Welcome to our new series of 'Focus on the Photographer'. In this series we will interview and chat with various photographers from full time professionals photographers, hobbyists and maybe even people involved in the photography industry.
To start we will chat with Fintan McTiernan. Fintan is a long time customer of ours here at Mahers Photographic. Fintan has a very varied interest in photography but specialises is the wildlife and sports genres. Some of his work can be found here on his Instagram page. Give him a follow while you are there. So here we go......
I bought my first camera in 1981, a Canon AE 1 and took it from there.
No one person, several natural images have influenced what I like to take photos of.
What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started taking photos?
Nothing in particular. I have a very open mind and I like to educate myself through the influence of other photographers.
What gear do you use and why?
I have always used Canon gear. I have found them to be very reliable and I have never had a very bad experience with a Canon Camera or Lens.
Have you a favourite lens (or ‘lenses’)?
The Canon RF 100-500 and Canon RF 24 - 105 are my 2 favourite lenses. Both equally versatile, sharp and robust for the type of photography that I do.
Is there one piece of camera equipment you wish you hadn’t bought or never use? Why?
Sigma 24 to 70 lens that just fell apart for no reason. I was a very long time ago.
Do you take any essential items other than a camera and lens on a shoot with you?
I bring my tripod and mobile phone, as I have a few apps that assist me. The Photographers Ephemeris and My Tide Times are 2 particular apps that I use a lot.
Have you got any ‘favourite’ settings?
I utilise the custom modes, C1, C2 and C3 on my Canon cameras for my favourite settings for still and video depending on what type of photography or videography I am doing. Doing this allows me to quickly change settings if I decide to change what I am doing or if conditions change quickly.
What do you use for post-processing and what’s your workflow like?
I use DXO PhotoLab 5 Elite for importing CRaw files and carrying out basic corrections and I then export the files into Affinity Photo for final adjustments prior to saving as JPEGS. I also use DaVinci Resolve 18 for my video editing.
Have you a favourite photo and if so why is it your favourite?
I have several favourite photos as I have taken thousands upon thousands over the years.
Any final words of advice or wisdom?
If there is one piece of wisdom I can give anyone is that you never stop learning. I’m still learning and will always keep trying to improve upon everything I do.
