I am sure that the idea of 'turning pro' has crossed the mind of every amateur photographer out there at some stage. Turning your hobby into a career is a dream many aspire to. The reality is often very different but more on that in a future blog. For me I will admit that the thought had crossed my mind occasionally but each time I could list no end of reasons as to why it was an insane idea. The main one being that I felt I just wasn't good enough to consider becoming a full time photographer. But also because I had a young family and a full time job as a financial adviser. The risk was just too great. This all changed, however, in late 2017. There wasn't one stand out moment but more of a series of moments. Each one more convincing than the last.

The first of these came in September of that year. But like all decisive moments in life there was quite a long build up to it. Back in the summer of 2014 I had gotten my first taste of live music photography when I covered a music festival in my hometown. It was a small boutique style festival with mainly up and coming indie bands performing. It didn't matter. I was in my element. I loved the the energy and dynamic nature of photographing live music. And I knew it was something I wanted to do again.

The only issue was that the photos I got at that first festival were not very good. In the week following the festival I was still buzzing on the adrenaline from the whole experience and when I got around to editing the photos I thought they were amazing. So much so that I sent some of them on to the organisers of the biggest festival in the country, Electric Picnic in the hope of getting a photographer's pass There is nothing like the overconfidence of someone who is not good enough at something to realise how bad they actually are at it :) In fairness they did get back to me but the answer was no.

I applied again the following year with no luck. And again in 2016 but this time more in hope than anything else. One of my favourite bands, LCD Soundsytem, had been added to the bill that year. They had just reformed after having broken up years earlier and this would be my only chance to see them live. The answer was still no. I wasn't surprised. I was up against the best music photographers in the country and I was a complete unknown. But Electric Picnic was still the Holy Grail for music photographers and I desperately wanted to get the chance to work at it. Even for one weekend.

In the two years since I photographed that first festival I had done my best to photograph every small festival and gig that took place in my hometown to build up the experience I would need if I ever got the chance to cover a larger event. Some I even photographed on my phone where I wasn't allowed to bring a camera All the time I was building a portfolio of live music images from these events. With each gig I was learning more and more and gaining the confidence to know that I could get the images I wanted in all types of lighting conditions. I sent the Portfolio to Electic Picnic a month before the festival in one final throw of the dice. Again the answer was no. I was disappointed but at least I had tried. It just wasn't meant to be. Or so I thought.

The night before the festival was due to kick off I got a call from their publicity company. A photographer had dropped out at the last minute and there was a space available. I think I cried. I can't really remember. It was all a bit of a blur of getting my camera and festival gear sorted. 24 hours later I was on site and completely bewildered. The largest festival I had photographed up to that point had 3 stages. This one had 19 different stages and areas. I went to the media tent to get my bearings and look at the lineup to figure out which bands I was going to capture. I had never photographed anything on that scale before. It was very intimidating but very exciting. Also any gig I had photographed up to this point had been very relaxed in terms of access to bands etc. This was far more regulated. I was only allowed into the pit (the area between the stage and the crowd) for a specified period of time. Usually the first 3 songs from any artist. These rules apply to everyone so for the more popular acts it got quite crowded.

Once I had figured out how to get access to the pits at the various stages I headed for the massive Main Stage. The Chemical Brothers were the headliners that first night. Photographers are let into the pit a few minutes before the band arrives on stage to give them a chance to get gear ready and be in position to make the most of the allotted time. I will always remember the nervous anticipation and adrenaline rush of those few minutes before it all kicked off. I could feel the excitement build in the crowd behind me as they waited for the band to take the stage while the last minute soundchecks were being done. Then there was an eerie moment of almost complete silence as the stage lights went down and the anticipation started to build. I still couldn't quite believe I was there. I could see The Chemical Brothers moving into position in the darkness. The roar from the crowd grew louder and louder and then, BOOM, the stage exploded into light as the first beat dropped. I had never experienced anything as loud in my entire life to that point. Even with earplugs in it was nearly overpowering. I could actually feel each beat as it hit me. It was incredible. As a music lover it was amazing to be completely surrounded by the sound of the band in full flight and the crowds rapturous reaction. I nearly forgot I was there to take photos. After the first 3 songs I stumbled out of the pit in a daze. I was utterly hooked and immediately went looking for the next stage to get that rush again :)

Over the course of the weekend I got to photograph more bands than I had ever done before. It was an amazing opportunity to capture the likes of Noel Gallagher and other household names in action. The highlight of the weekend was not only getting to finally see LCD Soundsystem live but to do so from the pit while photographing them. It is still to this day one of my photographic highlights.

I have gone on to work at the 3 Electric Picnics since then. I have also photographed gigs at some of Ireland's most famous live venues and worked with musicians outside the live setting too.

In 2018 I was invited to photograph an Irish Music festival outside Zurich in Switzerland. It was a beautiful setting surrounded by mountains. It was like a little bit of Ireland had been transported to The Alps. I have been lucky enough to photograph this festival twice now.

But one memory stands out. On the Saturday night of the first year the headliner was the well known Irish musician Sharon Shannon. I was on stage as she performed her most famous song, Blackbird, to a rapturous response from the thousands of fans there to see her. It was great to be able to capture her reaction as she set up for the next song. It was one of those hairs on the back of your neck moments.

All of the above is just to illustrate how important live music photography is to me. Back to the decisive moment I mentioned at the start. I told you it would take me a while to get to it. It came on the last night of the second Electric Picnic that I worked at back in 2017. Elbow, another of my favourite bands, were playing on the main stage that night. Like LCD Soundsystem the previous year it was the first time I got to see them live. There is something special about being in the pit at these big events. You are in a kind of no man's land between the audience and the band and as such you get to experience the reactions of both sides when the band are performing.

