Photography

Alan Betson’s Photographs of the Year: ‘Light and background, get that right and you are only looking for the moment’

A selection of Irish Times visual journalist Alan Betson’s photographs throughout the year and the story behind one of them.

Triplets Mia, Molly and Ellie (16) from Dublin out for a windy walk along the sea wall at Dublin's Dollymount Strand, catching the tail end of Storm Bert. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Triplets Mia, Molly and Ellie (16) from Dublin out for a windy walk along the sea wall at Dublin's Dollymount Strand, catching the tail end of Storm Bert. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Alan Betson's picture
Alan Betson
Sat Dec 28 2024 - 06:00

One five-hundredth of a second, a never to be repeated moment in time, generously shared by the Dixon Triplets while out for a walk, at the tail end of storm Bert. It reminds me how short and fleeting the miniscule moments that we as professional press photographers spend our lives searching for. We position ourselves endlessly, hopefully, in the right place at the right time before the elusive, decisive moment.

On this occasion the triplets make my life easy. But it’s not always like that, there are the tough jobs, where amazing people are brave enough to share their experience of serious cancer diagnosis or a tragic death, or funerals as a result of the most tragic circumstances. It’s our job to translate that to you, the reader, in a way that cuts through the digital overload, grab your attention and inform you. We seek to assimilate complex issues or story’s and distil it down to just one image, THE Image, that’s what we do! That’s the job.

“Light and background, get that right and you are only looking for the moment.” I try and sum up 36 years of professional photography to enthusiastic camera club members at some of the many, hours-long talks, ironically a byproduct of winning the AIB Press Photographers Ireland annual photography competition over the last year. Standing up in public and talking, the stuff of nightmares for most, and yet when it comes to photography, as a usually quiet individual, I surprise myself on my ability to rabbit on. I admit that we photographers are strange creatures. We see the world in soft light and hard light and degrees of colour temperature. What’s that I hear you say? The light on a summer evening where photographs of people seem to glow and look magical.

I reflect on a year where those photographers, far braver than I, have risked injury and some lost their lives, to bring you the undistorted truth of happenings in this world. Don’t take what we have for granted, a free press, choice, freedom of expression, moments of magic.

Repainting of the Chimney Stacks at the Poolbeg Power station in Dublin's Docklands. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Repainting of the Chimney Stacks at the Poolbeg Power station in Dublin's Docklands. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Charlotte Fogarty Harding from Tipperary on her new pony Guinness at the 2024 Ballinasloe Horse fair. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Charlotte Fogarty Harding from Tipperary on her new pony Guinness at the 2024 Ballinasloe Horse fair. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Dominick Geraghty from Meath with his dog Timmy at the 2024 Ballinasloe Horse fair. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Dominick Geraghty from Meath with his dog Timmy at the 2024 Ballinasloe Horse fair. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
The Wolfe Tones Play the Main stage on the 3rd and final full day of the Electric Picnic 2024 at Stradbally, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
The Wolfe Tones Play the Main stage on the 3rd and final full day of the Electric Picnic 2024 at Stradbally, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
The family home of the McLoughlin family at near the village of Curraghboy, Carrick, Co Roscommon which is surrounded by water from a currently rising overflow of Lough Funshinagh. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
The family home of the McLoughlin family at near the village of Curraghboy, Carrick, Co Roscommon which is surrounded by water from a currently rising overflow of Lough Funshinagh. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Jamie Lohan, Eoghan Morris and Callum Leech from Roscommon Community College with their project Exploring Adolescent Digital Entrepreneurship at the 60th Annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Jamie Lohan, Eoghan Morris and Callum Leech from Roscommon Community College with their project Exploring Adolescent Digital Entrepreneurship at the 60th Annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Local residents Mary Hayes (left) helping Ann Kelly try out the estates outdoor exercise equipment along with other residents and members of Sallins Womens Shed at the official launch of Ireland’s First Age Friendly Housing estate, Castlefen, at Sallins in Co. Kildare. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Local residents Mary Hayes (left) helping Ann Kelly try out the estates outdoor exercise equipment along with other residents and members of Sallins Womens Shed at the official launch of Ireland’s First Age Friendly Housing estate, Castlefen, at Sallins in Co. Kildare. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Participants in the DMYC Frostbite Series racing within Dun Laoghaire Harbour as low winter sun illuminates the course. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Participants in the DMYC Frostbite Series racing within Dun Laoghaire Harbour as low winter sun illuminates the course. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Participants in the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, an event held at locations around the world each July, where participants gather en masse to dress up as musician Kate Bush and learn and perform the dance routine from her 1978 song 'Wuthering Heights'. This year, Dublin marked the event in Fairview Park, raising money for Women's Aid. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Participants in the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, an event held at locations around the world each July, where participants gather en masse to dress up as musician Kate Bush and learn and perform the dance routine from her 1978 song 'Wuthering Heights'. This year, Dublin marked the event in Fairview Park, raising money for Women's Aid. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
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