Landscape photography Ireland and Kieran Hayes.
Hello, as you may have gathered by the heading above my name is Kieran Hayes and I am a Multi-International award-winning professional photographer… now I have to say none of that is really me though, I am simply, a person that loves photography, I love the simplicity and timlessness of it all.
A good photograph has the power to not just bring you back to a moment in time but to teleport you there, helping you to relive it all over again and that’s what I love about photography.
Anyone that has met me or watched one of my Youtube videos knows I don’t take myself to seriously and I like to enjoy life as much as I can.
Now I am lucky enough to earn my living from photography which has been a pure dream for me considering I no real interest in photography up to 10 years ago.
That is until I picked up a second hand camera and within 12 months found myself doing professional fashion shoots for some of Irelands biggest Fashion houses. Ya, that was more than a bit of a shock for me too. Oh btw if you want to checkout my other website where I post more of my commercial work then checkout Kieran Hayes photography here.
I live in Clonakilty, West Cork, Ireland with my wife and family. West Cork is a pure photographers paradise btw 🙂
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 also the scariest experiences of my life…
Thankfully it all ended well and both mother and baby were fine 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 a truly amazing experience and thankfully a bit more controlled. If you can do it I highly recommend home births.
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 10 years ago and crazily within 12 months of picking up my first camera I was working on nationwide advertising campaigns and shooting for a nationwide fashion house. 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 a few photographs, work with beautiful models, sip champagne and sit around while people literally throw buckets of money at me, how hard could that be 🙂
I have been lucky enough to have had my work published tens of 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, Ulster Bank, Discover Ireland, The Irish Times, Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, countless shops and online advertising… to name just a few spots.
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 and 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.
I tend to smile to myself a lot when I think back to the time I started out 10 years ago and if I could travel back in time and tell myself I would be working on projects with photography companies like Formatt Hitech, Skylum, ON1, Adobe, DXO Labs, DJI, SmallRig, f-stop, Pixpa etc… 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 2023 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.