Members see the Light!

At a well attended meeting of the ECCG on Tuesday 10/4/13, Tom Tattan, Dave Edmunds and John Horgan delivered a workshop on portrait flash photography using speedlights. As flash photography can be a mysterious practice for the uninitiated, this was a very much sought after event and went down well with all in attendance.

Our secretary, Karen Fleming, introduced some glamour to the occasion by (foolishly?) agreeing to model for the battery of paparazzi who all wanted to test their newly learned skills. Scenes reminiscent of the outside of a celebrity nightclub at 4am ensued as strobes popped continuously. In hindsight a pair of dark glasses would have been in order for our patient model, whose retinas must have been screaming STOPPPP as the barrage showed no sign of abating! Well done to all concerned.
Photos by Denis O’Flynn.

ECCG's online magazine 'Snapshot'PRO, Denis Barry revealed the ECCG’s new online magazine, ‘Snapshot‘ which is available on iOS and Android devices to members and non-members alike here.

Unfortunately these are the only ways in which the magazine can be accessed, a matter which is completely out of our hands but, that said, it is a wonderful experience on a tablet device especially as there are beautiful photos and videos within the pages that really exploit the tablets’ size and capabilities. The display on other devices, such as mobile phones and iPods, etc, while smaller, is also a very rewarding experience.

The magazine will feature articles of photographic interest from varying online sources and will be updated frequently so be sure to check it out often and let us know what you think.

“Fuji is the new Leica”

“Fuji is the new Leica” is a statement that gets a second glance. That was Zack Arias’s take having reviewed the Fuji X100S, a mirror-less digital camera with a retro look, fixed 23mm F2 lens and a 16MP APS-C sensor.

fujix100s frontThe enthusiasm with which this camera has been met is beyond anything I have ever read or seen to date.

One would think that the limitations of a fixed focal length lens alone would be enough to, at least, dampen the enthusiasm especially since similar offerings from Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and indeed Fuji itself, have interchangeable lenses that offer more options to the photographer while still keeping the overall kit small, light and portable. Not so.

Renowned photographers Zack Arias, David Hobby (aka The Strobist) and Neil Van Niekerk, among others, have recently reviewed this camera and outline their thoughts in detail. Check out the camera’s mini site here.

I must say that the thoughts of leaving all the weighty gear in the bag and going off with just this camera is appealing to me too. How about you?

Robert Doisneau 1912 – 1994

Robert Doisneau“A hundredth of a second here, a hundredth of a second there – even if you put them end to end, they still only add up to one, two, perhaps three seconds, snatched from eternity”.
Robert Doisneau

 

 

imagesWhile enjoying lunch in a restaurant in Kenmare, Co. Kerry recently, I noticed that there were several black and white photographs hanging on the walls. On closer examination I discovered that all, including possibly his most well known “The Kiss in Front of City Hall”, were by the French street photographer, Robert Doisneau. Since the genesis of ECCG can be traced to an over dinner conversation in the same town, the coincidence wasn’t lost on me so, Mon. Doisneau had to have a blog post dedicated to him on this site!

Robert Doisneau was born in Gentilly, Paris on 14/4/1912. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1920 and his father remarried two years later. At the age of seventeen, he qualified with a diploma as an engraver-lithographer. In 1929 he made his first pictures with a camera. Shortly after, he was hired as a draftsman, and soon became assistant in a newly created photo lab.

In 1931, he became assistant to the photographer André Vigneau whose influence was crucial to his career. Thereafter he met Pablo Picasso, Henri Cartier Bresson and many other personalities with whom he became friends. Upon his return from military service, he was hired as a photographer for Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt. He stayed there for five years until 1939. He then decided to become a photographer/freelance illustrator.

After the Liberation, he worked for some time before joining Alliance Photo agency Rapho permanently in 1946. In his status as a freelance photographer, he sold his pictures to magazines as diverse as Viewpoint, Life, Life working, Match, Look, Woman and Vogue. He participated in many international exhibitions and won many awards. In spite of his busy schedule, Robert Doisneau managed to do a lot of personal work and experienced a huge success over the last ten years of his life . Two films pay homage to him: “The Paris of Robert Doisneau” François Porcile in 1973 and “Bonjour Monsieur Doisneau” Sabine Azéma in 1992.

Visit his official site (in French, which can be translated in the browser) and see his work here.

How I took that shot by Gráinne Davies

I wanted to photograph water drops and it’s not as easy as it may seem.

Image-No.-3

The set up I used was very simple……..

  • Put some water into a black roasting tin
  • I used a small home studio kit set up on a table. If you don’t have a studio kit then just use coloured card (depending on what colour you want out).
  • I used a red velvet background.
  • Pour some water into a bottle or a bag (I used a bag) and suspend the water above the tin of water. Just put a pin hole in the bag and let the water drop into the tin of water.
  • Set your camera on a tripod in front of the water drops.
  • To find a focus I used a pencil and placed it directly where the water drops were falling and focused manually. This will ensure your drops are sharp.
  • Set up a Speedlight flash on a tripod or a flash stand and aim the flashgun directly at the background (not at the water). Set flash to manual and drop the power of the flash as required depending on the exposure of the shots.

Image-No.-3-beforePhotoshop changes – The original was shot in RAW and I changed the colour in Photoshop to give the purple colour. I just tidied the image up with some erasing and cloning and cropped the final image.

 

Technical Details:
Canon 60D
Canon 60mm Macro lens
ISO 200
F10
1/200

Sub-Zero Temperatures no match for ECCG Members

The sub-zero Siberian winds were no match for the dozen or so hardy souls who turned out for the first night shoot of the year in Cork City last night. With windchill dropping the temperatures to -4C, the members were treated to a full moon rising over the City Hall which was awash in a beautiful blue light that rendered the freezing conditions irrelevant.

DavidGeary_Corknight-shoot-2

After a while in the Lapps Quay and Parnell Bridge area it was off to the South Gate bridge where views of St. Finbarre’s Cathedral  reflected in the waters of the South Channel were worth the walk.

More than once, passers-by paused and looked quizzically at the line of tripods and their attentive owners wondering what in the world was going on. Some looked far in the distance to see what could be the object of this group’s attention only to walk away as mystified as they were to begin with. One couple’s curiosity got the better of them causing them to stop and ask what was going on!

The hot refreshments at a local hostelry went down a treat afterwards as all reported a satisfying and good shoot despite the challenging conditions.

Photos by Dave Geary, Anthony O’Connor and Karen Fleming.