12th September 2020

Last Monday Night Zoom Session.

We had a terrific response to Bernard Geraghty, last Monday night. Great to see the Chat channel used so well and the interaction and variety of questions and responses. We wish to express our appreciation to Bernard for the effort involved and for sharing his images and talent with us.

Next Monday Night.

Robbie O'Leary will be making a presentation on Nature. This is a kick start / preamble presentation to a new series of Monday night Critique sessions.  Each Critique session will focus on a particular genre, will have a critique leader and  critique panel organised by the critique leader. The critique leader will launch the Critique by making a presentation on the subject matter, including examples, tips and tricks, approach and suggestions for capturing images for that specific critique subject.  The actual critique session will be a month or two later, to allow time for members to capture and submit images.

The first Critique subject is Nature, the Leader is Robbie O'Leary, the kick start session will be this Monday night and the the actual critique session will be on the 5th October. Robbie will explain this further next Monday night.  Our thanks to Robbie in advance for leading this first in a series of Critique Nights.

Joining details will be emailed prior to the meeting to all members. Robbie has requested that any queries arising during the presentation be submitted via the chat channel. These will be responded to at suitable stages in the talk. There will also be the opportunity to have an 'open mike' session after the presentation to clarify any queries further.

Weekly Flickr Theme: Flowers

Flowers are a wonderful subject for photography with a great variety of potential subjects and techniques, and not weather dependent, as you can always buy a flower from your local florist or supermarket.

Here are some techniques that you can use to make your images stronger:

(a) Spritz them gently with water in advance of shooting

(b) Shoot from a few feet away using a long lens and shallow depth of field, shooting through some foliage. This will put a soft, colourful bokeh/vignette around the subject

(c) Simplify the background - e.g. a single colour, out of focus

(d) Simplify the composition - try bold graphic shapes or super subtle abstracts

(e) Try black and white, or a limited colour palette

(f) Harsh shadows are your enemy, soft light is your friend.

(g) Flare can be beautiful and can be created by positioning yourself / your camera so that the sun backlights the flower and is in, or just beyond, a top corner of the image.

(h) Freeze a flower in ice and back-light it

Here are some links that may inspire you:

(a) Haroldfeinstein Flowers

(b) Robert Mapplethorpe Flowers

(c) Botanical Photographers

Remember to include the theme name at the start of the image title.  

See more about how the OffShoot Weekly Flickr Theme works at https://tinyurl.com/flickrthem.

Upcoming themes will include the following:

(Dates are approx dates for when images can start to be posted to Flickr, usually a Friday night or Saturday morning)

18/09/2020 Doors

25/09/2020 Fruit & Veg

02/10/2020 People

09/10/2020 Bridges

16/10/2020 Autumn colours

23/10/2020 Sunrise/Sunset

30/10/2020 Recreate a painting

06/11/2020 Emotions - happiness/pride/anger/…..

13/11/2020 Night - eg astro / cityscapes / light trails / night portrait etc.

20/11/2020 Street (candid images of daily life)

27/11/2020 Creative selfies

04/12/2020 Literature

11/12/2020 Winter wildlife

18/12/2020 FIRE

25/12/2020 Christmas

Speakers and Outings

Here are the next scheduled meetings and events for the Society:

Members will be able to attend our outings by registering for specific outings. Keep up to date with the latest events at https://www.offshoot.ie/whats-on/.

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.]

Lahinch Surfing by Robert Hackett

Pond Reflections by Sean O'Sheehan

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

Bach Photography: 14 SIMPLE Photography Tips for BREATHTAKING portraits

Nigel Danson: 7 SIMPLE photography TIPS I wish I knew EARLIER

Judging timelines on our last competition will be made public soon.

Details for the next competition will follow soon.

Irish Photographic Federation Web Site:

https://irishphoto.ie/

IPF Shield to take place in November. Details to follow.

Possible Distinctions Event before the end of the year.

Most recent news and articles posted:

https://irishphoto.ie/news/

Distinction Sittings and Availability:

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