Unfortunately
somebody told Eugene about the
nature competition, so it was little surprise that his
magnificent portrait of a stags head rightly took top honours.
Once again I would recommend a visit to his gallery on the
website, if you have not seen the shot before, but also to view
the other stunning wildlife shots therein. This is also a timely
opportunity for all members to review their own gallery by
giving Larissa a disk of new images, so let’s do it!
Our
guest judge, may have been a little overawed by the rough crowd
we had on the evening, but he gave great time to each photo and
his diagnosis in each case was fair and of real value to our
communal understanding of the particular requirements of nature
photography.
Although
most people seemed content with the outcome of the evening, Ines
was not. She took grave exception to Robert’s (note the A-ha
man, not the president), picture of a squirrel in the Botanic
Gardens, attaining more points than her own more technically
accomplished composition. So a harsh lesson was learnt, cute
wins!
20th
“Water, Water everywhere but no texture to be seen”
Tonight
began with Colum’s second lecture in the new “Inter Cert”,
“Movement”. This lecture is to be followed up by a weekend
master class in the field, to be advised at a later date.
Don’t worry if you missed the lecture though, the practical
will more than make up for it. If you have any suggested venue
or event for this session please do not hesitate to e-mail me.
Next
up was a double bill of practical work, “Water” and
“Texture”. Unfortunately, we were without our usual
Ringmaster, Stewart, so members were inflicted with Paul acting
as his deputy. Many thanks to all those members who contributed
such an interesting arrangement of photos and in taking the time
to explain the thought processes involved behind them.
Controversy raged over the “Texture” section though, which
seems to have been won by a burnt out, out of focus, two headed
hairy goat. Well we all should have taken the Guru’s advice
and photographed some sandpaper. My money is still on the goat
though, in the 20:15 at ShelbournePark.
Finally,
we had a session discussing the preparation of a panel for
presentation to the IPF in November’s distinction
examinations. Once again we are grateful for the services of a
volunteer, Peter, who kindly bought in a small regatta of ships
to work upon. Although Colum had been feeling quiet poorly up
until then, he sprang into life once he seen the quality of the
images. The Guru’s prognosis was favourable, with at least
seven images already suitable for a panel, so only three to go!
13th
“Get your monkey out Mr. President”
Once
again we assembled in the Bridge for a printing class from Paul.
Many members kindly subjected their slides and files to be used
as guinea pigs on the evening, but most thanks must go to Mr.
President for coming along all tooled up with three images. Some
wags may say that this is 30% of the Presidential archive, but
evidence is sketchy if indeed these scurrilous comments are
indeed to be believed. In the end Robert was pleased with the
results achieved on his “Dancer” and “Meerkat” although
we were unable to do anything about his “Monkey”, so back
under the jumper it had to go.
Many
thanks to Dave for bringing in the biggest stash of
photographic, yes I did say photographic, magazines ever
seen outside of Eason’s. You see, you cannot beat a good
university education, wot!
It
was back to traditional film photography for the evening, with a
slideshow featuring the work of seven members. Chromes old and
new rekindled the passions for all present in shooting some
slide film again. There is just something tactile about a slide
that seems to impart a life of its own. Comments during the
evening ranged from exhortations of the colour saturation to
their longevity vies-a-vi digital files. Although the vast
majority of members now are primarily shooting digital, even I
recognise that film does impart an intrinsic and different
beauty to the capture of an image, so why not carry your old
film camera next time you are out on a shoot and fire off a
couple of frames.
With
only 30 days to the monster “Midnight and Magic
Ball” taking place, the social committee were busy making the
final arrangements for the evening. So great has been the
interest in attending our Gala Spectacular, that we now have one
hundred and forty guests and have moved to the large ballroom.
If you have not purchased your tickets by now then it may be too
late, and like me you will have missed out on the event
of the season. But then again there is always next year, now if
they would only give me a clue as to when it is on I could book
that round the world cruise!
Welcome
to this, the end of August, edition of the T.B.P.S. Update.
Intrigued as to what we have been up to over the last two weeks?
Then pull your chair closer to the fire and I’ll tell you some
stories!
As
I write this missal, we are still involved in the “Peoples
Photography” Exhibition on St. Stephens Green Dublin.
