With more than 20 years experience in the business, John Daly remains at the forefront of photography in Cork today and has a host of awards under his belt which stand testament to this including the

Mario Acerboni Creative Overseas Wedding Photography Award 2006. He is also an associate member of the Master Photographers Association (AMPA), which is the UK’s largest organisation for full-time professional photographers.

Based at the almost magical Inspire studios in Ballygarvan, John works side by side with his wife Anne where they combine their skills and talents to capture the most creative and unique portrait and wedding photographs.

John started his career in photography when in the 80s when he worked in McSweeneys studios under the leadership of Denis McSweeney. At the time, John was actually undertaking a course in applied physics and chemistry at what is now the  Cork Institute of Technology. Drawing comparisons with physics and photography, his interest in taking and developing photos continued to grow and when he finished his studies at CIT, instead of embarking on a career in science, he went on to undertake a City and Guilds photography course.

John was awarded his licentesia in his early 20s and began his full-time career behind the lens. In the early days, he worked mainly on landscape and scenery shots before moving into fashion work; photographing the latest designer clothing for fashion magazines. At this time, he also did a lot of commercial photography, working on brochures for companies such as Guinness and Heineken.

John described how at the time he felt there was very little creativity in taking wedding photographs since many people wanted very simple wedding shots similar to those their parents had captured and so he made a conscious decision not to follow this avenue of work.

In the early 80s John decided to undertake a course designed to help him start up his own business and in 1984 set up his own studio and photographic labs in the city centre. A year later, in 1985, he was awarded the businessman of the year award and from here on his business continued to flourish. However, recognising the drawbacks of working in the city,  including the difficulty for clients to find parking, in 1989 John decided to move out of the centre and open a new studio at an old church in Ballygarvan where he worked tirelessly to convert the premises into a state of the art studio, investing heavily in new lighting systems and new technologies. John was so excited about the new studios and the beautiful shots he could take there that he became more and more interested in photographing people at this inspiring location  and this combined with the fact that brides and grooms had began looking for more unique and creative photography catapulted John into a new stage in his career where he phased out his commercial work and turned his talents to portrait and wedding photography.