End of Camera Club Year

It's the end of the club year and my time to stand down as chariman from the committee.  I've enjoyed my three years and although I'll miss aspects of being involved I'll also enjoy the break.  It's also hard to keep coming up with new ideas and keeping everything fresh.  The new committee looks to be a very good one and I'm sure they'll have plenty of good new ideas, so very good luck to you all.   The break will also give me a chance to concentrate on my photography.

Last week we had our end of year competitions, and I'm pleased to have won two of the major prizes, the Audio Visual Photographer of the Year (see here) and the Monochrome Photographer of the Year (see images below).  We had some other very good and deserving winners.  Looking at the results it was good to see that the majority of the winners were Nikon owners although we would be in the minority within the club, but I'm sure there will be a fight back next year!

Here's to a good summer and back for the fight in September!

Confirmation & Communion Photographs

At the weekend I eventually got the lights all set up and got time to take some photos of my daughter for her confirmation which was a few weeks ago now. We also took the opportuinity to take some photos of her cousin's Communion dress and gear and the family. Since we are off at the weekend not much chance to do anything with them except a bit of cropping and exposure adjustments. So here they are: [nggallery id=23]

Epson Signature Art Paper

I gave up using gloss paper a long time ago and have since used luster and satin papers as I much preferred the finish.  I hadn't tried any matt papers mainly because my Epson 3800 uses up so much ink in switching between the phto black and matt black I wasn't inclined to try any of them.  But for the last club competition I found some Epson Signature sample paper pack that I bought at a recent photo exhibition, but had completely forgotten about and decided to give it a go.  Sheldon had warned me that once you start using matte papers you get hooked on them, and he was right.  For a start you can clearly see the image no matter what angle you look at it, there is no reflection or play of light on the paper.  The colours look richer, deeper and really draw you into the image.  The only draw back is that the paper marks easier and can detract.  But I believe you can spray them to protect the image.  If I was hanging a picture this is the type of paper I would use, though I wonder about puttnig it behind glass as that will bring back the reflection.  I would like to try canvas next to see what that is like.

Here are a few videos from product evangelists.

Vincent Versace Discusses Epson Cold Press Natural Paper from Epson America on Vimeo.

Vincent Versace discusses Epson's Signature Worthy Cold Press Natural being by far the best cotton based textured paper he has ever printed on.

David Lynch Discusses Epson Hot Press Natural Paper from Epson America on Vimeo.

Photographer David Lynch talks about Epson's Signature Worthy Hot Press Natural - the incredible feel of the paper and the "dream" images it creates.

Matthew Jordan Smith Discusses Epson Cold Press Bright Paper from Epson America on Vimeo.

Matthew Jordan Smith talks about the amazing tones and texture of Epson's Signature Worthy Cold Press Bright paper.

Malahide Golf Club

Last week the club headed off early at 5am to take some photos of the local Golf Club, unfortunately the light wasn't great but here they are.  Some of the shots were taken with my new Olympus XZ-1, these are the versions without the ART filter applied (the versions with the art filter can be seen here).  The shots here are just photoshopped, well actually Lightroomed!!  The rest were taken with my Nikon D700 although 3 were taken with my G9 on a reccie we did.

Hope you enjoyed, leave any comments you like here :-)

My New Compact Camera: Olympus XZ-1

For some time now I've been looking for a new compact camera, something to use on travel or when going out, rather than a large DSLR and bulky lenses.  I already have the Canon G9 but I am not completely pleased with it, it's a bit too bulky and ,well I don't know exactly what, but not great.  I had a few cameras in mind: Canon G12, but too similar to G9, the Panasonic Lumix LX5, the Canon S95 and the Olympus XZ-1.  I knew I wanted a camera that handled RAW.  I looked at many reviews and finally I settled on the XZ-1 and so far I have been very pleased.  It's not shirt pocket size but not too bulky. It feels very solid and secure in your hands and not at all flimsy, and a very fast lens at 1.8 to 2.5 along the zoom which beat all the others.  The zoom range is restrictive enough at 28-112 (35mm equivalent) but equal or better than the competition mentioned above.  I haven't tried the HD video which I believe is not great but I have the Panasonic TM700 for video.  It's noisy at high ISO levels, but so far I've been very pleased with it.  It has some ART settings which are inbuilt "photoshop" filters, some of which are quite effective.  The only problems so far, the lack of a viewfinder (though you can buy an accessory viewfinder which is half the price again!), not sure about the lens cap, and when the art filters are used it does still create a RAW image of the pre filter image which is great, and a JPEG of the art filter. But you can't see both in Lightroom!

last week the club headed out to take some photos of the local golf club and unfortunately the light was not good, but I did have fun with the Dramitic Filter here are some of the shots.

Some of the other shots taken on the day at the course can be seen here.

Camera Club Weekend Away

This weekend was our annual weekend away and this year we went to Roundwood House in Mountrath Co Laios, just at the base of the Slieve Bloom mountains.  We stayed in a lovely country house which has over 10 bedrooms arranged in the main house and some cottages and adjacent old cottages.  Frank and Rosemary Keenan own the house and they have been in business for more than 25 years and their goal is "together with our staff, we endeavour to create a special place where personal service comes naturally, life is taken at a more relaxed pace and good food, wine and conversation abound. Each of our ten bedrooms and three self-catering cottages have their own unique and interesting features, are filled with books and paintings and have beautiful views of the gardens." And I have to say that they achieve this admirably.  About 3 years ago their daughter Hannah and her husband Patrick have taken over the running of the business and they have kept true to the original aims of the business. The rooms are kept traditional and are very inviting and friendly, just like our hosts.   We felt more like friends of the family rather than guests in a house that provide a place to lay your head get fed and head off to your next destination.  They looked after us very well with plenty of tea, coffee and biscuits during the day and plenty of refreshments at night.  Paddy was a great host at night and even played his guitar and entertained us into the early morning with songs the best of which he wrote himself.  The meal on the Saturday night was magnificent.

