Tag Archives: Festive

How I Took That Shot – John Tait

John Tait took first place in Grade A with this shot in our recent ‘Festive’ competition. This is how he made the image:

Having received the usual reminder email, exhorting us all to get our
entries in on time for our “Festive” competition, I began to panic. I
had nothing!…. I had no valid excuse either, as Christmas was just
over, so most normal photographers would have lots of shots of Christmas
trees. Santa Claus. Christmas pud…Carol singers etc, etc. But I had
nothing at all, as I had spent most of Christmas chasing wildlife
shots… Then I had a Eureka moment!

I had been up in Co Laois with Dave Harris, trying to get
shots of a Pine Marten. As we sat in a tiny hide for about two hours,
waiting for our Pine marten to appear, boredom had us searching the
trees and undergrowth for something else to photograph. After shooting a
Robin, a couple of Chaffinches and other small birds, I suddenly spotted
a Blackbird perched high in a Holly tree. The Holly tree had lots of
berries, and the Blackbird was feasting on these. I took a couple of
shots of the bird with a juicy berry in his beak and promptly forgot all
about him, as the Pine Marten suddenly made an appearance. My camera
settings on the day were as follows.

Everything set to manual except for
ISO which was on Auto. Shutter speed would be not slower than 1/1000,
and Aperture f6.3. F6.3 is the largest Aperture that I can set the
camera to when using my Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens. I would also have
set my exposure compensation to +1 or +2 stops, so as to expose for the
bird against the much brighter sky. Without this compensation, I would
have had only a silhouette, and no detail in the bird.

Luckily, I remembered my “festive Blackbird” just in time to pop
it into Lightroom for a quick crop, and a couple of tweaks before
sending it off for the competition.

 – John Tait

Well done John!

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

See also:
How I took that Shot – Noelle Lowney
How I took that Shot – Neil O’Carroll
Winners Presentation Photos
Competition Results and 2018 League Table

If you are interested in photography and would like to know more about East Cork Camera Group, click the ‘Contact Us’ link above.

 

How I Took That Shot – Noelle Lowney

Noelle Lowney took first place in Grade B in our recent ‘Festive’ competition. No stranger to the winners’ podium, this is how she made the image:

The image was taken on a cold December evening in Cobh in the run-up to Christmas. On my hunt for an appropriate image that was representative of a Festive theme, I came across an unusual Christmas Tree situated off the main street in Cobh next to the Lusitania monument. When I looked at the position of the tree with the CatherdaI slightly above it I thought it would make an interesting shot. I put my camera on a tripod and attached a remote control for the long exposure. After many takes, I settled on this image.

The image was taken on a Canon 7D Mark II with a 55m to 250m lens. Camera settings were ISO 125, Shutter speed 18 seconds and F18.

– Noelle Lowney

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

See also:
How I took that Shot – John Tait
How I took that Shot – Neil O’Carroll
Winners Presentation Photos
Competition Results and 2018 League Table

If you are interested in photography and would like to know more about East Cork Camera Group, click the ‘Contact Us’ link above.

How I Took That Shot – Neil O’Carroll

Though reminiscent of an event in an exotic, faraway place, Neil O’Carroll’s winning image in Grade C in our recent ‘Festive’ competition was, in fact, shot in Dublin Zoo! This was Neil’s first appearance on the podium and to take first place was a fantastic achievement. This is how he made the shot:

The photo was taken at Dublin Zoo Christmas Chinese Lantern Display on December 13, 2017.

(Display was open every night from 5.30pm to 9pm commenced in late November until 6th January. It is planned to return again for Christmas 2018)

Camera used–Canon EOS 70D – handheld.

1/50 sec; f4.5; 35mm; iso500.

Minimal post editing — slight cropping & removal stray lights in the background.

 – Neil O’Carroll

Well done Neil!

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

See also:
How I took that Shot – John Tait
How I took that Shot – Noelle Lowney
Winners Presentation Photos
Competition Results and 2018 League Table

ECCG ‘Festive’ Competition – 06/02/2018

Coming so quickly after Christmas, hopes were high that the ‘Festive’ theme would entice a good entry to our first internal competition of 2018 and we were not disappointed as twenty-nine entries were received. The image above by John Tait was the overall highest scoring image on the night and took first place in Grade A.

These were the 1, 2, 3s in each Grade:

Grade C saw Neil O’Carroll on the winner’s podium for the first time with Ray O’Connell and Paul Stack in second and third respectively.

Noelle Lowney won Grade B by a comfortable 29 point margin from Keith Johnson in second followed by Denis O’Flynn in third.

Grade A was the real battleground in this competition with different competitors occupying the first, second and third berths at different times as the votes were recorded. In the end, though it was John Tait who took the top spot from Fidelma Read by a winning margin of only eleven points with Eileen Upton coming home in a very credible third place in her first outing in the Grade. The Grade A placings were replicated in the Overall first, second and third spots.

Well done to all our winners and everyone who entered, especially to those entering for the first time.

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

See also:
How I took that Shot – John Tait
How I took that Shot – Noelle Lowney
How I took that Shot – Neil O’Carroll
Winners Presentation Photos
Competition Results and 2018 League Table

If you are interested in photography and would like to know more about East Cork Camera Group, click the ‘Contact Us’ link above.