From steelworks to astrophotography

Tom O’Hanlon is the first to admit that he “definitely took the scenic route” on the way to becoming a professional photographer!

The affable Rahan man is this week celebrating having one of his astrophotography landscape photographs included in a prestigious outdoor exhibition run by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) as part of their ‘Reach for the Stars’ photography competition.

The stunning image, called ‘Copper Coast Starlight’, was captured by the talented local photographer in Ballydwan in Waterford and he was inspired to capture it after visiting family in the county last year. However, he had to wait until the Milky Way core returned to the Irish skies in March and it took “many hours of patient waiting” before he could get the perfect shot.

The atmospheric image is one of 19 other top-rated images from the 2022 ‘Reach for the Stars’ astrophotography competition to go on display outside the DIAS premises on Burlington road in Dublin for the next few weeks and is free to attend.

Tom, who is from College View in Rahan, and has two brothers, Declan and Redmond and a sister, Liz, admits that his “obsession” with Moto GP racing, and his quest to capture “a perfect picture” of his hero, Italian nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle champion, Valentino Rossi, led him to persevere with his hobby of taking pictures after he bought his first camera, a Fujifilm Bridge.

“I thought it was the bees knees at the time, but looking back on it now, it was fairly basic,” he says. However, it allowed him to indulge his hobby of taking pictures at various Moto GP events all around Ireland, and all the time he dreamed that, someday, he would get the chance to capture a shot of Valentino Rossi!

In the meantime, he took a very circuitous route to where he is today, working initially in a Tullamore steelworks plant for a year after leaving Killina Secondary School in 2003. “I then did a carpentry apprenticeship which I left after two years as it wasn’t really for me, and I went back to the steelworks for another year,” he says.

With his father, Tommy, being an accomplished musician, Tom O’Hanlon says he was always interested in music when he was growing up. He was also interested in photography as his mother, Theresa Martina Daly, from Bracknagh, was always taking pictures with her camera, which used film.

In 2008 so he decided to return to education and enrolled in the Cavan Institute where he completed a one year Performance Arts Course, achieving honours in all nine modules. After completing a three-year Degree in Sound Engineering and Music Production at Limerick IT the ambitious young man decided to do an add-on year in order to upgrade his degree.

The turning point for him came mid-way through his fourth year in college when he was struggling to stay afloat financially. “I sold my motorbike to pay the fees I owed and I used the rest of the money to buy a €1,600 Canon camera, and everyone thought I was mad,” he laughs.

Five months later he had secured a staff job with The Tribune local newspaper group where he spent five years, and he was also travelling up to Mondello Race Track every weekend to indulge his passion for motorcycle racing and take photographs.

“In 2014 I secured official accreditation to take pictures at Moto GP events, so I was finally able to operate as a photographer on the inside, as opposed to operating on the sidelines and attending events as a fan,” he explains.

More importantly, it allowed him to finally capture that elusive picture he had always dreamed of – none other than Valentino Rossi. “I got several great pics of him, and I even got one at a floodlit race in Doha in Quatar, which was an unreal experience,” he recalls, adding that this was the point where he felt that his sports photography had come “full circle.”

Another great passion for Tom O’Hanlon is astrophotography, and he now travels all over the country to capture his award-winning and atmospheric pictures. His says his girlfriend, Kilclonfert native, Teresa Smyth, has been incredibly supportive of his work. “She goes along with all my mad ideas,” he adds.

As well as working as a freelance photographer for many of the national media outlets and also working as a videographer, Tom says his passion for astrophotography means he has to travel to coastal parts of Ireland in his spare time to capture his astro shots.

“It is hard to explain the amount of calculations that have to be done before taking a shot like my picture of the supermoon over Hook Head Lighthouse, it is a very precise and detailed undertaking. Everything has to align perfectly in order to get that one shot,” he says, “and I would often have to visit the location during the day to check out hazards and other potential dangers before returning that night to capture the image.” Tom O’Hanlon has stuck with Canon, and now takes his pictures with a Canon R6. When asked where he would see himself in five years, he says “to be brutally honest, I would like to be known as one of the best astrophotographers in the world.”