Elbow's music is very uplifting and there was a real sense of magic in the air. Bands often say that they love to perform in Ireland due to the reaction they get from fans. In the pit I could get the sense that the band were enjoying the gig as much as the fans. It should have been an amazing moment but all I could think about was that 12 hours later I would be back sitting at a desk in an office and it would be a year before I got to experience something like that again. I walked out of the pit with tears in my eyes. That was the first time I seriously thought about going full time. I said it to my wife the next morning and she surprised me by asking me what was stopping me. Honestly it was a lack of belief in myself but the seeds had been sown and over the next few months a couple of other experiences helped me to come to the decision that would change my life.

The next decisive moment came a few weeks later. I had been asked to photograph my wife's cousins wedding. It wasn't the first wedding I had photographed. I had done a couple of weddings for other family members before then but this was the first time I went into the day wondering what it would be like to do something like that on a full time basis. I really enjoyed the day mainly because of the banter and interaction with the couple, the bridal party and the guests. This is the part I enjoy most about wedding photography. As I usually do when shooting a wedding I took thousands of photos in order to capture the overall mood of the day. But there was one shot that even as I took it I knew it was going to be one of my favourites. It just captured the moment. A lot of elements have to come together for a shot like this to work and luck plays a huge part but the important thing from my point of view is to make sure that I am in the right place at the right time to capture it. There is a buzz of adrenaline when I get a shot that I know works the minute I hit the shutter. It's probably the same as a golfer gets holing a putt or a footballer get scoring a goal. But without all the high fives and hugging. The week after the wedding when I was editing the photos I kept coming back to this one and I started to believe that maybe this was something I could turn into a career.

The final decisive moment came the following November. As the year drew to a close I found myself thinking more and more about the possibility of becoming a full time photographer. I just couldn't see how I could make it work. I had financial commitments and a young family. The idea of taking that leap into the unknown was terrifying. It was starting to affect my mood as the more I looked at the options the more I convinced myself that it just was not possible. My wife was fully aware of everything I was going through and in a bid to lift my spirits got me an early Christmas present of a week long photographic trip to Iceland with Bernard Geraghty Landscape Tours. I knew Bernard through Facebook and was well aware of his amazing work. He had set up his own photographic business the year before bringing photographers on tours.

Ever since I had started to take photography that bit more seriously I had wanted to go to Iceland. I knew it was a photographers paradise with vast unspoiled landscapes. I also knew that heading with Bernard would mean we would see the best the country had to offer. We were based in cabin in the middle of nowhere that made it easier for us to get the various locations on our itinerary but it also meant that if we were lucky enough to get the Northern Lights there would be no light pollution around to spoil the experience. There was five of us on the trip including Bernard. It was great to just get to spend a week in the company of other passionate photographers.

I was blown away by the beauty and harshness of the landscape. The weather was ferocious for the first few days with hurricane force winds and biting windchill. It was intense battling the elements to get the shots I wanted. I loved it. Over the course of the week the wind died down but it was still freezing. I know I am odd but I still prefer this to a sun holiday. I felt like an arctic explorer. We photographed places with wonderfully mystical names such as Glacier Lagoon (above) and Diamond Beach (below)

On these trips Bernard does everything in his powers to make sure that his clients get to experience the Northern Lights. He spent every evening studying meteorological charts and aurora forecasts to see where the best location might be to have the best chance of photographing this amazing natural phenomenon. And he duly delivered. We got to see the Northern Lights 4 out of the 8 nights we were there.

One of the nights we visited Vestahorn. We had been there earlier in the day to capture the mountain at sunset and we would head back the next morning to get the sunrise there. Sunrise in Iceland at that time of the year is around 10.30 in the morning. Perfect for a night owl like me but I digress. The reason we visited Vestahorn in the middle of the night was in the hope that we would capture it with the Northern Lights in the skies above. Again it was baltic but with the Northern Light patience is the name of the game. After about an hour the only shot I had was this one with a hint of the aurora arcing over the mountain. It wasn't the shot I was hoping for but I was relatively happy with it. I headed back to the van to thaw out and have a doze.

A few minutes later I was woken up by Bernard banging on the window. He pointed towards the mountain with a massive grin on his face. I scrambled out of the van and set up the camera as quickly as I could. This is what I got. It was amazing the difference a few minutes could make.

But the decisive moment on this trip was the first night we saw the Northern Lights. We were in the cabin and every few minutes Bernard would check to see if anything was happening yet. After a couple of hours he announced 'Boys, she's lit'. We hopped in the van and drove about a mile down the road where there was no light pollution at all. We set up on the side of the road in about a foot of snow with the wind howling around us. It was another one of those moments where everything came together. We could see the aurora billowing across the sky. I took my first shot and looked at the back of the camera and couldn't believe what I saw. It had been a long time ambition of mine to photograph the Northern Lights and there it was. The whole experience, between the weather and the light show, was incredible.

It was an amazing week. I headed home reinvigorated with memory cards full of beautiful images. Over the following weeks as I sorted and edited the photos from the trip I became more and more convinced that I had to take a leap of faith or I would regret it for the rest of my life. After discussing it with my wife I knew I had her full support. I just had to figure out how I was going to turn the dream into reality. I took the first step by quitting my job in January 2018 and I haven't looked back since despite all the ups and downs that come with being self employed.  That is a subject for another blog.