So, between our monthly outings and club competitions, there has been a lot on this year!
Have a look at our Newsletter prepared by Deirdre Hyland and Paul Murray, covering the first half of 2015
Tag Archives: DPS
DPS Competition May 2015
A most enjoyable night was had by all at the Drogheda Photographic Society competition held on 7th May 2015.
The night was well attended and one could feel the excitement and tension as examiner, Photographer John Doyle, studied each photograph under the following headings: Exposure, Shutter Speed, Lens Aperture, Camera Lens Focus.
John Doyle is accredited with many awards and accolades in landscape, portrait, press & news, science & nature photography, to mention but a few. We are most grateful for his generous time and expertise given to the Society.
Points allocated for each criterion were totalled and awarded to the winner on the night. It was widely acknowledged by all that John had provided well-structured and helpful feedback in respect of photographs submitted.
Congratulations to David Shields on his award of first prize.
DPS May Competition winner by David Sheilds
DPS Newsletter July – December 2014
Better late than never!
Have a look at our Newsletter prepared by Deirdre Hyland and Paul Murray, covering the second half of 2014
The Old Drogheda Cement Quarry
Back in June and July, we got a chance to visit the old Irish Cement quarries in Drogheda.
The Main Pond
The quarry is a huge unused landmass that is (unfortunately in our view) closed to the public, it was last in use as the Drogheda Corporation landfill site, which prior to that was a large limestone quarry used by Irish Cement since the 1930s.
However due to the lack of human interference, It has become an excellent pocket of urban wildlife, as well as a great location for abandoned urban scenes with some small areas of disused buildings and long since vandalised equipment.
Ian’s pic of the main quarry pond is a six photo stitch shot at 24mm. iso 100. f18. shutter speed 1/50. He also used a graduated filter which helped to bring down the brightness of the sky so it wouldn’t be blown out with the slow shutter speed. The shutter was that slow because of the small aperture used.
We managed two separate visits, once on a weekend afternoon and the second was a night shoot in July.
For the day outing, the quarry’s plant life was ablaze with colour, and the beautiful sunshine added to the enjoyment of the day, and for the night outing we got to shoot some sunset scenes as well as some steel wool amid some abandoned vehicles and equipment, needless to say we left everything exactly as we found it, .
Just click on any of the images to get a larger view.
One of our members pretending to be a Tree during my sunset shot
A Steel Wool sample from our night shoot in the old Drogheda Quarry
Spin and Zoom
An introduction to Spin and Zoom by David Sheilds, from one of our recent group outings at the Bridge of Peace in Drogheda.
I first discovered this technique on You Tube from an American photographer called Bryan Peterson. This was my first time trying this technique and boy, did I get lucky.
The subject was the graffiti located underneath the bridge of peace on the South bank. I shot in aperture priority mode, and as this technique requires a ‘relatively’ long exposure time I dropped my ISO and aperture to my camera lens lowest settings.
Using my kit lens, ie the 18-55mm, I focused on the 3A in the picture at 18mm. Switching to manual focus, as I pressed the shutter release button I zoomed the lens to 55mm while at the same time rotating the camera/my hand from a three o’clock position to a twelve o’clock position.
David Sheilds
Bridge of peace grafitti spin & zoom
Camera Settings
Nikon D5200
Lens 18-55mm kit lens
ISO 100
Aperature f22
Shutter Speed 1/3 second
Technique by Bryan Peterson displayed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYL-zRjf4wk&feature=youtu.be
DPS Newsletter Jan – June
Have a look at our Newsletter prepared by Deirdre Hyland and Paul Murray, covering the first half of 2014.
DPS Newsletter Part 1 2014
Stately home visit
A short article from our Co-ordinator Paul Murray on one of his days out describing the image below.
The sky was blotted with scattered puffy white clouds. Intense sunlight drenched the scene. After mounting the camera on a tripod, I followed my line of discipline which is based on the checklist of camera settings and values listed below:
— Manual Mode
— ISO
— Shutter Speed
— Lens Aperture Value
— Camera Lens Focus / Automatic
The resulting photograph was unacceptable.
Shadows were clearly defined but the highlights were without image details. I waited for the sun to become obscured by cloud cover.
