Visit to Galway Camera Club. 29th October 2015
I was recently invited to Galway Camera Club to give a presentation of my work. It is always a huge honour to be invited to clubs to show my seascapes and talk about them.
Talking in front of a large group of people can be nerve-wracking. ( Especially if you are deaf and cannot hear what you are saying ! )
I started doing the talks about 3 years ago and since then I have been invited to around 20 clubs around the country . It is a nice experience meeting fellow photographers who are passionate about photography too and who are interested in hearing about my photography journey to date.
Up till fairly recently I did not have the confidence to actually stand up at the top of the room and address the audience properly. I remained seated and read all my notes from a script ! I was aware that this was a little stilted at times , but was afraid not to stick to a script in case I either forgot what to say or started repeating myself.
Thankfully I am more confident now , and I feel the quality of the presentation has improved enormously as a result.
I no longer bring any notes, but just talk freely as I go through the images in the digital presentation.
What do I talk about ? I talk about a variety of subjects in no particular order as follows :
1. Equipment .. including camera, lenses , filters , tripod & care of same.
2. Technique.. including shooting in Aperture Priority, sharp images, white balance etc . Using the filters to balance the light and control the exposure times.
3. Composition .. knowing the rules and but more importantly knowing when to break them
4. Safety.. Respecting the sea. Especially at locations and times where the waves are big.
For female photographers like myself who go out shooting on their own at dawn and dusk, the importance of staying close to your car and not wandering off down the coastline no matter how awesome it may be . Always tell someone exactly where you are going… and what time you expect to return.
5. My deafness, and how it works to my advantage in focussing on my photography & how my photography has improved as a result.
6. What inspires me to go out and take photos..
7. Favourite locations. My experiences at locations & any lessons learnt.
8. Post Processing..
9. Printing. I bring about 20 mounted prints with me and a few loose samples of the papers I use.
I show about 60 images in the digital presentation , which lasts about an hour and 20 mins
The talk in Galway last week was well received and I was delighted to hear today that the members have been out and posting images of their seascapes ! That is the biggest compliment I can receive after giving a presentation of my work.
Finally, no trip to Galway would be complete without getting a shot at the famous diving boards at Blackrock in Salthill. I have seen many beautiful images taken at his location over the years , and hoped I would get down sometime to take a few shots myself . For this reason, we booked into accomodation right beside it. We arrived at our hotel that evening around 3pm. It was raining and quite windy , but we took a walk down to the diving boards anyway. As luck would have it, a group of teenagers from Limerick arrived at the same time as we did and were undeterred by the rain and the wind.
” The Jumpers ”
A big Thank You to my husband , Bryan without whose unending support my photography would not be possible.
I would also like to extend my thanks to all the members of Galway Camera club for the invitation and their very warm welcome & hospitality. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and meeting you all. A special word of thanks to Des Glynn who coordinated the evening and made all the arrangements for us . Míle Buíochas.
with thanks to Eugene Thornton for the photos taken on the night. Main image. L-R Des Glynn, myself , Mick Bourke.
