Jan 10/23/26 Jan 10/23/26

The Tree - Regional Park Family Photographer

I have my go-to locations that I enjoy photographing at. Some of which have served me for a very long time, but at the same time, I want to keep things fresh so I’m always keeping an eye out for new spots. I love the outdoors and am always out and about somewhere, so sometimes, like this time, I stumble upon something really photogenic.

I was walking through the Ballincollig Regional Park, taking all the tiny trails that snake through it. At first I was distraught to see that my favourite tree in the park, an oak tree, had lost one of it’s big branches. It’s a sad sight and I worried for the health of the tree in the future (and still do). But after a while, I realized it might have just become a perfect spot for family and baby shoots.

The Tree in Question

Why is this my favourite tree in the entire Regional Park? I love the field it is in, and how knurled and aged the tree is. In a light-hearted way, it gives me such ‘Huckleberry Finn’ vibes. A place I would have met all my friends at when we were young. Where we would eat our sandwiches leaning against it’s rough bark. “Meet you at the tree!” could only mean this specific tree. It’s THE tree.

Now that the branch had fallen, it would be the perfect, wild bench for a shoot. It would have a practical seating option while still oozing this beautiful, natural aesthetic because it doesn’t have a man-made bench.

I found a couple of brave families who were willing to give this new location a go without any example photos from previous shoots. The tree itself became a focal point in about 30-50% of the photos, so that we would still have a nice balance of more active and standing shots, and showing off the park’s other beautiful spots. Like the photo below. I love how the green just envelops the whole family.

Soon after these shoots were done, a maintenance crew came in, chopped the fallen branch in slices and took it away bit by bit.

I’d like to think that these families are lucky to have a totally unique set of photos at a location that can never be replicated again!

Google Reviews

Both families were amazing and wrote me these two lovely 5-star Google reviews:

“Jan was a great choice for our newborn photos.
He chose the perfect location, was very friendly and patient.
The photos are great, and we are more than happy.
Thanks Jan!”
-Adrian

“Jan did a family photoshoot for us and we cannot recommend him highly enough!
He really took the time to make us feel comfortable, esp as our 2-year old was feeling very shy and nervous at first.
The photos came out so well, I absolutely love them.
Thanks Jan!”
-Anita

What 2027 Holds

I’m still unsure if I will return to this specific part of the park. I would love to keep it going and make it work but I do also like the idea that it was essentially just a once off for 2026 and to retire it. It wouldn’t be the first location I have only offered for a single year, like this one or this one.

For next year, I already have a few ideas of what that special location could be. But I’ll take the winter to really decide on it. Just like I unveiled this location for 2026. But it definitely won’t be the last time you’ll find me at the Ballincollig Regional Park.

In the meantime you are more than welcome to contact me here to check out my family and baby packages or have a look down below at more photos.

Talk to you soon!

More Photos

Jan 10/22/26 Jan 10/22/26

Sigma 65mm f2.0 DG DN Review and Sample Photos

This review isn’t sponsored. This is purely a review about a lens that I own and use regularly for my professional work, which consists of mostly of couple and family shoots, and weddings.

Choosing Lenses

When choosing lenses to use, it’s really important to me how they pair up with my other lenses and for them to form a cohesive line up. The most important lens that I own is my 35mm. Everything else is setup around that central lens.

I’ve been looking for a good pairing for a while now. After trying a 55mm, and a 75mm, I was lucky enough that Sigma came out with a 65mm lens. Lucky, because they are the only manufacturer that offer an autofocus lens with this focal length.

I always struggled to find a secondary lens to go along with my 35mm. One that suited me and for the type of photography I do. An 85mm lens would be the traditional way to go, but it always felt way too tight for couples and especially for family shoots. It made me feel so claustrophobic! A 75mm felt closer to what I wanted but it was still way too telephoto for me and I ended up having to use my feet way more than I wanted to. Always running back and forth. And it wasn’t just angle of view that was the issue, but also the look of the photos. When looking at a finished gallery from a shoot, I could tell immediately which photo had been taken with which lens in a really jarring way. With the 55mm I had the issue that it was a bit too wide and there wasn’t enough of a focal length difference to the 35mm. And using my 24-70mm as a secondary lens also never really clicked with me.

But thankfully that 65mm came out! It reminded me a lot of an old lens I had many years ago. When I was still photographing on an APS-C Nikon DSLR. I had a Sigma 50mm f1.4 ES DG HSM lens for it. Sigma lied about it and sold it as a 50mm when in reality it was a 45mm and noticeably wider. I loved that lens though and no wonder, in full frame terms that would be a 67.5mm lens. So essentially the exact same as this 65mm. I used it for so many of my favourite photos at the time.

The Positives

What I really love about the lens is how versatile it is. Because it’s such an in-between focal length, it sometimes behaves and looks like a 50mm and other times as an 85mm. So it’s great to use for some close up portraits in combination with a wider lens or to use it for headshots, where one would generally use a portrait lens for. And it saves me from getting two lenses. I’m a minimalist, so the less I can own, the happier I am.

I love the build quality and the aperture ring! Sigma always knock it out of the park in that regard but I especially love this whole ‘i’ series in general. If I wasn’t such a minimalist, I would gladly get almost every one of their ‘i’ lenses! I always appreciate great quality, reliable, compact lenses. This is my smallest lens which makes it great to throw in the camera bag, just in case, for shoots where I’m unsure if I’ll need it or not. In comparison, bringing the 70-200mm is always such a commitment!

As per usual with Sigma, it’s not just the build quality that’s great but also the autofocus! Fast enough to capture running kids and always accurate too.

