2015

Posted on 28/01/2015 by admin

Finbarr O'Shea-5

We met at ‘The Creamery’ in Grange, Co. Waterford at 7.15am – all 8 of us!

The forecast was for clear skies until mid-day. Alas, the forecast wasn’t right and the morning quickly deteriorated with a heavy fog / mist rolling in. We turned right at Fleming's Pub, taking the small roads through ‘Old Parish’ on towards ‘An Gaeltacht’ in Ring.

We turned off towards Mine Head Light House and parked in the farmer’s yard. The Light House access is through the farmyard and is usually padlocked. Today, however, we had obtained kind permission of the farmer in advance of our expedition.

We walked the 900mtrs to the coast using the farm pathway.

George Halpin Senior designed the major light of Mine Head. The red sandstone structure sitting on top of the steep cliffs of Old Parish is higher above sea-level (88m, 290ft.) than any other Irish lighthouse.

Local merchants and mariners from Youghal and Cork pressured the Ballast Board to begin a lighthouse tower on Capel Island off Youghal. This building was begun even though George Halpin felt the best place for a light was on Mine Head. The work was well under way when the local people changed their mind and decided that the light should be at Mine Head after all. After much debate, including input from Trinity House and the Admiralty, it was decided to abandon the site on Capel Island and build on Mine Head.

The light was established on 1 June 1851, the same day as Ballycotton lighthouse.
Mine Head has a 22m (72ft.) white tower with a black band. It was converted to electricity in Sept. 1964. Today, however, the light is no more than a good household torch.

As the fog got worse, we could hardly see 80 mtrs ahead so, we took a few shots and put this trip down as a recognisance trip as we could well imagine the beauty of this spot on a fine morning as the sun rises!

We had planned to breakfast in Dungarvan by the quays, where we could get nice shots and then go on to Mahon Falls, but decided to call it a day.

We’ll do it again sometime and better luck next time.

Mouse over the image below to activate the slide show. Enjoy!

- Kevin Day

How I Took That Shot – Kevin Day

Posted on 26/01/2015 by admin

Kevin Day took first place in Grade B in our recent 'Christmas' competition.

This is how he made the image:

25 Kevin Day Christmas

I took this photo as the 2 year old was really engrossed in decorating the tree. I didn’t use a flash, so he was unaware of the camera.

As it was dusk, I included the window and the nice blue sky outside.

I liked it because the expression on his face showed how serious this job really was!

F4.5 1/50 Sec Focal length 35 mm ISO 3,200

ECCG 'Christmas' Competition - 20/1/15
How I took that Shot - Karen Fleming
How I took that Shot - Catherine Millad
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

How I Took That Shot – Karen Fleming

Posted on 25/01/2015 by admin

ECCG's Photographer of the Year 2014, Karen Fleming, started 2015 in fine style winning Grade A in this year's first internal competition with the image below. Here's how she did it:

18 Karen Fleming Christmas

I was at home shooting a Christmas themed shot of my mothers dog and my own dog when I received the text from the club committee that the first competition of 2015 would be themed Christmas. But none of those images were submitted for our first competition of the year. I discussed different ideas and shot them just a couple of days before I took my decorations down.

Every year my mum has a 10ft outdoor, fully decorated, Christmas tree in her front garden with large gold baubles so I borrowed one of them to place on the tree at home. I positioned it on the tree about the same height as my Santa Claus standing next to the tree. I then positioned the Santa Claus so I just caught his reflection in the bauble as if he had been captured leaving gifts under the tree.

I took shot using my
105mm F2.8 Sigma lens
F16 5.0 seconds @ ISO 400
No flash used
Lighting was just the lights from the tree itself.

Very little post production was done to the image - just basic levels and curves and little bit if cloning to clone out the reflection of my tripod and scratches on the bauble.

ECCG 'Christmas' Competition - 20/1/15
How I took that Shot - Kevin Day
How I took that Shot - Catherine Millad
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

How I Took That Shot – Catherine Millad

Posted on 23/01/2015 by admin

New member, Catherine Millad, won Grade C in our first internal competition of the year with her stunning 'lightpainting' image below. The theme was 'Christmas' and the image scored 552 points which was also the overall highest score across all Grades - an outstanding 41 points clear of the next placed image. Well done Catherine.

This is how she created it:

19 Catherine Millad Christmas

I was stumped for ideas for the Christmas competition and had resigned to the fact that I would not be entering but while travelling back from the Youghal Shoot with one of camera group members, he told me about light painting. I had never heard of light painting and as I'm always interested in trying out new techniques, I decided to look it up online and it sparked the idea for this photo.

Since the photograph had to be taken in the dark, I could only take the shot at night. To set it up, I draped some black velvet fabric over a kitchen chair and placed the baubles on the seat. I tried baubles with various surface finishes but found the metallic finish was ideal as it reflected the spiral shape of the light. The only light source I could find in the house was my son's night light which has a single white LED and red plastic rim (which created the red ghost-like colour in the tree).

As I did not know how long I would need to “paint" the tree shape, I used the bulb mode on the camera. In order to get the settings right, I had to go through a series of attempts by switching off the lights, using a remote to release the shutter and then paint the tree. I was adjusting the aperture and ISO after each attempt until I achieved the desired result. Once I was happy with the settings, all that remained was to paint a decent looking Christmas tree.

Camera: Nikon D3100
Lens: Nikkor VR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Aperture f/20, ISO 400
Shot in RAW format

In post processing, I darkened a selection on the seat area where the fabric was visible and cloned out some random small light streaks.

ECCG 'Christmas' Competition - 20/1/15
How I took that Shot - Karen Fleming
How I took that Shot - Kevin Day
Competition Results and 2015 League Table

ECCG ‘Christmas’ Competition – 20/1/2015

Posted on 21/01/2015 by admin

'Christmas' was the theme of the first internal competition of 2015 held at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 20/1/15. Following two viewings of the twenty six entries, marks were awarded which yielded the following results:

Scores

As results were fed into our scoring software, it soon became evident that some of our veteran podium occupiers would be joined by some of our newer members. Karen Fleming took first once again in Grade A beginning 2015 where she finished 2014. Finbarr O'Shea maintained his form coming second while Dave Geary came in at third just a few points adrift.

: 1st Grade A – Karen Fleming

: 2nd Grade A – Finbarr O’Shea

: 3rd Grade A – Dave Geary

Grade B was won by Kevin Day who was joined at second and third by newly promoted Joe Keniry and Trevor O'Connell.

: 1st Grade B – Kevin Day

: 2nd Grade B – Joe Keniry

: 3rd Grade B – Trevor O’Connell

New member, Catherine Millad won Grade C in fine style, achieving 552 points in the process which also bagged her the overall high score - an outstanding 41 points clear of the next placed image. She was joined on the Grade C podium by fellow new members, Jane Fleming and RJ Mani.

: 2nd Grade C – Jane Fleming

: 3rd Grade C – RJ Mani

The overall placings were, as mentioned, Catherine Millad in first place, who was joined by Karen Fleming and Jane Fleming who each scored 511. Once this tie was broken, second and third places went to Karen and Jane respectively.

Well done to all entrants and congratulations to those who occupied the first, second and third spots in each Grade who will get 12, 10 and 8 points respectively towards this year's Photographer of the Year competition. Well done especially to the Grade C winner and runners up who had exceptionally good scores and laid down a marker for everyone for the rest of the year.

Mouse over the image below to activate the slide show and see all entries. Enjoy!