The image above took first place in Grade B for new ECCG member, Noel O'Keeffe in our recent 'Seascape' competition. This is how it came about:
We were on a family trip to Mail Head last year. I took a good few pics around the area.
It was taken on Nikon D7200, using my very used 17-55 lens. Manual, ISO 125 35mm F10 & 1/250 sec.
There was very little post-production done on the image.
- Noel O'Keeffe
The image above took first place in Grade A in our recent 'Seascape' competition. This is how it was made:
I knew about the sea view printed competition I decided to take a photo that will be both normal photography and my favourite style digital composition.
For the photoshoot organised by ECCG with the theme seascape I invited one of my models. The photoshoot took place in Ballycotton at the time of the sunrise. I got the idea to put a tornado in the background at the same time she doesn't look back just calmly looking into the future hoping for a better time. Then two days later and 20 layers on photoshop and you saw the final result.
- Andrew Corkbeg
This shot by Niall Sharkey was placed joint first in Grade B in our recent 'Seascape' printed competition. This is how the shot came about:
I took the photo down beside Knockadoon signal tower near Youghal, Co. Cork. I positioned myself close to the cliff edge to take the shot. It was taken at sunrise and the colour in the sky was amazing!
There was lovely cloud cover to bring texture and interest to the sky but what caught my eye was the deep red and pink hues from the rising sun as it lit up the undersurface of those clouds. Also, there was a significant warm/cool contrast between the seaward side and the land which gave it an almost 2-tone look.
Admittedly, I was aware of a seascape competition coming up so I needed some land/sea contrast and framed the image to catch both. My widest lens was 24mm and retrospectively I was sorry I didn’t stitch two images together in photoshop as the highlight of the scene was the vivid sky colour which was out of shot! Next time!!
I took the image on a tripod. The camera was a Nikon D810 with a 24-120mm lens. A slower shutter speed was used to soften the sea a little and capture the detail better at the base ISO of 64.
- Niall Sharkey
This shot by Kevin O'Brien took first place in Grade C in our recent 'Seascape' printed competition. This is how the shot came about:
I took this shot specifically for the competition as I wanted to try out some recently bought filters.
The location is Poll Gorm near Myrtleville, Co. Cork, a nice rugged, rocky area. The setup was manual, on a tripod with a Lee “Little Stopper” filter (6 stops), to allow a long exposure to blur the water motion, and a 2 stop Lee graduated filter to control the highlights in the sky. The camera settings were f/11, ISO 100 and an 8-second exposure.
I tried a few shots from different positions but I chose this one mainly because I liked the light on the rocks in the foreground.
- Kevin O'Brien
Much of our group's activity in January focused on seascape photography and, following on from photoshoots at Youghal and Ballycotton and a presentation by local seascape photographer Paul Flynn AIPF, the first of our 6 competitions of 2019, themed "Seascape", took place at our meeting on 5th February at the Midleton Park Hotel.
This was a printed competition and we were delighted to welcome local photographer, John Finn AIPF ARPS, on the night to judge the 22 entries. Once the winners in each grade were announced, John gave a critique on each image, giving valuable insight and advice from his wealth of experience.
John went on to discuss the process he undertook in achieving his Associateship with the IPF and RPS with his wonderful panel of inverted reflections in the River Lee. With distinctions becoming a major interest for many of our members this was an inspiring discussion, and we look forward to meeting up with John again soon.
Winners on the night as follows,
Grade A 1st - Andrew Corkbeg
Grade A 2nd - Dave Harris, Joe Moroney
Grade A 3rd - Kevin Day
Grade B 1st - Noel O'Keeffe, Niall Sharkey
Grade B 2nd - Paul Stack
Grade B 3rd - Jim Curtin, Ray O'Connell
Grade C 1st - Kevin O'Brien
Grade C 2nd - Richard Hennessey
Grade C 3rd - Rosanne Donovan
Click here for the competition gallery
Click here for more photos from the night.
- Anthony O'Connor, LIPF
