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We believe that the image is everything!

News

This Week's Headlines

Next Monday Mike Smith will present on his equestrian photography and IPF accreditation

Outing to capture Sunset at the Sally Gap on Sunday 20 February

Return to Physical Meetings being planned from 04 April

Call for Images for the IPF National Club Competitions

Club Exhibition launch set for 12 July

Next Club Competition to be on the theme of Abstract Photography

2022 Club subs due to be paid by 28 February

See below for the details of these stories and more!

Next Monday Night

Next Monday night Mike Smith will present his wonderful competition winning images of horse racing. He will also describe the process he followed to secure his IPF accreditation. So join us on zoom for what will be an inspiring and educational presentation.

Last Monday Night — Monochrome Competition Winners

Last Monday evening we enjoyed a very informative and entertaining adjudication of our Club Competition on the theme of ‘Monochrome’ by Gerry Andrews from Dublin Camera Club. Congratulations to all members who entered and in particular to the winners set out below:

LEVEL ONE

First — Caitlin Gemmell

Second — Taryn Barling

Third — Taryn Barling

Highly Commended — Caitlin Gemmell and Pat Coffey

LEVEL TWO

First — Jimmy Freeley

Second — Mike McNamara

Third — Liam Slattery

Highly Commended — Jerome Fennell and Patrick Byrne

LEVEL THREE

First — John O’Connor

Second — Mike Smith

Third — Richard Boyle

Highly Commended — Helen Black and Robbie O’Leary

Check the club website to see the winning images.

Shoot With Me

Our Spring Shoot With Me programme is now up and running with 56 members participating in 12 groups covering a truly diverse range of subjects. We can look forward to two great SWM Showcase evenings on 23 and 30 May.

Return to Physical Meetings

The committee has now decided to work towards having our first physical meeting post pandemic on 04 April in St Brigid’s School. We have a few important issues to be resolved including:

Managing any conditions that the school Board of Management may set – we have already been in touch with the school in this regard
Developing a technical solution that might allow us to “transmit” our meetings to any members who might not yet wish to return to indoor physical gatherings
Finalising our own guidelines for such meetings.

We will keep you advised on how these plans are developing over the next few weeks.

Competitions

Next Club Competition – “Abstract”

Our next competition will be under the theme of ‘Abstract’.

According to Wikipedia, Abstract Photography, sometimes called non-objective, experimental or conceptual photography, is a way of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of camera equipment, processes or materials. An abstract photograph may isolate a fragment of a natural scene in order to remove the inherent context from the viewer, it may be purposely staged to create a seemingly unreal appearance from real objects or it may involve the use of colour, light, shadow, texture, shape and/or form to convey feeling, sensation or impression.

However there has never been an exact definition of what exactly “abstract photography” is: similar to abstract art, it offers many different ways of looking at a subject. There are no rules and so abstract photography is exactly what the viewer makes of it, and it can hold many different interpretations, views and opinions.

You can interpret the theme as you wish from landscapes to people and anything in between. We are looking forward to seeing the different interpretations.

The links below may provide some inspiration:

https://www.iphotography.com/blog/what-is-abstract-photography/

https://photographylife.com/abstract-photography-tips-and-ideas

https://abstract-photography-for-beginners-9-tips-for-capturing-stunning-abstract-images

Our judge for this competition is Anne Cassidy MFA/FRPS/FIPF/AFIAP from Enniskillen Photography Society.

Website: www.thephotographer.ie

Please submit your images by 11pm Sunday 17 April 2022. Judging will take place on Monday 25 April 2022.

As usual please save your images in JPEG format and name them with your Level Number, Membership Number and Image Title:

L2-001-Abstract image.jpg

You may submit two images for this competition – to make sure that everyone receives useful feedback and that Anne will get back home at a reasonable hour! Please upload your images to the DropBox link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/zVkmDPNLqDrFXAYlygch

If you have any questions, please contact: competitions@offshoot.ie

IPF National Club Competitions

We have started the annual “call for images” request for the Offshoot entry to this year’s IPF National Club Competitions. The club entry will consist of a panel of 10 colour images and a panel of 10 mono images. The date for this competition has not yet been announced by the IPF, but we have to be prepared for it taking place in April. This is an open competition and all Offshoot members are invited to send in images via this DropBox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Gc8m8ftOr4yZpC9aa5oy

You may submit up to 5 each of colour and mono images, (More details on image size etc in a separate email). We will keep you updated when more information becomes available from the IPF but please review your stock of images and start uploading your best to the DropBox above.

2022 Annual Subscription Fees Now Due

The annual subscription for 2022 for renewing members of €50 is now due.

Please ensure that you pay by 28 February 2022. Payment can be made by PayPal at https://www.offshoot.ie/subs or bank transfer. Please email treasurer@offshoot.ie for BIC and IBAN details.

Our Club Exhibition is Back

The Annual Club Exhibition will return this year and will be held in the DLR Lexicon over 6 weeks commencing 12 July 2022.

The closing date for submission of images is April 30 – so now is a great time to start looking through your images to find something you might like to submit or go and shoot something new if you wish. It is likely that we will be able to accommodate two images from each member.

The launch party has now been booked for the first night of the exhibition (12 July) in Hardys Bar in the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire – so put the date in your calendar now!

IPF Distinction Sitting

The Irish Photographic Federation has announced the date for the first distinction sitting of 2022. The sitting will be on Saturday 26 March 2022. As with previous sittings, this will be an online assessment and will include Licentiate, Associateship and Fellowship panel assessments.

The deadline for applications will be Sunday 13 March and the application form is available in the IPF website.

Theme of the Week

This week's theme is Depth of Field. This a feature of lenses where altering the aperture or f number, or changing the lens, or changing the distance from the subject changes the amount of the scene which appears to be sharply focused and the amount of the scene which is blurred. A shallow dof would have thin slice of the scene sharp with every thing in front of and behind the focused area blurred. A wide dof would have sharpness from foreground to background.

Useful links:

A beginners guide to DoF

https://photographylife.com/what-is-depth-of-field

YouTube guide

https://youtu.be/5O3scWoSuhs

YouTube how to use DoF

https://youtu.be/oXOHRkMHDC8

For examples, Google 'depth of field images'.

Accessing Video Recordings of Meetings

You can access the recordings of past Zoom meetings from the OffShoot website.

These videos are available in the Videos section of the Member’s Area at https://www.offshoot.ie/member-area/. You will need to login to the website to see the content of this section of the site.

Every member has a login to the site. If you don’t remember your login details go to https://www.offshoot.ie/login/ and select the ‘Forgot your password?’ link. Enter the email address you received this newsletter with and reset your password. Once you’ve reset your password you can login and catch-up on speakers you missed. Happy catching up!

What's On

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

20FEB

CLUB OUTING – SUNSET AT SALLY GAP

21FEB

Mike Smith will present on his equestrian photography and IPF accreditation

26FEB

CLUB OUTING – NATURE AT CABINTEELY PARK

28FEB

VIRTUAL MEETING – ABSTRACT

05MAR

CLUB OUTING – RUGBY AT COLLEGE PARK TCD

08MAR

CLUB OUTING – BOTANIC GARDENS GLASNEVIN

National Botanic Gardens, Botanic Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9

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/.

Member's Photo of the Week

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.]

Themed

Weather – raining again by Jean Hartin

Un-themed

Race to the Line by Mike Smith

From the OffShoot Website

Club Outing - Dublin Doors

On Tuesday 8th February the weather was gloomy and damp and light rain was never far away, but 12 members joined in a very sociable walk around Georgian Dublin and…