Leaving court for a softer focus

Larry McMahonflew the coup as a legal eagle to become a fully-fledged professional photographer

LARRY McMAHON says he first started thinking about his future career options at the tender age of 10. His mother came from a farming background, and the idea of becoming a vet appealed to him, staying in his mind through his years at secondary school at Blackrock College.

Earning enough points, he enrolled at University College Dublin (UCD) to study veterinary medicine, but soon into the first year, McMahon realised he had made a mistake.

"It was first year in college, so a great experience. The class was quite small - maybe 60 of us and some of those were from farming backgrounds and others from abroad and so on. I worked hard to get there and I knew the course was going to be hard, but I gradually realised that it wasn't for me.

"It's also hard going from your Leaving Cert straight to college. I think if I had taken a year out, like people seem to do more nowadays, I might have been better. But you don't have much time to think about college in Leaving Cert year. I certainly wasn't the first person to change course during first year of college!"

With several family members in the legal profession, McMahon next set his sights on a law degree. Having supportive and non-judgmental parents were key to a smooth transition from veterinary medicine to law, he says, and the wider range of choices offered after a law degree appealed to him.

"My perception of the degree at the time was that I could pursue the studies and it didn't necessarily mean I had to become a lawyer. I did the three-year degree in UCD and found that the hours were far less than veterinary medicine. There was a lot of reading of course, but I got through it."

After his time at UCD, McMahon went to Kings Inn and did a BL, which was run in the evening time. To cover the costs, he worked in an insurance firm during the day, and on completing his studies in 1996, began practising as a barrister.

"We were told to expect it to take between five and 10 years before things would fall into place. I managed to buy a house in 1999, and practised for four years. It's a very unusual work environment, but there was also a great camaraderie among colleagues.

"I was mostly based in Dublin, and it was a time of change for the profession, when barristers who had been based at the law library were beginning to move to other buildings at the Four Courts.

"If you talk to any barrister, starting off it's a difficult work environment. You're like a jockey, in the sense that you're only as good as your last case. It takes a while to become a good advocate and to establish yourself, so you end up working as many hours as you can, which is not the best for your personal life.

"I decided to change over to being a solicitor several years in, and worked for a practice based in Dublin."

This brought McMahon up to 2003, and he had been working in the legal profession for the best part of seven years.

"At that point, I began to think about my career and realised that really I wasn't happy doing what I was doing. If I was to change career, I felt then was the time to do it.

"The mortgage wasn't particularly severe, and financially I had done okay. Plus I had the support of my wife, who was earning, and my family, which made it possible to think about a change of direction. All my life I had an interest in photography, and so I thought why not give it a lash as a career."

In 2004, McMahon left law full-time, and following a period of training in Britain, began life as a professional photographer. "Before I left law I had been doing photography work on weekends and trying to combine the two jobs, which was very stressful, Once I pursued it full-time, it began to build slowly, mostly through word of mouth and some advertising."

McMahon set up his own business, operating out of Baggot Street in Dublin, and the mainstay of his business is weddings, portraiture and some commercial work.

"What happened was that at the start one job led to another and so on until you build up a client base. I also advertised and began to build up a profile. You learn very quickly the best ways to market yourself, and you have to be careful not to overspend on marketing. The training in the UK was very valuable as it taught everything from the technical side of things to the actual running of a business."

The move has worked out well, and McMahon is looking to hire some staff, to ensure he maintains a good work/life balance. Financially, he says things have worked out. The secret to being a good photographer, he says, is personal interaction.

"I think the key to any good shoot, weddings or otherwise, is to interact with your clients. It's not all about knowing the technical side of the business but also how you relate to and communicate with clients is just as important.

"I probably take some of those people skills from my time as a solicitor. There is huge job satisfaction though in seeing people's faces when they look over the pictures from their wedding day. Needless to say, I don't miss the law for a second."