Athlone Photography Club was celebrating this week after claiming the highly coveted Irish Photographic Federation (IPF ) National Shield at an awards ceremony held in Malahide, Dublin.
This competition is an annual inter-club competition which is open to all clubs who are affiliated to the IPF. Only photographers competing at intermediate level are eligible to be represented in this competition. The competition showcases the work of photographers from clubs all over the country and each competing club may submit a panel of colour prints and/or a panel of monochrome prints, each panel consisting of eight photos.
Athlone Photography Club was honoured to emerge victorious and claim the highly coveted IPF National Shield. This was a momentous achievement for the club which is in just its third year. This is just the club’s second time to enter the competition. A total of 27 clubs from all over Ireland entered the competition and together presented 402 photos to be judged by the three-strong expert judging panel.
The Athlone Photography Club not only won the overall competition, 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’; Paul Grogan was awarded a bronze medal for his photo ‘Let me go’; Lina Gorodeckaite Bechara was awarded a gold medal for her beautiful photo ‘Peaceful’; and Girto Miko was also awarded a gold medal for his photo ‘Wild things’.
The Athlone Photography Club prides itself on being a place where photographers can meet up, share ideas and learn from one another while having fun and taking lots of photos. Members strongly believe that this approach to photography is the right one for them and winning this competition has given them the confidence that they are doing something right.
The club would like to extend their thanks to Joe Doyle and all the Malahide Camera Club for organising this event and being great hosts.
Visit the club’s website at www.athlonephotographyclub.ie to see some of the award-winning photos.
