Tag Archives: Symmetry

How I Took That Shot – Karen Fleming

Karen Fleming took first place in Grade A, in the recent ‘Symmetry‘ competition with her geometrically and symmetrically correct image of smoke. Here’s how she made the image:

Karen Fleming - Symmetery (1280x1173)

“My image for the symmetry shot was a result of my kitchen, yet again, being pulled asunder :0) – but it has to be done to produce the images”.

“I set up my smoke shot using a black background and studio lights I have at home (desk lamps will suffice for anyone who doesn’t have studio lights)”.

“I stuck a lighted incense stick into a piece of blue-tac and placed it on the middle of the table. I placed a studio light at each side of the table to light the smoke. The image I used was shot at F5.6 ISO 100 1/200”.

“I then changed the colour of the smoke in Photoshop, duplicated the image and flipped it to mirror the original shot. Then I duplicated it again, inverted the duplication and joined the two together to get the final image”.

Well done Karen, excellently done. See full competition details here.
How I took that Shot – Finbarr O’Shea – winner Grade B
How I took that Shot – Jim O’Neill – winner Grade C

How I Took That Shot – Finbarr O’Shea

Finbarr O’Shea, no stranger to the winners enclosure, took first place in Grade B in the recent ‘Symmetry’ competition. This is his account of how the image came to be:

Finbarr O Shea - Symmentry, Cobh Cathedral (1280x853)

“For the Symmetry competition John Tait and myself took a trip to Fota House a few days before the cut off date for entries. We spent the first few hours in the gardens looking for anything symmetrical and our next port of call was the Wildlife Park where we headed for the watering hole for tea and sandwiches”.

“We were then ready for part two of our shoot, the animals etc. My plan was to shoot the Zebras (with the camera). I thought I might get a symmetrical image here but it wasn’t to be as, after I processed it in Lightroom, the result was not good enough, so I was told”.

“Next day it was plan “B” – I was on my way to Cobh Cathedral. I tried a few external shots before I went inside to set up for my internal pictures. I decided to use my 16mm to 35mm lens. Just inside the front door, I set up my tripod, making sure it was level and in the dead center of the aisle. The light was very difficult to deal with as it was streaming in all over the Cathedral which also has fluorescent lighting. I took a few test shots and decided on a 4 sec. exposure at f11, ISO200 @16mm. I then processed the raw file in Lightroom”.

Well done Finbarr. See full competition details here.
How I took that Shot – Karen Fleming – winner Grade A
How I took that Shot – Jim O’Neill – winner Grade C

How I Took That Shot – Jim O’Neill

Jim O’Neill recently took first place in the Grade C ‘Symmetry’ competition. A great achievement in its own right but, it actually scored better than any other image, across all grades, on the night – a tribute to how the image was captured and its faithfulness to the theme. This is Jim’s account of how he made the image:

Jim ONeill - Symmetry (1228x1200)

“The idea of symmetry immediately conjured images of school days to me with a folded sheet of paper and paints so that was my starting point. I failed miserably to set up something of my own so I started to look outside. I looked at leaves and in particular ferns but to my surprise they were not quite symmetrical, as I had thought”.

“As pylons were in the news a lot I gave them a look and was happy to go with this. I sourced one that was easily accessible, close to the road and in a quiet spot. Initially I wanted to shoot it straight on but as I was snapping away I thought, what would it look like directly underneath. The look for me was perfect and I took several shots, hand held and got out of there quickly!!”

“Camera used was a Nikon D80, Tokina 11mm-16mm wide angle lens. Manual mode, ISO 200, f8, 1/320 shutter speed and white balance on cloudy”.

“Post processing: cropped to line up the corners, sharpened slightly and a small bit of colour enhancement to bring out the blue in the sky a bit more”.

Well done Jim on a worthy winning shot.

See full details of the competition here.
How I took that Shot – Karen Fleming – winner Grade A
How I took that Shot – Finbarr O’Shea – winner Grade B

ECCG Symmetry Competition

Tuesday 11/2/14 was competition night for ECCG with the judging of the first competition of the year which had the theme, ‘Symmetry’. Twenty three entries were received and were varied in their interpretation of the theme. From clinical, geometric patterns to architecture and animals, they were all there.

Following a vote and some intense number crunching, the results were announced as follows:

Above photographs of the winners and runners up with Chariperson, Denis Barry by Finbarr O’Shea and Fidelma Read.

See all entries below. Mouse over the image to activate the control buttons.

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Well done to all who entered and to the worthy winners and runners up who each receive 12, 10 and 8 points, respectively, in each grade, towards the 2014 Photographer of the Year Competition. Well done also to the Competitions sub-committee comprising Mervyn Daly, Adrian Newcombe, Fidelma Read and Gráinne Davies who devised the competition, grading and marking schemes for 2014.