Dublin Camera Club

Kalikat

Does anyone have any experience with them? I'm thinking about joining, as I don't know anyone into photography over here. I was a bit spoiled by my photography degree course in the UK, where I could wax lyrical about Bill Brandt over a pint with any number of interested and enthusiastic folks. I'm a bit nervous, though, as camera clubs tend to have a bit of an insular reputation, and I'm also a recent digital convert - something guaranteed to get the backs of traditionalists up!

So, any opinions about them? Is it worth joining? Their meeting schedule looks really interesting.

Merrion

Pop along to the people's photography expo the weekend after next (28/29 Aug) as there'll be lots of DCC members there and you can have an informal chat to see if you would like to join them.

Kalikat

Thanks, Merrion! I was planning to come after reading your post about it a while back. Do you have all the pictures you're planning to exhibit sorted yet? Good luck with it!

I'll see if I can find some DCC members to chat to. I work just off Camden Street, so it'd be quite convenient for meetings/exhibitions. I'd also love access to darkrooms again; as much as I love my 300D and Photoshop, I feel like I'm cheating by not smelling of chemicals all the time, and coming out half-blind after spending a day in the dark.

DadaKopf

Heh, I really wouldn't worry about the digital thing. Not that I've tried (haven't had the opportunity, sadly) but the alchemy of 'traditional' photography is a real turn on for most, and digital is considered sterile and mysterious. Personally, I tend to think that digital is the way to go, or rather will be when quality improves, because of the amazing advantages it offers. They'll come around!

I went to the DCC's current exhibition last weekend for 30 seconds. Can't say I was remotely impressed by anything. I had thought of joining myself once but (1) I'm not a good photographer, nor can I afford to be for now and (2) I didn't feel these guys were into what I'm into.

I dunno how educational it'd be. I think I'd prefer finishing my masters, working, saving money then doing a photography HDip in Dun Laoghaire or in England or something.

You can always discuss Bill Brandt and anyone you like right here you know! I'm always into in-depth discussions about art, even if no one else is .

Kalikat

Oops - didn't mean to disparage you guys here! I'd love to have some in-depth discussions about art and photography on the boards. It's just a pain getting all enthusiastic about a photographic expedition to the botanical gardens, and then getting harumphed at by my boyfriend who gets bored after 5 minutes: "Haven't you got enough photos of that cactus? Let's go!"

Digital is a revelation to me. No worrying about how many rolls of film I have. No worrying about ND grad filters for landscape photography. It's really quite versatile, and I'm amazed at the image quality. I was the biggest digital naysayer back when I started my degree, so I can understand where the detractors are coming from. I bet if you stuck a 1DMkII in their hands, they'd be blown away, though!

I'm looking forward to the People's Photography thing next weekend - I hope the weather clears up a bit!

FinoBlad

Dublin Camera Club is a great club [i'm not in it though] check them out.

You should also check these guys out in Temple Bar [they showed Bill Brandt several years ago] http://www.irish-photography.com
Open Tuesdays - Saturdays, 11am - 6pm
Sundays, 1-6pm.
Membership €40

Personally I think some of the clubs would be like "Haven't you got enough photos of that cactus? too though.

DadaKopf

I get the impression most of the clubs are into what camera or filter you have instead of exploring ways to be more creative and original.

They obviously go hand in hand but sadly, technology fetishism wins out.

bigred

I've been a member of a reasonably big camera club in dublin and would kill to be in a club where people were trying something different. We go on our outings to some park, and everyone spends the day photgraphing some fat robin on a wall, or a bloody swan. Whenever someone suggests something interesting like street portraiture, sports etc., it's shot down. I use a 10D but rarely use photoshop, yet when I have an interesting image, it gets marked down because 'it must be digitally manipulated to get a shot like that'

Anyone want to step into the 21st century and go and do some decent photography??

DadaKopf

Just say to them there's no difference between analogue manipulation and digital manipulation. So what, instead of overdeveloping the film, you hit the Brightness/Contrast window. Or you add or subtract filters on your monitor instead of on the enlarger.

These people who give out to you are freaks. If the technology's there, use it. The important thing in the end of the day is a good photograph. Period. Whether a successful image is achieved via analogue or digital means, or both shouldn't matter. It's the image that counts.

bigred

That's exactly what I tell them - photoshop is my version of their darkroom. I get the crap, but you have the old head who's been in photography 50 years who goes and drops a 6 foot tall squirrel into a forest scene and he's just the greatest kudos for his 'creativity'. From my experience, the amatuer photo scene in Ireland needs new blood. The IPF came and did an AV presentation this year - two slide projectors and a tape recorder. Said it took them a couple of weeks to get right. I asked if we could use powerpoint or flash etc. and they said that it was still against the rules - they may be changing it.

Welcome to the computer age!

DotOrg

Anyone want to step into the 21st century and go and do some decent photography??

I've been looking at the camera clubs around Dublin and none seem to be that suited towards digital or innovation. If I had the time I'd be interested in setting up some kind of club/organisation where people could learn off each other and bounce ideas etc around.

gmt

We should just found our own, modern, open-minded camera-club.

raphaelS

gmt wrote:

We should just found our own, modern, open-minded camera-club.

