Peter Cox speaks to ECCG

Peter CoxEast Cork Camera Group were honoured indeed to have renowned Irish Landscape Photographer, Peter Cox, in attendance at our latest meeting at The Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 3/5/16.

Based in Ballingeary, Co. Cork, Peter is one of the most successful photographers in the country running workshops all over the world while his work has been exhibited at home and abroad as well being featured on national and international television.

Peter is a Fellow of the Irish Professional Photographers’ Association (IPPA) and has received a Qualified European Photographer award from the Federation of European Photographers. His retail gallery at 4, High Street, Killarney, Co. Kerry, is a veritable photographic treasure trove featuring magnificent prints and is really worth a visit.

the irish lightAlso in the gallery can be found Peter's two self-published photography books, The Irish Light and Atlantic Light, both of which were successfully funded on Kickstarter.

The Irish Light is a beautiful, hard-covered, coffee table book of 128 pages which includes ninety of Peter's best photographs from 2005-2012.

atlantic lightAtlantic Light is a collection of aerial photographs of the Wild Atlantic Way - Ireland's west coast. The first of its kind, the images were made from a combination of helicopters, aeroplanes and drones.

Both books are beautifully produced and really are a must-have for everyone's bookshelf.

Peter's talk to the Group was first class covering mainly Composition, Light and the Technical aspects of his photography which was music to the ears of all in attendance who could have listened for the night but, as we had to let him back to Ballingeary at a reasonable hour, his talk had to end but not before many questions were answered and several books personally signed.

Many thanks to Peter for making the journey to Midleton and for a really enjoyable talk.

Find out more about Peter here:
Website
Facebook
Twitter

 

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter
FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

A Black & White Night – 02/02/2016

B&W-1

Eric Dunne-Magner at ECCG

Continuing with our scheme of theming the calendar months on a particular photography genre, we designated February to be our Black and White month and to get it off to a flying start, we invited two experts in the genre, Eric Dunne-Magner AIPF and Mark McGranaghan AIPF, of Cork Camera Group, to our Tuesday night meeting on 2/2/16 at The Midleton Park Hotel

B&W-5

Mark McGranaghan at ECCG

Showing a wide variety of shots from portraiture, travel, architecture and purely creative studio work, both men explained their workflows in detail while displaying their skills with Lightroom, Photoshop, Photomatix, HDR and associated plugins such as Nik Silver Effects Pro.

The talk certainly set the tempo for the month ahead which will be a challenge to those of us who find the genre daunting  and will certainly get most of us out of our comfort zone. No more a matter of simply hitting the 'B&W' button in Lightroom or its equivalent in other programs, we will now have to delve a little deeper and see what other tools and plugins can do for us to bring out the best in the images. A few intense processing sessions ahead, methinks!

Thanks to Eric and Mark for coming to our club and sharing their knowledge with us.

Download Mark's Black & White Conversion workflow here.

 

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter
FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

John Hooton visits ECCG – 05/01/2016

J Hooton Talk-1

East Cork Camera Group was delighted to host one of Ireland's foremost photographers, John Hooton, at our first meeting of the year at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 5/1/16.

Those present were indeed fortunate as John, accompanied by his wife Noreen, gave a master class on his photography, displaying print after immaculate print while dropping nuggets of photographic tips throughout. The images he displayed were shot mainly around the Dingle peninsula in West Kerry, which is his second home, and from where he runs courses and workshops for eager photographers from home and abroad.

As a founder member of Mallow Camera Club, John has held many positions within the club, and has been a committee member of the Irish Photographic Federation Council (I.P.F.). Presently he is one of the main adjudicators with the I.P.F. on their National Distinction Panel and has been a judge for numerous prestigious competitions.

In 2010 he was invited to join the PermaJet team of lecturers who travel the length and breadth of the UK and Ireland lecturing to camera clubs and photographic societies. In 2015 he was invited to Bristol, Cambridge and Scotland to lecture and sit on judging panels.

He is a Fellow of both the Irish Photographic Federation and Royal Photographic Society and in 2010 was awarded an M.F.I.A.P. - the highest award given by the International Federation of Photographic Art. His work has appeared extensively in salons throughout the world and he has done a number of personal exhibitions both in Ireland and abroad.

cover2Not only a multi award winning photographer, John is also a published author with two fine photographic books under his belt. His first publication, 'Gathering Light on the Dingle Coast' was published in 2012 and features 200  beautiful images taken between the 1980’s and 2012.

His second book, 'Dingle My Own Place' was published only recently. All the images for this new book were taken over the last three years and in it he takes theDingle My Own Place viewer on a photographic journey of the Dingle Peninsula from Blennerville on the northern shore to Inch on the southern coast. Many of the images were taken during the ‘magic hours’ of pre-dawn and post dusk when the available light offers opportunities that make the difference between the ordinary image and the extraordinary image.

