Tag Archives: Anthony O’Connor

How I took that Shot – Anthony O’Connor

Anthony O’Connor took first place in Grade A in our recent ‘Urban’ competition with the self portrait/ graffiti shot. This is how he made the image:

I had a few different ideas for the Urban theme but settled on graffiti, and there are plenty of good examples around.

I took the image in the car park on White Street, Cork where most of the wall space is covered in works by various graffiti artists.

I tried a number of different compositions standing in and out of the shots, this one was my favourite.

It’s a HDR image processed in Photomatix essentials from a single RAW image, and finished in Photoshop.

The camera was mounted on a tripod using the timer. Settings were: f/8, 1/30 sec, ISO 100, 24mm.

Move the slider left and right below to compare the pre and post processed shots.

[bais_before_after before_image=”http://eastcorkcameragroup.ie/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Original_JPEG.jpg” after_image=”http://eastcorkcameragroup.ie/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Final_JPEG.jpg”]

– Anthony O’Connor

ECCG ‘Urban’ Competition – 01/03/2016

‘Urban’ was the theme of the second internal competition of 2016 held at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 01/03/16. Following two viewings of the twenty-two entries, marks were awarded which yielded the following results:

: Grade A – 1st – Anthony O’Connor

: Grade A – 3rd – Kevin Day

Photographer of the Year 2015, Anthony O’Connor was back on the winners podium in Grade A while Mervyn Daly was second and Kevin Day, third.

: Grade B – 1st – Jim ONeill

: Grade B – 2nd – Denis OFlynn

Jim O’Neill came first in Grade B with Denis O’Flynn only one point behind in second place. Dave Geary took third place.

: Grade C – 1st – Keith Johnson

: Grade C – 2nd – Eileen Upton

: Grade C – 3rd – Magda Mani

With two in a row for the year, Keith Johnson came first again in Grade C with Eileen Upton taking second place and Magda Mani continuing her recent good form by taking third.

In the overall high scores across all three Grades, Anthony O’Connor, Jim O’Neill and Denis O’Flynn took 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 overall highest scoring image by Anthony O’Connor. Click the image to see all the entries. Enjoy!

ECCG Awards Night 2015

Anthony O’Connor receiving the ECCG perpetual trophy for having won ECCG’s Photographer of the Year 2015 competition from John Finn ARPS

ECCG members and their families and friends gathered in The Midleton Park Hotel on Saturday 28/11/15 for the annual awards night. With competitions throughout the year feeding into the prestigious Photographer of the Year award, the build up to this night was palpable in recent weeks.

Awards Night 2014-5 To add to the positivity in the room, we were delighted that ECCG member, John Tait had been awarded a Licentiateship of the Irish Photographic Federation, earlier in the day at the Distinction Sitting at Thurles. Richly deserved, John had worked hard towards the award in the last few years. Well done John.

Photographer of the Year was not the only award on offer on the night however, as best website gallery, best Panel, best in Category, best in Grades A, B and C, best New Photographer and Club Person of the Year also had to be revealed.

Judging was carried out by Mr. John Finn, ARPS, Mr. Bill Power, FIPF and Ms. Niamh Whitty, FIPF, ARPS.

Following a fine meal expertly provided by the staff of Midleton Park Hotel, the formal proceedings were opened by Competitions Secretary, Anthony O’Connor and, following short speeches by chairman, Denis Barry and special guest, Mr. John Finn ARPS, the award winners were announced as follows:

Best Website Gallery
Grade C: Noelle Lowney
Grade B: Denis O’Flynn
Grade A: Andrew Corkbeg

Best Panel
Third Place: Michael Hickey
Second Place: Finbarr O’Shea
First Place: Anthony O’Connor

Best in Category
Landscape: Anthony O’Connor
Seascape: Fidelma Read
Portrait: Fidelma Read
Nature (J): John Tait
Nature (J): Fidelma Read
Sport: John Tait
Macro: John Tait
Architecture: Anthony O’Connor
Travel: Finbarr O’Shea
Black and White: Fidelma Read
HDR: Anthony O’Connor
Reportage/Documentary: Anthony O’Connor
Open: Fidelma Read

Best in Grade
Grade C
Third Place: James Brady
Second Place: Noelle Lowney
First Place: R.J. Mani

Grade B
Third Place: Denis O’Flynn
Second Place: Trevor O’Connell
First Place: Kevin Day

Grade A
Third Place: Fidelma Read
Second Place: Finbarr O’Shea
First Place: Anthony O’Connor

Best New Member: Eileen Upton

Club Person of the Year: Finbarr O’Shea

Photographer of the Year
Third Place: Fidelma Read
Runner Up: Finbarr O’Shea
POTY: Anthony O’Connor

Congratulations to all award winners and especially, Photographer of the Year, 2015, Anthony O’Connor. Well done too to everyone else who entered as a point or two given in another direction would have seen some of these in the prizes, such was the closeness of the final scores.

A big thank you goes to the three judges who did a stellar job. While the important task of awarding points was their main function, their feedback is equally important as it is vital that everyone gets an objective assessment of their work which can be factored into the fine tuning for the future.

Finally, thanks to our sponsors (click on the links to visit their websites) for the night O’Leary’s Camera World, Oliver Plunkett St, Cork; Barker Photographic, Unit 18, South Link Park, Frankfield, Cork and Art and Frame, Model Farm Rd, Cork and also to The Midleton Park Hotel for providing a beautiful meal and surroundings for a memorable night.

Click here to check out all the images. Enjoy!

Click here for all the results in detail..

All images from the Awards night by Finbarr O’Shea and James Brady.

AGM – 2014

The Annual General Meeting of East Cork Camera Group was held at The Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 2/12/2014. Following a review of a very successful 2014 the new committee for 2015 was elected:

President: Michael Fenton
Chairperson: Denis Barry
Vice Chairperson: Anthony O’Connor
Secretary: Noelle Lowney
Treasurer: Kevin Day
PRO: James Brady

l-r James Brady, Anthony O Connor, Noelle Lowney, Denis Barry and Kevin Day

After the recent Awards Night and last night’s AGM, the Group are looking forward to getting back to business again and will have a few shoots over the festive season as a warm up for a very active 2015.

If you are interested in photography and think East Cork Camera Group might be for you, contact us by clicking here.

Russia in Colour, a Century Ago

A recent find, on The Big Picture section of the Boston.com website, by ECCG member, Anthony O’Connor, is a selection of colour images from Russia taken in the early 1900s, some of which look like they could have been taken in the early 2000s. The eyeopener is that each image is actually a combination of three b&w images taken quickly using red, green and blue filters in succession, for later projection in near true colour.

This is the blurb on the site:

“With images from southern and central Russia in the news lately due to extensive wildfires, I thought it would be interesting to look back in time with this extraordinary collection of color photographs taken between 1909 and 1912. In those years, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook a photographic survey of the Russian Empire with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. He used a specialized camera to capture three black and white images in fairly quick succession, using red, green and blue filters, allowing them to later be recombined and projected with filtered lanterns to show near true color images. The high quality of the images, combined with the bright colors, make it difficult for viewers to believe that they are looking 100 years back in time – when these photographs were taken, neither the Russian Revolution nor World War I had yet begun. Collected here are a few of the hundreds of color images made available by the Library of Congress, which purchased the original glass plates back in 1948”.

Check out the images here.