It however was a camera club outing so we did head off and take a few photographs.  We ent for a walk along the Glenbarrow the source of the Barrow river and visited a couple of local towns, but the weather was not the best for taking photographs, but it was no hardship to head back to Roundwood House, where we were just as happy to have good company and a laugh by the large fireside.

Overall a great weekend and a tribute to our social secretary that arranged everything for us.

A photo of the gang taken by Noelle Brooks.

Cuba Photos

It's been nearly two months since we got back from Cuba, and I've been up to my eyes with renovations in the house which meant that I couldn't get near my PC and we've been away in Spain and Portugal for a few days as well, plus we had a confirmation in the house.  So now I've finally had a chance to look at my photos, and I'm pleased that I got a few good shots, you can see them here.

Follow these links, shots from Havana and shots from Trinidad to Cuba.

Books from Blurb.com

As an enthusiastic amateur photographer I have thousands of images, but most of these don't really see the light of day, they never get printed, except the ones I want to use for competitions, and I always get comments like, "we never really see any photos you take".  This was one of the reasons I set up a couple of websites so I can publish my images and have family and friends see them.  Then there's Flickr, Facebook and a myriad of other sites where we can show off our work.  Slide-shows and videos can also be used.  But still a lot of people say, "I prefer to see actual real images" not just on the internet or a PC, iPad or TV.  So through a few members of the camera club I was introduced to Blurb.com, which is a website to make and publish your own photobook.  You can personalise the book in any way you want and you can include print as well as photographs.  I used the facility to download their software package that allows you design and create you book locally on your PC and once you have finished you can copy it up and have it printed and delivered to your door.  For printing there are a number of options of the type of book: softback, hardback and dustcover.  There are also a number of different qualities of paper.

For the last 5 years a number of us travel away each year as a group of lads for a few days to different places in Europe and we always have a great time.  To celebrate our fifth year and our seventh trip I published a book, called "Boys on Tour" with loads of my photos but also included some of the stories of the trips and the reflections of the lads.  It was a great success and the book itself is great quality and a marvelous memento of our time together.  Best of all everyone loves it. 

 

Malahide Camera Club

Another summer is over, the children are going back to school and clubs of all sorts are starting up again, and Malahide Camera Club is no exception.  We start off on Thursday night the 2nd September at 8.00pm in the Grand Hotel Malahide.  We have places open for anyone who would like to join.  The challenge for any committee is to come up with a programme that keeps the interest and enthusiasm of members from year to year.  Last year was a very successful year and that keeps the pressure on us to maintain the momentum and keep the club moving forward.  The aim of the club is to promote photography through enjoyment, to advance our skills and techniques and to educate and develop our creative potential.

So with this in mind the programme of the club includes events and activities to do just this, but the emphasis is definitely on enjoyment and a good social atmosphere.  So the following is a list of the things we do:

  • Learner lessons in photography
  • Practicals on how to use your camera
  • Guest speakers who show us and talk about their work
  • Monthly competitions and external competitions.
  • Outings to take photographs
  • A weekend away based around photography
  • Social events
  • And this year a full programme of Photoshop courses using the facilities of the local school.

As you can see we are taking the challenge seriously and hope to move the club forward another few steps.

Saltees

This week our camera club had our annual week-end away and we went to Bunclody. The highlight for many of us was the day trip we took to the Saltees Island a bird sanctuary off the Wexford coastline. As we headed off from Kilmore Quay the weather looked fairly overcast and the thought of 5 hours stranded on the island didn't look too enticing. We were all wrapped up but wondered would the cloud blow away and give us a nice day to take some photographs of the Gannets, Puffins and other wild birds. We trekked off towards the Gannetries and we were not disappointed. The clouds cleared, the sun came out and we had great photographic opportunities. A few lucky people also caught glimpses and a few frames of the odd Puffin or two. By the end of the day we were exhausted but very happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU1m0jqqOYs

The weekend was a great success we had lovely meals, a great day out and hopefully everyone got some great photographs.

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My favourite shot of the day.

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Group photo

The group that went to the Saltees, thank you Roisin for the photo.

Nikon D300s HD Video

I have a Nikon D300 and I was thinking of getting a HD camcorder (see previous blog) so I was wondering would I be better getting a D300s that does HD video and the convenience of just having one camera or would I get the Panasonic TM700. A friend has the D300s so I got a loan of this to try it out. Although the video is quite good I feel there are a number of problems using a DSLR as a Camcorder so I decided to go for the TM700 which I've ordered and for which I am waiting.

One of the problems I noticed with the  D300s (apart from not being able to edit in Adobe Premiere PRO CS4) is that the mike picks up the sound of the VR lens as it makes it adjustments but what I would do in future is turn off the VR.  The attached is some of the video I took while experimenting.

Jessie Kalishers Photography Tips

Recently the following Youtube Video was posted on our clubs web-site by a member and to quote him: "Every now and again you come across someone or something that makes a lot of sense to you and sometimes brings you right back to basics, well this is one of those moments for me, i would encourage everyone in the club to look at this short video there is something in it for everyone and a lot for most." I must agree, what do you think?  There are more videos from Jessie on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70iXd9Nux1s