Following on the success of last year, and due to our rapid
growth in membership, we increased our display frontage to three
bays. This enabled the “Saturday Crew” to put on display
eighty five image’s, although I am sure Stewart and the
“Sunday Crew” will not only top that but probably make some
sales too! This is a lovely event to come to and browse the
stalls and talk to other photographers, even if some of them are
a bit scary. Once again Helen’s choice of subject from
Duncannon seems to attract the most interest. This year,
although her photo was one of the smallest on display, sure
enough within one hour of it going up we had our first fish. He
turned out to be a Slovak called Karel, from near the Polish
border, with a huge interest in all things WWII. After seeing a
selection of his snapshots from the Bratislava
equivalent to the Duncannon event, Colum asks him does he have
any Nazi Daggers like those shown in the Photo’s. Low and
behold, Karel produces an eighteen inch specimen from an Easons
paper bag tucked into his rucksack. By this stage Colum was so
comfortable in the company of our Central European friend that
he not only tries to purchase said dagger but then starts
chastising him for having a girls name and asking what his
husband’s name back in Slovakia
is. (Note to Paul, next time Colum is discussing matters of
gender with an armed world war two fetishist please stand more
than eighteen inches the other side of him to avoid being
kebabed too!) In
all seriousness he was a very nice man and his interest in our
work is indicative of the global language that is photography.
Likewise Dave bumped into some lovely people from the U.K.,
Ines a nice Austrian lady and Robert a Photoshop expert from Poland.
So who did Paul speak to then, I hear you say. Well, I had my
ears burnt off by a scary person from R.T.E.! (Note must stay in
more!)
P.S.
Paul once again managed to get sun burnt but was able to get
through the day with the help of some psychedelically coloured
Bassets Sweets, yum yum!
Once
again we remain grateful to Willie Doyle for his excellent
presentation on the basics of Photoshop. These tutorials have
proven to be a huge success with all members and Willie could
become a victim of his own success with renewed calls for more
appearances. Although this section is titled after a song by The
Clash, on this occasion there was no clash as our “resident
heckler” behaved impeccably so Willie did not need that big
stick he brought with him after all! Rather
the item to stay or go was a speed boat that Willie demonstrated
the removal of from a picture of Venice,
using Photoshop. Once
again everybody learned something new and are all looking
forward to his next lecture.
The
Jazz Band were unable to make the meeting, to do the judging, so
all entries were collected without display to be judged next
week. So if you have not put something in you still have one
week to get creative!
After
our nautical themed weekend with Stormy Stan, we where once more
attracted to the sea with a visit to Kilmichael Point for some
“Selective Focus” portraiture practice.
Although
conditions were not ideal, the rain held off and a sizeable
number of members made the trek over the border to test their
skills. This evening was part of Colum’s new “Inter Cert.”
and our Guru in Chief was on hand to help with all those
practical difficulties in putting theory into practice. Colum
will start the judging of submissions for this first round on
Wednesday August 30th, this will be conducted in
private, so do not be afraid to put in your submissions even if
you think they are not up to scratch. You can be assured that
you will learn more from your failures than your successes, so
get those entries in. (Please note that if you missed the
Kilmichael Expedition you may still enter other shots showing
“Selective Focus” technique for evaluation).
“Free drink, getting stoned and seeing a little blurry”
This
evening, we started to talk about getting blurry a little more
often. This had nothing to do with the vouchers for a free drink
that Stormy Sam gave us, I must hasten to add. In short Colum
started his lectures for the new “Inter Cert.” with an
explanation of selective focus. Next week it is our mission to
form teams and provide examples in the format requested by our
Learned Leader. That is blurred stones in the foreground, sharp
little eyes in the mid ground, and blurred big sea in the
background. More information is to be found in the coming events
section.
Even
though the weather was mixed and the exertions strenuous, this
was a most enjoyable weekend for all concerned. Since our
primary goal was to raise funds for the Lifeboat, then indeed we
had a very successful event, raising €400. Huge praise must go
to Stewart for his photography under fire (from Colum), and his
ability to extract cash from a large portion of the little fish
that swam past our base in the Lifeboat Station. Many thanks
must also be extended to Pat for his role as “Stormy Stan”
on the Monday, we could not have done it without him. Then Paul
did what he does best, sat on his large posterior and printed
out the photos. I really need to get out more!
This
was only half of the story though folks. Our stall outside of
the station was a huge success, with many friends old and new
coming to see our work and hear about the Tommy Byrne
Photographic Society. Julie, Colum and Stewart also managed to
persuade quiet a number of these lovely people to go away with a
little memento of the day in the shape of one our very
competitively priced mounted photos. With most selling between
five and ten euros, we seemed to find a level that the customer
was comfortable to part with. Now all we need is to figure out
how to make money at these prices, role on St. Stephens Green!
