Hiya everyone, so what a treat we had on Saturday in between some thoroughly awful weather. I hope you all survived Storm Ashley without any issues. And if anyone wants any cooking apples let me know as our trees have dropped a lot!!! But back to my report for our outing to Gougane Barra. I struggled to get myself out of bed at 5am to meet the guys at Deerpark Tescos in Killarney.

Seamus, Eric and Iryna were already there waiting! After a hasty bacon sandwich we piled into Eric’s car and 10 minutes later, we were heading toward Gougane Barra.  Iryna was exhausted from a night of trying to get shots of the Super Moon and immediately fell asleep while we three chatted away making the hour long journey pass quickly! Eric got us there safely through the rain and fog. Gathering our gear together we headed to the lake and within minutes, we were clicking away. Iryna was down on the little pier. Eric was up on the bridge. Seamus and I were down by the edge of the lake.

Once the rain had stopped and the fog lifted, the sky was clear. The surface of the water was so calm that the reflection of the church seemed as real as it could possibly be. The moon left us and the sun slowly emerged, treating us to the most amazing colour display. It was autumn in all its glory. We were lucky to have the place to ourselves for a good couple of hours. I have to say it turned out to be one of the most fantastic photographic days I have ever experienced – thank you to Seamus for organising it! Despite the fact that I had a technical mishap that resulted in having to hold the filters in front of my lens (long story but I will be buying a new step-up ring!!), I think I got some amazing shots and so will have Seamus, Iryna and Eric.

Iryna also spent time practicing her drone shots which I can’t wait to see as it will give us a completely different perspective (the images included here are both drone shots). Meanwhile Seamus and I were trying hard to get the full shot of church and the moon with both their reflections in the lake. I am still going to through all my photos but hopefully we both managed it. We then headed closer to the church climbing down on the lake shore to get what Seamus called “chocolate box shot”.  

We wrapped up around 10.30am and had a warm drink and scone in the hotel and then headed home to Killarney, excited chatter all the way back!! A big thank you to Eric for doing all the driving, we all appreciated it.

Enjoy these photos and hopefully we will get to see some of our final processed images in the not too distant near future!

Please note there is no outing this coming weekend. Newbies, or those wanting a refresher, take note that George from Dingle Dark Room will be conducting a workshop in Dingle on Saturday, 16th November. If you want to register and haven’t done so yet, please send Marie, our Club Secretary, or me an email – all we need is your name and your make of camera.

At this time our next outing is scheduled to be to Rossbeigh Beach on Saturday 23rd November led by Terry – confirmation of this will follow by email. If anyone wants to organize an outing, let me know. I will be sending out a list of ideas Mary and I have come up with and it’d be great if you could take a look and indicate what trips you’d like to do going forward. If there’s a last-minute informal get-together, pop it on the Group Chat.

Next Club meeting is scheduled for this Thursday, 24th October, at 7.30pm and it’s competition night!

I’ll see you next time. If you have photos from outings, feel free to send them to me. I will add them to these updates and reports. Cheers for now!


Please note all our outings are for members only. If you’d like to join our club please contact our club secretary on secretary@killarneycameraclub.ie