireland Biodiversity Ambassador Programme.
In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic put a sudden stop to my reasonably successful photography career. With photography on hold, I found myself working as part of a local community development programme, planning and implementing community projects, and subsequently taking on a position with the consultancy firm which had been running said community development programme. Looking back, the Covid-19 pandemic and working in a field I hadn't even considered before, were a blessing in disguise. Taking a step back from the freelance photography treadmill, gathering new experiences and learning new skills - this included getting a diploma in graphic design, something I had been tiptoeing around for years - made me take a fresh look at my previous work and start over with a new vision and enthusiasm for visual story telling and the written word.
I have now returned to a freelance existence, combining photography, videography, writing, and graphic design. I am working on new books and natural history projects and the next few years shape up to be very exciting.