As I watched the blanket of light change from undiluted intense sunlight to diffused light I knew the brightness range was shorter. The camera was now capable of rendering the full brightness range.
Its not a photograph I would expect to excite the viewer or take first place in a Photo Competition but I like it – and for me, that makes it
special.
Specifications
Pentax
Wide Angle Lens / Low Zoom Number
Lens Aperture Value: f22
Shutter Speed: 1/2 of a second
ISO 100
Camera Lens Focus / Automatic Mode
File Format: jpeg
Tripod / yes
Paul Murray
A Stone’s Throw
Our last entry is the winning picture in the DPS advanced level competition
In April and May, The Drogheda Photographic society had a series of in house competitions that cover beginner and higher level entries.
The purpose is to help members learn and develop their photography within a group environment.
The last entry is from Daz, which as you can see below, is a unique and outstanding perspective of the Giant’s Causeway .
He also gave us a little insight into how it came about…..
After braving a windy walk down the trail to the causeway, the heavens opened, leaving the throngs of sightseers huddled together in any available shelter points. A 30 minute wait and the rain stopped, allowing these small dots on the landscape to seep gradually back out onto the basalt.
The sky began to clear leaving behind wisps of now empty clouds. Taking a somewhat unconventional viewpoint looking back towards land from the waters edge, the pattern of the stones and the perspective created by them as they point towards the cliff, weight the composition in the bottom third. The stones lead the eyes toward the cliff and from there to the cliff top, which seems to stretch and reach further into the sky. The peak is centrally composed, while supported by the mass of stone column foundations beneath.
With poor weather, wet, cold and overcast, a short reprieve thankfully offered a brief chance to capture the natural beauty of this landscape on this visit.
Daz
The photograph was taken in Raw, at 17mm, 1/40s, f18, ISO 200. Post processing was carried out using Lightroom.
Drogheda Maritime Festival
There’s plenty on offer this weekend from the arrival of the tall ships (they’re smaller than you’d expect) to jet ski and wake boarding displays. These world class athletes will perform tricks, inverts and jumps..
Inver Colpa rowing club are hosting a race from Clogherhead to Drogheda Town with the triathlon club hosting a two kilometre swim in the Boyne for a few very brave souls.
For those feeling flush or wanting to look around the latest model of car, this years Drogheda Motor Show is being held in conjunction with the Maritime festival. Other on shore activities include an artisan food quarter, boat building workshops, maritime photography and art zone, funfair and plenty more.
This would be a great opportunity to get some unique shots of Drogheda (or keep the kids quiet) with something for everyone with the tall ships, action shots of the events on the water, static motor show, street photography to long exposure shots at night time which could have distinctive shots of the funfair at night.
The weather is fair this weekend with highs of up to 18 degrees and only a wee bit of rain. 1mm on each day.
Attached is the maritime festival website, schedule and some photos that I managed to capture at last years festival (not my best work). Others in the club may have some better photos and photos from around the town (I know Damian has a great photo of a ferris wheel from last year).
http://www.maritimefestival.ie/boyne-boat-race
http://www.maritimefestival.ie/programme#page
Knight Takes King
In April and May, The Drogheda Photographic society had a series of in house competitions that cover beginner and higher level entries.
The purpose is to help members learn and develop their photography within a group environment.
Last week we had a look at Erichs photograph.
This week we get to have a look at “Knight Takes King” by David Sheilds, who achieved 2nd place in the beginners competition.
David also gave us a quick walk-through on how he set up the image above.
While composing this photograph, I was at all times trying to execute some of the classic rules of photography i.e. rule of thirds & leading lines.
Once I was happy with my composition, I used trial and error by taking a number of shots at different shutter speeds & aperture values until I got the shot that I was happy with.
To prepare the subject, I set up the chess board & composition of the pieces on my kitchen table and using a Nikon D5200 & 60mm Tamron macro lens I focused on the scene until I was
happy with the composition.
After switching to manual focus & using the mode setting I switched the lights out. Then using a technique called light painting, I used a pentorch to light up the subject.
David Sheilds
Davids photograph was taken with the following camera settings:
ISO 100
SHUTTER SPEED 30 SECONDS
APERTURE f22
SHOT IN RAW