Me and my Work: Mark Phelan

When Mark Phelan finally called time in 2010 on the struggle to keep his Maptech surveying business afloat in the depths of the recession, he was mentally and financially worn out, writes Brian Byrne. He was ill, and his confidence was shot.

"I'd gone through all the stuff around a business failing. We could have struggled on, but the margins were gone and costs weren't. I had become a debt collector trying to get paid what we were owed and I hated that—"

Mark resolved that in the future he was only going to work at something he loved doing. So to get back on his feet he joined together his two passions, photography and badminton. "I had always been interested in photography. In fact, I spent part of my confirmation money on a camera, and when I became a surveyor I always had a camera with me, so I had an eye for a picture."

He had also played badminton for years, a sport which beyond Ireland has a very large global professional stage. At competitions, he'd spent off-court time photographing the action, with results that impressed a lot of people. "I needed to do something completely different, so I approached Badminton Europe and offered them a special trial deal to work as their photographer on the professional tournament circuits for six months."

It was a deal somebody in the organisation thought worth doing. Mark began travelling with the international professional players, doing his photographic thing and impressing Badminton Europe to the point where they offered him a full-time job. "I decided not to take it, but instead opted to work as a contractor for the organisation. Now I travel with them for 16 weeks of the year, shooting pictures in countries from Finland to France to Switzerland to Russia and everywhere in between that there's a tournament circuit."

In addition to providing pictures for Badminton Europe's magazine and website, he now writes many of the articles on those outlets. These include interviews with the stars of the game. "On circuit we all travel together, stay in the same hotels, so I've gotten very close to the leading players."

Increasingly, individual national federations have asked him to provide pictures of their team players, which as a freelance contractor means he has been able to add another income stream to his work. And a sidebar to spending weeks on end with the players has triggered yet another photographic enterprise back home.

"Summer is off-season for the professional tournaments, and I decided I needed something else to do apart from spending time with my family in Kilcullen. On circuit, in the evenings, I often take pictures for players that they can use in their PR, on their websites and so on. I've always been interested in faces and expressions, so some of these sessions resulted in good portraits. I wondered if I could do this back home?"

Recalling the high charges when taking his own children to professional portrait studios while they were growing up, he decided to try another tack. "Instead of setting up a studio business, with its attendant overheads, I decided to see if I could bring a studio to clients' homes and businesses, and provide a service which everyone could afford."

Mark invested in a high-end portable studio system which fits in three bags in the boot of his car, and can be set up on site in around ten minutes. "The advantage is that the clients I'm doing the work for are in their own surroundings, in their comfort zone. It makes it easier for them in every respect." It also gives him the opportunity to assess what they actually want in a family portrait. "It's important that I listen, that I get to provide them with what they expect, rather than what I think they should have. Every photographer likes to take certain kinds of pictures, their own style. But that's not necessarily what the client needs."

His service uses a business model that turns upside-down the traditional professional studio enterprise. A half-hour shoot with a couple of subjects will provide customers with a number of digital images of very high professional standard, from which they can print what they want themselves, in whatever format.

"That will cost them just €50, a little more if I have to travel distances. If they want me to provide framed prints or photo-books, reasonable fees for these can be negotiated. As far as I'm concerned, the days of high fees for family portraits and the photographer holding onto all rights are gone."

In an era when digital photography is ubiquitous and every smartphone owner takes hundreds of pictures a year, it has been suggested that the time of the professional photographer is gone. Mark doesn't believe so. "I'm not selling a photograph. I'm selling a skill in doing high-quality photography that brings out the character of people as they are. And I'm bringing that skill into their own homes or their places of business, so they don't have to lose time or get involved with the stress of a trip to a studio."

For Mark himself, a — albeit forced — quantum shift in career from a technical surveying business owner to sports photojournalist and portrait photographer has made a big difference to his life. "In a way, starting out on this journey was the beginning of a therapy which I badly needed at a very difficult time. Now, though my personal life has also changed in many ways, my confidence is back, and I'm doing something that I love doing."

He is still his own boss, which means that the crash which brought him close to despair hasn't killed his spirit of entrepreneurship. A competitive instinct reflected in his love of badminton probably also helped. Mark Phelan has been on a long journey in which he has managed to stay in his native Kilcullen and yet take an adventurous scenic route to recovery.

"It hasn't been easy," he says, recalling one occasion when his breakfast on a circuit in those first six months was cornflakes and water because he couldn't afford a carton of milk. "But I'm happy again. I'm now in a good picture myself."

