This week at GCC | gccsite

Speaker: Annie Given

This Thursday we will have Annie Given on Microsoft Teams giving her talk "Thick Socks and Thermal Vests". The title comes from Annie pondering on her photographic style and is the only constant she could find. It reflects her experience shooting in a lot of cold places, including Ireland. The intro begins with a few images from the Arctic, Norway, Greenland and Svalbard but most images are from 2 trips to Antarctica, including South Georgia. Annie is also a retired archaeologist so she will sneak in observations on the history of Antarctic exploration and the Shackelton story. This is sure to be an invigorating talk, so don't miss it

Speaker: Julie Corcoran

This Thursday we will have a visiting speaker on Teams, Julie Corcoran. She will be talking about her Licentiate and Associate with the IPF. Her website is and well worth a look.

Competition Review and Critique

Michael Hogan, Andrew Nolan and Pat Judge will be the panel of judges for this month's competition for both Beginner and Intermediate on Thursday evening. So Beginners, please be aware that you will be getting critique as has been the case with the intermediates.

Michael Hogan - Sharpening & Expose to the Right

Michael will give some tips on sharpening in Lightroom and Photoshop. Then he will give an explanation and examples of the practice ETTR (Expose to the Right).

Still Life Images

On Thursday evening we will be looking at the images you got from creating a still life scene of your own using light to show drama or convey a specific feeling in the scene. There is no intention to give critique on these, so please feel free to try out new things. This is more an experimental and learning experience, than anything else.

Speaker: Joanne Murphy

On Thursday night we have a talk by Joanne Murphy who is a professional food photographer. She will discuss food and product photography and give some insight into behind the scenes. Over the course of her 20 year career, she has worked with some of the biggest names in the Irish food business such as Darina Allen and Neven Maguire. She has also photographed many cookbooks and worked with brands like Bord Bia, Glanbia, Lidl, Dunnes Stores, Monart and Pink Lady. We hope you can make it, as it's sure to work up an appetite for food if not for photography

Speaker: Ross McKelvey

On Thursday we will be joined by Ross McKelvey of Catchlight Camera Club. Ross has significant distinctions to his name (here are just a few - MPAGB MFIAP FIPF EFIAP/p FBPE) and is regarded as one of the best portrait photographers on the Island of Ireland. Ross has been awarded over 300 Medals in National & International Exhibitions since 2010 and is President and founder of Catchlight Camera Club, Belfast. Ross will offer us a talk of two halves – he will make a presentation of images across several genres and then do a live editing demonstration and go through a range of techniques, tips and tricks

Competition Critique by Michael, Angelique and Barry

For the March competition the theme is nature in your garden or within 10 metres of your door. This does not include nature brought indoors. Spring is here, so there should be some new opportunities popping up all over the place

Still Life Lighting Setup - Ingo Prause

On Thursday Ingo will give us a demonstration on a still life scene. He will show the effects that hard and soft artificial light have on a scene in both colour and monochrome. He will also show some of the challenges that we come up against with backdrops and depth of field and how to deal with those. He will then give an overview of how he would edit these images.

Critique Night

We will be having a critique night. Images will be critiqued akin to what you heard at the last competition judging. So if you would like this sort of honest feedback, please submit up to 2 images max to the link below. As there is this limit due to time constraints to go through all the images, consider the images you most want to get valuable feedback on. It is also a good opportunity to gets ideas on how you could improve your photography. Cut-off time is Thursday at 6pm.

Focus Stacking by Sean Baker

Sean is kindly going to go through an example of the Focus Stacking technique that you would have seen the results of in Sean's, Michael's and Eugene's photos in the February competition. Even if you don't intend to do focus stacking, you're still bound to pick up something from this talk.

February Competition Results and Critique

We will be going through the results of the February Competition. We have decided to change the way the Intermediate Competition is judged. The Beginners Competition will remain unchanged for the time being. The Intermediate Competition will be judged by a panel of 3 judges. The images will be judged based on the following criteria - Technical, Composition, Impact and Relevance to the Months Theme(s). This is a good opportunity for feedback on your images and even to learn from other member's photos.

Speaker: Peter Gordon - Post Processing - Principles and Core Skills

In this talk, Peter will explain some of the principles of editing that he tries to apply to his workflow. Editing from a creative decision-making standpoint. Peter will also demonstrate the main tools he uses for selectively adjusting images in Lightroom and Photoshop. Styles and ideas for processing and how they connect to specific lighting conditions.

Speaker: Peter Gordon

Peter Gordon from Explore Light will be giving a talk this Thursday based on the Creation of Ideas. This talk revolves around his favourite images captured over the past 15 years through a range of exhibited and published projects. From Wild Gardens in Co Wicklow to the deserts of Burning Man in Nevada. The goal was always to create original work and this talk traces his journey in parallel to key developments within the landscape photography community at large. Peter will also touch on brand new work he's been creating over the past 6 months entitled 'In a Different Light'. Peter will follow this up next week with a talk on Post Processing.

Speaker: Larry Timmons

This week we will have Larry Timmons giving us a talk on Editing. Many of you will remember Larry from previous lighting and portraiture workshops he's done with the club. He is going to take some portrait and landscape photos from raw through to gallery ready. This is a great opportunity to learn more about Photoshop processing, especially for those who are keen on Photoshop.

Competition and Lightroom Beginner and Advanced tutorial

This week we will have two breakout rooms where you can choose to get some basic or intermediate instruction on editing in Lightroom. We did this last year and it was very successful.

Speaker: Bernard Geraghty

This week we will have a talk from internationally acclaimed Landscape photographer Bernard Geraghty. Bernard has created a very successful business, offering Landscape tours all over the planet including Ireland. Please feel free to check out his website at . Download and listen to his podcast where he interviews photographers from all over the world.

Yearly AGM

This week we will be having out yeatly AGM. This is to discuss what happened last year and to vote in this years commitee

Welcome Back

This week we will be having our first meeting of the year.

Christmas Photos and End of Year Wrap Up

This Thursday will be our last meeting of the year. Unfortunately, we aren't having a Christmas party this year, but please feel free to bring out the Christmas jumper, flashing earings, ties etc. In preparation for that meeting the challenge is to take one or more photographs that express Christmas.

EGM on Lifetime Membership and Sky Replacement by Eugene

Eugene will go through the Sky Replacement technology available in Photoshop and demonstrate the ease of use and impact it can make on an image with a lack lustre sky.

Challenge and Competition

This week we will be going over and looking at the submissions for the Monly Challenge (Every day or mundane objects with a fresh perspective) and Competition (Human interaction)

Critique Night and Help Choosing Exhibition Photos

On Thursday there will be critique available. If you would like some critique on your photos please upload to dropbox

Your favourite Photo / Photographer

This Thursday Jimmy will start us off by presenting a book on photography which inspired him. Then we are asking each of you to talk for a few minutes on what photo or photographer inspires you. You can share the photo or photos of the photographer by sharing a link on the night. This is not a test, just sharing what you like with the rest of the club.

Lightroom: Beginner and Advanced breakout rooms.

We will have 2 breakout rooms in Teams. Andrew will cover a beginners approach to Lightroom. Michael will cover an advanced approach.

Autumnal Challenge and Portrait Competition

This week we will be going over and looking at the submissions for the Autumnal Challenge and Portrait Competition. There will also be time for Silly questions or other items you'd like to discuss.

Astro Picture tutorial & Masks in Photoshop

Eugene will go through his editing of an Astro shot at Killiney Hill. Ingo will also give a short presentation on clipping masks in Photoshop.

Capture One & Astro Tutorial

Barry will be going through and sharing with the club some of his knowledge of Capture One. This is a photo editing programme a little like Lightroom. Also an astro photography tutorial will be given in advance of a proposed outing next week to Shea Elliot (a spot somewhere deep in the Wicklow mountains). We hope to inform you of the basics of what to do and expect with astro photgraphy, so as beginners especially can get more out of an astro night.

Outking: Kilcoole Beach

This Thursday we will have an outing to Kilcoole beach to catch the sunset, wildlife, etc. The meetup time is 6.30 pm at Kilcoole Beach carpark next to Kilcoole train station. Please note the earlier time of 6.30 pm to catch the sunset. If that's a bit early for you, do come along anyway and catch us up.

Silly Questions

Barry will host more silly questions that have been sent in.

Silly Questions & Editing Demo

Barry will host the silly questions that have been sent in. We welcome members of the club to help answer the questions where applicable.
Members of the committee will show how they would edit Andrew's hay bale sunset/sunrise photo in Lightroom, Photoshop and Raya Pro.

Outing: Djouce Woods

This Thursday we will be running a woodland shoot. We have two models on the night and they will be brining along various different outfits

Competition and Challange

This week you we will judge the completition and check out the photos you took for the challange.

Welcome back - Show Us Your Favourite Images

This Thursday we are going to have an easy night looking at each other's favourite images. Please submit 2 images that you've taken that you are really like. On Thursday we'd like to hear from you why you like them, how you took them etc. This is not a critique night, so please feel at ease. Of course, if you do want critique on your images you can mention this at the time.

IPF Club Championship Submitted Images Review

On Thursday we will be having a look at some of the images that have been submitted by members for the 2020 IPF Club Championship. There will be two panels, one colour and one B&W, with 10 photos in each panel. If you haven't already, please look through your photos and submit the best of them, and let’s see if we can put two good panels together.

Exposure Blending Using Luminosity Masks

On Thursday Ingo will be showing us how he does Exposure Blending of Bracketed images using Luminosity Masks. He will be showing us this in Easy Panel 2 from Shutter Revolve. It will be a good follow on from Barry's talk last week. Ingo will also show some additional things you can do with the Nik Pluggin.

HDR and Bracketing in Lightroom by Barry

This Thursday Barry will go through the Bracketing and HDR (High Dynamic Range) method he uses in Lightroom. For those who are unfamiliar with the terms, Bracketing is often (but not solely) used to get the highlights, midtones and shadows properly exposed in a scene where ordinarily the camera will over expose the highlights and or under expose the darker areas. In order to achieve this, Bracketing uses three or more photos taken at different exposures which are then blended together in post production to achieve a HDR image.

Critique night

This Thursday we will be reviewing and appreciating your work. So please upload to the link provided up to 5 of your favourite images that you have taken recently or are even from your archive before the meeting on Thursday.

Competition, Challenge and Flickr Review

This Thursday we will be having a look at the club's group to see recently uploaded photos. Don't be put off by the standard. You will learn alot by looking at other's photos and allowing others to see yours.
We will also be trying to guess the subject of your Macro challange photos you have been taking.
Also we will be voting on the images of this months competition and the results will be given on Thursday evening.