Category Archives: Competitions

How I Took That Shot – Finbarr O’Shea

Finbarr O’Shea, no stranger to the winners enclosure, took first place in Grade B in the recent ‘Symmetry’ competition. This is his account of how the image came to be:

Finbarr O Shea - Symmentry, Cobh Cathedral (1280x853)

“For the Symmetry competition John Tait and myself took a trip to Fota House a few days before the cut off date for entries. We spent the first few hours in the gardens looking for anything symmetrical and our next port of call was the Wildlife Park where we headed for the watering hole for tea and sandwiches”.

“We were then ready for part two of our shoot, the animals etc. My plan was to shoot the Zebras (with the camera). I thought I might get a symmetrical image here but it wasn’t to be as, after I processed it in Lightroom, the result was not good enough, so I was told”.

“Next day it was plan “B” – I was on my way to Cobh Cathedral. I tried a few external shots before I went inside to set up for my internal pictures. I decided to use my 16mm to 35mm lens. Just inside the front door, I set up my tripod, making sure it was level and in the dead center of the aisle. The light was very difficult to deal with as it was streaming in all over the Cathedral which also has fluorescent lighting. I took a few test shots and decided on a 4 sec. exposure at f11, ISO200 @16mm. I then processed the raw file in Lightroom”.

Well done Finbarr. See full competition details here.
How I took that Shot – Karen Fleming – winner Grade A
How I took that Shot – Jim O’Neill – winner Grade C

How I Took That Shot – Jim O’Neill

Jim O’Neill recently took first place in the Grade C ‘Symmetry’ competition. A great achievement in its own right but, it actually scored better than any other image, across all grades, on the night – a tribute to how the image was captured and its faithfulness to the theme. This is Jim’s account of how he made the image:

Jim ONeill - Symmetry (1228x1200)

“The idea of symmetry immediately conjured images of school days to me with a folded sheet of paper and paints so that was my starting point. I failed miserably to set up something of my own so I started to look outside. I looked at leaves and in particular ferns but to my surprise they were not quite symmetrical, as I had thought”.

“As pylons were in the news a lot I gave them a look and was happy to go with this. I sourced one that was easily accessible, close to the road and in a quiet spot. Initially I wanted to shoot it straight on but as I was snapping away I thought, what would it look like directly underneath. The look for me was perfect and I took several shots, hand held and got out of there quickly!!”

“Camera used was a Nikon D80, Tokina 11mm-16mm wide angle lens. Manual mode, ISO 200, f8, 1/320 shutter speed and white balance on cloudy”.

“Post processing: cropped to line up the corners, sharpened slightly and a small bit of colour enhancement to bring out the blue in the sky a bit more”.

Well done Jim on a worthy winning shot.

See full details of the competition here.
How I took that Shot – Karen Fleming – winner Grade A
How I took that Shot – Finbarr O’Shea – winner Grade B

ECCG Symmetry Competition

Tuesday 11/2/14 was competition night for ECCG with the judging of the first competition of the year which had the theme, ‘Symmetry’. Twenty three entries were received and were varied in their interpretation of the theme. From clinical, geometric patterns to architecture and animals, they were all there.

Following a vote and some intense number crunching, the results were announced as follows:

Above photographs of the winners and runners up with Chariperson, Denis Barry by Finbarr O’Shea and Fidelma Read.

See all entries below. Mouse over the image to activate the control buttons.

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Well done to all who entered and to the worthy winners and runners up who each receive 12, 10 and 8 points, respectively, in each grade, towards the 2014 Photographer of the Year Competition. Well done also to the Competitions sub-committee comprising Mervyn Daly, Adrian Newcombe, Fidelma Read and Gráinne Davies who devised the competition, grading and marking schemes for 2014.

 

 

Back to Back Wins for Adrian

Tom Tattan and Adrian Newcombe

Tom Tattan and Adrian Newcombe

Members, click here for full report and photos.

History was made at the annual dinner of East Cork Camera Group held at the Midleton Park Hotel on Saturday night 23/11/13 when Adrian Newcombe was declared the winner of this year’s Photographer of the Year competition.

Prestigious in its own right, this was an extra special win for Adrian as he was the reigning title holder from 2012 and thus made these the first ever back-to-back wins in the history of the Group’s annual competition. High standards have always been a hallmark of Adrian’s work but his latest feat has really raised the bar in this competition. Well done Adrian!

Congratulations also of course to the other award winners on the night including Fidelma Read who received her Silver Medal which she won in the ‘Projected Image – Open – Intermediate’ category in the recent SACC competition in Horse and Jockey.

The full list of awards were as follows:

Photographer of the Year

1st – Adrian Newcombe. 2nd – Gráinne Davies. 3rd – Finbarr O’Shea

Best Landscape: Fidelma Read

Best Seascape: Adrian Newcombe

Best Portrait: Adrian Newcombe

Best Still Life: Gráinne Davies

Best Abstract: Gráinne Davies

Best Nature: Gráinne Davies

Best Sport: Fidelma Read

Best Black and White: Gráinne Davies

Best Macro: Brian P. Casey

Best HDR: Cian O’Connor

Best New Member 2013: Lorna O’Dwyer

Best Club Person 2013: Finbarr O’Shea

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Mouse over the image above for captions and control buttons

Photos by Finbarr O’Shea and Karen Fleming

Click here for full report and photos.