Month: September 2007

I’ve been invited by Acara.ie to participate in an art exhibition and auction at the end of November in aid of One In Four, which is a charity that works to support men and women who have experienced sexual violence. I’m very honoured to have been asked but now I’m faced with having to choose a photograph to submit by Thursday!! I’ve gone through my photos and chosen a few of my own favourites and I’m asking for your help in choosing one. My experience is that my favourites are not neccessarily what other people like so if there are any that I haven’t included but you spot on my blog or Flickr page then please feel free to suggest it.

The theme is “Being Bold” which is quite an open theme and can be applied in a lot of different ways, but obviously some images will suit better than others.

Thank you so much!

Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/125, ISO 400

I really wish I could show you the photographs I took this week at the workshops that Mayo County Enterprise Board have been hosting. Annette Clancy was there as facilitator extraordinaire, she also came up with the format of the workshops, and Frank Fullard is the organiser of the whole thing along with a group of mentors from the area. The workshops are aimed at transition year students, so 16 and 17-year-olds, which can be a scary audience to keep engaged for five hours, and the object of the exercise is to give them all a taste of what it is like to be an entrepeneur. In those five hours they are divided up into groups and given the task of taking something that they are passionate about and turning it into a business idea, at the end of the day they each have 3 minutes to pitch their ideas to the room.

Canon 10D, 85mm, f2.5, 1/125, ISO 400

I had the wonderful job of blending in while everyone was busy working away and capturing the two days. It’s the kind of work I love to do and these kids were a pleasure to photograph. The first day was an all-boy’s school and the second day an all-girls. We had great fun comparing and contrasting the two and Annette commented at one point that we’d all have degrees in psychology by the end of it all. The reason I’d love to show you the photos is because we were all blown away by these teenagers and the way they threw themselves into their task. The ideas they came up with were so brilliant (about 8 ideas each day), many of which would actually work in the real world, and there was such a buzz in the room from both classes. Seeing as how they’re underage, we decided to err on the side of caution and not publish the photos on the internet, so I took a few which were more anonymous but hopefully tell a little of the story.

Canon 10D, 85mm, f2.5, 1/60, ISO 400

Canon 10D, 85mm, f1.8, 1/125, ISO 400

Tomorrow I’ll be heading across to Mayo again for two more workshops this time with mixed schools so it will be interesting to see how that compares to the other two. I also have some interesting photos lined up to post while I’m away so hopefully you’ll check back to see them. Mayo is a fantastic place for photos.

DIYPhotography.net is running a series on the basics of photography. They’ve already talked about Aperture, Shutter Speed, Exposure, ISO and Depth of Field. Great stuff for learning how to move away from the Automatic setting on your camera or just as a bit of a refresher. They’ve also got assignments at the end of each piece which is the best way to get your head around it all.