PHOTO EXHIBITIONS

I have referred many times to the sterling (if you'll pardon the adjective in the times that are in it) work done by Michal Edwards Photography in organising photo exhibitions and competitions in the Donaghmede Shopping Center. The Centre gives Michael the use of currently vacant premises. His activities attract extra customers to the Centre and at the same time there is one less obviously vacant space to take from the overall impression of activity.

While we're waiting for the first club's exhibition in this year's competition in June, Michael is not letting the grass grow under his feet and he is currently hosting an exhibition by the Sutton Camera Club.

The theme is "Red and Blue" and some entries have been quite clever in how they include the two colours.

Now, I don't know if you notice anything odd about any of these shots. Take for example the Poolbeg Lighthouse. There are all sorts of funny lighting effects there and none of them the photographer's fault.

The problem lies in the combination of glass and lighting. Mounted but unframed photos are not a problem as they won't have glass in front of the photo to relflect the surroundings. And if you do have glass you need to be very sure of having a bespoke exhibition space with the lighting adjusted each time to the specific exhibits. This will probably also involve excluding all external light.

The shot above is an original take. I had to take it on my knees and at a side angle in order to get rid of reflections in the glass. The other shots were also taken at odd angles for the same reason. And as you'll see I was only partially successful in avoiding reflections.

Malahide Camera Club Exhibition

I encountered the same problem at the recent exhibition by the Malahide Camera Club which was held in that village's parish hall. That was an even greater problem as you can see from the streaks of very bright sunlight which, if they didn't directly fall on a picture, were invariably reflected in the glass anyway. I didn't even try to capture any of them and as a result didn't do a blog post, though there was some really beautiful work on display.

Don't let anything I've said above put you off going to see some good photography but perhaps the organisers/clubs might cut the glass in future unless they have specifically managed to overcome this particular problem.