Our night with John and Noreen went all too quickly and if we could, we would have stayed chatting and looking at images all night. It was the ideal start to another busy year for East Cork Camera Group which will feature many more guest speakers, shoots, competitions and workshops throughout 2016.

Many thanks to John and Noreen for attending our meeting and you can find out a lot more about John and his photography at the links below:

Web: www.john-hooton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.hooton.92?fref=ufi

If you have an interest in photography and would like to find out more about East Cork Camera Group, click the 'Contact Us' link and leave us a message.

 

 

 

 

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter
FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

ECCG Visits the Giles Norman Gallery, Kinsale – 19/5/15

On Tuesday 19/5/15 a group of ECCG members fulfilled a long-held item on our bucket list when we visited Giles Norman, Ireland's foremost black and white photographer, at his gallery at 45 Main St, Kinsale, Co. Cork.

REPRO FREE Renowned photographer, Giles Norman, who hosted a reception and signing of his new book 'Ireland ?timeless images' at Hodges Figgis in Dawson Street. Picture. John Allen

Giles, himself, was on hand to show us around the gallery and we were eager to hear about his photography methods and workflow.

Having been heavily influenced by street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau in his early years, he has adopted their style of 'travelling light' with just one handheld camera and one lens which is incredible when you scan his gallery and take in the wonderful images he has captured in this way.

He claims to be not concerned with the technicalities of photography so much as the composition of his images preferring instead to concentrate on what he sees through the view finder and capture the decisive moments as they happen.

Hanging in his gallery is this insightful passage:

Perfect Composition

"Every image we see, has its perfect composition and the closer we get to that the better the photograph. It's the difference between a bad photograph and a good one, a good photograph and a great one. It's the fundamental being of both landscape and street photography, the one thing you must learn, the one thing your camera can't do for you. My advice to any aspiring photographer is to concentrate on composition and let your camera do the rest. Most cameras have an automatic program mode, find it, use it, trust it. Don't look at your camera, look through it, because while you are looking at it, moving dials and changing buttons, the clouds have moved, the light on the sea has disappeared, the couple kissing are now talking, the photograph is less than it could have been, the image has lost it's perfect composition".

 - Giles Norman

Often times we are guilty of getting caught up in the 'gear' that goes with photography, mistakenly thinking that it is essential in getting THE shot. Not so and Giles is living proof of this fact.

giles norman group

Giles's first publication with Collins Press, a book entitled 'Ireland Timeless Images', was published to coincide with his 25th year in business and he is currently working on his next book, a collection of images of Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way.

Many thanks to Giles and his wife, Catherine, for hosting ECCG at the gallery.

Click here to visit Giles's websiteGiles on Facebook. Giles on Twitter.

 

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter
FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Guest Speaker – Aerial Photographer, Dennis Horgan

dhorgan1The East Cork Camera Group welcomed Cork-based, professional aerial photographer, Dennis Horgan, to speak at our recent meeting at the Midleton Park Hotel.

Dennis, a former auctioneer, developed an interest in and a passion for photography and aviation as a teenager when he was given his first camera at the age of 18 so it wasn't a surprise that he eventually combined both into a very successful career.

Much in demand, Dennis's client list features Savills, Port of Cork Company, DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald, Bon Secours Healthcare System, Park Hotel Kenmare, Irish and European Ltd., Dromquinna Manor, PT Technologies Ltd., The Old Head Golf Links, Dunmore House Hotel & DAA Cork Airport, to name a few.

CTVFA-flyerHe has recently published his first book 'Cork - The View From Above’ which combines many of the photos he had taken of the county from the air over the years in over 256 pages. The book, which is a photographer's feast, has a forward by Jeremy Irons and you can read the Irish Times review of the book here.

Dennis presented a slideshow of aerial imagery depicting a fascinating visual record of Ireland’s most iconic landscapes, buildings and countryside including fields of baled straw awaiting collection, ancient castles and monastic sites, colourful cottages in seaside villages, urban sprawl and industry, as well as rugged coastal scenes and images of the Rivers Lee and Blackwater. All of the images were either taken from a helicopter or fixed wing aircraft. Dennis recounted his time spent in the skies, shooting through open doors while at the same time trying to keep the camera stable and waiting for the light to be just right before taking a shot.

dhorgan3Dennis is clearly very passionate about photography and aviation and his book epitomises that passion in addition to his love for Ireland’s natural landscape. After his presentation, Dennis kindly signed copies of his book for ECCG members.

ECCG wishes to thank Dennis for sharing his work and experience with us and we look forward to his next book which, we hear, may be in the works.

See more of Dennis's work on his website, www.dennishorgan.ie.

dhorgan2

- Noelle Lowney

FacebooktwitterFacebooktwitter
FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail