It was time for Mike Brown to once again don his judging hat and consider the entries in this year’s Johnny Creedon Nature Photographer of the Year competition. And for the second year in a row Nicholas came out on top, this time with his photo of a snail. Congratulations!
Prior to Mike offering a critique of the entries and announcing the results the club was delighted to be able to present a cheque for €956 to John, Rosie and Dena from the Clonakilty First Responders. The money was raised through the sale of raffle tickets and photographs at our annual fundraising dinner, held earlier in the year at the Celtic Ross Hotel. John explained how the money would be used, in part to rehouse some of the AEDs around Clonakilty in more secure yet more readily accessible boxes.
After the presentation we had two more of our 5-minute talks from club members. One from Geoff & the other, Cathleen.
Geoff spoke first and talked about where he drew his inspiration from as a photographer. We are all familiar with Geoff’s creative vision, coming from an artistic background, so all were interested to hear where he derived his photographic inspiration from.
Geoff gave us a few quotes from photographers such as Cartier-Bresson, Karsch and Winogrand and also a few websites where he goes regularly to seek ideas and be inspired by the work of others. These include; 1x.com; rfotofolio and lenswork, a subscription-based resource. Geoff went on to describe and show examples of some of the styles of photography he is working on which include pictorialism, still life – momento mori, high key white on white and painting with light. This was a great insight into where one of our more creative photographers draws his inspiration. Thanks, Geoff.
Cathleen then showed us some examples of the panoramic landscape images that she has been capturing on her travels over the years. Using a combination of camera software and Photoshop and stitching together anywhere up to 8-12 images, Cathleen has captured some amazing landscapes and views of the places she’s visited.
Some of Cathleen’s images had a real immersive feel to them yet were expansive in their vision. Would love to see some printed. Below is one of Cathleen’s panoramas.
Mike, after scrutinising this year’s entries, once again gave us some valuable and considered feedback on our photos, discussing how a slight change in camera position, an alternative crop or subtle use of sharpening might help to improve an image. Once again we are most appreciative of his time and opinion. For those interested in attending workshops or making use of his studio facilities in Cork you can check out options on his website.
You can see some of this year’s entries in the gallery below.
