It is time to capture superb images of Spring

Outings

Shoot with Me 

Drone & WhatsApp User Groups

Car Boot Sale

Next Club Competition – Food Theme

 See below for the details of these stories and more!

Spring has sprung and the birdies are getting ready to mate, the flowers show their heads from the earth and the sun rises and sets at a reasonable hour. So, if you haven’t looked at the camera as you hibernated through the cold and wet of winter, get ready to shoot the Spring in all its glory and colour.

Last Monday

Mike O’Toole presented some of his images and techniques to us. As Mike is one of Ireland’s leading food photographers with a series of distinctive food books, we learned a lot. 

We should all benefit from his presentation in preparation for the Club Competition in April, when the theme will be Food. 

Next Monday

We have the judging of our first competition of 2024. This is always an opportunity to see the talent in OffShoot, so do come to the school to see the images and hear the comments of our judge, Mark Taylor, from Dublin Camera Club.

Remember, all comments are constructive, and we learn a lot.

Outings

The team of organisers under Eithne’s wing continue to present us with opportunities for socialising with a camera. Look at the schedule below, listing everything from Tag Rugby to Wildlife on the Dodder.

Their coup so far, however, must be the weekend in November to Mayo. OffShoot members have booked out the hotel in what must be a first in our history.

See also the Saltees trip in June.

OffShoot was set up as a ‘doing’ club, and we are still following the original model. 

Shoot With Me 

The Shoot With Me groups are busy. We look forward to seeing the results of their efforts in June.   

Drone Group

Peter Brennan is considering starting a drone group in the club. If this is a group that you would like to join, please let Peter know by emailing drone@offshoot.ie. 

WhatsApp Groups

Don’t get left outside the loop. Get inside a WhatsApp group. Here are all the groups just waiting for you to join:

Outings - Please get in touch with Eithne O'Leary (outing.whatsapp@offshoot.ie)

Social - Please get in touch with Ken McFarland (social.whatsapp@offshoot.ie)

Nikon - Please get in touch with Lionel Barker (nikon@offshoot.ie)

Fujifilm - Please get in touch with John Wiles (fuji@offshoot.ie)

Capture One - Please get in touch with John Wiles (captureone@offshoot.ie)

Affinity Photo - Please get in touch with John Wiles (affinity@offshoot.ie) 

Olympus - Please get in touch with Jerome Fennell (oms@offshoot.ie)

Canon - Please get in touch with Emily Gallagher (canon@offshoot.ie)

Sony - Please get in touch with Matt O'Brien (sony@offshoot.ie)

Drones – Please get in touch with Peter Brennan (drone@offshoot.ie)

Car Boot Sale

Our annual car boot sale will be held on the 4th of March. If you have any items you want to sell, please send Emily a list of your items and the prices you would like to achieve at chairperson@offshoot.ie. 

PIED KINGFISHER - DEIRDRE IRWIN

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.]

What's On 

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

Next Club Competition – Food

Our next Club Competition has now been scheduled for April, and the theme is FOOD. You can send any image you like on the theme of food in colour or mono. If you heard Mike O’Toole’s excellent presentation, you have a head start, but get your images together now.

As always, we encourage you (especially new members) to enter. The most significant benefit of entering is the feedback from independent judges to help you improve your photography.

You can submit up to 2 images and have lots of time, so get shooting. We look forward to seeing a great selection of photos. 

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 remaining competition themes for this year are:

    Food - April

    Dereliction - June

    Mono - September

    Open - November

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

Turn ANY Color to ANY Color (incl. Black & White) in Photoshop! - PIXimperfect

Getting Started with Food Photography | Tutorial Tuesday - Park Cameras

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!