2018

Posted on 28/11/2018 by admin

Eileen Upton LIPF, Kevin Day AIPF, and Noelle Lowney LIPF

There was a strong showing from East Cork Camera Group at last Saturday's Irish Photographic Federation Distinction Sitting in Thurles, Co. Tipperary with six members seeking Distinctions.

Kevin Day, Dave Harris, Fidelma Read, and John Tait were seeking Associateships while Noelle Lowney and Eileen Upton were seeking Licentiateships. With a capacity entry, judging began at 10 am accompanied by the expected apprehension and expectation of those being assessed.

Kevin, Eileen, and Noelle were all successful while Dave, Fidelma, and John narrowly missed out but lived to fight another day. Well done to all.

- Anthony O'Connor

How I Took That Shot – John Tait

Posted on 28/03/2018 by admin

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!

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

ECCG ‘Festive’ Competition – 06/02/2018

Posted on 03/03/2018 by admin

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!

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 – John Tait

Posted on 26/09/2017 by admin

John Tait took first place in Grade A in our recent 'Vacation' competition with the shot above. This is how he captured the image:

As I had no brainwaves for our "Vacation" themed competition, I went on a trawl through my holiday photographs, taken last May in Lagos, Portugal. When we go to Lagos, I usually bring my 7D MK II, and my 100-400mm. I am usually looking for wildlife shots, so my birds usually have feathers rather than bikinis, and my nightlife shots are more likely to be of Owls rather than Discos and Bars. Not very fertile ground for "Vacation" shots!

However.. I also usually bring my little Sony RX100 "Pocket Rocket" when on walkabout around town. As I am still trying to get to grips with it's menus and creative modes, I had it set to Auto. ( I know I know....I should be shooting in manual...Sorry! ) As we walked thru' the old town, I was intrigued by a very long building, whose outside wall curved gently around to the right, following the curve of the street. Right behind this building stands a lovely medieval Church with a nice bell tower. On the opposite side of the street, there is a line of old traditional town houses. The whole scene looked very nice and typically Portuguese in the bright sunlight.

I stood looking at the scene, and decided that it had some potential. I composed the shot, putting the Church tower on the top right hand third, and used the street, the curving building, and both pavements as lead-in lines to the Church tower. As the street was empty of people, I waited until a lady pedestrian walked around the corner and into the lower right hand third of the frame. Bingo! I had my shot.

I took lots of shots on that trip, most of which were deleted later, but I kept this one as I really liked it. Thankfully, on competition night, a good number of club members seemed to like it too.

- John Tait

Well done John.

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

ECCG ‘Vacation’ Competition – 05/09/2017

Posted on 11/09/2017 by admin

With summer already fading from memory, the first ECCG meeting of the autumn, held at the Midleton Park Hotel on 5th September last, featured the fifth internal competition of the year with the theme Vacation. In a departure from the usual projected competitions, entrants were required to enter prints for this competition. With twenty-three entries, competition was close across all grades but in the end, the image above by Noelle Lowney, got the best overall score at 566 points. The rest of the top-three places across the grades went as follows:

In an extremely close contest, John Tait won Grade A by just two points from Fidelma Read while Anthony O'Connor took third only three points adrift.

Noelle Lowney was first in Grade B with 566 points, the highest score of the competition with four points separating Remi Boron and Eileen Upton at 545 and 541 respectively.

Miriam Keogh had a a 43 point winning margin in Grade C from Andrew Foley,in second with 498 points and Paul Stack in third with 480 points.

The overall placings were Noelle Lowney (566), John Tait (557) and Fidelma Read (555),

Well done to all twenty-three entrants.

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

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