The club held the opening of its Inaugural Photographic Exhibition on Tuesday the 21st of June in Tralee Library. It was a rip roaring success with a magnificent turn out on the night from club members, their families and best of all lots of other guests who attended. The club expect to gain many new members as a result of it and many enquires were made on the night.

The event was officially opened by Mike Foley of Kerry Film Festival and Foghlú Foto. Before Mike did the honours we had speeches from firstly the Kerry County Librarian and Ardfert native Tommy O’Connor. Then our own Chairman Steve Baker did the club proud with his oration and in the process embarrassed the writer of this piece with his praise.

Mike praised the club for the range and quality of the photographs on display. He lifted the spirits of the club members with the praise given and has spurred us to making even better photographs in the future.

The club are truly thankful to both Tommy O’Connor and the staff of the Library for hosting the event and for all of the help and assistance they gave to the club in setting up the exhibition. We had almost 100 pictures on display at the exhibition and we had excellent feedback from those who attended. We intend making this exhibition an annual event for which the planning has already started.

The next club meeting is Thursday 30th of June and the theme of the night is self-portrait. We are expecting people to think outside the box and not just hold the camera at arm’s length and take a snap of themselves. For an example of what other people are doing people should look up the 365 Projects on www.flickr.com, there are some truly outstanding self-portraits uploaded everyday as well as a lot more very ordinary ones.

The club season is drawing to a close with just two more meetings after this week’s one. The themes for the meeting are summer and finally an open competition at which the winner of photographer of the year will be announced, although it’s very unlikely at this stage that Steve Bakers lead will be overhauled.

For further information contact Francis Foley on 087 905 4161 or francis.foley@live.ie or visit our website at http://ardfertcameraclub.weebly.com. Remember that we always welcome new members and guests to the club which has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, no need to have a fancy camera, come along and learn how to take better pictures.

The club will be holding its inaugural photographic exhibition in the Tralee Library from June 20th to June 30th. The Grand Opening will take at 7 pm on June 21st and this will be performed by the Mayor of Tralee Councillor Gillian Wharton. Everybody is welcome to attend this event.

Club members will have pictures for sale at the exhibition, these were taken locally, as well as further afield in locations as diverse as Africa and Australia. We will have landscapes, people and events in our catalogue along with wildlife and domestic animals, so please come along and support the club.

Our meeting of June 2nd was held on the sun drenched Banna Strand, local photographer David Hogan kindly ran a workshop on out flash photography for the club members, he also provided us with two drop dead gorgeous models for the shoot. Andrea Collins who recently represented Kerry in a national modelling competition and newcomer Natalie Herbert-Dennehy made up the other half of the duo.

The club got to use professional studio gear on the shoot and we all came away with stunning photographs of the models and the location looked as good as any scene that one would see on a deserted Caribbean beach. One of the techniques that we mastered on the night was getting a sunburst behind the models shoulders, this is very difficult to achieve without the powerful lights that David brought along on the night.

On Thursday the 9th we had a club outing to the picturesque pier of Meenogahane which looks out over the Shannon Estuary and Loop Head in the distance. We were blessed with a glorious evening light and came away happy with both the landscape and wildlife shots we took on the night.

Our next meeting will take place on Thursday 16th of June and we will have two themes at the meeting to judge. The first them is flowers postponed for the June 2nd meeting and the second them is action\movement. There are three more meetings after this to round off the club year and the themes are Self Portrait, Summer and an Open Competition.

For further information contact Francis Foley on 087 905 4161 or francis.foley@live.ie or visit our website at http://ardfertcameraclub.weebly.com. Remember that we always welcome new members and guests to the club which has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, no need to have a fancy camera, come along and learn how to take better pictures.

Francis Foley.

Since the last Review was published we have had two meetings on Thursday 19th of May and Thursday 26th of May. The meeting on the 19th was our regular meeting at which we had Wildlife as our theme and the meeting of the 26th was to select shots for display at our forthcoming exhibition in the library in Tralee.

Firstly to the pictures that scooped the praise for making it into the top three. In first place we had a magnificent picture of two puffins that was captured by our club mentor Dillon Boyer. In second place was one from one of the clubs founder members James O'Loughlin, who produced a stunning picture of an Owl. The third place spot was another brilliant capture by Liam Enright of some gulls fighting for scraps of food.

The state of play in the photographer of the year is that Steve Baker still holds a commanding lead of 25 points over Francis Foley who has a total of 101, who in turn is followed closely by Liam Enright on 99 and Margaret Raggett on 94. In the last few remaining weeks left in the competition, those behind Steve will have to pull out all the stops if they want to overhaul Steve's total.

