Stunning images that won awards for Cork photography club

We have become a planet of snappers. Google Photos alone receives more than six billion photos and videos uploads every day, that’s nearly 70,000 each second.

And yet, for all those billions of pictures, how many of us would actually call ourselves photographers?

I did a search for second-hand cameras on DoneDeal yesterday and found more than 600 listings. I wondered how many had been bought with the best of intentions, only to end up back in their boxes, gathering dust.

That was where photography started for a number of the members of Blarney Photography Club.

The difference is that they didn’t leave it there.

The club was founded by Kay Dennehy in 2010 after she put the word out locally to see if there might be interest in a casual gathering of people who wanted to learn more about photography.

More than 30 people turned up at that first meeting, a response that surprised everyone.

Sixteen years later, the club has grown to almost 60 members and is celebrating a remarkable run of competition success, including most recently winning the PSA (Photographic Society of America) Division A championships in both the colour and monochrome categories.

This is a phenomenal international achieve-ment for a small club made up of largely amateur photographers.

But, ask the members what makes the Blarney group special and the answer is less about trophies and more about the support and encouragement that’s offered by the club between taking a photograph and putting it on the wall.

Fergal O’Callaghan was one of those who joined at the beginning. Inspired by National Geographic photographers, he was hoping to improve his skills but instead found himself teaching.

“There were a lot of people who didn’t know how to use their cameras at all and I ended up being the teacher,” he says.

Since then, he has run the club’s beginner’s course every September, helping new members to learn the basics before they join the wider club.

Once photography gets a grip on you, it can become much more than taking pictures. It can change the way you travel, the things you notice and, in Fergal’s case, just how far you are prepared to go for a photograph.

In Japan, while trying to find the perfect vantage point, Fergal once found himself stuck in quicksand. When a hand was eventually stretched out to pull him free, he handed over his camera to be rescued before he was.

For Michael Strapec, photography is a different kind of obsession.

He joined Blarney Photography Club about 10 years ago after being invited along by another member, and was immediately fascinated by the photographs being printed and displayed around the room.

He has developed a reputation within the club for being meticulous about the details, and takes just as much pleasure in the editing process as he does in the photography itself.

Michael’s award-winning images are very carefully considered and executed. One features a friend dressed in armour, digitally combined with a Venice backdrop to create an entirely constructed scene, while another depicts a banana and a carrot locked in a passionate tango.

Another member, Michelle Lynch, decided to approach her subjects from a different perspective.

‘It’s more about meeting people’, she says.

While travelling in Nicaragua, she photographed a group of boys playing in the water, but it was the family watching from the sidelines that stayed with her. She struck up a conversation, and later sent them the photographs. However, they were more interested in seeing images of Ireland, so she shared pictures from home, igniting a lasting connection.

Michelle still uses her 10-year-old Nikon D5600 camera and, despite being told an upgrade could take her photography to the next level, would rather spend the money on travel and experiences because, according the Michelle, pictures are taken with the eye, not the equipment

That eye has also turned back towards home. Michelle has been documenting life around her family farm, something she says has grown from the confidence she has gained through the club.

Under the current club chairman, Seamus Mulcahy, the members run monthly competitions, meaning photographers are constantly challenging themselves, while weekly critiques give members the chance to understand why an image works, or where it could be improved.

For Nuala O’Keeffe, who joined the Blarney group around four years ago after wanting to improve her technical skills, that feedback has been one of the most valuable parts of being a member.

She had initially wanted to improve her family snaps, but decided to start with landscapes and seascapes, admitting they were areas of photography she struggled with. Instead, she found herself becoming increasingly interested in them.

One photograph in particular, taken at a waterfall in Wicklow, stands out.

Nuala’s first attempt wasn’t quite right, so she went back the following day. This time, she felt that everything she had been learning through the club’s critiques and advice came together in the photograph.

“There are those light-bulb moments,” she says.

It is that eagerness to embrace new approaches and share skills that has kept the membership of Blarney Photography Club growing and improving for 16 years.

You don’t have to arrive with an expensive camera, and you certainly don’t have to know how to use it.

Some members use phones, others have been photographing for decades, and there is room for all of them.

It is a club that has turned a common hobby into a reason to get out, explore, and keep learning. Because a camera is only a tool, and it is what the person behind it sees that makes the difference.

In Blarney, at least, some of those billions of photographs being taken around the world are being made with a little more thought and a little more skill.

And if the passion I met with in Blarney, combined with the remarkable photographs on display and a PSA trophy in the bag, are anything to go by, the future looks bright for a club that is already making its mark on Cork’s photographic history.