Blackwater Photographic Society will hold their 2024/2025 season launch at the Social Services Centre in Mallow on Monday, September 2 at 8pm.

The social services centre is located beside the swimming pool in Mallow and everyone is welcome.

There are many activities held for members during the year.

They include a six week introduction for new beginners (30 minutes before the club starts), educational evenings, photography skills, printing and presentation, Adobe Photoshop, field trips, guest speakers and exhibitions.

On the launch night for the new season, the club members will hold a presentation of their work. The club programme for the 2024/25 season will also be outlined.

New members are always welcome. U18s must be accompanied by an adult.

The Blackwater Photographic Society’s annual Photographer of the Year competition was held recently showcasing exceptional talent across multiple categories.
We were honoured to have three renowned photographers as our judges, Dave Harris, Charlie O’Donovan (Cork Camera Club) and Mark Gorman (Blarney Camera Club). Their extensive photographic experience greatly enriched the judging process, where they evaluated 30 prints and 230 digital photos. We are grateful to the judges for their dedication and work on the night; they did an excellent job.

Thanks to John Brennan, our competition secretary and all members who contributed, whether by organising, assisting with setup, or providing baked treats for the tea break.

The competition featured three classifications: Novice, Intermediate and Advanced, with additional accolades for Best Monochrome Photographer and Best Overall Image.

There were only a few points separating the victors in this close race.

Paul Madigan and Kieran O’Mahony tied for the night’s Best Overall Image, each achieving the top score of 30 points, highlighting the challenging decision faced by our judges.

The results are in…

Novice

1st: Donna Owens

2nd: Eamonn O’Dea

3rd: John Brennan

Intermediate

1st: Wendy White

2nd: Brian Power

3rd: Jim Heffernan

Advanced

1st: Kieran O’Mahony

2nd: Valerie Walsh

3rd: Paul Madigan

Best Overall Image: Kieran O’Mahony

Best Monochrome Photographer: Wendy White

Blackwater Photographic Society members would like to thank Cork County Council for €1,000 received in the 2023 Council Amenity grant.
This money was a big help in purchasing a new club Laptop as well as some essential lighting equipment.

We kicked off the night with a big congratulations to two of our members, Paul Madigan and John Flynn, for their fantastic achievements at the IPF Nationals Photographer of the Year awards last Saturday. Paul received an honorable mention ️ in the macro section, while John picked up an honorable mention in the landscape category ️. Well done, guys! 

But the excitement didn’t stop there! We were thrilled to welcome two award winning special guests all the way from Solas Photography Club : Des Glynn and Sigita Playdon. A huge thank you to both Des and Sigita for making the journey down from Galway to join us. 

Sigita kicked off the evening by sharing invaluable insights into her photography process, accompanied by a breathtaking display of images ranging from dramatic landscapes  to action-packed macro shots and creative portraits of her family.

After a short break ☕,  Des took the floor and wowed us with his stunning nature portfolio, 力礪 featuring everything from charming garden birds to majestic ospreys diving in Scotland. He also showcased some of his landscape shots through his own printing techniques which were fantastic.

With such a fantastic turnout from our members, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended. It was truly a super night filled with inspiration.

The club recently held a print and digital competition with the theme Action/Movement.
Members judged the prints at the club meeting while an external judge Enda O Loughlin judged the digital.images.
We are immensely grateful to have had Enda O’Loughlin as our esteemed judge for the competition. Enda’s insightful comments have helped us see our work through the eyes of a seasoned professional while also providing us with constructive feedback to aid in our improvement.
The combined scores from the digital and print were added to give us our overall winner’s.

Advanced
1st John Flynn
2nd Paul Madigan
3rd Kieran O Mahony

Non Advanced
1st Pat Lyon’s and Sheila Horgan Griffin
2nd John Brennan
3rd Katie Angland

We’re thrilled to announce some fantastic news from today’s National Shield final in Drogheda. Our talented team at Blackwater Photographic Club has achieved remarkable success in a highly competitive field!

Achievements:

3rd Place in Monochrome Category with an impressive score of 460 out of 480.

3rd Place Overall in both colour and mono.

This is an outstanding achievement for our club, especially considering the very high standards set this year. The judges were particularly impressed with the diversity and quality of our submissions, ranging from striking portraiture to still life and breathtaking landscapes.

This success is a testament to the hard work, and creativity of every member of our club.

A very big congratulations to Blarney Camera club too on winning the overall title, a fantastic achievement.

Mono Panel: 1-Thurein Than Kyaw 2-John Mullane 3-Jim Heffernan 4-John Brennan 5-Alex Crow 6-Valerie Walsh 7-Jason Miller 8-Donna Owens

On Monday night last we presented €330 to Mallow Meals on Wheels which was raised from images sold that were on display at Herlihy Centra Mallow during this year’s Mallow Arts Festival. Thanks very much to Herlihys Centra, the photographers who donated their prints and to those who purchased any of the images.
The money raised is going to a great cause.

PS Treasurer Julie O Donnell (Left) presenting the money Raised to Eleanor Cullinane and Eamonn Winters of Mallow Meals on Wheels.

Our guest speaker at the club last Monday night was Viv Buckley Fine Art Photography from Mallow camera club.
Vivien showed us her creative IPF Fellowship distinction panel of cyanotype images and talked us through her journey and various processes used to create them.
We were also shown many digital images ranging from studio portraits to creative digital art.
Vivien explained how she puts a creative image together to tell a story and how she went about processing each image on Photoshop.
Thank you very much Vivien for a fascinating evening.

A very big Congratulations to Blackwater photographic society members Paul Madigan and John Mullane who both received their Licentiateship Distinctions from the Irish Photographic Federation today in Thurles.
Both panels received high praise from the assessor’s with some commenting that some of the images on the panels were some of their favorites on the day.
Congratulations to all the other successful panels today especially to Rory O Connor from Blarney Camera club on receiving his Fellowship and to Breda O Mullane from Mallow camera club on receiving her Associateship.
Very well done to all!!