My photography tip this week is on Shutter Priority. When your camera is set to record in Shutter Priority Mode all you do is set the shutter speed and the camera will take care of everything else so that a good exposure is captured. So, for example, if you wanted to capture a fast moving object without blur then we would set the camera to operate at a high shutter speed maybe one thousandth of a second or faster. Conversely, if we wanted to capture the movement of a funfair ride then we would the camera shutter speed to a low setting such as 1 sec, this would show a blurred image of the lights on the ride conveying movement. Obviously a tripod would be required to hold the camera steady if the shutter speed was set that low and in fact it is recommended to use a tripod for all shutter speeds less that one sixtieth of a second.

There are exciting times ahead for the camera club as we are in the midst of organising an exhibition of our work in the Tralee Library which will run from June 20th to June 30th. We will be organising a Grand Opening with a high profile Guest to do the honours. Most of the membership will have at least 3 pictures on display and virtually all of the photos will be for sale. We urge the Ardfert Community to come out an support us by coming along to the opening and exhibition. I will up to date information on the opening for the next Review.

At our second meeting on May 26th we selected the photos that will be put on display for the exhibition. There will be a wide variety of shots to see, everywhere from Ardfert to Australia, wild life to domesticated pets, portrait and landscapes. Come along to the exhibition and I guarantee that you will enjoy the experience.

Remember that we always welcome new members and guests to the club which has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, no need to have a fancy camera, come along and learn how to take better pictures. For further information contact Francis Foley on 087 905 4161 or francis.foley@live.ie or visit our website at http://ardfertcameraclub.weebly.com.

We met as usual in the Ardfert Golf Club on Thursday 5th of May and our theme for the meeting was Street Life. Francis Foley's shot titled Dublin An Alternative View won on the night. The shot was very unusual in that it showed O'Connell Street as seen a litter bin, the framing provided by the litter bin was very effective and captured the Street Light theme very well.

The second place shot was taken by Steve Baker and this was taken in The Square in Tralee ans showed a group of Spanish students sitting and having a chat. In third place was Ian Wiley his photograph was of a stunning street in a mountain village of the Algarve in Portugal. Many of the members found this theme to be particularly challenging but it is these challenges that make us better in the long run.

The theme for our next meeting on Thursday 19th of May is equally as challenging as last week theme because it is Wild Life. To get a good shot of Wild Life can be very difficult because the rarely come to a stand still therefore its hard to get a sharp image. For the most part the can be far away and difficult to capture unless one has access to powerful zoom lenses.

A new club website has been set up, this can be accessed at ardfertcameraclub.weebly.com. Here you will see members picture galleries, news about upcoming meeting and details of the leader board of the photographer of the year. The top four are very close, Steve Baker has 120 points, Francis Foley 96, Liam Enright 91 and Margaret Raggett has 90. With 6 more meeting remaining on the calendar it is going to be a tough battle to come out on top and the writer looks forward to the challenge over overcoming Steve Bakers 24 point advantage.

Some tips if you want to try and use your camera in manual mode, to get a good exposure the camera must be adjusted so that the light can be captured by the sensor. There are three adjustments that can be made to get a correct exposure. The aperture can be adjusted to leave in more or less light but this will effect the depth of field, small apertures permit more of the scene to be in focus. The second adjustment is the shutter speed, to get sharp images at low speed a tripod must be used. Finally one can adjust the film speed (commonly known as the ISO setting). The higher the ISO the noiser and more grainy the image will appear.

Remember that we always welcome new members and guests to the club which has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, no need to have a fancy camera, come along and learn how to take better pictures. For further information contact Francis Foley on 087 905 4161 or francis.foley@live.ie.

At our last club meeting on Thursday April 21st we held an Open Photography Competition which had a €5 entry fee. Dillon Boyer was the winner on the night, he took a stunning shot of Inch Beach as the sun was rising. Sunrise and sunset are known as the golden hour to photographers because of the beautiful soft light and warm hues. The Inch scene was bathed in a gorgeous purple hue, which was evident in both the sky and the sea.

In second place was a still life shot taken by Margaret Ragget and in fact Dillon had input into this shot as well because it was taken at his home studio. The scene was a simple arrangement of wine, a lit candle, cheese and fruit taken against a black background. It appears that the only lighting for the scene comes from the candle and overall it was beautifully composed and deserved the high mark that it achieved on the night.

Liam Enright took a fabulous shot of a frog that is just breaking the water and he got third place for his efforts. The viewer's eyes are drawn to frogs head and eyes which are perfectly in focus and the rest of the scene had an exquisite bokeh, which added tremendously to the picture. Bokeh is a Japanese word that means blur or an area of the photograph that is out of focus, but overall it adds an aesthetic quality to the picture.

We discussed our trip to Valentia Island which a a brilliant success and we are planning at least one other outing before we break up for the summer. Also on the agenda was the subject of holding an exhibition of our photography and since the meeting we have been offered a space in the library in Tralee. We are hoping that this exhibition will take place in the middle of June and I will keep you informed of the progress in the notes in the coming weeks.

