OffShoot Photography Society We believe that the image is everything!

27th June 2020

 

News

Summer Programme

As a club, we normally curtail our activities during the Summer months, including publication of this newsletter. But this is not a normal year. We have received  feedback from our members to maintain an active programme through out the summer.  We therefore  looked for volunteers to make this possible and are very pleased  to make the following announcements.

Virtual Presentations.

Emily Gallagher has volunteered to act as our Zoom champion and the Committee are very pleased to accept this offer. Emily will be the official host of our meetings and will act as the anchor to glue the various strands required to keep presentations flowing smoothly. Noreen Casey and Marie Neville have also volunteered to monitor the chat channel.

We therefore announce the following programme.

*  June 29th Photojournalism and Street Photography (Cathal McNaughton,  Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer)

* July 6th Preparing Images For Print (Steve)

* July 20th Safari and Wildlife Photography (Michael Finn)

* July 27th Critique Night 

* August 6th Lightroom Introduction & New Features (Matt O'Brien)

* August 13th Travels In Vietnam (Olive Gaughan) 

(Further events will be announced in due course).

We are grateful to Emily, Noreen and Marie for stepping forward and making it possible to continue the Virtual Meetings during the summer.

Weekly Flickr Theme

Olive Gaughan has volunteered to publish a weekly Flickr Theme.  The judge for a particular week will be from a panel of volunteers, including Liz Roulston, Mary Hahn, Robert Hackett, Deirdre Irwin, Joe Tullie. 

Offshoot Outings

The Outings Subcommittee have been working very hard behind the scenes, constantly adapting their plans to try and keep pace with the changing rules associated with social distancing. It is especially satisfying to announce this schedule of events for July and August.

Saturday, 11th July Walled Gardens, Russborough

Saturday, 18th July Emo Court & Rock of Dunamase

Sunday,   26th July Altamont Gardens

Tuesday,  4th  Aug. Cliff Walk, Portrane

Saturday, 18th Aug Fawns & Farmleigh

Sunday,   23rd Aug. Inistioge &Woodstock

We have also prepared an Offshoot Protocols document.

Members will be able to attend our outings by registering for specific outings. Details to follow.

 

PROTOCOLS FOR OFFSHOOT OUTINGS

 

The Protocols below are based on the currently published Government Guidelines (Phase 3 of unravelling lockdown).  As the Guidelines change over time so will the details of some of the protocols outlined below. These do not supersede Government regulations or advice and it is the responsibility of each member to adhere to regulations and protocols in force during any outing.

1.  Members must pre-register on the club website in order to attend Club outings. They may not just ‘turn up’ on the day.

2.  We ask that no member should attend an outing if they are feeling unwell, have any symptoms of Covid 19 or have been in contact with a person suffering from Covid 19 within the previous 2 weeks. To cancel your registration please Text Sylvia on 087 6815321.

3.   Members should observe ‘social distancing’ and stay 2 metres apart on all club outings.

4.  Members should follow the HSE social etiquette guidelines in regard to coughing and sneezing. It is recommended members carry a small bottle of sanitiser in their backpack.

5.  Cameras and camera equipment should not be shared with other members during outings.

6.   For July and August at least it is recommended that members travel individually to the outing meeting point. Car-pooling is strongly discouraged at this time.

7.  There will be no meet-up for coffee or lunch after club outings so members are advised to carry a drink and snack in their backpack.

The Outings Committee are very grateful for your co-operation in adhering to these protocols

Competition

Entries must be in before midnight 28th June.  Yes, that is to-morrow night.  See details further down this newsletter.

Virtual Meeting (29th June, 2020). 

We have a Virtual Meeting arranged for this Monday night (29th June @ 8 pm. The presenter will be the Pulitzer Prizewinning photographer,  Cathal McNaughton (https://www.cathal-mcnaughton.com/collections), focusing on photojournalism and street photography.

 

Invites to members will be circulated to-morrow evening.

 

Weekly Theme 

The weekly Offshoot Flickr Theme is 'A Night Shot'.  

The more creative and original the better. It can be indoors, outdoors, studio style, tabletop or from the great outdoors. No limit on subject / style, colour or mono.

Deadline for submission is 9 pm next Friday night. We often receive  entries after this deadline, which are not considered for our Picture Of The Week, as time is required to select the image and incorporate into the newsletter.

NB. 1. Just to clarify, our preference for the weekly theme is a shot taken after the date the theme is announced. However, we do not really mind if you have to go back into your archives to find an image, but if you do then you need to reprocess it.  The basic idea is to have an image to work on and present via our Flickr page.

NB 2.  Images used in the weekly Offshoot Flickr themes can be used in club competitions also.

