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= Ray Hennessy (Photographer) = Ray Hennessy is a New Jersey based professional bird and wildlife photographer.

History
Ray Hennessy first became interested in digital photography through taking an digital image manipulation course that covered post processing and retouching in Adobe Photoshop. Ray grew to enjoy and become extremely proficient in his post processing which soon landed him a job as a retoucher. Because digital photography had only recently gained traction among professional photographers, Ray's proficiency in Photoshop was especially desirable. Ray was introduced into wedding photography being being an assistant to a professional wedding photographer which eventually led him to have a career as a wedding photographer until late 2019 when he booked his last weddings before going full time in wildlife photography. It was circa 2006 when Ray first became interested in bird photography which then became a very serious hobby and eventually a full time career as a wildlife photographer and bird photography educator.

= Photographic Style = According to Ray, he used not consider himself a creative person, though through the process of trying to improve and develop his bird photography he began to use bird photography as a form of creative and artistic expression rather than documentation. Ray has now become well known as a particularly creative bird photographer, with his primary goal in his personal work being to push the bounds of bird photography and capture images that are unique to the typical bird photograph. Ray has become particularly known for his "small in frame" and more environmental photos, with Ray himself stating that he often prefers to capture the environment surrounding the subject as a way to tell a story. Among Hennessy's peers it is sometimes quipped that an image of this style is "a Hennessy", even if the image was taken by a different photographer. Often bird photographers desire to fill the frame with the bird, though Ray has been outspoken about his generally preference for the more niche style of keeping the subject as a small fraction of the frame. Ray is not only interested in environmental/story based bird photography however, with his work featuring many abstract and graphic images, often leveraging silhouettes and bokeh to achieve an abstract effect. Silhouettes and back-light during golden-hour is another of Hennessy's favorite styles, with this style taking up another significant portion of Rays work. A subset of this style that Ray has noted to particularly look out for is situations in which the sun can either be in the frame or silhouette the bird, especially in conditions in which the sun is dim enough to be exposed for such as high humidity summer days.

Podcasts, Videos, and Live Streams
Hennessy is one of the most prolific content creators when it comes to bird photography, having many on going series.

Wildlife Inspired
Hennessy's first video series was Wildlife Inspired, which consisted of Ray and/or fellow bird photographer Scott Keys discussing bird photography topics among themselves or with a featured guest to a virtual live audience. The live streams and recordings gained modest view-ship from avid bird photographers, and Hennessy eventually left the channel and brand in solely the hands of Scott Keys who has continued to expand and grow the Wildlife Inspired YouTube channel.

Realtime Edits
Hennessy has continued to produce "Realtime Edit" videos since early 2018, which consistent of Hennessy post processing a RAW File in his standard (or in some cases slightly accelerated) workflow. Ray has stated that he has no qualms removing small distractions and significantly dodging and burning his images to meet his vision, and his nearly 100 realtime edit videos provide full transparency into Hennessy's post production.

Wildlife Photochat
Formerly known as Wildlife Photocast, the Wildife Photochat is a podcast where Hennessy converses with other bird photographers about their experiences and general bird photography related topics. In the 60+ episodes, Hennessy has had many well known and highly regarded wildlife photographers including Andy Parkinson, Melissa Groo, and Terje Kolaas among many others, as well as giving some spotlight to lesser known bird photographers. Earlier episodes also featured Ray G (lastname ?) as a cohost, though after EP 36 Hennessy has been the sole host.