Next Monday – Deirdre Irwin on Wild Life!

Shoot With Me on the Way

Time to join the 2024 Photo Challenge

Next Club Competition – Open Theme

Congratulations to Richard Byrne

2024 Subs are now Due

Would You Like to Present at a Club Meeting?

 See below for the details of these stories and more!

Next Monday

Next Monday evening, we have a real treat in store. Deirdre Irwin will present on her trip to Africa in 2023 to photograph a wide range of wildlife. We have already seen some great shots on Flickr – these certainly point to a great session on Monday!

Time to join the 2024 Photo Challenge (24PC)

The 2024 Photo Challenge is now open for entries.

Remember, you decide the theme, and you have until the end of September to shoot your photos for that theme. You can present up to 20 images or a max of 10 minutes of AV on your chosen theme to your fellow club members in October.

So, decide on your theme now and submit it with your name to 24PC@offshoot.ie before the end of January.

If you have any questions on the process, contact Gerry Donovan at the same email.

Shoot With Me on the Way!

Thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of our members, we now have a full panel of leaders for our Spring 2024 SWM. We also have a portfolio of great group topics which members will find very interesting.

We now expect to meet our target to allow you to nominate your preferred group and to have group activities up and running by 1st February.

We anticipate that there will be a significant, enthusiastic and enjoyable involvement by a large number of our members.

Congratulations to Richard Byrne

We are delighted to advise you that Richard Byrne received an honourable mention at the Monochrome Awards.

Well done Richard!

See details here: https://monoawards.com/winners-gallery/monochrome-awards-2023/amateur/nude/hm/19820 

Would you like to present at a Club Meeting

Do you have a portfolio of work that you are particularly proud of?

Or do you have an area of expertise in photography or processing that you would like to share?

Would you consider presenting at a Club Meeting? If so, contact any member of the committee with your idea. We would love to include some extra member presentations in our club calendar.

2024 Annual Subscription Fees now Due

Your 2024 Annual Subscription Fee is now due.

At the AGM on 11th December 2023 the annual subscription for 2024 was set at €90.

The subscription will be due by 28th February 2024, but you can get ahead of the game by paying now.

Payment can be made by PayPal at https://www.offshoot.ie/subs, by bank transfer, or by card payment to the Treasurer at the meetings. Please email treasurer@offshoot.ie for BIC and IBAN details.

For new members who have joined since June 2023, your current subscription takes you to December 2024.

WhatsApp Groups

OffShoot has two WhatsApp groups.

One is managed by the Outings Committee and used solely in the lead-up to an outing and while it takes place.  If anyone is not part of this group and would like to join, please email your mobile number to Eithne O'Leary at outing.whatsapp@offshoot.ie.

The other one is OffShoot’s official social WhatsApp group. It is for anything members would like to put on it eg: photos, tips, informal meetings/outings, jokes (clean, of course) etc, etc.  Please feel free to share and contribute to it.  To join, please email your mobile number to Ken McFarland at social.whatsapp@offshoot.ie.

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

Next Club Competition

The judging for our next Club Competition has now been scheduled for 26th February. The theme will be 'Open' which means you can send in any image you like on any theme and in colour or mono.

As always we encourage you to enter and the biggest benefit from entering is the feedback from independent judges to help you improve your photography.   

This is a projected competition for all levels.  Hand-in will be on Monday 19th February and judging on Monday 26th February.

As usual please save your images in  JPEG format and name them with your Level Number, Membership Number, and Image Title: L2-001-Image title.jpg

You can submit up to 2 images to this Dropbox link.

The competition themes for this year are:

1. Open - February
2. Food - April 
3. Dereliction - June
4. Mono - September 
5. Open - November

Clew Bay - Trevor Stafford

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 webadmin@offshoot.ie. You will get an email when you have been added to the group. Please be patient as this is a manual process.]

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

The Impossible Shot - Amazing Bird Photography in Norway - Morten Hilmer

ARE EXTENDERS WORTH IT? Find out from someone who's taken 500K images with them! - Simon d'Entremont

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/

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 log in 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!