articles/Portraiture/dreamtrue-page2
by Seamus Costelloe Published 01/10/2013
Some of the travelling has been as a direct result of contacts made through the SWPP, and Seamus was a guest speaker at the Malta Photographic Society in Valletta in January 2011 and returned to judge the Malta Photographic Societies' Annual Competition in May that year. "I have a high regard for the standard of photography in Malta," he says, "and I particularly admire the work produced by Joe Smith and Kevin Casha. The Maltese photography guru, Ramon Sammut, is also a great inspiration to me."
Giving Back Through Training Seamus has always been one of the hardest working trainers on the circuit, and his workshops are renowned for being packed full of information and inspiration. He was a guest speaker for the Societies at the Belfast Mini Convention this year and he's a regular at the main Convention as well, having presented two well-attended Masterclasses on Wedding Fashion last time around. Add in evening training classes in Dublin, Cork and Galway, workshops in Paris and Ireland covering fine art nudes and boudoir and his role as an ambassador for Fotospeed in Ireland and you start to realise just how much he's giving back. Looking to the future he's also planning to team up with fellow professional photographers to conduct educational photographic trips to Asia, Africa and Europe.
"Dreams do become reality, but only through perseverance," he says. "Luck plays a part, but through hard work you can make your own luck too.
Prior to making my dreams and ambitions become reality, I was a schoolboy junior and senior long and triple jump international with the Irish athletic team over a ten-year period. Certain traits and skills that I achieved in my amateur athletic days have been blended into my personality and I now realise their benefits. Skills such as perseverance, concentration, ompetitiveness, endurance and determination have all played their part as I've established my career."
And it's been quite a career to date: so far Seamus has earned himself 30 Gold Awards and was named Overseas Sport Photographer of the year in 2007, Overseas Digital Art Photographer of the year in 2005 and picked up the Judge's Choice Award 2010, ASIFGP (Associate The Society of International Fashion and Glamour Photographers). "I still think one of my greatest honours was having a picture of mine appear on the cover of Professional Imagemaker's Dec 2008-Jan 2009 issue," says Seamus. "I'm an avid reader of this magazine and always envied the photographers whose images featured on the front cover, and it was such a thrill to be finally able to say that I'd joined them."
There are 24 days to get ready for The Society of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 15th January 2025