National Club Finals 2010
(Higher resolution version here)
The Irish Photographic Federation held their National Club Finals competition in Athlone this weekend past. The competition was a chance for all the clubs from across the country to battle it out for the title of best club nationally. Unlike the National Shield competition held back in November, this event is open to “advanced” members, so the images on display really were the best images, from the best photographers from all the clubs around the country. It is a panel competition, split into two seperate sections (colour and monochrome), where each panel contains 10 images; 20 over all.
Historically my club (Celbridge Camera Club) is considered to be one of the top clubs in the country in terms of the work they produce year after year. Unfortunately though, at the club finals last year, we didn’t put in a strong showing, placing only 6th overall. Thankfully this year, we were much more successful, putting in a very strong showing to finish second overall 
Our colour panel above, placed 5th in the country and our monochrome panel placed 2nd. In addition to this we received two “Highly Commended” awards for individual print entries, including my shot of Iveta 
In general, I’m a pretty competitive photographer, so in a lot of ways second kind of feels like last, but at the same time I’m very pleased to have improved greatly on our position from last year.
A huge anount of time and effort goes into collating images from the photographers within the club, selecting the final panel images from those submissions and finally printing and mounting the images, not to mention the final bit of effort involved in travelling to the competition venue and displaying the panels. But this effort is so much more worth while when things go well in the competition. A big thanks to Gerry Kerr for assisting in the mounting of the images and of course thank you & congratulations to each of the contributing photographers.
MONOCHROME PANEL:
Merv Colton LIPF (http://www.flickr.com/people/mervcolton/)
Ciaran Whyte FIPF
Gareth Byrd LIPF (http://www.flickr.com/people/garbyrd/)
Lorraine Gilligan AIPF (http://www.lorrainegilligan.com/) HIGHLY COMMENDED 
Gerry Kerr AIPF (http://www.gerrykerr.com/)
Ciaran Whyte FIPF
Gerry Kerr AIPF (http://www.gerrykerr.com/)
Vincent McNamara LIPF LIPPA (http://www.macphoto.net/)
Mark Sedgwick FIPF EFIAP (http://www.theremarkableimage.com/)
Merv Colton LIPF (http://www.flickr.com/people/mervcolton/)
COLOUR PANEL:
Bridie Maughan LIPF
Lorraine Gilligan AIPF (http://www.lorrainegilligan.com/)
Bernie O’Reilly LIPF
Ciaran Whyte FIPF – HIGHLY COMMENDED
Gerry Kerr AIPF (http://www.gerrykerr.com/)
Mark Sedgwick FIPF EFIAP (http://www.theremarkableimage.com/)
Christine Burns LIPF (http://www.flickr.com/people/christineburns/)
Gareth Byrd LIPF (http://www.flickr.com/people/garbyrd/)
Ciaran Whyte FIPF
I thought the B&W Panel looked great on Saturday, would have liked to have seen the colour Panel up. Thanks to yourself and Gerry for all the hard work you both put in to get the Panels there on the day and looking so good. (like the LIPF after my name!!) Christine
Yeah, it takes a while to get used to seeing your name up in lights
But the letters are very well deserved, your panel was so strong.
A lot of talent here. Well done!!
Thanks for all your help, advice, courses & patience over the last year (I’m including Lorraine as well).
It’s greatly appreciated.
Gar
No worries at all Gareth. It’s people like you that really help make the club what it is and make it worth while being a member.