Next Monday

Monday is time for the judging of our first competition for 2025. The topic is 'Open - Projected'.

Come and see some great images and hear some great feedback from the judge, which you may be able to apply to your own images next time you go out to take photographs.

Join the 2025 Photo Challenge Now

The 2025 Photo Challenge is intended to encourage participating members to pursue a focused theme of photography over an eight or nine-month period.

So what do you need to do:

1.   Decide now to take the challenge

2.   Decide on your challenge theme

3.   Produce up to 20 images that illustrate your theme to a standard that satisfies you, or

4.   Produce a 5 to 10-minute AV (slideshow) of your images

5.   There are no restrictions on how or when you capture your images

Timetable:

February 1st: confirm your participation and theme by email to 25PC@offshoot.ie

End September: complete your image selection / AV sequence

October 13th & 20th: present the results of your challenge at a club meeting

So Go Ahead and Take the Challenge!

Spring 2025 Shoot With Me 

Members have now been assigned to their groups, so you should be hearing from your group leader(s), who will be in contact soon to start organising group activities.

Good luck to all the participants. The Showcase nights in May no doubt will be, as always, excellent. 

Thanks again to the Group Leaders. Without you, we would not have or be able to enjoy SWM.

Car Boot Sale – 3rd March

Have you got photographic equipment you bought in that mad moment of enthusiasm? And, you now have either updated the equipment or decided your purchase was really made in that mad moment of enthusiasm. Well, help is at hand; we intend to run our annual Car Boot Sale on Monday 3rd March.

So now is the time to root out anything photographic that is surplus to your requirements but may be of value to another club member.

Please email Emily (carboot@offshoot.ie) with details of what you have on offer and an indication of the price so she can start assembling the sales catalogue.

2025 Member Subscriptions Are Due

Thanks to all members who have already paid their 2025 membership.

Please ensure you pay by 28 February 2025 – the annual sub is €90. Payment can be made by PayPal at https://www.offshoot.ie/subs or to our Treasurer (Nigel) at our meetings with cash/card. To pay by bank transfer, please email treasurer@offshoot.ie for the BIC and IBAN details.

Next Club Competition – Architecture (Printed)

This is a reminder that the closing date for uploading your images for the next competition (Architecture) is Monday, 10th March.

As usual please save your images in JPEG format and name them as follows:

Level Number-Membership Number-Image Title

Eg: L2-001-Image Title.jpg

Dropbox Upload Link

Competition Themes for 2025

There are five competitions remaining for this year with the following themes:

• Architecture – submission 10th March, judging 31st March – Printed
• Open – submission 28th April, judging 12th May – Printed
• Mono – submission 2nd June, judging 16th June – Projected
• Landscape – submission 22nd September, judging 6th October – Printed
• Open – submission 10th November, judging 24th November – Projected

The Patient Kingfisher - Lionel Barker

Just a note for new members – if you want any of your pictures considered for the photo of the week, you just have to post them to the OffShoot Flickr group at:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/offshoot_society.

There’s also the latest images published on Flickr that are displayed on the OffShoot home page.

[Note. To join the Offshoot Flickr group, you must first be a Flickr member. Then send the email address used to join Flickr to webadmin@offshoot.ie. You will get an email when you have been added to the group. Please be patient as this is a manual process.]

What's On 

Here are the next scheduled meetings and events for the Society:

If you come across one you want to share let us know at newsletter@offshoot.ie.

Smart Objects in Photoshop: Learn The Basics - PHLEARN

How to Create and Use Layer Masks in Photoshop - PHLEARN

Irish Photographic Federation Web Site:

https://irishphoto.ie/

Most recent news and articles posted:

https://irishphoto.ie/news/

Distinction Sittings and Availability:

https://irishphoto.ie/distinctions/assessment-dates/

You can access the recordings of past Zoom meetings from the OffShoot website.

These videos are available in the Videos section of the Member’s Area at https://www.offshoot.ie/member-area/. You will need to log in to the website to see the content of this section of the site.

Every member has a login to the site. If you don’t remember your login details go to https://www.offshoot.ie/login/ and select the ‘Forgot your password?’ link. Enter the email address you received this newsletter with and reset your password. Once you’ve reset your password you can login and catch-up on speakers you missed. Happy catching up!