Wiring the Brain Conference in Adare

"The Gods have descended among us!" was how one delegate described the speaker line up at the Wiring the Brain conference that I recently photographed at Adare Manor, in County Limerick.

The conference brought together top genetics and neuroscience researchers from all over the world, to examine how the human brain is wired. 

One of the most important aspects of this conference, was to bring together specialists from differing disciplines, who would never normally have the opportunity to meet in a social setting, to discuss different approaches to solving similar problems.

Another great success of the conference was the location at Adare Manor, which proved to be a very special backdrop in the glorious late spring sunshine.

The rare Irish sun even allowed the delegates to study their programmes on the banks of the Maguire River between sessions.

The Minstrel's Gallery in the manor house proved an ideal setting for the conference sessions and when transformed back to its stunning 19th century self, provided an ideal backdrop for the gala dinner on the final night. The staff at Adare Manor were superb and conference organisers, Keynote PCO ensured that the conference was a success.

As a photographer, it was a real pleasure to record the event. It is quite humbling to be in the presence of so many brilliant minds and I'd like to thank Wiring the Brain chairman, Dr. Kevin Mitchell from Trinity College in Dublin, and all the delegates for their co operation in helping me do my job.

Nice people, beautiful location and great weather, sometimes I get to appreciate just how lucky I am to be a photographer and doing a job I love!

Location Portraits in Sandycove

There is nothing better than photographing people on location. Usually my lifestyle portraits are of families relaxing, but it is nice to photograph people immersed in their work.

When New York Art photographer Bill Storoniak and his wife Linda visited Ireland last week, I had the pleasure of guiding them to some new locations when they arrived in Dublin. It also gave me the opportunity to produce some portraits on location. 

The light in Sandycove was beautiful and one photo opportunity followed another. Here are a couple of samples.

While Bill was concentrating getting the light right and setting up the perfect shot,

Linda got to make some new friends with some of the locals at Bullock Harbour - Life jackets make a great background!

Whenever photographers get together, particularly from different disciplines, the conversation is always good (or as Linda called it, "technical gobbledygook!") and it never ceases to amaze me how much we can learn from each other. In such an atmosphere, inspiration is never far behind. 

So, taking a leaf out of Bill's book, I thought I'd upload one of my own landscape images from the day as well.

You can see some of Bill's images of Ireland on his website and samples of my location portraits at www.noelhillis.ie