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A little bit about me…

Kieran hayes About me

Hello,

My name is Kieran Hayes and I am a Multi-International award-winning professional photographer living in beautiful Clonakilty in West Cork, Ireland…. god that sounds like I am full of it doesn’t it? Don’t judge me just yet now that we have rubbish stuff out there that honestly doesn’t matter at all.
 
At the end of the day I am just lucky enough to earn my living as a photographer and you may not actually know this but I work as both a commercial photographer and a landscape photographer. You can see my commercial work over on my other website www.kieranhayesphotography.com and on www.propertyphotographyireland.com also. Did you see the plug I put in there for myself… always selling 🙂
 
So there are more than two sides to my photography but hey this is about me not my work so let me tell you a bit more about me. 

 

Where I live…

Living in beautiful Clonakilty and being so close to the sea is what keeps me grounded and incredibly happy as a photographer.  The surrounding area is a photographers paradise with loads of amazing places all within 15 mins….
 

There is nothing I love more than being on my local beach and just watching the world, tide, waves and clouds slip past. Ironically the only thing that keeps me away from the beach is yes you guessed it photography… like most people I need to earn a living and Landscape photography on its own as of yet is just not enough to support me and my family. 

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Speaking of Family…

I have five children, yes you read that right five!!! I love every single one of them to bits though and they couldn’t be more perfect in my eyes.
Funny story… 3 of my children were born in Hospital the fourth child I delivered myself in our hallway at home and trust me that was never part of the birth plan 🙂
That has to be one of the most amazing and at the very same time most scary experiences in my life…
Thankfully it all ended well and both mother and baby were really good afterwards.
That phone call and conversation with the emergency response phoneline was priceless, it’s a long story so I won’t get into it now though 🙂
My fifth child was a planned home birth which was also an amazing experience, I highly recommend it.
Photography Workshops Ireland

My work is a big part of my life…

I work very hard at my job and trust me for many a year it was a serious struggle, I only started my photography journey 9 years ago and crazily within 12 months of picking up my first camera I was working on nationwide advertising campaigns and shooting with nationwide fashion houses. It’s all still a bit of a blur even when I think about it now.

Funnily my friends still think this is a bit of a joke as all I ever do is take photographs, work with models, sip champagne and sit around while people literally throw money at me, how hard could that be right 🙂

I have been lucky enough to have had my work published thousands of times in national newspapers, magazines and online.  You have probably seen my work in Aer Lingus, Lidl, Dunnes Stores, HSE, OPW, Super Valu, RBS, wildatlaticway.com, Swamp fashion, Ulster Bank, Discover Ireland, The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner… to name just a few. So this is the point where I should also probably mention awards and all that other stuff but absolutely none of that means anything to me. I haven’t submitted a photograph to a competition in years and I honestly don’t see that changing anytime soon, to me the best award going is the one you give yourself when you are happy with your own work.

Now in saying that in 2021…

 I was voted the Irish Landscape Photographer of the Year 2021 by the Irish Enterprise Awards.

I was also voted Landscape Photographer of the Year 2021 by the Innovation & Excellence Awards.

What makes these awards special for me is that I was nominated for them by clients and customers and they were voted on by over 40,000 people, that warms my heart and puts a smile on my face every time I think about it.

Landscape Photography Ireland by Kieran Hayes Photography, Clonakilty, West Cork Ireland

I tend to smile to myself a lot when I think back to the time I started out 9 years ago and if I could travel back in time and tell myself I would be working on projects for companies like Formatt Hitech, Skylum, ON1, Adobe, DJI, SmallRig, f-stop, Pixpa, Themify, DreamHost… I probably wouldn’t and just couldn’t believe that. 

I am delighted to say there will be a few more companies joining me on my journeys in 2022 and I am seriously looking forward to sharing more details once they are finalised. 

At the bottom of the page I have a video about my photography story and my top tips for people interested in photography. Let’s face it photography is my job and my passion but that’s only one side to me….

Thanks for taking the time to get to know a tiny bit more about me and do pop over to my YouTube channel and keep track of my adventures there 🙂

See you out there,

Kieran.