And online... like the idea!

Raphael

chewy

there was some detailed discussion about about the virtual darkroom in a thread a while back...

what sort of photograhy photos woudl you saw are digitally daring and dynamic as you's all hope for? examples

Gyck

everyone spends the day photgraphing some fat robin on a wall, or a bloody swan

LOL!

I can't claim to be a great photographer, but if I was in a peer group that encouraged this kind of feeling I'd just give up. Right now.

Thankfully, I can't imagine anyone involved in discussions here being that narrow minded.

I really like the idea of having a virutal space to explore ideas. I don't have the resources to do my own development (at the moment). I love photography, both traditional and digital. I'll scan and manipulate my shots if I feel they're worth playing with, though if I've managed to capture an image I like first time I rarely manage to enhace it futher.

I love digital for the speed and lack of restraints. So what if I take a bunch of shots and all but one is rubbish. Delete them. Digital also gives a different feel to film. I use an older digital camera and get fringing on telephoto shots. So what, it becomes part of the picutre. Learn the constraints of the tools and use them to your advantage.

Hmmm. I may have gone slightly off the original scope of this thread...

DotOrg

what sort of photograhy photos would you saw are digitally daring and dynamic as you's all hope for? examples

it's not that different from darkroom techniques,the end result is the same, just the way you get there is different.

something like:
http://www.aaaphotos.org/andrewhandrick/
is an example of something I've done which would be far more difficult to do with traditional darkroom techniques

MistressPandora

I still like the idea of having our own camera club thingy...

gmt

OK, lets do this then. We could get our own forum (maybe here on boards.ie, dont know if you have to pay them or if it's free, otherwise we could just use yahoo or ezboard), people can upload their images to their own webspace (pbase, webshots...) and link their images to the forum. Shouldn't take to much work to get this thing running. Who has an interest in this?

MistressPandora

You can count me in, that's for sure.

Jim

I'd join.

raphaelS

Maybe we can use PhotoSig?
I posted some photos there but there's so many people using it that it is difficult to get any good feedbacks...
But if we post a link to our photos and we can make usefull critics it could work?
You can submit one photo every 72 hours but when you get "critique points" you can post more... so between us it should work well?

Here is one of mine (for testing):
http://www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=1129528

And some days we can organise meetings (to shot ducks in Stephens Green )...

Raphael

gmt

I don't like the sound of shooting ducks, I happen to like them quite a bit

Merrion

I have both a fat robin and a swan in my DeviantArt gallery so I'd be bringing the tone down somewhat

MistressPandora

Bloody robins. You decide take a photo of a bird, and there's always a robin nearby, scheming how to head-butt the nearest crow. Evil birdies.

/me knows what they're up to.

gerire

I read a lot on this forum and seeing as im getting any digital camera for free next week I would too be interested in joining this ub, I dont see why you have to go else where to set it up tho. You have a perfect forum here, no charges to buy any extra bulletin board for your own site, no hosting charges, no domain charges etc. If you wanted to make it invite only contact one of the admins and ask them for a private forum so only people you want can come along, but then I feel you are missing out on the random passers by who might never find out about it.

bigred

gerire wrote:

then I feel you are missing out on the random passers by who might never find out about it.

Agreed. I thought there was no hope for those like me who wanted to do something a little different, and stumbled across boards a little while back. Glad I did. Leave it open and public, you'll get a couple of different types, the window shoppers, heavy contributors and those who dip their toes now and again.
So who's going to get on to the admins on boards.ie and get a new public thread going?

Jim

What exactly are ye proposing? An open forum for a boards.ie camera club?

bigred

"What exactly are ye proposing? An open forum for a boards.ie camera club?"

That's what I'm getting at. Even the number of posts that have come in today alone are a good indicator.

gerire

I dont even know if we need to go that far just opening a sub forum here, for people to post photos and get tips, critiques and advice etc

Kalikat

Wow, look where this thread has gone!

I'd definitely be interested in participating in a boards.ie camera club. A photography sub-forum would be excellent - it's predominantly photography posts in Arts / Anim / Photo, anyway, so perhaps if we consolidated a bit, the Arts & Anim parts of the forum title would have a bit more room to breathe.

chewy

dotorg is that the same person?

i think a sub forum for
dynamic? photography would be good. give it focus

how do you post up pictures so that they appear in thread?

Jim

Put in this...

[*img]imageaddress[/img]

Leave out the *. The picture has to be uploaded to webspace.

gmt

Test

DotOrg

dotorg is that the same person?

yep, did lots of shots with camera in the same position on a tripod and then 'shopped them together

K!LL!@N

DotOrg wrote:

it's not that different from darkroom techniques,the end result is the same, just the way you get there is different.

something like:
http://www.aaaphotos.org/andrewhandrick/
is an example of something I've done which would be far more difficult to do with traditional darkroom techniques

I'm only after reading through this thread now.
I love that photo.
I tried a similar idea with some pics i took.
Here's my effort

I've always wanted to try my hand at photogaphy but never had the use of even a half decent camera or the money to have stuff developed.
I just got a new digicam and i love it.
Got to take lots of pics on a recent trip to the states, where i bought the cam.

