Tag Archives: Finbarr O’Shea

Shoot at Youghal on 26/1/14

ECCG shoot Youghal-8230With a Code Orange weather warning in place for most of the West and South of the country for Sunday 26/1/14, it was touch and go whether another ECCG shoot would succumb to the wintry weather conditions of 2014 so far. However, following early morning consultations with various weather forecasters it was felt that Youghal might have a chance of a reasonably good day so the shoot was ‘on’.

Seven members turned out at the Walter Raleigh Hotel, Youghal in a windy but dry morning and with high tide due at 12.48pm and a 50kph wind blowing, the sea was already raging against the rocky shoreline – a sure draw for eager photographers.

FOS Youghal. 097-3

Finbarr O’Shea

Following the short walk to the lighthouse, we descended the many steps to the ‘diving rocks’ where it seemed someone had taken the time to construct ideal photography platforms for us and, with the tide surging only feet away, it was a photo-fest indeed.

Having worked our way around to the front strand by 1pm, we regrouped at the Old Imperial Hotel, North Main Street, for lunch which felt well overdue due to the appetite inducing, fresh sea air.

After this welcome break in proceedings it was back to the shoot with a visit to the nearby St. Mary’s Collegiate Church, a national monument of Ireland and which is the oldest church in continuous use since its foundation in Ireland and whose roof timbers have been carbon dated to the year 1170. The extensive graveyard is surrounded by the original town walls, complete with walkways and viewing points and they are thought to be the best preserved medieval town walls in Ireland.

Unfortunately, it was about this time when the weather took a turn for the worst and cut our visit short, but Youghal and the jewel that is St. Mary’s are certainly on the cards for a return visit.

Thanks to Michael Hegarty for his assistance in organising the shoot.

Photos above by Bill Sisk, Finbarr O’Shea, Lorna O’Dwyer, Joseph Keniry and Denis Barry.

Sensor Cleaning with Finbarr O’Shea

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Finbarr O’Shea demonstrates Camera Sensor Cleaning

The very thought of personally cleaning the sensor of a digital camera is enough to send some camera owners into a state of shock and physical sickness such is the fear of causing lasting damage to this delicate and vital part of the photographic process. Not so for ECCG member, Finbarr O’Shea, who always cleans his own cameras’ sensors using both wet and dry methods.

Finbarr tried to dispel the fear by giving a demonstration of how he goes about the process at the first Group meeting of 2014 at the Midleton Park Hotel on Tuesday 7/1/14.

Using surprisingly little kit, Finbarr went through the various steps of the process from using a blower brush to dislodge dust and free debris from the mirror box and sensor to using swabs, perfectly matched to the size of the camera’s sensor, along with a few drops of cleaning fluid to perform a wet clean for more stubborn dirt.

It was indeed a revelation as to how simple an operation it can be. However, a word of warning: this is not for the faint-hearted and should not be attempted by those unsure or not proficient in the process as lasting damage could be caused to the camera which could require a costly repair.

Members click here for more details.

 

How I took that Shot by Finbarr O’Shea

Finbarr O’Shea came second in the recent ‘In Costume’ group competition with a beautiful shot of his granddaughter. This is how he took the shot:

“My entry to the costume competition was a picture of my granddaughter, Mikaela, at her Halloween party. She and her friends made a great effort with their costumes and face painting”.

Finbarr O'Shea

“They started with the snap apple game where the first person to bite the apple without using their hands wins. It was during this I got my picture. It was a fun night and a great time was had by all”.

“The shot was taken with a Canon 5D Mark 2 with a Canon EF24-70 2.8L at 42mm, 1/125 sec, f8 at ISO 400. I used an on-camera flash which I bounced off the ceiling. Post processing was done in Lightroom where I made adjustments to saturation and sharpening”.

Well done Finbarr and Mikaela.

‘In Costume’ Competition – April 2013

16 entries were submitted for the ‘In Costume’ competition at the Midleton Park Hotel on 23/4/13. Variety was in evidence as the members judged the projected images.

The members broke up into groups of 5 and looked through all the images quickly first so that everyone could get a flavour of the entries. They then went through them again slowly so each group could discuss the image and mark them out of 10 each on composition, lighting and creativity.

While scores were being totted up each photographer spoke about how they came to take their chosen image and how they lit the subject etc. With the scores tallied the winners were revealed: in 3rd place Vivian Lee with her image of a floating mask. In 2nd place Finbarr O’Shea with a photo of a child eating an apple, and in 1st place was  Mervyn Daly (February’s third place) with an image of his daughter dressed as a Heath Ledger-style clown.

View all the competition entries in the slideshow below. Mouse over to see the photographers’ details  and to use the controls.

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Well done to all the competitors.

How I took that shot by Finbarr O’Shea

Full Moon Guileen.I took this shot last October, on one of my regular visits to Guileen – a small village located in south eastern coast of Ireland about 20 min. drive from Midleton and 5 min drive from Whitegate in Co. Cork. I was very lucky that day to see a beautiful sunset and full moon.

I used a Canon 5D mark 2 with a Canon EF16-35mm 2.8L lens. I also used a Cokin 121, 3 stops graduated neutral density filter to balance the contrast of the scene, a tripod, and shutter release cable. I locked up the mirror to reduce camera shake.

Camera was set on manual exposure at ISO 100 for 30 sec. at f8. Focal length was 35mm. The image was shot in RAW and processed in Lightroom 4 where I made slight adjustments to contrast, sharpening etc.