Category: News

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The Last Days of Togher International Festival of Amateur Photography

Saturday saw the end of an era.  With the presentation of the Kevin Ryan Memorial Trophy the last act of the Togher International Festival of Amateur Photography was complete.

Chrissie and Mary have been running a photographic competition for 23 year in the Togher community and photographers from all over Cork and the World have entered and been judged.  But as well as the Open, Novice and Specialist categories there was always the Snapshots.  And that summed up the event: something for everyone at every level of photography; a chance for experienced professionals and ameteurs to show their craft; opportunities for anyone with a camera to show off a good image; lots to smile about; an appreciation of photography at all levels; all the encouragement anyone could want.

It was testament to how this festival has touched so many in Cork that not only did the City Lord Mayor and Deputy County Mayor arrive at Togher Community Hall on Saturday but also two TDs and at least three former Mayors.  As well as many members of the community who have been involved over the last 23 years.

But after many ‘last years’ this could finally be it for Chrissie and Mary.  I think they might finally have had enough.  The local businesses will be one spot prize over this year.

My thanks to them from me and on behalf of many photographers who have taken part in TIPAF over the years.

There is still a hope someone might take up the gauntlet next year and the competition will continue and perhaps reach new heights.

But we will remain endebitted to Chrissie and Mary for the last 23 years.

Third Prize, Kevin Ryan Memorial Trophy, April 2009
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Easter Refresher

I had the pleasure of attending a three day seminar ‘almost alone’ with David Williams up in Omagh before Easter.  David’s work is incredible and it was amazing to see him at work and how he achieves such natural, intimate images.  He is truly inspirational.  Lots to take away from this and use in my own work but also great to step out of daily business every now and then and spend time improving my craft.

Thanks also to Sarah Fyffe, who hosted the event up in Omagh.

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The Rock Pools of Sydney’s Northern Beaches

I have just added another gallery to the Australian Series of Galleries on my main site.  It features a selection of images taken of the Rock Pools around Manly.

High Tide Breaking into Freshwater Pool

The pools are characteristic of the beaches on Sydney’s northern coastline and each had a character of its own.  Many had lane markings and were used frequently by organised groups and indivduals in regular training.  Others were more like lidos.

As we spent our time around the local beaches I tried to capture the variety and characters of the pools and I have a comprehensive series of images as a result.  I plan to bring them together in a series of large composites.  The gallery has a selection of the images which give you the overall impression of the work.

The full link is http://www.roblambphoto.com/Australia/RockPools/RockPoolsGallery.htm

Rob

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Australian Galleries Now Open

I have finnally started to work through all the photographs taken during our time in Australia.

The first two galleries are now available at http://www.roblambphoto.com/Australia/AustralianGalleries.htm

The photographs in these galleries were taken during my five day trip to Broken Hill on the Indian-Pacific Railway.  Broken Hill is a mining town pretty much in the middle of nowhere at the very edge of New South Wales.  Its very hard for someone like me to understand what would bring people to a place like this to find better fortunes – especially in the early stages of mining.

It is partly because they’re all from one trip that these photographs have made it out first.  There’s a lot more that I want to put up on the site but they’re gathered at different times over the 10 months we spent out there.  I have a lot of views, detail and abstracts of the Opera House and the Bridge, a nice set from the Rock Pools around Manly (they’re swimming pools cut out of the rocks on the beaches) and a few good landscapes from our trip to the Blue Mountains (when the fog wasn’t down).

So stay tuned for more from Australia.  I’ll post to this blog when I add new galleries.

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Cork Cancer Research Centre Charity Christmas Cards

Some of my photos from the launch of Cork Cancer Research Centre’s 2008 Christmas Card collection are in RSVP this week.

Six original designs were donated by local artist Fiona Turley and CCRC launched the cards at Fiona’s Gallery just outside Fermoy recently.

The cards are gorgeous and of course all proceeds go to the Cork Cancer Research Centre.  As well as Fiona’s gallery I’m told they’re available in most local shopping centres so keep an eye out if you’d like some unique Christmas Cards and help support a local charity which is doing great work in an area that affects pretty much all of us at some time in our lives.

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Puddleducks

Some of the photos I did for our friends at Puddleducks made it into Sunday’s Irish Mail.  More are expected to be used in ‘Modern Mum’ out on the 22nd November.

Puddleduck’s products are brilliant, we’ve been using their kids waterproofs since Kindergarten and the kids just love them.  I will never forget one day during Junior Infants our kids proudly ran to school in the tipping rain in pink raincoat and leggings.

Doing work for them is also a great opportunity to match my work with kids with their need for great images of kids enjoying their clothing.

We all had a great time shooting these, I’ll let Puddleducks use the more ‘product orientated’ shots but there were lots of really nice ones…

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The Last Days of Cork Docklands

Tuesday night saw the the launch of a new book documenting Cork docklands: ‘The Last Days of Cork Docklands’ by Patrick Cummins.

Now Patrick is my brother-in-law (lets get that out early) but he’s been a professional photographer for over 20 years and I really like his work.  He lives in Syndey but was in Cork for a year with his family last year and saw the opportunity to document this unique part of the city’s identity at a unique time in its history: plans for a multi-million euro regeneration have been published and whatever finally gets built the nature of the area (which has been in steady decline for some time) is set to change forever.

It’s a very worthy project but the photography stands on its own too.  Patrick took the time to get to the heart of the area, the people of its past, its present and its future.

There’s not much more info on the publisher’s site, but there’s been a good bit of press coverage for the launch including some sample photos.

If you’re in a bookstore, take a look for yourself.  Well worth €25