Photos from the Cleanup

Hello all,

thanks so much to all those – especially the new people – who came along to a very successful cleanup on Saturday morning. The weather was smashing. Also a special mention to our colleagues across the Canal in the Good Counsel GAA club who organised a cleanup of their pitch and surrounds, in tandem with ours and also helped spread the word about our cleanup. We really appreciate your support.

You can find Good Counsel at their website, on Twitter or Facebook

Hope you all enjoyed a cup of tea afterwards.

Here are some snaps.

Photo Competition – the Results.

Thanks to Noel Hills our judge and professiona photographer for taking the time to judge the competition and also provide very nice feedback. Here are his details and

• Noel Hillis Photography
• Tel: 01 443 4553  / Mobile: 087 227 4081
• email: noel@noelhillis.ie
• www.noelhillis.ie
• www.instagram.com/noelhillis/

Here are the results

In joint second place

Carlos Sanchez and Martina Quirke (Autumn Reflections)!

And in first place!

George O’Gorman

Noel’s comments are here

First place: George O’Gorman

This is a lovely image of a child playing in the autumn leaves! The photographer has captured an expression of curiosity on the child’s face and the low perspective gives the viewer a sense of the experience of discovering autumn leaves from a child’s viewpoint, The colour contrast of the browns and greens in the foreground, lit from the side by the sun coming through the trees contributes to the sense of warmth, while the blue of the child’s jacket also provides a purity of contrast. The circular composition creates a sense of depth, drawing the viewer through the image from the large foreground leaves, to the child placed at the centre and using both the wall to the left and the path to the right,  leads the viewer into the distance along the canal, to the blue sky at the end, while the eye is continually drawn back to the child and the golden leaves in the foreground.

Joint second place: Martina Quirke

This is a really strong graphic image using dynamic composition and powerfully saturated colour contrast . By using the winter afternoon sunlight, the photographer has cleverly composed the image, focusing on the reflections of the gatepost, fountain and pavilion in the fountain pool which provides wonderful balance in the almost symmetrical composition. The strong colour contrast between the stone and sky add to the energy of the photograph, while the spark of colour from the people sitting on the bench in front of the pavilion, creates a nice sense of perspective.

Joint second place: Carlos Sanchez

This is a well composed image, depicting the range of autumn colours from light green through amber and brown. The edges of the path create strong leading lines into the photo through the trees, to the temple at the end, while the figures walking the dog give both a sense of movement and create perspective against the old established trees. The image is beautifully framed by the tree branches and the relatively flat lighting evokes a nice painterly sense of Autumn reflection.

Congratulations to Bluebell

Heartiest good wishes to the brand new environmental group at Bluebell who had a big cleanup at the weekend and had a great turnout. That’s pretty much the whole of the canal covered from Mouth to M50!