THE WINNERS OF THE 2015 IPF NATIONAL SHIELD ARE…
“The IPF National Shield is an annual inter club competition which is open to all clubs who are affiliated to the IPF. Only those photographers competing at Intermediate level are eligible to be represented in this competition.
This competition showcases the work of photographers from clubs all over the country. Each competing club may submit a panel of colour prints and/or a panel of monochrome prints. Note that only those clubs who enter both sections will be eligible for the overall award. It’s a highly competitive day, but also filled with good humour and stories as colleagues and friends catch up.Give some background on the IPF and the Shield competition”
This year the Athlone Photography Club was honoured to emerge victorious and claim the highly coveted IPF National Shield. This was a momentous achievement for our club which is in it’s third year and it is only our second time to enter the competition.
A total of twenty seven clubs from all over Ireland entered the competition and together presented four hundred and two photos to be judged by the three strong expert judging panel. For this years competition, the judges were Caroline Colegate ARPS, Christine Widdal MPAGB AFIAP and Tim Pile ARPS AIPF EFIAP.
Not only did the club win overall but individual photos from both the monochrome and colour panels were singled out for additional awards.
Girto Miko was given an Honourable Mention for his wonderful photo “I’m Here Without you”.
“I’m Here Without You” by Girto Miko
BRONZE AWARD
Paul Grogan was awarded a bronze medal for his brilliant photo “Let Me Go”, which was taken during a club organised Halloween photoshoot.
“Let Me Go” by Paul Grogan
GOLD AWARD
Lina Gorodeckaite Bechara was awarded a gold medal for her beautiful photo “Peaceful”.
“Peaceful” by Lina Gorodeckaite Bechara
GOLD AWARD
Girto Miko was also awarded a gold medal for his exceptional photo “Wild Things”, which was taken during a club organised Halloween photoshoot.
“Wild Things” by Girto Miko
While the judges undertook their difficult judging job, the attendees were treated to two great talks from guest speakers. This year Ciara Drennan and Daragh Muldowney eloquently spoke about their photographic journey. Ciara gave us an insight into the art of concert photography and how she is doing something that combines her two passions, music and photography. Her photos produced emotions on the day with squeals of delight coming from enthusiastic music fans in the audience.
Daragh spoke about his expedition to Greenland to photograph the glaciers. Daragh’s photography succeeded in capturing the beauty of the planet we live in and showed us some of the extreme physical challenges photographers have to overcome in order to bring us places we may never have the chance to see.
We in the Athlone Photography Club pride ourselves on being a place where photographers can meet up, share ideas and learn from one another while having fun and taking lots of photos. We believe that this approach to photography is the right one for us and winning this competition has given us the confidence that we are doing something right. Competitions like these are there to challenge us as photographers and to help us improve and we are thankful to the IPF for giving us this opportunity to compete.
We would also like to extend our thanks to Joe Doyle and all the Malahide Camera Club for once again organising this event and being excellent hosts.
We cannot sign off without congratulating all the photographers and the clubs who took part in this year’s IPF National Shield competition; you helped make it an enjoyable experience for all. Not forgetting Rush Library Camera Group for helping us out of a “non sticky” situation, thanks a million.
We would love for you to visit our galleries.