NB 3. The following theme will be 'Liquid' , just to give advance notice and get the creative energies engaged.  This could be a glass of water, a bottle of beer, a pool of water or the Atlantic Ocean. You are limited only by your imagination.

Images  can be posted to our Flickr group from now until next Friday night at 9 pm.  Remember to put  ''A Night Shot''  at the beginning of the Flickr title field.

 

This is not a competition but an opportunity to have fun with your camera or post-processing skills or both. These exercises are good for getting us to use our cameras and our minds,  and to look for unusual compositions or situations related to the theme.  Remember there are no judges, no-one checking for over-sharpening, for eyes out of focus or rules of thirds.  We are looking for variety and expression.  Normal Flickr rules apply.

Members do not have to enter every week.  The only condition is that you enter the Theme title   ''A Night Shot'' at the very beginning of the Title Description field when uploading to Flickr, so we can recognise 'Themed' images. People can continue to post non-themed images to Flickr.

[Note. To join the Offshoot Flickr group, you must first be a Flickr member. Then send the email address used to join Flickr to webmaster@offshoot.ie. You will get an email when you have been added to the group. Please be patient as this is a manual process.]

Summary

We wish to emphasize that all of the activities are all optional. The basic idea is to have a few things to focus on to maintain your hobby, continue to develop your skills, familiarity with your equipment. It is an opportunity to experiment and share with others the fruits of your labours. 

 

NB. SWM and Exhibition notices removed just to simplify the newsletter. We will add back when these events progress.

Member's Photos of the Week

We are getting super images on our Flickr page, both for themed and more general subjects.  Keep up the good work.

The Cycle of Life by Mary Hahn

Wild Atlantic by Kevin Grace

Just a note for new members – if you want any of your pictures considered for the photo of the week, you just have to post them to the OffShoot Flickr group at:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/offshoot_society.

There’s also the latest images published on Flickr that are displayed on the OffShoot home page.

[Note. To join the Offshoot Flickr group, you must first be a Flickr member. Then send the email address used to join Flickr to webmaster@offshoot.ie. You will get an email when you have been added to the group. Please be patient as this is a manual process.]

Interesting Video

Greg Benz: HELP me get rid of this thing (using luminosity masks for better cloning)

If you come across one you want to share let us know at newsletter@offshoot.ie.

Club Competitions

Printed Competitions are on temporary hold. The currently suspended print competition will be the first competition held when normal competitions resume, so all work in progress or prints can be used for this competition.

New Digital Competition

Theme Section.

The first section, which will be judged by Levels, is to the theme of 'Within 5km of my Kitchen Table' - to include people, places and things, indoors or outdoors, wild and whimsical or realistic and gritty......preferably images created recently, but definitely not any entered into previous competitions.

Open Section

The Open section has a new twist - please enter a set of images. This could be to a theme of your own choosing, or a subject matter or a technique......for example, minimalist architecture, garden birds, monochrome still life, family portraits, intentional camera movements....the options are endless and the choice is yours. You will get invaluable constructive feedback on individual images, and also on the set as a whole, and this feedback should prove useful in developing your photography in a purposeful direction.

For this competition, a set can number between two and six individual images.

You may enter up to three images in the themed section, and a maximum of six images overall - so, for example, you could enter one image in the themed section and a set of five images in the open section.

The closing date for submissions will be Midnight on Sunday 28th June, ie to-morrow night.

The Dropbox link for you to upload your images is https://www.dropbox.com/request/ZZF69ZIqUzUA9oXlCGp3.

Please name your entries in one of the following manners as appropriate -

either

Level-Member Number-Image Title.jpg  (for example L1-999-Coronation.jpg)

or

Open-Member Number-Set Title- Image Title.jpg (for example Open-999-Mono Portraits-John.jpg)

JPG quality is good enough for this competition (just make sure they are sharp and have enough resolution, no need for TIFs.

IPF Links & Events

Quote from the IPF Web Site

"Please be advised, In light of COVID-19 and the National Guidelines on the gathering of large crowds and most importantly in the interest of the Health & Safety of all our affiliated clubs and their members the Irish Photographic Federation have postponed the upcoming National Club Championships, Annual General Meeting and May Distinction Sitting that were all scheduled to take place on the weekend of May 16th & 17th 2020.  We will be hopefully re-scheduling these events later in the year and will keep you all informed through the IPF Website and Social Media Platforms."

 

Irish Photographic Federation Web Site:

https://irishphoto.ie/

Most recent news and articles posted:

https://irishphoto.ie/news/

Distinction Sittings and Availability:

https://irishphoto.ie/distinctions/assessment-dates/

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