How I Took That Shot – Ray O’Connell

This shot by Ray O’Connell took 1st place in Grade B in our recent ‘Black and White’ projected competition. This is how it came about:

My entry of “Rider falling from a horse” was taken during the club shoot at the Point to Point in Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork on 3rd Feb. 2019. It was a mixed cloudy/bright day and I was lucky to get some moody clouds during my shot which cut down somewhat the danger from highlights in the sky. Shooting fast-moving animals / objects I tend to use Shutter Priority mode (TV on my Canon) and you need to set a very fast shutter speed to freeze the action which can mean compromising on the depth of field as you
need to open the lens up more (small f-stops numbers) but this also can have the effect of making your subject jump out against the background. I used 1/1250sec for this shot on my Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 lens at 95mm, ISO 100 which gave me f3.2.

Positioning is very important so I stood on the track just past one of the jumps and side on to the approaching horses to catch them as they landed. Post-production in Lightroom I removed Chromatic Aberration / Enabled lens profile, increased blacks and shadows, brought down highlights and whites. After these changes, I then
converted the photo to B/W by using the Lightroom preset “B/W Low Contrast”. There was a rope extending from the pole to the edge of the photo behind the horse which I found distracting so removed this in Photoshop using the Spot healing brush.

 – Ray O’Connell

How I Took That Shot – Kevin O’Brien

This shot by Kevin O’Brien took first place in Grade C in our recent ‘Seascape’ printed competition. This is how the shot came about:

I took this shot specifically for the competition as I wanted to try out some recently bought filters.

The location is Poll Gorm near Myrtleville, Co. Cork, a nice rugged, rocky area. The setup was manual, on a tripod with a Lee “Little Stopper” filter (6 stops), to allow a long exposure to blur the water motion, and a 2 stop Lee graduated filter to control the highlights in the sky.  The camera settings were f/11, ISO 100 and an 8-second exposure.

I tried a few shots from different positions but I chose this one mainly because I liked the light on the rocks in the foreground.

 – Kevin O’Brien

Black & White Competition – 05/03/2019

The second in the series of six member-competitions, as part of the Annual Photographer of the Year Awards, was held on 5th March last in an extremely well-attended meeting in the Midleton Park Hotel. A recording-breaking 35 entries were submitted in this Black White category. As part of the new policy to help develop member abilities by having external judges review / mark the entries, we were delighted to have the renowned Charlie O’Donovan give members his expert review. He congratulated the club for both the high number of entries and the high quality of the photographs
submitted.

The following were the results of the competition:
Grade A: 1st – Finbarr O’Shea. Joint 2nd —  Andrew Corkbeg and Gráinne Davies. 3rd – Denis Barry
Grade B: 1st – Ray O’Connell, 2nd – Niall Sharkey, 3rd – Paul Stack
Grade C: 1st – Clara Mc Carthy. 2nd – Roseanne O’Donovan Joint 3rd –  Miriam Keogh and Sue Casey.

Click here to see the gallery of competition images. Enjoy!

Click here for the winners’ photos.

Click here for all the results.

– Ray O’Connell

 

Seascape Competition – 05/02/2019

Much of our group’s activity in January focused on seascape photography and, following on from photoshoots at Youghal and Ballycotton and a presentation by local seascape photographer Paul Flynn AIPF, the first of our 6 competitions of 2019, themed “Seascape”, took place at our meeting on 5th February at the Midleton Park Hotel.

This was a printed competition and we were delighted to welcome local photographer, John Finn AIPF ARPS, on the night to judge the 22 entries. Once the winners in each grade were announced, John gave a critique on each image, giving valuable insight and advice from his wealth of experience.

John went on to discuss the process he undertook in achieving his Associateship with the IPF and RPS with his wonderful panel of inverted reflections in the River Lee. With distinctions becoming a major interest for many of our members this was an inspiring discussion, and we look forward to meeting up with John again soon.
Winners on the night as follows,

Grade A 1st – Andrew Corkbeg
Grade A 2nd – Dave Harris, Joe Moroney
Grade A 3rd – Kevin Day

Grade B 1st – Noel O’Keeffe, Niall Sharkey
Grade B 2nd – Paul Stack
Grade B 3rd – Jim Curtin, Ray O’Connell

Grade C 1st – Kevin O’Brien
Grade C 2nd – Richard Hennessey
Grade C 3rd – Rosanne Donovan

Click here for the competition gallery

Click here for more photos from the night.

– Anthony O’Connor, LIPF

 

Mark Condren Launches New Book On The NYPD

Photographer Mark Condren, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Sgt. Johnny Moynihan (NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force), at the launch of Mark’s photo book ‘NYPD’ – Behind the scenes with the men and women of the New York City Police Department. Picture: Caroline Quinn

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, officially launched a new book by award-winning photographer, Mark Condren, in the 1837 Room at The Guinness Storehouse, Dublin on Monday evening last, 10th December 2018.

As its name suggests, the book, entitled NYPD – Behind the scenes with the men and women of the New York City Police Department, documents the day-to-day activities of New York’s Police Department. The photographs are candid and close up featuring a wide range of activities from community policing to armed actions and took Mark over two years to compile while embedded with the various units of the Department.

Gaining the requisite access to the world’s biggest Police Department began in 2011 when Mark published his first book, The Guards – behind the scenes with the men and women of An Garda Síochána, a photographic documentary of the Irish Police Force. Sold out within weeks of publication, this was a phenomenal success and became Mark’s business card when he floated the idea for the NYPD book to  NYPD Commissioner, James O’Neill.

“I showed him the book I did on the guards in Ireland and he said that we had to do one of those for the NYPD.  He was totally supportive of the project and what I needed to do to get it done,”  said Mark. So, with the door fully opened to him, Mark made sixteen, two-week trips to the Big Apple over the following two years gathering the imagery that fills the magnificent work that is his latest book.

A native of Castletownroche, Co. Cork, Mark worked with ‘The Corkman’ before moving to the ‘Sunday Tribune’ and then to his present position with ‘Independent News & Media’. He won his first P.P.A.I. Press Photographer of the Year award in 2009 and followed it up with two more wins in 2011 and 2013. In 2016, he took the title for a staggering fourth time which speaks volumes for the esteem in which his work is held.

Mark has been a good friend to East Cork Camera Group over the years and we wish him well with his new book which is already showing signs of the success of its predecessor. The new 208-page, full-colour book is an enthralling photographic work and can be bought at www.markcondren.com.