“Seat Covers, Fairy Lights and Luminous Clothes Pegs”
Tonight
Kristine gave us an update on progress made with arrangements
for the “Moonlight & Magic Ball”. Tickets sales have
been phenomenal with over one hundred guests already confirmed.
With an upper limit of one hundred and twenty being set, if you
have not got your tickets by now you may be in danger of missing
out! Also it is now important to turn those probable ones into
paid. So please return you ticket money as soon as possible. (We
also have a requirement for some battery powered white fairy
lights, so off to the attic with you!)
“Colours,
red green and blue” seemed to catch people’s imagination and
we had a large and varied entry for our practical exercises. The
most successful visually was Willies “luminous clothes
pegs”, which did exactly what it said on the tin and just
included R.G and B clothes pegs against a black background.
Peter’s night shot of TrimCastle
also came in for honourable mention.
Today
was the final opening session of our exhibition - attendance has
been steady and reactions very favourable. Don't forget
our on-going exhibition at the Arklow Business Enterprise Centre
at Kildride.
Also
we have been given a commission to design a poster for a local
jazz band, with a prize fund of €100 for the winner to be
judged by members of the band themselves. The poster can be a
photo or any type of graphic art. The band, as a hint, explained
that one of their previous ones was based on a painting by
Rembrandt. This painting was quiet macabre, doctors doing an
autopsy, but their main intention is to have some sort of visual
“hook” to stop passers-by in their tracks to read about the
forthcoming event. Entries will be judged on the evening of
Wednesday August 23rd at our regular meeting.
Well tonight we left the hot and sticky surrounds of the Bridge
Hotel for a trip up the coast to WicklowTown.
We met at the “Leitrim Lounge” at 8pm
and put ourselves in the good hands of our local guides Willie
and Peter for the evening. Again, this was a good opportunity
for expanding members portfolio of shots and picking up tips
from other members. (Secretary)
As promised Mr. Eddie Fitzgerald returned to the Society to give
a lecture on “painting with light”. This was truly a very
entertaining evening, which gave most members an insight into
the creative opportunities that exist within the confines of
their little black box. Apart from running through a gallery of
his work, by which Eddie explained the practical methods used to
achieve these results he then capped the evening off (with the
help of some volunteers) in a demonstration of one of these
techniques in practice. The use of flash, long exposure, a
darkened room and a torch with different coloured filters
yielded some magical results. Want to see the results then?!
Sorry but you will just have to buy your tickets for our
“Moonlight and Magic” evening to see them on the BIG screen.
Purely coincidently, tickets for this very special event are now
on sale from a Stewart near you. (Secretary)
“The Exhibition”
This is the highlight of our year (until our next highlight).
Members have gone to truly extraordinary lengths to put on a
display of the finest ever selection of their work. Considering
we are still maintaining our presence in the “Enterprise
Centre” with over fifty photos, to be able to gather another
one hundred and eight, mostly new prints, for this exhibition is
a testament to the dedication of members in highlighting the
work of the Society. Well done to all! (Secretary)
“Click and your dead – Anybody seen my surf board?”
Willie held centre stage with his excellent tutorial on Adobe
Photoshop basics. He deserves great credit, not only for the
quality and preparation gone into his presentation, but also for
his dedication in lugging around the biggest suitcase in Western
Europe!
Even more credit is due to his patience in putting up with our
resident heckler, who tried to persuade him that “Elements
4” is better than “Photoshop CS2”.Click, click, bang!
Paul, and everyone else, got a surprise when Peter brought in
his framed “School” photo. It was the size of a surf board
and as heavy as hell, but I tell you what it, it is definitely
nothing short of impressive. Peter intends to present the photo
to the school in September, and I am sure it will give a lot of
people great satisfaction for many years to come!(Secretary)
“Verbotten – Rock und Roll”
Colum and his merry band of photo hikers were blocked by a ten
foot fence from storming “Arklow Rock”, so a hasty retreat
to the harbour provided its usual exceptional photo
opportunities. Keen to see what they shot, then go along to the
“Exhibition” and look out for Peter’s “Fishing Boats”.
Speaking of Peter, he had an excellent day out viewing the
“Round Ireland Yacht Race – Wicklow Leg”, and came back
with one of the finest prints ever shown to the Society. Again,
just pop along to the “Exhibition” and feast your eyes, you
will not be sorry. Robert brought in his new “mirror lens”
and Paul watched the football. Finally, Peter got a surprise, a
one point four metre print of his “School” photo. What ever
will he do with it?
(Secretary)