Thursday May 5th is the date of our next meeting and as usual it will begin at 8pm in the Ardfert Golf Club. We always welcome new members and guests to the club which has a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, no need to have a fancy camera, come along and learn how to take better pictures. For further information contact Francis Foley on 087 905 4161 or francis.foley@live.ie.

The photography theme for the next meeting is Street Life. Forthcoming themes include flowers, wildlife, action\movement and self portraits. We will also have a workshop on composition where we will discuss amongst other things the rule of thirds, the rule of odds, the rule of space and diagonal composition techniques.

On last Sunday the 17th of April the camera club held the first of this years outings to Valentia Island and what a glorious day it turned out to be. We had an excellent turn out for the event and everybody that went thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even those amongst us who returned home with strawberry red faces after catching too much of the sun.

The first stop on the way to Valentia was the old R.I.C. Barracks in Cahirciveen. This interesting building has Disneyesque turrets at which one would expect to see Tinker Belle or Rapunzel appear at any moment. After that we took the short ferry ride from fishing port of Renard Point to the planned village of Knightstown. We immediately repaired to the lounge of the Royal Hotel and ordered a round of Toasted Rasher Sandwiches at the insistence of Kay Hunt, this is was washed down with Tea and Coffee, which set us up for the rest of the long day ahead.

The next stop on our journey was the marker for the Altazamuth Stone which is located on Peter Street in the village. This stone accurately marks the longitude of various locations along the 52 parallel from Omsk in Siberia to Valentia. The beautiful grounds of St. Johns Church provided lots of photo opportunities. Onwards we went to the Slate Quarry, with its stunning views overlooking the lighthouse and the waters that surround the island.

The lighthouse beckoned and those of us who undertook the journey down the narrow and very steep bohereen were rewarded with some fine shots of the waves crashing up on the rocky foreshore and also the lighthouse itself. Our next location was the Fogher Cliffs and Geokaun Mountain. At the top we were taken aback with the magnificent 360o views of the Island. We could see north to the Blaskets and Dingle Peninsula, east to Knightstown, Cahirciveen and Iveragh Peninsula, south to the Portmagee Channel and west to the Skelligs. Thanks to Ian Willey's wife who remembered to bake some delicious Queen Cakes and made sure her husband had sufficient hot water to ply the rest of us with some more tea and coffee.

There is an Ardfert connection with the Island, St. Brendan is reputed to have been baptised there, at the well that bears his name. After this brief stopover, we proceeded to Foilhommerum Bay, the site of first landfall of a commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable. As the sun was blazing and the view was magnificent, we lingered for a long time savouring the tranquillity and beauty of the spot.

We then drove to the top of the mountain the overlooks Portmagee and Ballinskelligs for some more photo opportunities. The day was coming to an end and our stomachs were ready for more and the Mooring in Portmagee was the excellent choice we made. All of us sat around the one long table and discussed the terrific day we all had. Kay Hunt promises she snapped the winning photograph for our next meeting and hinted that some of us may be rather embarrassed when we see it. All will be revealed at our next meeting on Thursday the 21st of April at 8pm in the Golf Club Rooms in Sackville Ardfert. We have an Open Photo Competition at this meeting with a €5 entry fee.

Remember guests are always welcome, we have a relaxed and informal atmosphere, learn to use your camera to take better pictures and have fun in the process. Call Francis Foley on 087 905 4161 if you require any further information

Ardfert Camera Club is up and running for the past year and a half, it has a healthy and growing membership. We meet every second Thursday in the Ardfert Golf Club at 8.00 pm.  The atmosphere is very informal and friendly, we begin our meetings with refreshments and a chat before we get down to business. If you require further information call Francis Foley on 087 905 4161.

Our next meeting is to take place this Thursday the 7th of April and our photo theme for the meeting is Macro, which is a photographic term from close up photography. You don't need any special equipment our members use everything from a basic point and shoot camera up to the very latest Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras. Guests from all over the county are always welcome to attend, in fact our members come from all over North Kerry and Tralee.

The club is undertaking an outing to Valentia Island on Sunday April 17th weather permitting, we plan to meet in the Royal Hotel in Knightstown at 11 am sharp and we will kick off proceedings with some light refreshments. The days itinerary is full, we plan to visit amongst others the Slate Quarry, the Dinosaur Footprints, the site of the first transatlantic cable entry point, the Dolmen Rock on Geokaun Mountain, Fogher Cliffs and Portmagee where more refreshments are in order.

At our meetings we cater for beginners and advanced photographers, we cover topics like photo composition, camera techniques, use of flash, portrait photography, landscape photography along with family photography and how to take a great flower shot. We also do practical workshops at our meetings where we get to use studio equipment and we also do slide shows of members work from time to time.