Today’s National Wildlife & Nature Competition, with some brilliant results and plenty of awards coming home!

Firstly, a huge well done to Kieran O Mahony, who had the difficult task of judging today’s competition. With a huge number of images across six different categories, it certainly wasn’t an easy job, and it was a great honour for the club to have one of our own selected as a judge.

We were also delighted to see our members presented with their awards from the FIAP Wildlife World Nature Biennial and Monochrome Biennial. Kieran O Mahony and John Mullane received their Honourable Mentions, while Paul Madigan received an Honourable Mention along with a FIAP Gold Medal. 🏅

The success continued in today’s competition, with John Flynn taking Gold in Natural Landscapes — a fantastic achievement! 👏

Paul Madigan also had a brilliant day, picking up Gold and Silver in Open Wildlife, along with four Honourable Mentions — one in Open Wildlife, two in Wetland Birds & Waders, and one in Natural Landscapes.

To top off a fantastic day, Paul achieved the highest combined points total from his best 16 images entered across the competition, earning him the title of Nature Photographer of the Year! 🏆📸

A brilliant day all round and a fantastic showing from Blackwater on the national stage.

Congratulations to Kieran, John Mullane, John Flynn and Paul, and well done to everyone involved!

A Strong Start to the New Season at Blackwater!

Week two of our new season saw another great turnout as we turned our attention to Distinction Panel Building.

With distinction season approaching, the night was all about learning how to bring a collection of individual photographs together into one strong, cohesive panel — looking at layout, balance, flow, presentation and how images can complement each other as a complete portfolio of work.

Another enjoyable and productive night at Blackwater Photographic Society, and we’re only getting started!

📸 🍀🍀We’re Back!🍀🍀📸

Blackwater Photographic Society kicks off our 2026/2027 season on Monday, 7th September at 8pm in the Social Services Centre, Mallow.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced photographer, we’d love to see you. A great season of photography, guest speakers, field trips, exhibitions and plenty more ahead!

📷 New members are always welcome!
Come along, meet the club and see what we have planned for the year ahead.

What a competition! Our club season has come to a close for the summer, and we certainly finished in style.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in last night’s Blackwater Photographic Society Photographer of the Year competition.

Advanced

A nail-biting finish! Kieran O’Mahony and Paul Madigan tied on 140 in the open top 5, with Kieran taking the title on the 7th-image tie-break, 25 vs 24. John Flynn finished close behind on 136 — just four points separated the top three!

Kieran O’Mahony — 140
Paul Madigan — 140
John Flynn — 136

Intermediate

Jim Heffernan — 117
Brian Power — 106
Geraldine Dennehy — 96

Non-Advanced

Sheila Horgan — 116
Brendan McPhillips — 114
John Ward — 109

2026 Photographer of the year: Kieran O Mahony

Best Overall Image: Kieran O Mahony

Best Monochrome: Kieran O Mahony

A huge thank you to everyone who entered, and to our judging panel: Vivian Buckley, Seamus Mulcahy, and Breda Kiely Morgan. We truly appreciate the time, effort, and expertise you gave to the evening. A massive Thank you to John Brennan our Competition Sec who had everything in order and everyone in check for the night to run as smoothly as it did.

Well done to all! 

Please see below for a taste of what was on show last night.
Have a great summer — we’ll be back in action again this September!

We are very pleased to announce that we have received a grant of €900 through the 2026 Small capital investment grant from Cork County Council. This has enabled us to purchase a new backdrop and stand as well as new studio lightning equipment for club use.
This will be of great benifit to our club.
We are very greatful to the Cork county council for their support.

Blackwater Photographic Society was delighted to welcome guest speaker John Tait from East Cork Camera Group to our club meeting last Monday night.

John treated us to a wonderful presentation covering a wide range of photography, including wildlife, landscape, and sports photography. He shared some truly stunning wildlife images from the beautiful East Cork coastline, featuring short-eared owls, yellowhammers, snow buntings, and much more.

During the second half of the evening, John took us through highlights from his most recent trip to Sweden, where he showcased incredible prints of golden eagles, black woodpeckers, and other remarkable wildlife.

He also spoke about the importance of printing photographs so they can be properly appreciated and enjoyed for years to come.
We would like to sincerely thank John for making the journey and for delivering such a fantastic night.

His presentation was both inspiring and engaging, and he held the attention of our members throughout the evening.

Some more great news today for Blackwater Photographic Society on the Competition front! Our own Paul Madigan has been awarded a FIAP Gold Medal for his stunning image ” *Cattle Egret* ” at the *FIAP Nature Biennial 2026* .

Ireland took 1st place in the Print Section, winning the prestigious FIAP World Cup. Both Paul’s image and Kieran O Mahonys print images were a key part of that winning panel. This is a great achievement at a global level.

We are delighted to also share that Paul Madigan, Kieran O Mahony and John Flynn BPS were also part of Ireland’s digital panel. And all three of our members — Kieran, John, and Paul — each had 2 images accepted in the Digital Section (6 out of 20 iages in total digital images from Blackwater).

For the full announcement and details of all the Irish award winners, check out the Irish Photographic Federation’s post on Facebook.

We are delighted to share some incredible news from this weekend’s Irish Photographic Federation National Shield which was held at the Barbican Centre in Drogheda on Saturday, November 15th.

The National Shield is a major national photography competition designed to showcase the best emerging photographic talent across Ireland.

This year our club achieved its strongest-ever result in this competition:

✨ Monochrome Panel – 1st Place
✨ Colour Panel– 2nd Place

 Overall National Shield Champions 2025

Across both panels, our photographers scored *230 out of a possible 240 points*, placing Blackwater Photographic Society at the very top of the national rankings. The quality and consistency across the both panels was exceptional and we’re thrilled to see the hard work of our members recognised by the judges.

A special congratulations goes to John Ward, whose image in the Colour Section received an Honourable Mention in the individual awards, a fantastic achievement on a national stage.

We would also like to extend a sincere thank you to Niamh Barrett from Mallow Camera Club, who kindly transported our prints to Drogheda on the day. Your help is very much appreciated.

Finally, a huge thank you to all our members who submitted images, supported the panel selection process and helped prepare the prints. And many thanks to the IPF, the judges, and Drogheda Photographic Club for hosting such a great event. A huge well done to our friends at Solas Club on their achievements and Mallow, Blarney both scoring strong results on the day.

We’re incredibly proud of this result and proud to share our Colour and Mono panels with you below.

Feature Photographer of the Week – Geraldine Dennehy

This week we’re delighted to feature Geraldine Dennehy, a wonderfully diverse photographer whose work spans sports, portraits, families, and children.

Geraldine is an active member of our BPS Committee, where she plays a key role in organising many of our model shoots. If she had to pick a favourite subject, it would no doubt be horses — a passion clearly reflected in her stunning equestrian images.

Known throughout the show jumping community, Geraldine isn’t afraid to brave any weather to capture the perfect shot.

Below is a selection of her beautiful work over the years