Major Outings Summer Recess

(Credit: Me-Saltees,Ian Gemmell=HuntingBrook,Seamus MacKenna=Saltees,Marie Nevill-HuntingBrook,John Coveney-Baily,Kevin Grace-Ferns)

There will be regular Monday evening clubhouse outings all during the summer.

However there will be no major Club outings in August because it is the holiday period.

Outings:

It has been a very busy half year with 10 major outings organized and finishing up with the first Offshoot weekend away organized by myself and a trip to the Straffen Butterfly farm with Kevin Grace. I have been slow to update you over the last month. Here is the summary.

Walk With Me:

In the past month we have had the end of the Walk-With-Me mentored outings where We had a record 9 different teams with a total of 35 members going out on trips from drips to panos, macros to landscapes, street to studio and wildlife.So you know the winning team was the Pano group led by Seamus MacKenna.Seamus has written a bio of the trip here: http://www.offshoot.ie/documents/doc_download/10-introduction-to-panos-and-the-winning-wwm-team-seamusmckenna.Walk with me returns in the Autumn.Here are the winning shots:

( CreditsDave Whitaker,Frank Courtney,Matthew Roche,

Michael Anderton,Richard Boyle,Seamus Mac Kenna)

Outings Summary:

• We also had a trip to the Baily Lighthouse in Howth led by Tom Murphy,
• A trip to Ferns Motorcross with Kevin Grace.
• In Late May John Coveney took a group onto Ireland's Eye
• And I took a group to the Hunting brook gardens.
• Finally we had a trip to the Saltees Island in Wexford organized by myself and Fran Byrne.

To Sum Up:

In the Autumn we will have another fresh program starting with Falconry in September. And a Themed period shoot to be confirmed.

Thanks to all who helped to make this half year program successful,particularly Kevin and John and the Leaders for Walk with me,John O’Connor, Seamus McKenna, Peter Keane, John Coveney,Kevin Grace, Fran Byrne, Kazi Ushioda, Kyle and Steve. Tom and Fran for organizing trips.

Have a great summer.

Matthew Kevin and John

Special Outing day

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Thats all Folks!!

Offshoot Outings - A New season!

(Photos from Nigel,Peter,Phil)

What better way to open the new season of outings than by recounting the experience at the end of the last one!You may note that my clock is running about a month behind everybody else as I am late giving this update.

Never-the-less the outings winter season has already begun with a visit to the Victorian Day in Enniskerry where a group of off shooters gained experience of street type photography and asking people could they to take their portrait.I will be running a competition on this day very soon where the best portrait will be picked.In October we will be going on a falconry trip.There will be a sports shoot planned for December and we will be running a reduced form of the “Walk With Me” program due to time constraints.

First Offshoot Official weekend away - Clonakilty Co Cork

On the 22nd of July an intrepid group of 11 Offshoot members Headed for Clonakilty in West Cork for the first Annual Offshoot Weekend Away. After meeting and enjoying a copious amount of liquid refreshment we had an excellent meal in "An Sugan" We wondered as to why anyone would be interested in sculpting Pierce Brosnans bum. Afterwards we enjoyed the unusual treat of a street band and dancing by the famous "Chicken George", a local character. Even after a full meal we enjoyed some Hot Dogs Courtesy of John O Connor. Nothing like it after a feed of beer I suppose. With our heads firmly in our hands the last of us made it to bed in the wee small hours...

8:30 was an interesting experience. Running on adrenaline we enjoyed a full Irish in the Emmet hotel and struggled outside to meet Mike Brown, our Minder for the day. We took a boat from near Union Hall and headed seaward on our search for various forms of sea life. At the start there was carnage as with the rattle of shutter motors we shot the sea birds that Mike lured to the boat.

When there was nair a bird left to be shot we set off in search of Whales and Dolphins. With Promises of whale breaches and getting cuddles from Dolphins we powered through the surf. However the big fish proved elusive. Except for the cries of John Coveney from the Crows nest, perfect flat water greeted us. We did, however, get an interesting introduction to the attraction of the Storm Petrel to fish livers (Much to the disgust of one seasick member). On the way back we shot some Seals basking in the gloom of a building Mist.

After steadying our sea-legs on shore and a refreshing meal we spent the rest of the afternoon shooting insect macros at a nature conserve, before heading for home.

Although undeniable that the lack of the big fish was somewhat disappointing.I think we came away with more.I have come away knowing some of my fellow club members very well. All in all it was a great weekend where we had a chance to mix and mingle with fellow photographers, shoot the breeze on Photography, have some fun and to spend the day shooting.  We would hope to run this again next year, learning from our experiences this year. Thanks to all who made it a great weekend...

Matthew Roche - Outings Sec