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The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose - Richard Leider

Chillin' in Clare

A lazy evening in May Co. Clare. I have the good fortune to have a sister who lives in a most idyllic spot in Co. Clare. Orla and her family live in a very small town called Caher, 15kms outside Scariff and at present are renting a beautiful converted Coach House set on 300 acres of land. The main house is called Caher House and is used as a hostel and it goes to show the Celtic Tiger hit this area when the hostel has its own helicopter landing pad! The Coach House is set in a courtyard to the left of the main house, away from view, a well designed building from the 19th century so the inhabitants of the main house never had to see the ‘help’. I personally prefer the design and look of the Coach House, with its beautiful stonework and ambient feeling inside. The cobbled area in front leads to the stables where the horses rest after their leisurely day in the field, with the 2 small dogs who bark at every stranger but will happily sit and let you adorn them with affection.

This photo was taken within 10 minutes of arriving to Caher House. I’d driven down from Dublin and had planned to rest inside with a nice glass of wine and a good book. On arrival I met Shane, who takes care of all the animals, and he went to get some of the other dogs so I could take photos of them jumping in the lake (It was more a case of trying to make sure I didn’t go in the lake with them)! I took out the camera and tripod and walked the whole distance of 100m, from door to lake, and realised what a perfect evening it was for photos. There was barely a ripple in the surface of the water, the reflection of the facing hills being cast into the lake like a mirror reflects an image. The wispy clouds in the sky and the blueness are genuine, the only bit of photoshop to this image was a small liquify which adds to the viewer being pulled into the photo. To be quite honest, I never manipulate photos this way, I was having fun with the images I took and was actually trying to go for that fish eye look, not having brought a fish eye lens with me. The original image is a good landscape shot to begin with but isn’t it great to know you can have so much fun being creative with your images?

A bit about me

My occupation states that I’m a photographer and artist, that’s the short version. They are the 2 main jobs that I currently partake in. My background and work experience is so diverse from credit control with the Tote (betting) to Data Manager in a Clinical Trials Unit. Among these I’ve trained in art, graphics, printmaking, photography and am a qualified Montessori teacher. So how did I end up deciding I’m now a photographer and artist?

I never knew what I ‘wanted to be’ when I grew up. I couldn’t get my head around the concept that you would choose a career and never change it for the rest of your life. Even as a young child I saw how soul destroying that could potentially be. I wanted to grow up to work in The Racing Board, that was my aim when I was 7. Why? Well, both my parents worked there, as did my father’s father. When I was growing up my mother worked part time and it was possible to take your children to work, or at least she chose to. I loved everything about race days. There was always a sense of fun in the air and back then a race course (when your dad was the manager of the tote on course) was the best playground around. Of course when you grow up you realise looking through a child’s eyes is very different that an adults.

I left school after completing my leaving certificate in 1992 and although most of my friends had an outline of their ‘life’ and career, I had no clue. I got a place on an art course and decided to take it, but after 2 months I was starting to dislike one of my greatest passions and came to understand that establishments can knock the passion out of you when assignments become the focus and not creativity and imagination. My father died suddenly that December so aside from the shock it brought back a conversation I’d only recently had with him about ‘my career choice’. He knew I wasn’t enjoying the course and asked if I thought I could ever make money out of what I was doing. Now I took that to mean art in general, when the course I was doing was graphics and printmaking, it did include some fine art, life drawing and photography but I decided to just get through the year and then decide. After my father died I was not focused on the course and spent many a day in Dunkin’ Donuts with another like minded individual, the coffee was always more appealing than the thoughts of our graphics teacher who ‘didn’t understand us’. Yes at 18 you expect the world to understand your viewpoint! Applications were sent to various art colleges but I had no focus or real desire to attend one full time so I ended up doing a photography course the next year and finding myself on a course I was passionate about. However during the year, as once again the focus was on assignments and not the creative side I found myself wondering if I could do this full time.

Another year, another course, this time Montessori teacher training. How did I decide on this? To be honest I didn’t really, I did practically everything to ensure I wouldn’t get a place on this course but apparently it must’ve been in my life plan because instead of the 1 year course I thought I was going to be on, I was suddenly enrolled in a 3 year teacher training course. Well, after completing this course I ended up working in Tote Account as a credit control officer. 2 years on and I was working in St. Luke’s Hospital (National Radiotherapy Centre) where I initially went in working as a temp secretary and 8 years later finished as their Data Manager in the Clinical Trials Unit (I was a ‘yes’ person, loved learning new things and never said the immortal words of public service ‘it’s not in my job description’, so I moved quickly to more challenging jobs). During this time I was painting regularly and doing various home photography sessions and in October 2007, after being a Consultant Data Trainer in St. Luke’s for 15 months, I went full time into photography and art.

And now it’s all about figuring out this learning curve of business, self employment, new technologies, networking groups, online networking, social media......and so far I’m loving it! I love learning new things and I find it really exciting the way things are changing, especially the way we are being forced to do business in this digital age. But there is one thing to remember, it’s not about technology, it’s about people.