Hiya, I’m not sure if you have all been finding the same but I am seeing curves everywhere and am trying desperately to find ways to turn them into a photograph for our next competition “Curves in Colour”. I thought as we hadn’t had a group outing this week, I’d take a look into various ideas for those that might need a little help with the competition. But before we go on to that, I wanted to give a shout out to two of our club members. The first is Michael Kennedy whose photo above received Kerry Radio’s Photograph of the Month on Dominick Walsh’s photography segment.  What an absolutely fabulous image of the autumn foliage surrounding the bridge over Owengarriff River near Torc Waterfall (it’s on the road to Molls Gap).  Well done Michael!!!

The second person I want to thank is Eric for letting us know about a pretty unique opportunity last Friday to practice street photography – The Castleisland Horse Fair. Such a shame I couldn’t go as I think Eric’s image here shows the characters around on the day. My first thought was that it looked like a scene from the Peaky Blinders movie set!

But now it’s time to go back to the curves and as I can be a bit nerdy, I decided to look up what the definition of a curve actually is and according to the Collins Dictionary it is “a smooth, gradually bending line”. That covers a lot of things! For example, the two photos above have curves in them, some fairly obvious like the bridge in Michael’s image but some are more subtle – the flow of the river, the no u-turn sign and the curves of the horses’ backs and tails. Curves are everywhere but do they have the ability to grab your attention? 

They are abundant in the Irish landscape – meandering rivers, rainbows (or no-rain bows as I experienced this week), the rolling hills, the bend of storm-worn trees, and, of course, our long winding country roads. Our architecture also has plenty.   Buildings are no longer just four perpendicular walls; many new ones have curved external structures and our historic buildings have their fair share too – just look at old church windows and doorways or the spiral stairs in castle towers.  And don’t forget close-up nature images like the mushrooms we photographed last week.

But what if you don’t have time to go out this week to take such photos?  So I thought that I would go through various stock images and see what examples I could come up with that are all within our abilities to create. There are plenty of opportunities in and around your home.  Maybe you just need to change your perspective or viewing angle to see the photo – what seems straight from one viewpoint, maybe be curvy from another! 

  • The perfume bottle on the bedroom table (a very nice birthday present!)
  • Spoons nestled together in the cutlery drawer
  • Colourful kitchen utensils
  • Crockery stacked in your kitchen cupboard or on a shelf
  • The pasta on your dinner plate
  • The wine bottle and glasses on your table
  • The petals on your favourite flower
  • An old camera sitting on the shelf
  • The skipping rope as the kids play in the garden
  • Sword-like and spiked leaves of garden plants
  • The differing shapes of garden containers
  • The metal exhaust on a motorbike or car
  • A curved driveway or road leading to your house
  • A game of pool down the pub

A curve is any line that isn’t straight or angled; the possibilities are endless – curves are literally everywhere.  So if you are struggling, I hope this gives you some ideas. If you have already got your shot, I can’t wait to see it! The closing date for the competition is Thursday 21st November.

Next Club meeting is scheduled for this Thursday 7th November at 7.30pm and Graham Daly will be giving his talk & presentation! Don’t forget to bring your completed Outing Survey if you haven’t already handed it in. This week I’ve been focusing my time on reviewing the surveys we’ve received back so far and it looks like we have enough interest for a visit to Liverpool to be led by Eric!  

Just a reminder that George from Dingle Dark Room will be doing a workshop on Saturday 16th November in Dingle – we still have 2 slots left. If you want to put your name down for this please send Marie, our Club Secretary an email or contact me on the events@killarneycameraclub.ie.

Our next outing will be led by Terry MacSweeney to Rossbeigh on Saturday 23rd November. Arrangements are still be worked out but as soon as I have them, I’ll let you know.

Just to also let you know, next year our annual exhibition will be in Killarney House and Gardens for 2 months so to celebrate this, our theme will be Killarney National Park so bear this in mind when you are out and about taking your images. I’ll see you next time and if you have any photos from outings that you want to add to these updates and reports please do send them to me, 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