WEEKLY MEETINGS
The core of the clubs activities are the Monday night meetings, kicking off at 8:00pm every Monday night from September till the end of May. The activities vary from talks, demonstrations, competitions and workshops. You can see a list of our upcoming scheduled events on our Events page.
SOCIAL
After the evening at the club house, a significant number of us retire to one of the local pubs for a chat and a few drinks and this has become an integral part of the social fabric of the club. The venue is usually announced at the end of the meetings.
INTERNAL COMPETITIONS
A big part of the ongoing activities of the club are the internal club competitions. These are divided into grades so that people are competing with those of a similar skill and experience level. This culminates at the end of the year with one member of each group, Novice, Intermediate and Advanced, winning the Photographer of the Year award. There are also medals for best colour and best mono images in each group. These awards are presented at our annual exhibition usually held in early June.EXTERNAL COMPETITIONS
Ultimately, all the entries in the various competitions are used to select club images and panels for external competitions. The main competitions are The National Shield in November (a national club competition for non-advanced members), The National club championship in April (open to all clubs) and the FIAP World Cup, an international competition which Celbridge has done well in a number of times (In 2010 we came 3rd in the world!). So your images could be selected to represent the club in a number of prestigious competitions.
BEGINNERS
We run a course for beginners usually over three Saturdays in late October or early November – details will be announced at our meetings closer to the time it starts. Here we cover the basics of how to use your camera and how to compose a shot, as well as the basics of processing your images. This is well worthwhile and will be a big help in jump starting your photography.OUTINGS AND WORKSHOPS
During the summer months there are no meetings. Instead we go on outings each week. We meet at 7:30pm at the Castletown Gates and visit a location to take photographs – typically the venue is decided the previous week and varies from Mullingar to Temple Bar to Dun Laoghaire.
We also organise a range of other activities such as weekends away, weekend workshops and day trips – these are announced at the club, or posted to the club WhatsApp group, the club website, and the club's Facebook group.
Audio Visual Group
An Audio Visual (AV for short) sequence is a combination of images, narration and music or sound effects, put together to tell a story. Within the club we have a very active AV group who collaborate to produce AVs of the highest quality, and who have been very successful in national and international competitions.
Annual Exhibition
One of the highlights of our year is the Annual Exhibition. This usually takes place around the end of May or early June, after the formal club season ends. It is a chance for the club to show a selection of the members' work, chosen by the members, to the public. The opening night is also the award ceremony for the year, where trophies and medals are given out to the prize winners from the various competitions. .