The bokeh is also pleasing. My opinion on bokeh has shifted a lot over the last years. I used to really like the more swirly, old-school bokeh. I still do, but as a professional photographer I found that to be unsustainable. It’s great to have that in some photos but it doesn’t always work at every single location, lighting situation, subject, background etc. So I’ve learnt to appreciate the cleaner Sigma look over the years. And to be fair, I think these lenses could look way more clinical than they are, especially this one. It still has character and a bit of swirl without being overpowering. Also f2.0 is absolutely fast enough at this focal length for my liking. Enough bokeh and still compact enough, it’s the perfect balance.

The Negative(s)

The biggest negative for me is that compared to my other Sigma lenses, this has a magenta colour cast. In Lightroom it generally tends to be one click colder and two clicks more magenta. And sometimes, even after corrections, the colours in general aren’t quite as amazing as my Sigma 35mm f1.2 II. Although that is a real top performer in this regard. Usually this colour issue can be fixed, but every one in a thousand ends up being converted to black and white instead.

At first I thought the magnetic lens cap would be really cool feature, but since I use UV filters on all of my lenses, it makes the magnetic lens cap obsolete. Thankfully they do provide a regular lens cap too. So it’s not a big issue but worth mentioning.

Those are the only two (or one and half) negative points I have about this lens.

Verdict

I really appreciate what Sigma are doing. Their lenses are fantastic! Built well, reliable, great image quality and sold for a great price. I really appreciate the ease of mind I have with Sigma lenses when it comes to shooting a full wedding day. I know I won’t have any issues and they’ll work reliably all day! This lens is another great addition, not just to their line up but also to mine.

There seem to be rumblings that Sigma might make a faster 65mm lens soon. The faster aperture wouldn’t really interest me, but I would be interested to see if that ended up having a similar colour profile to my 35mm. If it did, I would possibly consider upgrading to it just for that reason.

See my review here for the Sigma 35mm f1.2 DG II.

And all my other gear reviews are here.

More Sample Photos

Jan 9/15/26 Jan 9/15/26

Austin & Éamonn - Alternative Wedding Photographer

The Maryborough Hotel is a wedding venue I’ve shot at multiple times, and it’s one of my favourites. I photographed Aisling and Emmett’s wedding there before and wrote this blog about. Not only did Austin and Éamonn see that blog post but they liked it so much that they booked the venue because of that! I’d say the Maryborough owes me a drink for that! Haha!

This was such a fun wedding with a few little quirky differences. As always, I love to highlight my three favourite parts of the wedding (and a couple of honourable mentions):

1) Pre-Ceremony Drinks

Even though Austin and Éamonn didn’t want photos of them getting ready before the ceremony, they did ask me to come a little earlier to meet them in their hotel suite for something important. Both of them were getting ready together (no first look down the aisle here!) with their whole bridal party and immediate family. Just before heading down to the ceremony room, they took a moment and with their inner circle of friends and family, they did a round of shots. They offered one to me as well, but I wanted to take good photos for the day so I declined haha!

I love these photos, these kind of shots are always such a nice little highlight in the wedding gallery and they’re just so fun to capture as well!

2) Tears

The ceremony was beautiful. They’re friend became a proper officiant just so that she could marry the couple for this wedding. And it was an emotional one!

Not a dry set of eyes anywhere.

It clearly meant so much to Austin and Éamonn that they were getting married. They also had such a beautiful friend group and two families whom it meant a lot to as well.

I was able to capture all these lovely moments from laughter to tears and everything in between.

An Honourable Mention

I’m going to interrupt this set of three, by just highlighting a positive that I love about this venue, and that’s the garden for the couple shoot.

There are so many lovely spots all around the hotel from the entrance to the staircase to the manicured gardens... But as you can probably tell from my other couple shoots, I love the proper nature shots.

This forest on their property is just a hundred feet away from the ceremony room but it looks like we’ve hiked for hours. This is by far my favourite feature of the venue and I love the photos we were able to capture. Combined with the whole wedding taking place in the same location, which means no travel time and really maximising the time with your guests, it’s amazing.

3) Sweetheart Table

I believe this was my first wedding that I photographed that had a sweetheart table, and honestly, I love that! (For those who don’t know, a sweetheart table is a table just for the couple with no one else sitting with them). It absolutely suited the couple so well.

They were so focused on each other that I caught them feeding each other desserts, just so smitten with each other. Later on they went from table to table to mingle with their guests but were very happy with each other’s company at their own table.

Another Honourable Mention

There was also the opportunity to leave the couple some recorded voice messages via this telephone box. I really wished I had had this at my wedding!

I could see that the messages were so heartfelt and emotional... At first. And then funnier and less serious as the night went on! Haha! I would love to hear those messages.

Dancing!

In the evening we had DJ Swill taking over the dance floor. Austin and Éamonn didn’t do the traditional first dance, for them it was more like hitting the club. I love how couples are able to personalize their big day however they like it. So everyone just flooded the dance floor in unison.

I love being able to capture the dancing at a wedding! It’s such a fun way to end the day and personally, I think it adds a lot to the wedding gallery. Seeing your friends going wild, that one uncle tearing it up or a niece experiencing one of her first dances, they’re lovely memories to look back upon.

Contact

This is definitely a wedding venue I’d love to re-visit! So if you are looking for a wedding photographer for your big day, and we fit your vibe, then get in touch with us here via email.

You can also check out this wedding to see what it’s like when my wife Nic is along for the ride as a second shooter. And if you’re new to us, here’s a short introduction to who we are.

We look forward to hearing from you!