I love the versatility of digital.
The speed.
The ability to take lots of shots and not have worry about developing costs.
Being able to work on the photo afterwards, if it needs it.
Being to put together shots that would be impossible with a normal camera.

I've seen some great photos posted by people here and i'd love to be able to get opinions and advice from people, and also share any help i might have as well.
So yeah, i think it could be interesting to have a more indepth forum.
I don't think it should be private.
And i would hope that it wouldn't be too much of a clique.

Killian

gmt

I never meant it to be private or invitation only but it should be separate from the arts/anim/photo board. Maybe a split of this forum or off boards.ie completely. I don't know how the mods in this section are but some other parts of boards.ie are a wee bit heavyhanded (no offence meant).

heffsarmy

I think this would be a great idea to trade tips a trciks in photography, I have learn a great tip were u reverse a 50mm 1.4 lens on canon G5 with some great macro shots I have posted some results below, tell what you think

K!LL!@N

heffsarmy wrote:

I think this would be a great idea to trade tips a trciks in photography, I have learn a great tip were u reverse a 50mm 1.4 lens on canon G5 with some great macro shots I have posted some results below, tell what you think

WOW!

Can't really say any more than that.

Killian

fenris

Count me in !

I have been looking for something like this for ages, need to go beyond snapping pictures of my dog and baby, digital gives great freedom but the flipside is that it is very hard to know what is worth keeping, so my G3 is slowly filling up all available disk space !

Maybe I am wrong but I have always had the feeling that traditional camera clubs looked down their noses at digital, that and the fact that my idea of a good picture dosent seem to jibe with the ideas of the experts (sometimes I think the before is better than the after) it gives me a sneaking suspicion that the emperor has loads of new clothes !

Kalikat

Do we need to request a sub-forum over in System then? Who will moderate?

I really love the idea of this. We can have weekly (or monthly) 'assigments' like over at fredmiranda.com. Not assigments as such, but more something to get the creative juices flowing. Or is that too structured?

heffsarmy, those are absolutely stunning! I especially love the first one. The Canon 50mm 1.4 (or perhaps the 1.8, depending on how tender my bank account is at the end of this month) is next on my list of lenses to buy.

MistressPandora

Kalikat wrote:

Do we need to request a sub-forum over in System then? Who will moderate?

I really love the idea of this. We can have weekly (or monthly) 'assigments' like over at fredmiranda.com. Not assigments as such, but more something to get the creative juices flowing. Or is that too structured?

What exactly would a moderater do? I might be up for it, but only if I know what's going on.
As for the whole assignments thingy, I like the idea. We could focus on certain things every week, like portaiture or documentry.

MistressPandora

chewy

urban75.org has an active photogaphy forum.. and gives themes out to people each month

Benster

Heffsarmy -

Those pics are something else, I was expecting the usual close-ups of a coin or the point of a pencil, the usual clichés.

How did you get those insects to pose for you? honey? money? super-glue?

B.

FinoBlad

Its great to see so many photography posts these days. IMHO theres no need for a sub forum just yet but definitely if things take off.

gmt

I would like to mod it as well. Two or three people would be more than enough, that way the "workload" can be shared, people can go on holidays, whatever. This seems to work pretty well in the for sale section of boards.ie.

gerire

A sub-forum would only need max 2 mods. Anybody who wants can submit ideas for the monthly 'Assignment', term used very loosly, with people being able to post up both tips and tricks, heffsarmy excellent pix btw, and also post up images for critique.

Ill contact Dev now and see what he thinks
ger

Jim

We would only need one mod, I doubt there would be much in terms of spam or trolls. I assume photographers are all reasonable people.

The only thing that might be dangerous ground were if someone were to post nude photos. These images are banned from boards.ie, but someone might get testy if you remove those images from their posts. They are photography after all. You may get away with it, as long as the photo's are tasteful. But again how to distinguish between tasteful and nontasteful. I'd discuss it with Dev first anyway before you make the charter.

Gerire, did you ask Dev for the forum? If not I'd suggest we go through the offical channel and ask for it on the forums board.

[edit]Alright you people don't reply fast enough and college gets real boring real fast so I posted a thread asking for the forum. Pledge your support here.[/edit]

gerire

Dev was sent a pm last night

chewy

i'd prefer atleast two mods... mods can a little dictorial round here

Jim

chewy wrote:

i'd prefer atleast two mods... mods can a little dictorial round here

....its a camera club.

And like who? If you have a problem with a mod you can always report them to the admins with your complaint.

K!LL!@N

Let's not get caught up in wannabe mod war here.

Also, i don't know about anyone else but i'm not crazy about these weekly "assignments". It might start out ok, but it'll soon get boring. And you're likely to alienate people who can't get to stephen's green to take pictures of the ducks etc.
Let's just try and have this be a forum where people can show off their work and get constructive comments/advice.

The less structured this is, the better i think it will be.

Killian