Happy New Year, everyone! How was your Christmas break? I had a quiet family Christmas and New Year, so my DSLR stayed in its bag until mid-January when the last visitors left except for one quick moment captured by my husband.
I’ve seen some fab snowy shots over the days after the snow
but none are as famous as Julia’s Rex who made it into the Irish Independent! Congratulations Julia on the fantastic photograph.
So what have we been up to as a club so far in 2025 – well so far we’ve had three cool events to start the year and here’s a few words about them (well quite a lot, it’s a long update and there was a lot to cover but I have included lots of pictures, thanks guys!!
Terry took us on another VWVan trip; this time to Brittany and Normandy. Terry’s presentation was awesome as always and as we saw many fabulous places and even better photos!
Our first in-person meeting last Thursday was great evening and for those of us who made it to the Anam Centre, we had a blast with still-life photography. We set up four stations with different themes, like an old camera, Paris-themed items, plants, and a classic still-life setup.
The lighting was tricky, but we got some fantastic shots. If you are interested, when the blind is pulled down and taped across the table for the background, it is called an infinity curve (you learn something new everyday!).
Station 1 was my old Agifold Camera dating back to the 1940s. The strap gave an interesting lead to the camera with its expandable bellows.
Station 2 was Mary’s homage to her Paris vacation with the glass bottle in the design of the Eiffel Tower and some Paris travel guides. On reviewing one of her earlier photos, Mary had to ensure that the bottle was vertical so it didn’t resemble the leaning Tower of Pisa!!!
Station 3 was Anne’s plant collection on another improvised background – a table cloth attached to the wall (I’m not too great with plant names but looks like an aloe vera, what I know as “mother-in-laws tongue” and another succulent). Angela and Marie really benefited here from Anne’s photography knowledge.
Station 4 was your classical still life set up – a bottle of wine, glass and grapes. This proved to be one the most difficult of all of the still-life setups. No, it wasn’t because we all sipped the wine, honestly would I lie!. The lighting proved extremely challenging, but we did our best and came out with some fabulous shots.
The third event was to Black Valley with Seamus leading our first outing of 2025. The Black Valley is at the southern tip of the MacGillycuddy’s Reeks mountains in Kerry, just south of the Gap of Dunloe and north of Moll’s Gap). We had huge turnout with a convoy of 4 cars. Mary’s collage shows the variety in the day!
First we explored Upper Lake, Killarney, and even though the small fishing boat, The Jersey, wasn’t there, we got some great shots of a very young and accommodating deer.
We moved on to Looscaunagh Lake – halfway between Moll’s Gap and the Ladies View – where Seamus outlined his tips for photographing the lake but I won’t give away his secrets here!!! By the time we left here, we were all ready for a cuppa and a warm-up, so we headed to Gap of Dunloe’s Avoca Shop & Restaurant. The stop lasted a little longer than planned as we all got the munchies – I highly recommend the spinach strudel, Mary, oops, I mean Angie(!), loved the tomato and basil soup, while Iryna enjoyed her first chicken & vegetable pie, as others devoured sweet treats & cakes!
We then headed down into the Black Valley. The scenery around is absolutely stunning, but boy, those roads are narrow. After quite a drive, we eventually came to Molly’s Cottage, also known as Slate House. It was even more spectacular than I thought it would be – a landscape photographer’s dream. We all set off in search of “THE” shot, with most setting up on the road at first to get the classic winding road to Molly’s Cottage shot. One couple came walking over the hill just as we were all starting to take photos and exclaimed, “I don’t think we’ve ever seen so many people around here before,” to which we retorted, “You haven’t been here in the summer!”.
We got a little more adventurous – Noel climbed way up the hill, Seamus and I went down the hill looking up along the stone walls, others explored inside the cottage, and some focused on the amazing silver birch trees beside the cottage. Iryna surveyed everything with her drone (I can’t wait to see these images).
We headed back the same way we came in since Keith had a few more photo stops to share with us. We stopped at another lake, Lough Cummeenduff, and some cascades and waterfalls (I’m trying to find out their names for future reference!) before finally calling it a day and heading back to Killarney. It was an absolutely fabulous day. Big thanks to Seamus for his guidance and for sharing his knowledge of our amazing countryside – it’s very much appreciated.
Check out the small gallery below with some fun and serious shots from all the years activities so far. Hope you enjoy them!
So what’s up next? We have nothing fixed at the moment but we are working on the following:
- Fota Island Wildlife Park in March
- Rossbeigh Beach in April
- Liverpool Trip sometime in early June
Any other ideas, please forward them to myself or Mary and we will try to sort some more outings out.
Just to keep you reminded, this 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 – please bear this in mind when you are out and about taking your images. For those that are unsure of what is covered by the national park check out https://www.nationalparks.ie/killarney/.
I’ll see you next time and if you have any photos from your week that you want to add to these updates and reports please do send them to me, cheers for now! Next in person Club meeting is in the new year on Thursday, 30th January at 7.30pm which will be competition night – Street Photography (Black & White).
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
Killarney Camera Club 
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