You can contact Mark through facebook.com/markphelanphotography and phone 087 7781536.

Me and my Work: Martin Murphy

This is the first in an occasional series about local people and their work, and how they came to be doing it, writes Brian Byrne.

Martin Murphy has a single word for choosing a career. Passion. "It's the important thing," he says, though acknowledging that it may not always be easily recognised. "But if there's something in school, maybe a class that you really enjoy going to, that could be a pointer towards something you want to spend your life doing."

Martin always had a passion for construction, which led him from CPC first to Carlow IT for a Certificate in Construction Engineering, later to the University of Glamorgan in Wales to gain a Degree in Construction Management & Engineering. For more than three years now he has run his own company, providing design and build solutions to the construction industry in Kildare and surrounding counties. In between he gained invaluable experience working in the industry both here and in England.

The path from then to now was a little convoluted. After two years of study in Carlow IT he decided he wanted a break, to get out and see the workplace he was heading for. So he took a year out in 2000.

"I got a job with a consulting engineer in Naas. It was probably the best thing I ever did, because building was taking off in the area and I got to see so many different things from that office. I was involved in schemes in Naas, Newbridge and South Dublin. I was meeting future big developers, and I started to see where I wanted to go."

In September 2001 he went back to Carlow and completed his course, then chose Glamorgan for his degree. "There were a few of us wanted to do something other than going on to Waterford IT, or DIT. Glamorgan was a great experience, because I got to meet different people, and they do things a little differently in England."

With his degree secured, he came home and went to work with Ballymore Homes, run by Sean Mulryan. That was to be an eight-year stint from which he retains really good memories. "I have to say that the company was very good to me in my time there, and I ended up running jobs for them in London."

London was an eye-opener in a number of ways. Moving from low-level homes construction in Ireland to the towers of Canary Wharf was a totally new experience. "The whole scale of things was different. So was how business was done. At home we're more laid back, we kind of take people more at their word when doing deals. In England it's very contractual, you have to be on the ball, everything has to be black and white and down on paper. I made great friends and connections who are still important to me today."

Leaving Ballymore Homes was triggered by his upcoming marriage, to Noelle, in the autumn of 2010. Though the construction bubble in Ireland had been well burst by then, and he admits that people thought he was mad to leave a good job, he believed it was time. "I always had it in my head that I wanted to go out on my own, and I figured that if I didn't do it then, maybe I never would. So I took the shot. And I haven't looked back since."

His business involves design, planning, and project management, as well as individual house surveys, build costing, health and safety reports. In short, anything to do with the process of construction. His motto is 'conception to completion'. "I like to be in the middle of it all, running the show." His working area is Kildare, West Wicklow, South Dublin. "I can get in the jeep and be on site in half an hour." He'll try to only have two or three jobs running at a time. "Quality must come first, and if you try and spread yourself too much, quality will suffer."

Noelle is also in the business, but Martin makes a point of not bringing the business home. "I converted the old family home at Knockbounce into an office, so I go there in the morning and leave in the evening and that's the end of business for the day. If the office was at home, it would be too easy to fall into the trap of working all the time."

His outside interests include Kilcullen GAA, where he helps train the younger age teams. Which also gives the the opportunity to guide youngsters towards career choices. But he's not enthusiastic about the pressure they're under to go straight to College after Leaving Cert. "So often they just don't know what they want to do at that stage, but they take a course because they don't want to feel a failure at not going on straight away. There's no encouragement of the 'gap' year that most young people do in England and other countries."

That time can be very important in finding the passion that Martin believes is a key requirement. If it isn't there, a period spent travelling, working in a place which might seem interesting, can often be the way to find a direction. "Even if it's just doing copying in an office, you'll see if you like the environment, if what's going on in the company is interesting. You'll soon find out if it's an area you want to be in."

For anyone who does go straight into doing a course, he has some direct advice. "If you find in the first couple of months that you don't like it, step back, because you're probably not going to like it for the three years. Take the next nine months out and try and get some experience in an area that you might be interested in. But if you find halfway through a course that maybe it's not where you want to be, finish it. Future potential employers will see that you have it in you to get a qualification."

If you're still back in Fifth Year, you should be thinking generally about what kind of thing you might like to do, and try and get some summer job experience in a company related to it. You might have to persevere in looking for that job. "Everybody says there are no summer jobs out there, but if you don't ask, you won't get. Knock on enough doors, and you'll find one."

And maybe passion will be lurking behind that particular door.