2016

Sunrise YLFS FOS-4

With weather forecasts giving hope of a clear window in the midst of seemingly endless overcast and wet conditions, we struck for the front strand in Youghal on Saturday morning, 23/1/16, in search of the sunrise which was due at 8.25am.

With the tide running out fast, the sky in the east was indeed reasonably clear and yielded some great colour as sunrise approached. The groins played their part as usual providing the classic leading lines while the surf and rocks added to the scene.

The post mortem, over a welcome hot coffee, revealed a successful shoot with the hope that what appeared promising on the backs of the cameras would transfer intact to the bigger screens later in the morning.

You can see the results of the shoot here in the gallery. Enjoy!

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How I took that Shot – Fidelma Read

11_Fidelma Read - Winter

Fidelma Read took first place in Grade A in our recent ‘Winter’ competition with the stunning portrait above. This is how she made the image:

Snow Fidelma Read-1129-2 I took this shot last Winter. My daughter was home from school with a tummy bug that day and then, just after lunch, it began to snow. Well I never saw a child’s face to light up as much when she looked out the window.. ! I managed to capture that also as I had the camera ready before I told her.

The tummy ache was soon forgotten and out it was, with the wellies and hats, to throw snowballs. It was super fun. I love to capture these fun times, they are so so precious as they grow up so quickly. I took lots of photos of snowballs going around and the joy of the moment but this one stood out for me. It was a fleeting moment but there is direct eye contact which is what I was hoping for.

It’s not always possible with child portraiture and candid shots but I do purposely try to keep an eye to the background and pick my moments as it has a huge bearing on the image. It had turned quite dark with the stormy sky, so to keep my speed up as we chased around I had to push my ISO up to 1000, aperture of f5.6 and speed 1/400. I just did a small bit of post processing then to make it pop a bit more, levels, sharpening etc.

I hope she will enjoy having these images in years to come as much as I have treasured capturing them..

– Fidelma Read

How I took that Shot – R.J. Mani

01_RJ Mani - Winter

R.J. Mani took first place in Grade B in our recent ‘Winter’ competition with the clever shot above. This is how he made the image:

After announcement for winter competition for January I was a bit stuck, as for me winter was always snow and ice and this was impossible for me as we only got flood and rain here. After brain storming and internet search I decided to do a indoor shoot in front of the fire which we do in winter time here.

For this composition few things were needed like bottle of wine, winter feel looking socks and beautiful fireplace and fire. My wife and I manage to get all in order and used studio light shooting from the right back. Camera was placed in line with the middle of the fireplace with 50 mm lens tethering straight to the laptop in Lightroom. The camera was also placed on tripod with 2-second timer. After some trial and error I managed to get the right shot I wanted.

The image was processed in Lightroom with a minimal touch of clarity, contrast, temperature and crop.

Camera: Canon 6D, EF 50mm F/1.8 STM

Setting : Manual mode, 1/5 sec at f/8.0 ISO 640, centre weighted metering, Manual focus.

– R.J. Mani

How I took that Shot – Keith Johnson

13_Keith Johnson - Winter

Keith Johnson took first place in Grade C in our recent ‘Winter’ competition with the beautiful landscape shot above. This is how he made the image:

The photo was taken on 2016/01/07. I had a couple of hours to spare in Killarney and luckily found I had the camera in the boot of the car. I headed up to Ladies View thinking the snow and sun would be better there but there was only a sparse covering so I headed back down and stopped at a flooded Long Range, to take a quick look.

It has never been my favorite place but it looked good so took the camera out and waded out till I could find a good view. I waited for the sun to show in the background and quickly took one handheld shot. My feet were freezing by now so I skipped back to the car pretty quickly!

Taken about 2 pm with a Canon 650d.. lens 18-55 ..f22, 1/13,100 ISO

– Keith Johnson

ECCG ‘Winter’ Competition – 19/01/2016

‘Winter’ was the theme of the first internal competition of 2016 held at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 19/01/16. Following two viewings of the eighteen entries, marks were awarded which yielded the following results:

Results

: 2nd Grade A – Denis Barry

: 3rd Grade A – Anthony O’Connor

Fidelma Read took first place in Grade A with an outstanding portrait while Denis Barry was second and Anthony O’Connor, third, beating Finbarr O’Shea to the spot on the very last vote.

: 1st Grade B – RJ Mani

: 2nd Grade B – Joe Keniry

: 3rd Grade B – Noelle Lowney

RJ Mani continued his winning streak by coming first in Grade B beating Joe Keniry and Noelle Lowney who came second and third respectively.

: 1st Grade C – Keith Johnson

: 2nd Grade C – Magda Mani

: 3rd Grade C – Jim Curtin

Keith Johnson came first in Grade C with a fine winter landscape from Killarney while Magda Mani and Jim Curtin took the second and third spots.

In the overall high scores across all three Grades, the Grade A results were replicated with Fidelma Read, Denis Barry and Anthony O’Connor taking the honours.

Well done to all entrants, especially those new members entering for the first time, and congratulations to those who gained valuable points towards this year’s Photographer of the Year competition.

The image below is the winning entry in Grade A by Fidelma Read. Click the image to see all the entries. Enjoy!