The Group before departure from the Courthouse, Midleton – Denis Barry

The final meeting of the Group before the summer break took place on a beautiful sunny evening on 17/6/14 when thirty members gathered at the Courthouse, Midleton for a scavenger hunt.

The members divided into seven groups and were given the following random themes, Metal, Active, Strong and Different, which were computer generated just before the 7pm ‘off’. The aim was to capture and submit one image per theme per group for a later competition to be judged at the Midleton Park Hotel.

In a sight unfamiliar in Midleton, thirty photographers departed, pilgrimage-like, from the courthouse and began to fan out through the side streets and alleyways in search of the elusive winning image while back at the Midleton Park Hotel preparations were underway for the later judging.

Judging underway – Finbarr O’Shea

From 8.30pm the groups returned to the hotel and submitted their entries in turn and following some sorting of the twenty-eight images, the judging began. With only an hour and a half allotted for the competition, the interpretation of the themes produced some great shots and with absolutely no post-processing, the images were judged straight from camera. With the members voting in their seven groups, tallying the marks was fast and so results were available very quickly.

The results were as follows:

In third place with 464 points was Group C: Andrew Corkbeg, Michael Foulds and Lorna O’Dwyer.

In second place, with 471 points, was Group E: Adrian Newcombe, Matt Dornan, Brian Murphy and Kevin Barry.

In first place, with 489 points, was Group A: Fidelma Read, Joe Keniry, Noelle Lowney and John Tait.

While not an individual competition, it was great to see two Grade C members, namely Joe Keniry and Noelle Lowney take first and second respectively in the overall individual scores. A very big ‘well done’ to both!

Winners: Group A: Joe Keniry, John Tait, Noelle Lowney and Fidelma Read

With strong images submitted by all four, Group A were indeed deserving winners and were presented with a stylish cake fashioned into a ‘Canon’ DSLR by the expert confectioners at Day’s Eurospar in Whitegate. Once the winning group had their photo taken with the cake, they shared the spoils with the vanquished (though I don’t think they had much say in it!).

The winners’ Cake – a master piece from Eurospar, Whitegate – Finbarr O’Shea

Mouse over the image below to see the slideshow controls, themes and photographers’ details. Enjoy.

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While ECCG will not have regular meetings during July and August, shoots will continue on a weekly basis and meetings will resume again on 2nd September next. If you think you would like to get involved, contact us using this link.